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[Matt]

I'm going to tune my bike up this weekend.

Then I can pawn it and buy more gas for my car.

[JimH]

What do you want for it?

[Yaobing]

I thought you wanted to pawn your car to buy tools for your bike.

[John Gateley]

45 or 50 MPG on the highway....

j

[Frobozz]

Ha!  Minneapolis has a good cycling culture.  Get on your bike and ride.

I saw a neat (but expensive) commuter bike at the Seattle Bike Expo from Civia Cycles which is based in Bloominton.  I've seen other bikes from Minnesota cycling fanatics.

I have two bikes, a singlespeed/fixie and a commuter with an 8-speed hub.  And about 10 unicycles.  I can get around without the car.

[Mr ChriZ]

It cost me £57/$112 (Aprox 45 litres) to fill my car the other day. 
On the plus side I've worked out that by driving at 60mph, I can get 700 miles out of that.

Also I walk everywhere for the most part, so fill it up once every 2 months

[JONCAT]

I'm tuning up my bus butt down here in southern Florida; students ride free! Even a four cylinder is costing us too much.

DC

[AustinBike]

Just got back from spain where gas was $8/gal.

I am a strong proponent of biking everywhere.

[Yaobing]

It cost me £57/$112 (Aprox 45 litres) to fill my car the other day. 

That is $9.42 / gal. Why are we so upset about $4/gal here in the US?

On the plus side I've worked out that by driving at 60mph, I can get 700 miles out of that.

59 miles / gal. Great mileage. What kind of car is it?

[Mr ChriZ]

One that they don't make any more, since going bust!

Rover 45 Turbo Diesel. My friends call it the Grandad Mobile.  Not fashionable but for a student car it made a lot of sense! 

I know you can get similar figures and probably even better driving a modern 1.6TDCI Ford Focus.
I hear they don't do many diesels over in the states though.

Most our cars are manual as well which helps quite a lot.

We drive hire cars for work and i test the fuel economy on each one i get.
Suprisingly the smaller cars actually tend to do quite badly ie the Fiesta size cars.
I think it's because they're not really designed for the highways.

The focus i think was the most most economical i've driven so far. 

VW Golf GT Automatic petrol was the worst.  I spent more time at the fuel station
than out of it!  Good fun drive though!

[DarkPenguin]

This is insanity.  Riding a bike to avoid paying for gas?  Makes you wonder why we even bothered to invade Iraq.

[KingSparta]

I Think It Was:

1. To Remove A Dictator, that abused his people
2. Keep The Oil Flowing
3. Weapons Of Mass Destruction
4. To increase Cheney's And Bush's Pocket book

Depending On Your Political Affiliation The Order Could Be Adjusted.

[danrien]

haha my car just got broken into and it was almost a turn of fortune... gives me a reason to ride my bike since i don't really like driving around with a broken back window.

[Mastiff]

Like Yaobing says, what the "!%¤"# are you americans complaining about?! In Norway I saw gas prices going above 14 Norwegian Kroner per liter yesterday. That means $2.8 per liter, or more than $10.6 per gallon. And do you know what Norway's largest export article is? No, not Norwegian blue parrots, that's Monty Python. It's oil! Then again I don't mind much since I'm driving my gas guzzler (Chevy Suburban '95 A.K.A. The MediaSUV) on LPG. And that costs less than $4 per gallon!

Since we live more than 20 miles from the nearest town with a decent selection in the shops and 7 miles from the nearest town all in all (which right now is the place to be for the cultural elite, even from New York - the Chamber Music Festival is actually world famous), riding a bike isn't really practical. And electrical cars are environmentally friendly and cheap to drive, but I would not drive one of those little Think or Buddy shoe boxes on the highway! But some companies has really gotten the point. This may very well be my next motorbike:

Fully electrical, 125 mph top speed, range of 70 miles and around 12 seconds on the quartermile! At the moment it's not yet on the market, but this one is:

Around $12 000 in Norway, top speed of around 60 mph, 0-50 in less than 7 seconds. Pretty impressive for a scooter!

[John Gateley]

Nice. I don't much like the fancy look of the Vetrix though - why the funky front disc brake shape?

j

[Mastiff]

It's for braking power, I think. As far as I know having a larger disc bolted to the outer part of the rim brakes better than a smaller one bolted to the center of the rim. I think Brembo developed that system for them. Should be good then.

[KingSparta]

I would think that the braking would recover some energy and not just a standard disk brake system.

[Mastiff]

That happens by using the engine brake. You turn the throttle handle the opposite direction, and it will have a pretty good energy recovery brake. So the disc brakes are more like emergency brakes. And that's something you need if you ride a bike actively as opposed to just following the traffic with a 5 second gap to the nearest car.

[KingSparta]

I See

[John Gateley]

That would be hard to get used to (engine braking).
Still, it's really cool to see electric bikes.

j

[Mastiff]

Actually according to a Norwegian test of the scooter it only takes a few days to get used to it. And it actually works as a reverse gear if you twist the handle towards you when you're standing still! Very cool!