Topic: Highway Riding on a 500 / 550?

[dave500]

Stupid fuel economy has us all screwed up.  I liked it better when gas was a buck a gallon and you drove what ever you owned, where ever you wanted.

That's the home of the free all right... oversized toys at cost of the rest of the planet. Would you really like to see the Chinese, Brasilians and the people in India to commute with Hummers and other sponges on wheels? When I was in high school and the world economic system was still based on the agreements of Bretton Woods every teacher economics in Europe could demonstrate their pupils that the US could print as many dollars as they liked and that we in Europe were in fact financing your ridiculous cheap gaz. That's why the French president De Gaulle and his minister of Finance Giscard d'Estaing at the time  refused to keep dollars and consequently returned every dollar to the US to change it for gold.
If only other states had done the same. The US would never been able to finance hobbies like the Vietnam war. Read Exorbitant Privilige: the rise and fall of the dollar by Barry J. Eichengreen.

chill out man!

[Lostboy Steve]

There's a school of thought that if the Corvair had never been ruled as "un-safe" the whole United States Automotive Industry would look completely different. Not to get off topic....

http://youtu.be/IF-8a6B8Ljk

[matt mattison]

I was just running mine around 90 mph down the Garden State Parkway this weekend. I'm definitely not condoning these type of speeds on our GSP, but damn it was fun. And the bike really loved it. These motors are meant to run up the RPM's, don't treat it like a V twin!

[70CB750]

Stupid fuel economy has us all screwed up.  I liked it better when gas was a buck a gallon and you drove what ever you owned, where ever you wanted.

That's the home of the free all right... oversized toys at cost of the rest of the planet. Would you really like to see the Chinese, Brasilians and the people in India to commute with Hummers and other sponges on wheels? When I was in high school and the world economic system was still based on the agreements of Bretton Woods every teacher economics in Europe could demonstrate their pupils that the US could print as many dollars as they liked and that we in Europe were in fact financing your ridiculous cheap gaz. That's why the French president De Gaulle and his minister of Finance Giscard d'Estaing at the time  refused to keep dollars and consequently returned every dollar to the US to change it for gold.
If only other states had done the same. The US would never been able to finance hobbies like the Vietnam war. Read Exorbitant Privilige: the rise and fall of the dollar by Barry J. Eichengreen.

Did you hit a truck dead on?

[fastbroshi]

I've been on a couple long trips on the 550 and my only issue was the seat.   Update the cushioning and I think it'd be alright.

[Deltarider]

Did you hit a truck dead on?

No, any experiences yourself? But really... is this all you could think of?
There is it an economist left that thinks that Americans pay what gasoline really costs us, read: all of us.
The gravity of the development of electric traction nowadays is in... China. There's a reason for his. Maybe the Chinese think it's not such a good idea if people start commuting with 8 cilinder cars, even when they're rich enough. Whereas, when you look at what Detroit puts out, you must conclude that people in the US people still seem to think they're in some toy wonderland. It's all about adaptation (the frog in the hot pan, remember?). If you're interested in this you might read Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed by Jared Diamond (New York : North Point Press, cop. 2004). I'm aware one will not be popular if in a forum like this one points at our means of transportation as toys. Just every once in a while I will allow my self. Maybe it's interesting for Americans to know what people elsewhere in the world think when they hear them childishly complain about 'high' fuel prices. You call that high? Even overhere where a liter costs € 1,75 I'm not paying what it actually costs the planet. If I'm complaining, it's because prices are not high enough. Sorry that I digressed from the topic, but it's just when in the 'home of the free greed' people start whining about rising fuel prices, I like to put things in perspective a little bit. Get real, grow up an pay taxes.
Have a look over the border (northern maybe?)

[dave500]

ill take you for a ride in my five litre holden delta,,thatll chill you out.

[70CB750]

Did you hit a truck dead on?

