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$5.00 per gallon gas strategy

To bring it back to the original topic, my strategy for $5/gallon gas is simple.

1. Ride motorcycle when possible and practical. (Doing that already anyway, no change in behavior.)
2. For times when bike is not practical, obtain enormous diesel Ford F-350 4x4 crew cab truck (done), fit rock rails/nerf bars and roll bar to correct safety issues (in progress), convert to multifuel capability (in progress), run off WVO and other very cheap or free alternative fuels (soon).
3. Laugh maniacally at hidebound morons who think the only solution to high fuel prices is to sacrifice everything and purchase an ecocr*pbox while watching them cringe and flinch in terror any time something larger comes near them on the road. (Doing so already.) Improvise, adapt, overcome.

Simple yes, effective no.

1. You won't save money with most bikes. Factor in your increased tire and other higher maintenance costs and you'll be on the losing end when compared to most any modern sedan.

2. If you already had this vehicle I agree but you say to "obtain" such vehicle. Money saved on alternative fuels would take an enormous amount of miles (if ever) to recoupe initial vehicle cost.

3. No cringing or sacrificing here. If something larger comes around that intimidates me I just accelerate or otherwise manuever into my safe zone. And when it comes to parking I just slide into the first available space while you go circling the parking lot looking. A small manual trans sporty car is fun to drive for me while a large automatic vehicle is just transportation. If fun factor on a bike is a 10, manual trans car is a 6 while auto tranny transportation vehicle is a 0. And economy cars save not only on gas but cheaper tires, maintenance and insurance as well.

_
 
3. Laugh maniacally at hidebound morons who think the only solution to high fuel prices is to sacrifice everything and purchase an ecocr*pbox while watching them cringe and flinch in terror any time something larger comes near them on the road. (Doing so already.) Improvise, adapt, overcome.

As an SCCA member and a small sporty car lover, I hate to tell you that I have OWNED too many trucks to count. Since it is illegal to assault people in a vehicle, I run circles around trucks and I never cringe or flinch. Troll unsuccessful or should i say "overcome" unsuccessful. By the way I love my truck, but Silverbullet is right, it is boring to drive.
 
There is a difference between an ecocrapbox and a small sporty car. The latter is something like a Miata or maybe a Golf GTI, and those are fine.

Something like a Honda Fit, Dumb, Mitsu iMamoron, Geo Metro? Not so much.

Also, I didn't buy the truck just because of the rising fuel prices mentioned in the media. I bought the truck back in January after cycling out of a Crown Vic that no longer served my needs and that I didn't want any more. I need 4WD and a cargo bed for certain activities, which spells 'truck'. The Crown Vic was being sold anyway (in fact, I listed it here). Fuel mileage was not a concern or cause for the sale.

Anyway, the cost to me for the truck after selling the Crown Vic was about $800. (If you want to factor in the original cost to acquire the CV, it was $825 at auction.) The multifuel kit will cost me about $3000. I have concluded an arrangement that will get me fuel for a net cost of $0 to $0.79 per usable gallon. Do tell me how you could beat that with a recent economy car that isn't a death trap. The car will start off in the hole by about $4000 and will never get any better. Pretty sure recouping my investment won't take long, since I spent basically nothing on the truck.

Simple and effective? Yes.

So, yes, still laughing my posterior off. Because what I was going to do anyway (I had originally planned to get the truck and such in *2010*, but I needed the CV for something else as I'd mentioned in the ad and I had to put it off) is more cost effective in any term and cheaper to start with than buying, say, a recent Civic.

As an SCCA member and a small sporty car lover, I hate to tell you that I have OWNED too many trucks to count. Since it is illegal to assault people in a vehicle, I run circles around trucks and I never cringe or flinch. Troll unsuccessful or should i say "overcome" unsuccessful. By the way I love my truck, but Silverbullet is right, it is boring to drive.

Most people who drive tiny cars for economy reasons aren't like that. From someone else's post on another forum:

That American Girl said:
Not really sure where to post this so:

I was headed down the freeway earlier and came up behind one of those Smart cars. Just as I was thinking about passing her (she was doing maybe 62-63mph) a semi drove past her on the left, and the resulting wind sort of swept her all over her lane to the point I thought she was going to lose it.

