Gas prices

I think NYC has two things that hold down the snow, first, its got all that warm water. Second, its got a lot of building and ashpalt heat. Go 50 miles up river and they get much more.

I do think NYC handles the snow better than DC does, but then, nearly everyone does it better than DC. Boston handles a foot better than DC handles an inch.

IMO, NYC does get the cold temperature, it just doesn't always get large amount of moisture. 50 miles north of NYC gets a lot more snow because of all the "lake effect" snow -- pretty much any cold wave, coming from the north, will be taking moisture while it is crossing into NY state.

Also IMO, I think NYC overkills for snow events. The ridiculous amount of salt thrown on the road, and the liberal use of melters, puts all that thrown salt right into the sewer system.

Henry

Originally posted by Henry Wong:
Particulary since the driver of the car is unlikely to see you?

Car drivers are incapable of seeing a bike and rider. There is something like the old Get Smart "cone of silence" but its a cone of invisibility.

If you don't drive prepared for the fact that the car will turn left into you, or will change lanes on top of you, then you are sure to become a statistic.

If you fall off, which is far too often, you need leather or some of the new microfiber stuff. Yes, its hot. I dumped my bike at about 130 MPH ~~200kpm. While I was in the hospital, they talked about another guy who had crashed that same day. A bit later, I saw him, covered in road rash head to toe, torn clothes, etc. We talked a bit. I asked "what happened" and he said "hit some gravel on my moped at 20pmh, you?" and I replied "seized at 130", I had two small holes where my leather gloves wore thru. I was wearing racing leathers (I was on a race track). That was all that was wrong, altho I had a really bad headache.

Indeed - I have no intention of cutting corners on my gear. If its too hot to bearably ride in the gear (and there are some high durability, armour plated, breathable abrasion resitant fabrics that are well suited to summer riding), then its too hot to ride.

Do you mean 'lane splitting' where you drive up between stopped cars at a light? Its fast, but very dangerous. Its legal in California, but illegal where I live. Be warmed, it really makes the dudes in cars angry. They tend to open car doors in anger.

Semantics: around here theres a distinction between illegal "splitting" (riding between cars moving in adjacent lanes - effectively carving out another narrow lane for yourself) and legaly permitted "filtering" (passing stationary traffic between lanes to get to the front and clear of traffic and danger).

Since by far the most common collision on the road is running into the back of someone stopped at an intersection theres good reason to believe that bikes 'filtering' are improving their safety. (Someone running into the back of you in a car is annoying and a quick exchange of insurance details... someone running into the back of you on a bike is a trip to hospital if you're lucky )

Recently in Melbourne Police have been cracking down on bikers in peak hour conditions and finding fault with riders 'filtering' (legally lots of grey areas for which they seem to be able to generate tickets if they wish). This has upset the biker community LOTS. Last week a guy didnt filter at an intersection he had previously been booked at and was run into from behind. He died.... Needless to say the biker community are very upset and advising their members to continue to lane filter regardless of police advice.

price of filtering: $100 when police are in the mood...
price of not filtering: DEATH....

Easy choice

Yeah lane-filtering, that all sounds about right. It's also safer to keep ahead of the traffic, if you are overtaking then everything is in front of you - much easier to see potential problems (cars) beforehand. The worst situation is when you are being overtaken by badly driven cars (that will not see you!). The underlying problem is that quite a few car drivers have no concept of the bike world.

Riding the bike I always wear leathers, no matter even if it’s just a short journey. Also I've heard that as most injuries are lower limb [the bike falls on your legs], it does make sense to buy a good pair of boots, that will help to minimise any impact damage to the knee and upwards.

I haven't kept current with the 250cc bikes, but a 600 ninja will come close to if not exceed 150MPH.

Yeah, I think this is true. Pretty sure my bike was up around 160 last year on the track (only dial that was not taped up was the rev meter).

but is comfortable at speed, when the wind is helping with taking some of the driver's weight off of the handle bars.