No, any experiences yourself? But really... is this all you could think of?
There is it an economist left that thinks that Americans pay what gasoline really costs... us, read: all of us.
The gravity of the development of electric traction nowadays is in... China. There's a reason for his. Maybe the Chinese think it's not such a good idea if people start commuting with 8 cilinder cars, even when they're rich enough. Whereas, when you look at what Detroit puts out, in the US people still think they're in some toy wonderland. It's all about adaptation (the frog in the hot pan). If you're interested in this you might read Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed by Jared Diamond (New York : North Point Press, cop. 2004). I'm aware one will not be popular if in a forum like this one points at our means of transportation as toys. Just every once in a while I will allow my self. Maybe it's interesting for Americans to know what people elsewhere in the world think when they hear them complain about 'high' fuel prices. Even overhere where a liter costs € 1,75 I'm not paying what it costs the planet. If I'm complaining, it's because prices are not high enough. Sorry that I digressed from the topic, but it's just when in the 'home of the free greed' people start whining about rising fuel prices, I like to put things in perspective a little bit. Get real, grow up an pay taxes.
Have a look over the border (northern maybe?)

LOL!  Probably the same time you were in high school, we were taught by marx-leninism teachers about decadent, imperialistic west - that would be you and your country - wasting resources and basically collapsing in next 5-10 years (depended on the teacher).

Pretty much the same BS.

[Deltarider]

With all respect, Dave, but that's an inferior car, and you know it, although I must admit a 5 liter engine can be a great medicine for people who need it. Now here is more the sort of car that I admire: the ingenious and legendary Citroën 2CV. Been in production from 1948 till 1990. Millions and millions sold. A four passenger convertible. Twin cilinder aircooled engine. First models 375cc, soon 425cc and later 602cc (24HP). I had one once and managed to maintain 100 km/h using the slipstream of trucks. You could make 90⁰ turns at topspeed, the car would never break out or slip. In spite of it's little engine you could go in the terrain and I've seen people succesfully crossing the Sahara desert with it, be it two persons only with not much more than their toothbrushes. It's suspension travels were that long, that a farmer could put a box with eggs on the rear seat and crossing his ploughed up land the eggs would not break. You could repair it with a hammer and a screwdriver. It ran 17 km on one liter, which at that time was amazingly cheap.
When I travelled the US in 1973, hitch hiking and riding freighttrains (the latter from South California to Sanderson, Texas) I've never seen one 2CV on US roads. Somebody said: 17km on one liter? They would't allow such a car here, 17km on one liter? We can't have that.

Twistedengineering. You'll like this. In any European country they've would elected Ralph Nader for president. What did the US elect? A ventriloquist dummy what's his name... George W. Shoe.

70CB750, you're a liar (and I don't say this often).

[fastbroshi]

  Man Delta, you've got to be kidding.  If you like cars that look like they were styled ugly on purpose and get great mileage, buy a Prius, you probably won't need to worry about it breaking down so often.   Good medicine for those who need it...what a backhanded compliment.   Believe what you want, but Americans don't live to make your life hell.  We do what we do how and where we do it because we can.   We wouldn't buy as many big vehicles and V8 sports cars if our taxes were like Europe's.   
  I'm sure you tested that little 90 degree turn bit in your Citroen eh?  It was pretty damn fun wasn't it?   It's even better in a hunkered down Vette or Mustang.  You would love it and don't even try to deny it buddy.  So get off the high horse and leave the backhanded compliments behind.   Just because it's easy to hate or be jealous doesn't mean it's the right thing to do, no matter how you rationalize it. 
  Oh and just so we stay on track, did anyone know I have a bellybutton?

[Magilla]

Stupid fuel economy has us all screwed up.  I liked it better when gas was a buck a gallon and you drove what ever you owned, where ever you wanted.

That's the home of the free all right... oversized toys at cost of the rest of the planet. Would you really like to see the Chinese, Brasilians and the people in India to commute with Hummers and other sponges on wheels? When I was in high school and the world economic system was still based on the agreements of Bretton Woods every teacher economics in Europe could demonstrate their pupils that the US could print as many dollars as they liked and that we in Europe were in fact financing your ridiculous cheap gaz. That's why the French president De Gaulle and his minister of Finance Giscard d'Estaing at the time  refused to keep dollars and consequently returned every dollar to the US to change it for gold.
If only other states had done the same. The US would never been able to finance hobbies like the Vietnam war. Read Exorbitant Privilige: the rise and fall of the dollar by Barry J. Eichengreen.

Deltarider, Just curious about things in your country.  What do you own/drive for vehicles where you live?  I hear that we Americans are excessive but I have nothing to compare it to. This is what we have at my house, right now, to drive:

Ford Maverick, 351 gets 10MPG
36 foot Damon motorhome, gets 6mpg
Cadillac STS4, gets 22 MPG
Ford Mustang, gets 27 MPG
Chevy Lumina, gets 24 MPG
Ford Explorer, gets 15 MPG
Nissan Frontier, gets 21MPG
Honda CB750,  MPG unknown.

