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More => Music, Movies, Politics, and Other Cheap Thrills => Topic started by: Matt on June 20, 2008, 07:36:36 pm

Title: OT: High Gas Prices -- Tune Up Your Bike
Post by: Matt on June 20, 2008, 07:36:36 pm
I'm going to tune my bike up this weekend.

Then I can pawn it and buy more gas for my car.
Title: Re: OT: High Gas Prices -- Tune Up Your Bike
Post by: JimH on June 20, 2008, 07:54:21 pm
What do you want for it?
Title: Re: OT: High Gas Prices -- Tune Up Your Bike
Post by: Yaobing on June 20, 2008, 09:07:28 pm
I thought you wanted to pawn your car to buy tools for your bike.
Title: Re: OT: High Gas Prices -- Tune Up Your Bike
Post by: John Gateley on June 20, 2008, 10:52:56 pm
45 or 50 MPG on the highway....

j

Title: Re: OT: High Gas Prices -- Tune Up Your Bike
Post by: Frobozz on June 21, 2008, 01:11:07 am
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 (http://www.civiacycles.com/) 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.
Title: Re: OT: High Gas Prices -- Tune Up Your Bike
Post by: Mr ChriZ on June 21, 2008, 03:40:35 am
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
Title: Re: OT: High Gas Prices -- Tune Up Your Bike
Post by: JONCAT on June 21, 2008, 08:11:32 pm
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
Title: Re: OT: High Gas Prices -- Tune Up Your Bike
Post by: AustinBike on June 22, 2008, 06:50:26 am
Just got back from spain where gas was $8/gal.

I am a strong proponent of biking everywhere.
Title: Re: OT: High Gas Prices -- Tune Up Your Bike
Post by: Yaobing on June 22, 2008, 08:54:27 am
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?

Quote
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?
Title: Re: OT: High Gas Prices -- Tune Up Your Bike
Post by: Mr ChriZ on June 22, 2008, 09:04:29 am
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!
Title: Re: OT: High Gas Prices -- Tune Up Your Bike
Post by: DarkPenguin on June 23, 2008, 10:48:33 am
This is insanity.  Riding a bike to avoid paying for gas?  Makes you wonder why we even bothered to invade Iraq.
Title: Re: OT: High Gas Prices -- Tune Up Your Bike
Post by: KingSparta on June 24, 2008, 06:54:24 pm
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.


Title: Re: OT: High Gas Prices -- Tune Up Your Bike
Post by: danrien on June 26, 2008, 08:19:37 pm
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.
Title: Re: OT: High Gas Prices -- Tune Up Your Bike
Post by: Mastiff on June 27, 2008, 02:08:35 am
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:
(http://www.gizmag.com/pictures/8395_231107122136.jpg)
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:
(http://www.media.allerinternett.no/php/obj.phpi?o=2653884&h=460)
Around $12 000 in Norway, top speed of around 60 mph, 0-50 in less than 7 seconds. Pretty impressive for a scooter!
Title: Re: OT: High Gas Prices -- Tune Up Your Bike
Post by: John Gateley on June 27, 2008, 09:30:42 am
Nice. I don't much like the fancy look of the Vetrix though - why the funky front disc brake shape?

j
Title: Re: OT: High Gas Prices -- Tune Up Your Bike
Post by: Mastiff on June 27, 2008, 10:28:34 am
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.
Title: Re: OT: High Gas Prices -- Tune Up Your Bike
Post by: KingSparta on June 27, 2008, 05:00:10 pm
I would think that the braking would recover some energy and not just a standard disk brake system.
Title: Re: OT: High Gas Prices -- Tune Up Your Bike
Post by: Mastiff on June 28, 2008, 02:37:57 am
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. ;)
Title: Re: OT: High Gas Prices -- Tune Up Your Bike
Post by: KingSparta on June 28, 2008, 07:26:20 am
I See
Title: Re: OT: High Gas Prices -- Tune Up Your Bike
Post by: John Gateley on June 28, 2008, 09:16:26 am
That would be hard to get used to (engine braking).
Still, it's really cool to see electric bikes.

j

Title: Re: OT: High Gas Prices -- Tune Up Your Bike
Post by: Mastiff on June 29, 2008, 10:30:30 am
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! :D Very cool!