I went ahead and passed her on the right, and as I looked over to see who it was I saw a look of pure terror on her face. :lol:

I know I really shouldn't laugh, but Jesus, If you're that terrified to be driving any car on the road, you need a different car lady!

I see this sort of thing all the time on 635 and elsewhere in DFW. You'd think they'd feel safer than motorcyclists in this sort of scenario, but from the looks of terror on their faces, they don't.
 
Just last week, I was doing about 80 in the far left lane of 183, as my Passat like it, and I got passed, nay, BLOWN BY, on my right by a smart. Freaked me out.
 
Just last week, I was doing about 80 in the far left lane of 183, as my Passat like it, and I got passed, nay, BLOWN BY, on my right by a smart. Freaked me out.

They top out in the mid to high 90s for max velocity. It takes them a long, long time to get there as they basically run out of steam around 80 or so. Most Smart car owners are too busy trying not to become roadkill to do that and the car itself makes its displeasure at going faster than 65 well felt (drove one more than once when I was dating a girl that had one). That little three cylinder engine is not happy about highways.

There's always one exception to the rule, of course. For example, we all know the majority of Prius owners are slow to the point of holding up traffic on the highway because they're busy playing the fuel economy video game on their center console display (go check their forums sometime for them posting their 'top scores'), but there's a black Prius with aftermarket wheels and blackout tint that I often see in DFW who is the only one I've seen that didn't fit that stereotype. Every time I see it, he's got to have that thing floored - even coming away from lights or speeding on the freeway. I figure he got stuck with the thing as a company car or because his wife insisted and he's trying to drive it as uneconomically as possible - because he drives it like he hates it.
 
There's always one exception to the rule, of course. .

Exactly. Like the guy who drives around Las Colinas in a Porshe Quattro Puerto at approximately 9 miles an hour everywhere.
 
Exactly. Like the guy who drives around Las Colinas in a Porshe Quattro Puerto at approximately 9 miles an hour everywhere.

You mean the Maserati Quattroporte? This car?
2011-maserati-quattroporte.jpg


maserati-quattroporte-back-2_80.jpg


If so, I haven't encountered him yet. But I have encountered the yellow Ferrari F430 driver in Addison who must be his brother or other relative. He's old and really irritating to get stuck behind because he takes at least 15 seconds to react to a light change and wants enormous amounts of space before he will make a turn. Worse, he goes everywhere at 10-15mph.
 
They top out in the mid to high 90s for max velocity. It takes them a long, long time to get there as they basically run out of steam around 80 or so. Most Smart car owners are too busy trying not to become roadkill to do that and the car itself makes its displeasure at going faster than 65 well felt (drove one more than once when I was dating a girl that had one). That little three cylinder engine is not happy about highways.

There's always one exception to the rule, of course. For example, we all know the majority of Prius owners are slow to the point of holding up traffic on the highway because they're busy playing the fuel economy video game on their center console display (go check their forums sometime for them posting their 'top scores'), but there's a black Prius with aftermarket wheels and blackout tint that I often see in DFW who is the only one I've seen that didn't fit that stereotype. Every time I see it, he's got to have that thing floored - even coming away from lights or speeding on the freeway. I figure he got stuck with the thing as a company car or because his wife insisted and he's trying to drive it as uneconomically as possible - because he drives it like he hates it.

maybe it was this thing:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPQIizRp9ck"]Smart with Hayabusa engine - YouTube[/ame]
 
I used to live in a small town in NC that would have been perfect for a SMART car, but I would not drive one in Harris County if you gave it to me. Everything has its use/s so I don't dump on anything, its narrow minded. It bothers me how much it cost your average joe to buy a "green" car, it is still cheaper in the long run to buy a cheap truck like CB700SC did. I have recently managed to "justify" or "convince myself" that I can almost pay for a WR250R due to it's 71mpg, now I need to convince my wife!