Would this be considered excessive in Amsterdam?

[Lostboy Steve]

Did you hit a truck dead on?

No, any experiences yourself? But really... is this all you could think of?
There is it an economist left that thinks that Americans pay what gasoline really costs... us, read: all of us.
The gravity of the development of electric traction nowadays is in... China. There's a reason for his. Maybe the Chinese think it's not such a good idea if people start commuting with 8 cilinder cars, even when they're rich enough. Whereas, when you look at what Detroit puts out, in the US people still think they're in some toy wonderland. It's all about adaptation (the frog in the hot pan). If you're interested in this you might read Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed by Jared Diamond (New York : North Point Press, cop. 2004). I'm aware one will not be popular if in a forum like this one points at our means of transportation as toys. Just every once in a while I will allow my self. Maybe it's interesting for Americans to know what people elsewhere in the world think when they hear them complain about 'high' fuel prices. Even overhere where a liter costs € 1,75 I'm not paying what it costs the planet. If I'm complaining, it's because prices are not high enough. Sorry that I digressed from the topic, but it's just when in the 'home of the free greed' people start whining about rising fuel prices, I like to put things in perspective a little bit. Get real, grow up an pay taxes.
Have a look over the border (northern maybe?)

We will.... We would pay 10 dollars a gallon if they made it that much.

[Lostboy Steve]

  Man Delta, you've got to be kidding.  If you like cars that look like they were styled ugly on purpose and get great mileage, buy a Prius, you probably won't need to worry about it breaking down so often.   Good medicine for those who need it...what a backhanded compliment.   Believe what you want, but Americans don't live to make your life hell.  We do what we do how and where we do it because we can.   We wouldn't buy as many big vehicles and V8 sports cars if our taxes were like Europe's.   
  I'm sure you tested that little 90 degree turn bit in your Citroen eh?  It was pretty damn fun wasn't it?   It's even better in a hunkered down Vette or Mustang.  You would love it and don't even try to deny it buddy.  So get off the high horse and leave the backhanded compliments behind.   Just because it's easy to hate or be jealous doesn't mean it's the right thing to do, no matter how you rationalize it. 
  Oh and just so we stay on track, did anyone know I have a bellybutton?

Actually, right outside the Netherlands in Gladbeck:




I would take any one for those over a vette any day. Don't you watch top gear? Vettes handle like #$%*. They're all power, and you get buried in them. Seriously they just dig a 12 by 6 foot hole and drop you and the whole car in. Also, I had a 92 notch back with everything set up for street courses (suspension wise) and with its 428 horse power all it would do was under-steer and burn up tires. Fast in a straight line though.

[70CB750]

70CB750, you're a liar (and I don't say this often).

And I love you too, delta. Apparently your education stopped with that high school of yours.

Well, as long as you are happy.

[Deltarider]

I'm sorry if I dissapoint you guys but the truth is that every American car I drove was overpowered and became uncontrolable if you used that power. It's long ago but I remember I was shocked. They handled like pigs or matrasses if you like: my uncle's Fairlane in Goshen, Indiana, a friend's Mustang in Mexico and the strangest car was a GTO, a dull car Pontiac had tried to boost sales by just mounting an big V8 in a chassis that obviously couldn't handle it. I'm not interested in cars at all but even the smallest 4 cilinder BMW, Alfa, Audi or Subaru offers so much more driving fun and stays predictable on every mountain road where the average American built had it's rear end swing all over the place. You must realise driving habits in our continents differ too much, that it's unfair to compare. Moreover your market has always been orientated differently: quantity over quality. Big sells. I like ingenuity. That twin air engine Fiat makes nowadays: a marvel.
May I ask what car do you think a rich European who doesn't have to worry about bad mileage buys overhere? An American car? Think again.
Ofcourse the 2CV has become a humorous car but it has made millions and millions happy with it's practicality. Mention me an American car that has been in production for 42 years? Read what Lee Iacocca had to say about the quality of American cars.
Our infrastructure is so different. Where I live I'm used to go as little as possible by car. I have everything within walking distance. We have good public transport, in town my bicycle is the quickest to get anywhere and I'm a member of Green cars. In the train I meet the nicest women, in a car I meet nobody. On almost every trainstation you arrive, you can rent a bike for € 5,- a day. The last car, a Peugeot 504, did I sell because I didn't do more than 4000 kms a year. Holidays in a car, I hate it. That's why my girl and I bought a Goldwing Interstate in Edmonton, Canada. Not my type of bike BTW, but see the beautifull Rocky Mountains from behind a windscreen? No way! We wanted to be in the open and experience it. But maybe it's easy for me to say, I have no kids, but overhere there are many like me. I'm not interested in the image of a car.

