SF BayLEAFs - e-NV200 Ride & Drives and Showcase May 28

[waidy]

Did anyone count?!?

My count is 25 when I left.

 

[gascant]

Yes, the official count by Kim was 24 but, now that I think about it, Waidy had to leave early so I believe her count to be the most accurate. We'll score it as 25 and call it the largest private gathering of LEAFs to date in North America. Unofficial meeting attendance was 33.

Thanks to everyone for attending and making it a successful event --a family urgency has come up and I won't get to post pics and minutes until later tonight or tomorrow.

 

[ElectricVehicle]

The wiki's have been covered in other threads, but since it came up at the meeting, here are the two LEAF Wiki's:

turbo2ltr's ad free Wiki contributed to the LEAF community, where I'll add my information when I get the urge to Wikify!: LEAF Info Center. http://www.leafic.com

aqn's LEAF Wiki that has Google ads consuming space on the left side of the page: http://nissanleafwiki.com/

You can contribute content to the Wiki's. If you want something covered in the Wiki, you can start a forum thread on it and we an use that to discuss the need for and develop the content for the Wiki.

 

[Boomer23]

Yes, the official count by Kim was 24 but, now that I think about it, Waidy had to leave early so I believe her count to be the most accurate. We'll score it as 25 and call it the largest private gathering of LEAFs to date in North America. Unofficial meeting attendance was 33.

Thanks to everyone for attending and making it a successful event --a family urgency has come up and I won't get to post pics and minutes until later tonight or tomorrow.

Yikes! You guys win, hands down. We had a nice gathering for our So Cal group this morning. About 35 peeps and 10 or 11 LEAFs at Cerritos Nissan. Lots of interested newbies and good discussion. We couldn't park the LEAFs together since the dealership was having a special used car sale, so we had to scatter our LEAFs around the property in different spots. I'll post a few pics on my blog tomorrow.

Way to go SF BAyLEAFs!

 

[OrientExpress]

What a great meeting and enthusiastic group! Thanks for pulling this together! It is great to be part of history, and the EV revolution!

25 Cars! Bay Leafs Rule!

 

[linkim]

Yes, the official count by Kim was 24 but, now that I think about it, Waidy had to leave early so I believe her count to be the most accurate. We'll score it as 25 and call it the largest private gathering of LEAFs to date in North America. Unofficial meeting attendance was 33.

Thanks to everyone for attending and making it a successful event --a family urgency has come up and I won't get to post pics and minutes until later tonight or tomorrow.

Howard, thanks for the organization, coordination, coffee/bagels, etc. for making the BayLeaf meeting today so successful. Also thanks to Phil for the modified EVSE (got one today), Electric4Me's video of the J-turn in the LEAF (I thought they only did these stunts in movies) and operational bike rack, ElectricVehicle's equipment and others who helped us neophytes enjoy the Leaf experience.

Look forward to the next meeting.

Kim

 

[earther]

sorry my Leaf and I weren't able to be a part of the BayLeaf get together this time -- Friday night was my school's prom and we were up way too late to be able get up for an early morning together. Hopefully we can make it for meeting #4 though!

 

[Electric4Me]

Yes, the official count by Kim was 24 but, now that I think about it, Waidy had to leave early so I believe her count to be the most accurate. We'll score it as 25 and call it the largest private gathering of LEAFs to date in North America. Unofficial meeting attendance was 33.

I too counted 24, but then Arne showed up, so we did have 25, just not simultaneously...

...Electric4Me's video of the J-turn in the LEAF (I thought they only did these stunts in movies) and operational bike rack...

Kim

Kim,
He's the link so you can watch the J-turn again:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU3K-hqjD1A[/youtube]

I'll post details on my new quick release bike rack hitch in a separate thread when I get a chance. I don't have a good picture of it yet so maybe someone else took some today and can post them?

Thanks again Howard! LOTS of great discussion today!

Bill

 

[csriram45]

So I did miss it but looks like you guys had a great meeting. Awesome. The idea of J turn is awesome. Cool. I can only imagine an even bigger group next time.

 

[RickJ]

Great gathering - thanks for organizing Howard....
.
RickJ
.
some add'l photos are posted at:
http://www.nissanleaf.shutterfly.com

 

[lemketron]

Any BayLEAFers planning to attend (or participate in) the De Anza Autocross today? Just curious...
http://deanza.edu/eventscalendar/view_entry.php?id=860&date=20110515

 

[Christopher]

I've got pictures from the gathering and a video of Bill demoing his bike hitch mod on my web site:
http://crimdom.net/photos/2011/bay-leafs-may14/index.html

Enjoy!

 

[gascant]

Thanks, again, to all who attended Gathering #3 on May 14th at the Newark Public Library. Official attendance was 34, beating gathering #2 by 2. Pictures appear below. We had a very good mix this time, from the very first LEAF owner (gudy) to owners of less than 24 hours (me) and future owners with Summer, 2011 delivery. The meeting basically had 3 stages, i.e., tailgate party, organized discussion, and parking lot clusters. We kicked off with a tailgate party for the early risers shortly after 8 AM but found a steady stream of BayLEAFs arriving all the way up to the meeting time of 9. Many drove up in their LEAFs, which were less than 2 weeks old. The library was kind enough to let us in prior to opening, and the organized discussion got started around 9:15.

