Price of Gasoline?

[Guest]

Mike,
You gotta like to cycle that's for sure and if you are using cycling as opposed to running to get exercise... Chances are you will love it.
It can be addictive, especially if you are in shape.
My favorite ride is a 100 mile natural loop, it's also used for an annual bicycle race called the Tour Of The Unknown Coast. It's got every type of terrain and weather conditions most of the time. One minute you're coursing your way up a mountain in the hot sun, then you're getting an incredible adrenaline rush descending at speeds over 50 mph, then your cruising along a breathtaking ocean view and the next thing you know... you're up in the cool moist clouds. My average speeds for this course have ranged from 10 mph to 20 mph. Slower averages are from using a mountain bike and from wind conditions. There's an eight mile stretch right along the ocean heading North and if you hit a North wind... bye-bye average speed.
Some of my faster times can be atributed to being in good pace lines with other riders.
If you have a fairly flat ride and weather conditions are favorable... you should easily be able to average 16-18 mph if you're in decent shape.
Mike, I'm not recommending that you hop on your bike tomorrow morning at 4:00 AM. (You'd be calling your wife in no time to come pick you up to get you to work)
If you enjoy cycling and get yourself into shape, a 30 mile ride to and from work can be the perfect workout, to where you're not left craving to get more miles in each week.(IMHO)
I like to take the banana flavored Power Bars and Cyclo-Max for energy and hydration on rides overs 15 miles.
Tom, I usually gain back about 40-50% of my average mph's lost while climbing on my downhill descents.

[TomS]

Dean,

If you haven't done so already, you might want to check out my web site. I've done quite a bit of bike touring including a Seattle to San Francisco trip that took me right through your part of Northern California.

[JunkMan]

I'm just starting to ride again this spring, now that the weather is warming up. Was riding about 16-20 miles a day last fall.

Rode the Mickelson Trail last October, following the old Burlington Northern line that took trains from Edgemont, SD to the gold mines of the northern Black Hills. Rode 115 miles in 2 days on a mountain bike, pulling a BOB trailer with my camping gear. The first 12 miles leaving Deadwood was all up hill, climbing close to 2000 feet.

Hope to ride the RAGBRAI in July. It's a 485 mile supported ride across Iowa over 7 days.

[Guest]

Tom,
I wish we had known one another back then. I've met several riders on long treks like that. One guy was taking three years off from work to cycle throughout the world. He was all hooked up on the internet and was writing a book about his adventure. I lost contact with him before he wrote the book.
OMG-I can't believe you actually stayed at that KOA between Eureka and Arcata!!!
I have never considered staying at a KOA, because of this one. I've had to fix windows for them in the past.
I couldn't even imagine a KOA or any campground for that matter, being worse than that one.
Is that about the worst campground you have ever stayed at?
What gets me is the shear beauty of this area and they put that thing next to the freeway and salvage yard to boot.

[TomS]

Believe it or not that KOA is not the worst campground I ever stayed at. I don''t like KOA's in general. To me, most of them are nothing more than parking lots with hook-ups.

The worst camground I ever stayed at was on an indian reservation in Arizona on September 11, 2001 (yeah, THAT September 11). Although the scenery was nice, the campground itself was a run-down filthy dump.

[TWO-CANS]

Gas here in Virginia is being advertised on the station signs at the lowest we have seen in years!!!! I've seen it advertised at the stations and it was on the news last night posted at several stations from 14.9 cents up to 27.0 cents a gallon for regular !!!
I said it was being ADVERTISED at that price ----- several of stations have run out the number two for thier major signs-----so it made the news and yep there was a line at one of the stations.

[Arne]

A story made tv news months ago. A station was knocking 10 cents off the price of a gallon of gasoline..... Of cours, lines formed, people drove for miles and sat in line for hours....

But, the one person I specifically remember was a lawyer. He said he waited 45 minutes to buy..... Now figuring the most he would save would be about $2.00 (20 gallons, 10 cents per gallon), and he probably charges his time at $150/hour minumum, I don't think he is the smartest lawyer around...

----

During the 70's when we had our gas 'crisis', a new station opened up and was about 7 cents a gallon higher than the rest. So people, again, waited in line for at least 1/2 hour, engines idling, to buy the cheaper gas. I'd pull into the higher price station, right up to the pump, fill'er up and be gone in 3 minutes..... and I paid about 20% more for the convenience...

Bottom line, people sure love a bargin, even when it isn't.

[Q]

Cheapest gas here in Central Oregon is $2.25 and rising every day. This makes a big dent in the monthly budget for us low income people. Fortunately I have a couple of motorcycles including an old Honda Trail 90 that gets something like 150 mpg. Wonder if I can pull my teardrop with it?

Q

[mikeschn]

Fortunately I have a couple of motorcycles including an old Honda Trail 90 that gets something like 150 mpg. Wonder if I can pull my teardrop with it?

Q

I'd have to refer you to the section on bicycle teardrops!!!

Mike...

[DestinDave]

Mike, Dean, and other bikers: About 10 years a judge in Kentucky informed me that I would not be able to drive a car for at least a year
and so I took up biking. I worked nights and lived 21 miles away and the first week it almost killed me but like Dean and Tom said, it really gets addicting once you get into shape. You can get in shape pretty quickly when a taxi costs $13 one-way! I started riding tours and fundraisers and really enjoyed those. I agree that 30 miles is pretty long - work up to that slowly if you are considering it. I haven't ridden as much lately and am training again for a Diabetes fundraiser this June, and maybe for a Heart Association ride this May. I have both a mountain bike and a road bike - use the road bike for any distance rides.

[Arne]

Luckily, the gas is going up the same time I can get my 50 mpg scooter out.... dents the bite a bit.

[mikeschn]

Hey Arne,

You could give up 1 mpg and stay dry too!



That's the Golf TDI!!!

P.S. In practice you can easily get 4 mpg above the average... I do!

[TomS]

I just paid $2.07/gal for 87 ocatane.

[Guest]

Cheapest place in Eureka yesterday was at Costco... $2.48 per gallon.
Costco just recently installed the gas station at their facility.
Prices were great for about a month, they even put the hurt on Mr. Renner (The local gas warlord) and forced him to drop his prices.
Costco figured it out real quick and now they are right up there with the warlord.
I recently took a trip to Hawaii and didn't want to leave when it was time to crawl on that plane again. I read a warning to people like me, that wanted to move there after just one visit. The first thing this warning talked about was what the price of gasoline is over there, compared to the mainland. That was good for a laugh... Humboldt County was more expensive than Hawaii.

[angib]

You could give up 1 mpg and stay dry too! That's the Golf TDI!!!

But why not buy an economical VW?

The 3 Litre Lupo isn't named for its engine size (a 1.2 litre 3-cylinder diesel) but for its combined fuel consumption - 3 litre per 100 km. Its highway mileage is 85 mpg. That's US gallons - it sounds better in British gallons, 105 mpg.

The story from Yurp is that small diesels really do achieve something like their promised economy. By contrast, hybrids don't seem at all impressive, with real world consumptions figures not as good as a corresponding size diesel. But diesel hybrids are coming....

Andrew