Gas prices and new riders? No rants! - Page 2

Another thing to consider... in Europe where gas prices are $7-$10 a gallon they have several reasonable alternatives for commute where we have literally none most every where.  There you can jump on a train or a subway.  In Atlanta, the marta system runs basically nowhere and is completely worthless.  The NY subway system is the closest thing anywhere in the US has to reliable alternative transportation.    One city got it right, and now that the cities are completely built up, covered in conrete and already impossible to shut down for construction, what are we going to do?  The worst part about it is, we are years and years away from having any kind of alternative fuel.  

If we're lucky, prices will stop inflating at $20 a gallon, but of course, there's absolutely no reason it has to.  Most car manufacturers had the foresight of believing that people will pay for what you give them.  Here in the US no one really demanded better gas mileage, so the car companies didn't have to invest money in R&D on engines that returned 80-100 MPG. 

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ORIGINAL: Nauree

I think people are dipshits and will buy more SUVs.

 
That seems to be GM's marketing theory, LOL.
 
 
Dad just traded his big Infiniti for a Prius, as it is his only way to "stick it to the oil companies" he says.  Our local ads for the motorcycle shops are loaded with scooters, so I would assume they are selling a lot of those.  I hope that we get a good amount of responsible riders out of this whole thing.  I think most jackoffs already have bikes, so this gas price thing may get us a better mix than we are used to in the way of professionals trying to commute. 
 
 

There may not be a dramatic increase in people buying new bikes around here, but there will be a lot of garage queens taken out, tuned up and ridden.  Two years ago while getting one of those running for a friend I was told by the local Yamaha dealer that the was ordering in lots of bits and pieces for older bikes because of that.  There are quite a few more bicycles around town now also.  But those with money will keep driving the Escalade to the grocery store for a gallon of milk.  It did seem there were far fewer RV's on the road around here last year, and I'll go out on a limb a predict way fewer this year.  One of the more fortuitus buys the wife and I made was a Honda Civic, bought six years ago as something for her to drive to work.  Now the pickup is parked unless whatever we need won't fit in the Civic.  18 / 38 mpg with $3.22 gas is far better than 14 / 20 mpg with $3.90 diesel.  And with spring finally here, 35 mpg around town on the bike beats them both.

My engineering clinic project is actually about this whole issue.  We are working with the MVC and DOT because the fatal incident rate for motorcycles in NJ is climbing while the accident rate of all vehicles is staying the same, and the number of riders is also climbing fast so we need to figure out a way to keep people safe.  If you live in NJ you might be getting a survey with you registration renewall stuff so don't just throw it away.  Actually fill it out.

Another aspect of the project is determining why certain motorcycle accidents are fatal.  One thing we are looking at is the fact that hitting a 2 ton SUV makes you stop instantly, usually resulting in death, where as if you just hit a car there may be a good chance that you are thrown over it and may survive.

We have really only begun this project so for now all we can do is process all the data we can get, but hopefully soon we will be able to start making changes.

And yes, high gas prices suck.  I'm so happy I got a motorcycle instead of a fast car.  I can't wait to graduate so I can move south and ride all year round.  I hate the cold too.

I am not sure if more people will be riding due to the initial costs (gear + training + bike + time), but I wouldn't be surprised to see many previous riders get back on their bikes.

personally, I struggled a bit when I bought my ram 1500 last october, my only justification for a vehicle that can get as low as 9mpg is that I have a bike which I use as a DD which gets between 30 and 50mpg.  I'm one of those "if it doesn't fit in the backpack I'll buy it online" type of guys.  I also only live 3 miles from work so it doesn't completely break the bank.  The trucks primary objective is to carry me, my girlfriend, my bike, and our luggage to her beach house and back home every other week or so during the summer.  Oh, and 4 wheel drive with tons of horsepower is also really fun in the snow...

I will never sell my bike OR my truck (lifetime powertrain warrenty INCLUDING engine internals - this truck will last me 25 years) but I am looking forward to my next cager which will most likely be a high-preformance hybrid... a few years ago that was an oxy-moron but the technology is improving at a pretty serious rate. 

I don't get everyone being pissed at people who drive SUV's and truck's every day.  It's our choice to pay for the gas to put in them.  And getting what we asked for by doing this?  In the US we pay much less for gas than Europe, and for the most part European's drive much smaller and econimical cars than we do, and from my understanding SUV's are rare and pickups nonexistant.
 