Keep those truck/car tires inflated properly!
 
Porsche Panamera. My bad. It's def. the Porsche.
epcp_0811_01_z+Porsche_Panamera_4_door_GT+side_view.jpg

If it's black, I may have seen and passed him in Coppell. I thought it was just having mechanical problems.


I've seen those online - yeah, that takes the Smart from Dumb to "barrel of laughs".

I used to live in a small town in NC that would have been perfect for a SMART car, but I would not drive one in Harris County if you gave it to me. Everything has its use/s so I don't dump on anything, its narrow minded. It bothers me how much it cost your average joe to buy a "green" car, it is still cheaper in the long run to buy a cheap truck like CB700SC did. I have recently managed to "justify" or "convince myself" that I can almost pay for a WR250R due to it's 71mpg, now I need to convince my wife!

Keep those truck/car tires inflated properly!

I don't think I made out too badly with it.
IMG_3668.JPG


IMG_2196.JPG


IMG_2535.JPG


Once again - yes, this truck cost me a delta of ~$800 after selling my CV, including the cost of going down to get it and driving it back, etc., etc. The fact that I will be able to run it for less than the operating costs of a Civic wasn't why I bought it, but is a nice side effect - but I'm still throwing it into the strategy pile. You use what you have. :D
 
I have to admit, I learned to drive in a crew cab diesel, back when nobody had them. I still don't have any problems driving big vehicles in traffic, but I much prefer my Kia Rio5. And it IS one of the econocrap cars. I drive it in Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas, and I've yet to cringe in fear. I prefer to drive it over the truck for the most part, even though the truck is more comfortable. It's just more fun, even though it isn't a 'fun' car.

I just need to put a small trailer hitch on it for those days when I need to haul just one motorcycle. It would still get 10-15 mpg more than the truck, even when pulling a trailer.

Now, would I buy one specifically to reduce fuel consumption - not unless I was already going to buy a car. We happen to have two cars, one that can haul things, and one that gets good mileage.
 
John - where do/will you get your WVO to run the diesel off of? That's always been interesting to me, but it seems like you'd get tired of sourcing the cheap stuff and just fill up at the gas station..
 
oops.. I actually paged up to make sure I got the right person, and saw it was you, but then I typed John anyway..

Hippie commune north of Dallas. I bring them 55 gallon drums of WVO from my friends' restaurants, they give me 55 gallon drums of ready-to-burn fuel (not on a 1:1 basis, mind - but I'm not paying anything for the WVO in the first place and I have to drive by both ends of the transaction on a regular basis anyway); I have an electric fuel transfer pump or two sitting around from prior projects so it's a non issue.

Remember, the truck isn't going to be primary transportation for me. That's why my 919 is for (and it's cheaper to run than any car I would find acceptable to drive on a daily basis). I am likely to be sharing my supply with another PowerStroke owner, as I will likely shortly have more than I alone could use.
 
There's always one exception to the rule, of course. For example, we all know the majority of Prius owners are slow to the point of holding up traffic on the highway because they're busy playing the fuel economy video game on their center console display (go check their forums sometime for them posting their 'top scores'), but there's a black Prius with aftermarket wheels and blackout tint that I often see in DFW who is the only one I've seen that didn't fit that stereotype. Every time I see it, he's got to have that thing floored - even coming away from lights or speeding on the freeway. I figure he got stuck with the thing as a company car or because his wife insisted and he's trying to drive it as uneconomically as possible - because he drives it like he hates it.

As a driver of a Prius, I'd say your belief is as accurate as saying the majority of motorcycle riders are lane splitting speed freaks or vest wearing loud piped pirates.

Since I have a Prius I probably notice them more. I drive the speed limit and I get passed by as many as I pass. I do play the "mpg" game but only when there is no traffic. It's an iteresting challenge to see how far and fast you can go without kicking in the gas engine.
 
To the Prius owner: you were saying?

Also, I run a helmet video cam on most rides. Trust me, almost all of your fellow Prius drivers are playing the video game. I often catch them on video.

Yes, but you never see the ones you don't pass. Think about it. :)
 
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