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Categories: all aviation bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater Fri, 11 Nov 2005
I've just set the rig's tire pressures again. The rear was down to At some point, I need to figure out a good way to measure the weight on each wheel. I need to find someone with a 500-600 lb capacity scale, ideally, or rig up a 2x4 as a lever to multiply the capacity of a regular 300 lb bathroom scale. I'm sure the sidecar wheel is holding up about 150 lb of the rig's weight, but I don't know how much the front and rear wheels are holding right now. The total rig weight is 1240 according to the scales at the dump, with me on it. I figure a 600 lb scale would be up to any of the three wheels, since I'm almost positive that none of the wheels is holding 50% of the weight. On an entirely different subject... Is anyone else annoyed as hell at the auto industry right now? The price of gas goes up, and suddenly all the auto makers have this wide array of "fuel efficient" cars they're hyping. You know, the ones that get over 25 MPG. What!? Since when is a 26 MPG car "fuel efficient?" My 1964 VW BUG got 25 MPG! Nineteen Sixty Four. Is that the best you can offer? (Of course not, but who's going to buy a Chevy Aveo, winner of the prestigous "no star" rating, but which happens to get 36 MPG freeway?) What about all those hulking SUVs you've been pushing for years? You know, the ones that get 14 MPG on the freeway? The ones that have precipitated a lot of this whole oil mess in the first place? "Oh, but the buying public determines what we sell!" Bullshit! The buying public, heavily influenced by advertising money, buys the best of what you offer! Don't try to convince me that all those SUVs are the best you could do. If you offer something better, I'm guessing people would buy it. I've been on the search for more fuel-efficient transportation for years, which is one of the factors that lead me into motorcycles in the first place. My Honda Civic was pretty good, returning about 30-32 MPG on the freeway, and in the upper 20s in town. But then again, that was an economy car. If I had to buy a car right now, the choice would be between the honestly fuel efficient (like, 50 MPG, beating out even the Ninja 250 for me) Toyota Echo and the appeals-to-my-baser-instincts Mini Cooper, which still gets good mileage, and isn't an enormous space-hog. Note that neither of those are especially expensive cars (although the Mini isn't exactly cheap, either). But you know what's not on that list? Anything American built. How is it even possible that American automakers are still stuck in this "bigger is better" mindset? Actually, I don't want to know the answer to that, because I suspect the answer is "my fellow Americans" more than it is anything else. Yes, I know this basically contradicts my argument above. Anywya, back to the original point, I'm still annoyed that automakers are dusting off the redheaded stepchild models and trying to make out as if they've been right there, plugging for good fuel economy all along. Posted at 15:57 permanent link category: /motorcycle Categories: all aviation gadgets misc motorcycle theater Written by Ian Johnston. Software is Blosxom. Questions? Please mail me at reaper at obairlann dot net. |