And no, we haven't been asking manufacturers for more econimical vehicles, but on the flip side the government has been mandating cleaner cars.  And a lot of the time these clean cars come at the cost of efficiency.  My truck has 4 catalitic converters on it.  Sure, it needs one or two to make the exhaust cleaner, but 4?  That's just being anal and makes my engine work harder for no good reason.  And to pick on a truck that can run with a mustang?  Okay...why do you need to have that 1000cc, or even 600cc bike?  You can't take advantage of all that on the street.  We could all get along fine with 250 to 500cc bikes (or scooters) while getting better milage.
 
I'm not trying to argue, I'm just making a point that us riding bikes doesn't make our hands clean of this whole thing.

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ORIGINAL: bassJAM

I don't get everyone being pissed at people who drive SUV's and truck's every day.  It's our choice to pay for the gas to put in them.  And getting what we asked for by doing this?  In the US we pay much less for gas than Europe, and for the most part European's drive much smaller and econimical cars than we do, and from my understanding SUV's are rare and pickups nonexistant.

And no, we haven't been asking manufacturers for more econimical vehicles, but on the flip side the government has been mandating cleaner cars.  And a lot of the time these clean cars come at the cost of efficiency.  My truck has 4 catalitic converters on it.  Sure, it needs one or two to make the exhaust cleaner, but 4?  That's just being anal and makes my engine work harder for no good reason.  And to pick on a truck that can run with a mustang?  Okay...why do you need to have that 1000cc, or even 600cc bike?  You can't take advantage of all that on the street.  We could all get along fine with 250 to 500cc bikes (or scooters) while getting better milage.

I'm not trying to argue, I'm just making a point that us riding bikes doesn't make our hands clean of this whole thing.

 
Are you kidding me??
 
People pay more for fuel in Europe and Canada because they are taxed to death. What they pay has nothing to do with what your or I need to pay at the pump. They pay $.40 a gallon in Iran. That make you feel better that we should have cheaper gas?
 
We bag on SUVs and large trucks only for those who don't need them. Women love them because they are more status symbols than anything. I understand she is paying the fuel, but when you use 50% more fuel than I do, you cause my price to be higher as well.
 
a 600cc bike, while fast as hell is still way more fuel efficient than even that Escape hybrid. I weight 275 now and still get about 42mpg on my old ass F2. Not too many cars can claim that and still be cheap enough for a lot of people out there. Who cares if it is fast or not when you still get 40+ mpg???

Okay, I agree UK pays a lot of those high prices in taxes.  But there's still no reason soccer mom can't have that "status" of the big suv.  And I think they really have those large vehicles to feel safe much more than the status of them.  And it's all relative on bikes.  My old ninja 500 got 59mpg, 17 more than your F2 and it was still faster than most cars on the road.  Don't get pissed at those driving "gas hogs", when you could still do more to save gas.  Hell, I could argue that my Nissan Frontier gets 18mpg, and that's a lot better than the 12mpg my grandpa's dodge gets, so who cares when you get 18+mpg.  These just aren't valid arguments in capitalistic USA.  We are all at the mercy of the oil companies and, and pointing the finger at scapegoats like suv drivers really doesn't help anything.

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ORIGINAL: JakesF2

I just bought a new to me car and one of the 2 major reasons for buying it was fuel economy, the other was owning another honda. hehehe

I get about 31mpg on my little 1.6L sohc vtec motor that pushes as much hp as my old car a 2.0L dodge neon.  For some reason I cannot figure out what car companies are doing these days.  My 1995 Honda civic has the same hp and gets almost 10mpg more than my 2003 dodge neon.  Somethings not adding up.  Anyways I always laugh at these new commercials with these awesome new cars that get 30mpg, OMG I'm SOOOOO impressed, too bad 13 years ago honda did the same thing.

My 84 isuzu p'up diesel got 48mpg. But not the transmission is dead, and i'm swapping in a 4 speed, so it's gonna go down some.

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I don't get everyone being pissed at people who drive SUV's and truck's every day.  It's our choice to pay for the gas to put in them.

 
I will take it slow for you. 
 
1. We import most of our oil. That creates a trade imbalance that weakens our dollar and makes all other imports more money (including more oil).
 
2. As oil/gas prices rise, through increased demand and limited supply, it makes Ethanol worth more and in turn corn and sugar beets and sugar cane (from which we get Ethanol) become pricier, this makes foods more expensive because now wheat becomes in demand more since wheat and corn are somewhat interchangeable.
 