Topics covered:
Regular Meetings and Venues: The group decided to meet for organized activity (inside/parking lot) on the 2nd Saturday of each month, with the exception of every 4th meeting. The locations will be South Bay (SJ/Sunnyvale/Mtn View), Peninsula (Redwood/Foster City), East Bay (Fremont/Newark), and San Francisco. The San Francisco meeting will be held on the first Saturday of the month to coincide with the Golden Gate Electric Auto Association Meeting. Rotating venues will provide everyone the chance to drive their LEAFs to at least half of the meetings. I'll be soliciting input from members for suitable sites in each location. Libraries were favorably discussed as well as sympathetic Tech Companies. While the idea of splitting into two groups was discussed, it was decided to remain as one entity for now with the above rotation. There is too much synergy to consider breaking it up.

Other activities: Various members of the group suggested non-organized activities that occur on other Saturdays, including other informal car clubs (Santana Row), Rallys, Fairs, etc. We were all strongly encouraged to affiliate with our local EAA in order to get regular emails/newsletters where such events are listed. It was also suggested that we do a wine tasting and an SF-LA relay, driving 60-100 mile segments. All fun stuff. These activities also can be considered as advocacy efforts, so were all encouraged to talk to our local libraries about giving presentations on EV's. Also suggested were going into stores such as Costco and asking about their chargers (like, where are they? When will existing ones be updated, etc.). This technique is viewed as effective for developing charge infrastructure

Charging: A great deal of discussion was held around charging, with two major thrusts: Nissan Dealers and ChargePoint (or similar networks). Although earther wasn't there, we discussed the charging incident that happened at Stevens Creek Nissan. It seems that charging at dealers is still in flux--the group would like to have chargers open but understand the needs of the dealers. Suggestion was to lobby Carwings to remove dealers that don't permit open charging. Waidy gave an overview of the ChargePoint network and mentioned that businesses can apply to receive a free charger. She expects the network to be more extensively built out within the next 6 months. (Sorry, I'm not doing this discussion justice for the sake of brevity).

Private PlugShare Network: Given that not everyone has an iPhone and that we are geographically diverse, the group decided that a limited, private charge sharing network would be appropriate. I will take an action item to start same. Participation on a volunteer (no-obligation) basis.

Guest Speakers: gasmiser1 talked about replacing the horn in the LEAF and has found a good alternative at reasonable price. Electric4me captivated the group with his trailer hitch addition, which allows a bike rack to be attached. He will post pictures in a separate thread. Ingineer talked about the L1 EVSE modification and the future of the included EVSE. We'll probably have him give a more extensive talk at a future meeting. ElectricVehicle showed the latest in LED lighting technology, also with great interest. I'm soliciting ideas for guest speakers.

Apologies to csriram45 for not discussing the seat covers (gasmiser1 also had some suggestions) and the key fob supplies.

The group decided to assemble a LEAF cluster for photos--those have been posted on page 14 of this thread. In all, 25 LEAFs were present, 23 of which are in the photo. The discussions continued well past Noon with clusters forming around Electric4me's trailer hitch, L1 EVSE mods (at Ingineer's plug-in Prius), ElectricVehicle's RAV-4 EV, and the ladder that was set up for the historic photo.

Here are photos from the outside portions of the gathering:

A curious couple checks out the LEAFs during the tailgate party

The tailgate party takes shape as the LEAFs start arriving

Gudy brings the first LEAF delivered in North America (and first black LEAF to a BayLEAFs meeting) and talks about his experiences over 5 months of ownership

All 5 colors are represented (half of them blue) as the lineup for the historic photo progresses

BayLEAFs line up to climb the ladder (background) for taking photos of the cluster

gasmiser1 shows fellow BayLEAFs where he'll mount the dual horns while others admire Electric4me's bike rack and trailer hitch modification

 

[MsLusty]

I spoke briefly with that "curious couple", and they told me that they had just ordered their Leaf about 2-3 weeks ago and were taking delivery something like "tomorrow". The wife was telling me things and the husband was quite uncomfortable. He said it was a "long story", so I'm not certain what was really going on there.

 

[Deleted member 1295]

First: Does anyone know a black SL from Premier Nissan (San Jose) that lives on (or was visiting this evening) Page Mill Road most of the way up to Skyline? I followed you all the way up from 280 in my silver SL.

Second: I was wondering if I should have gotten any notification about being added to the e-mail list after the gathering (I did sign in and indicate that I would like to be added).

Thanks!

 

[gascant]

Amended minutes--Arne arrived at the tail end of the inside session so the official attendance is now 35. Was good to see some carpooling, too. Hope to have guest speakers going forward. Topic and speaker suggestions welcome (though I know most everyone is interested in Solar Energy).

 

[mxp]

< cut > the J-turn again:

I have watched it at least 5 times now. Electric4Me's J-turn is freakin awesome.

 

[planet4ever]

I was wondering if I should have gotten any notification about being added to the e-mail list after the gathering (I did sign in and indicate that I would like to be added).

You mean the listserve? I've been wondering the same thing. I signed up months ago and have never gotten anything. (I just waded through hundreds of emails in my spam folder to be sure messages weren't going there.)

Ray

 

[lemketron]

Note that we have also created a new group for Bay Area LEAF Enthusiasts on facebook.

If you're on Facebook and would like to join, click on the above link and request to join.

 

[Ingineer]

I was wondering if I should have gotten any notification about being added to the e-mail list after the gathering (I did sign in and indicate that I would like to be added).

You mean the listserve? I've been wondering the same thing. I signed up months ago and have never gotten anything. (I just waded through hundreds of emails in my spam folder to be sure messages weren't going there.)

Ray

I added 4 people, but I know after I retrieved those names a few more people signed up. I don't have the list.

Here is the list info page, you can subscribe yourself there.

I'll send out a test message now as well.

-Phil