[Duanob]

ALRIGHT! BACK ON TOPIC!

Ever since I put a 36T rear sprocket on my 76 550 I enjoy the highways a bit more. at 65-70MPH I still have some juice left to pass. Yet it still has plenty of pep riding around town. Just a thought.

[dave500]

medication time delta.

[Deltarider]

medication time delta.

I just did and here's the result. My message comes from a country that has 70% of it's territority below sealevel. Elsewhere in the world people in low lands start worrying that rising sealevel will soon ruin their sweetwater wells forever. Are you getting it? What a little meditation can do. What would the world have looked like if we all had choosen those ridiculous cars, that are only suitable to ride in a straight lane. I remember in Indiana on a country road I had to overtake Amish whilst other Amish were coming my way. I just did it the way I was used to. Man, I didn't know a car could behave that bad. Almost knocked the poor devils over.

[70CB750]

Ach so!  You are global warming believer, that explains it.


There is no God but global warming and Al Gore is His prophet!

[Deltarider]

Again, you're so funny, please go on. "Al Gore is his prophet", aren't you a clever dick? Yes, I believe we would have been a little bit better of if we had had Al Gore in stead of that complete nincompoop, that reincarnation of Caligula. Don't you when you look back?

[camelman]

Wow, what a wild conversation.  I don't think I've ever seen a thread get this wild that wasn't talking about oil... or wait... maybe this thread is about oil!  ;-)

I'm a small engine guy myself.  I like my 350F because it takes skill to drive it fast and I liked my VW Jetta Diesel because it took skill to drive fast and got almost as good of fuel mileage as my 350f!  I also like fuel efficient vehicles because they push design envelops to improve the performance of our machines without wasting as many natural resources as we have in the past.  This should result in having those resources longer at a lower cost and with less polution.  If I were to sum it all up, the polution is what really gets me.  Allergies, asthma, smog, screwed up salmon runs, dying lakes, etc.  The list goes on and on.  I want to see a better solution to just dumping more and more fossil fuel into our lives.  I personally believe in global warming, but regardless of how you believe, the effects of high level fossil fuel usage is deletory to our environment and health.

By the way, the actions we take in America do affect the rest of the world.  We need to realize that.  Plus, we need to realize that if everyone tried to live the way we do, then this world would actually run out of cheap oil and gas sooner rather than later.  That would really piss some people off at the pump!  I'm not saying we would run out of fossil fuels in the next ten years, but if every country consumed at the rate that we do, then the world would definitely run out faster.  We still have plenty of fossil fuel left to get us through our liftetimes through.  However, that is not what matters.  What matters is being able to hand off a world to our children that is as easy to live in as ours is.

Well, I'd say "rant over", but it wasn't a rant.  So, "my $0.02 over". 

Oh, here's my rant.  We are all in this together!

Camelman

By the way, water usage is directly tied to power consumtion.  Anyone who has ever seen cooling towers at power plants or chiller plants can attest to the massive amount of water we use when generating or consuming power.  So, reducing your gas and electricity usage does influence drainage of your natural waterways.  The new catch phrase for this understanding now is the "Energy Water Nexus".

[crazypj]

I dunno, didn't they use a 2CV in one of the Roger Moore bond movies?
I think it was one of the later ones with the 1300 ohc motor though?

[Bailgang]

Don't you watch top gear?

Did you watch the episode where they tested the cornering ability of a Reliant Robin? One of the most hilarious episodes of TG ever.

[Bob Wessner]

Let's get this back on topic and skip the political banter, shall we?

[Rhummy]

I just did a 800 mile round trip on my CB550.  It ate up the the road and did love going fast.  I would defiantly upgrade the seat cushioning. 

Otherwise, 70-90 was a blast.   Plenty of throttle left for passing.