3) as oil prices rise, shipping goods, growing goods, heating houses,...everything costs more.
 
4) since oil comes from mostly Muslim nations, it allows them to buy arms to kill us using our own money.
 
5) Since we import everything from China, and everything is made from plastic, and plastic comes from oil, everything that we buy from china is so much more money because the feedstocks of their factories are going up in price.  And we learned that this is bad from #1.
 
It is a cycle that feeds on itself.
 
Our politicians are owned by American companies, since Ford/Chevy can't make money on small cars they lobby to make big trucks more everyday (non-commercial) and keep gas-guzzler taxes low and CAFE standards low. But what has happened is that Toyota and Nissan as well as everyone else has decided to sell alot of in-demand trucks because the laws allowed them to (remember the Titan and Tundra are relatively new).
 
So the answer to your question is simple, by buying alot of gas you are hurting AMERICA.

Fishfryer:  Good post.  Were we not using as much oil as we are, demand wouldn't be pushing cost so high.  I've nothing against SUV's or 3/4 ton 4wd pickups - if they are really needed.  But for the most part they aren't.  Most of the time we have them because they carry more passengers comfortably, carry heavier loads, tow trailers, and in general allow us to do fun things we couldn't do with a Honda Civic.  In some instances they're status symbols that pay homage to conspicuous consumption. Maybe when gas wasn't in short supply and prices were affordable it didn't matter so much.  But now, well, those of us that have them should take a long, hard look at whether we really need to fire them up for a trip to the store for a gallon of milk.  Resolution:  my pickup stays parked unless what I'm bringing home can't be hand carried, won't fit on a bicycle, CBR1000, CB650, or in the Civic.  And there's a good chance the 5th wheel won't leave the driveway at all this summer. The fact that diesel hit $4.00 a gallon today will help me keep that resolution.

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Resolution:  my pickup stays parked unless what I'm bringing home can't be hand carried, won't fit on a bicycle, CBR1000, CB650, or in the Civic. 

 
+1...I tend to be a fair weather rider and use my bike about 5,500 miles year for errands around town (I work out of my home so my overall driving mileage is pretty low) but my 'big' car is a 6-cyl Acura (still 23+mpg) for weather and hauling duty.
 
It would be nice to see SUVs that are used only for towing or snow or when there are 3+ people to haul around. What is need is a way (tax breaks/insurance breaks/special parking) to make owning multiple vehicles cheaper for those people that live in the snow-belt to promote 'summer Civics' and the 'winter/snow use only 4wd trucks'.
 
I think in order to break the SUV/car gas guzzling chain, car licenses should be available at 18 years old, but a graduated scooter/motorcycle licenses should be available at 15 or 16 (250cc and under). I think that younger motorcycle riders would yield better car drivers in a few years. It would also make all those soccer moms better drivers because they would be worried that they would be running over their own kid. Maybe gas taxes should be different for a small motorcycle than for a truck.
 
There are a multitude of ideas that would have an impact, but there are no lobbyists to bribe the lawmakers into making it happen.

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There are a multitude of ideas that would have an impact, but there are no lobbyists to bribe the lawmakers into making it happen.

and until there is money to be made, there never will be

Gotta be honest, I've only read the very first post...
 
"Officials" analysts have been predicting unreal gas prices for quite a few years now (we've been at war for over 5 years already, folks)  5 years we've been at war... wow...
 
Anywa, my opinion is that these people are like meteorologists.  they can use their tools and 'puters to make forecasts here or there - but it doesn't matter till the shit hits the fan.  Then we all know what to expect anyway.
 
Gas prices will continue to be outrageous, but just dancing around that fine line that is the customer finally saying,
 
"FVCK YOU!  WE DONT WANT YOUR GAS!"
 
Until we can simply walk away from gasoline, we are at their mercy.  Imagine not purchasing gasoline for one month.  I'm not talking about stockpiling it, then not buying more.
 
I'm talking starting today, NO MORE GASOLINE FOR YOU.  How would that affect your/our lives?  It can't be done therefore we only ask they do lube up a bit before jamming it in da pooper!

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therefore we only ask they do lube up a bit before jamming it in da pooper!

 
Lubrication of my pooper began at $60 per barrel, we are at $110 now, I would say that this is a full fledged dry ass raping. I think by the end of the summer I will have felt like a cabin boy on a greek freighter.