Not sure I agree, these track focused bikes are not supposed to be comfortable – there are designed to go around twisty roads (or tracks). Whole point is to keep the weight in the middle of the bike. I would not want to ride on long straight American roads on a track focused superbike – but luckily I’m not to far from lots of twisty English / Scottish roads…

Originally posted by Peter Rooke:
Not sure I agree, these track focused bikes are not supposed to be comfortable – there are designed to go around twisty roads (or tracks).

And they are not close to comfortable. I assume that the Ninja 250 is designed specifically for countries where there are 250cc racing classes in some sort of "showroom stock" or "minimal modifications" class. Back when I raced in the US, there were classes like this for 600cc, 750cc, and open.

These bikes have two design goals: (1) win races and (2) look like they can win races.

If you want to actually ride the thing, you want something more human friendly. Something like a Yamaha FZ6 is plenty fast, but avoids the extreme body positioning.

Back OT, the fast bikes get better mileage than a fast car, but they really don't get great mileage. For that, you want something designed less radically. My now 30++ year old BMW R90/6 gets about 50mpg, and is actually comfortable.

Originally posted by Alan Wanwierd:

price of filtering: $100 when police are in the mood...
price of not filtering: DEATH....

umm... not to make light of this, but shouldn't that be

price of not filtering: DEATH when you get hit

I mean, if you're gonna qualify the one, you should qualify the other.
[ May 26, 2008: Message edited by: fred rosenberger ]

What do you folks mean by lane filtering...Are you referring to moving from one lane to another...?

From 3-4 posts up:

Originally posted by Alan Wanwierd:


Semantics: around here theres a distinction between illegal "splitting" (riding between cars moving in adjacent lanes - effectively carving out another narrow lane for yourself) and legaly permitted "filtering" (passing stationary traffic between lanes to get to the front and clear of traffic and danger).

Originally posted by Henry Wong:
Also IMO, I think NYC overkills for snow events. The ridiculous amount of salt thrown on the road, and the liberal use of melters, puts all that thrown salt right into the sewer system.

Off topic - but of course! And you left out all the hype on the radio and tv beforehand :0

Originally posted by Jeanne Boyarsky:
Off topic - but of course! And you left out all the hype on the radio and tv beforehand :0

Question, does NYC or Washington DC have more hype before hand. Every grocery store in DC runs out of TP and bread before every store.

If it was a major snow in Bangalore, I could understand the hysteria.

Back On Topic: this is a great time to buy an RV. They typically get 8 MPG or so, with $4 gas, that's about $0.50 for fuel. Just what you need for a thousand mile trip. The prices on RVs are crashing.

The 250cc bikes are great for tight twisty roads - and are great fun. Just learned that you can now get a ZX250 bike. If I had the money then I would have one just for track days.

Lane filtering is what you do to get through traffic jams, by riding up the middle of the road between the vehicles which have stopped. It starts getting more dangerous when you start filtering in moving traffic. I tend to filter when traffic is stopped or is slowly crawling. Most car drivers tend to dislike the fact that they are going to be held up, while motorbikes can get through the traffic. But why would any biker sit behind miles and miles of stationary cars, petrol (gas) is not cheap!

Back to petrol (gas) prices; I hope this is not going to drag us into (or keep us in) a recession.

Originally posted by Peter Rooke:
The 250cc bikes are great for tight twisty roads

Yes, very 'flickable'. My TZ250 was a real giggle in the tight turns.
They tend to be small bikes. I went to the Kawasaki site, they must have a tiny woman model on the Ninja 250

Back to petrol (gas) prices; I hope this is not going to drag us into (or keep us in) a recession.

The US Mid-west has been in one a long time, and with the recent announcements from Ford, its not going to change. The American "car" companies have made all of their profit from trucks and SUVs in the past decade or so. No one is buying them anymore. Its not just the car factories themselves, but all of their suppliers, and the stores and bowling alleys that the workers used to spend money at.

Most folks predict that gas prices will peak in late summer, and come down. But I think we'll never see $2/gallon again.

Why is biking considered so dangerous in the West? I thought the traffic systems were well organised, drivers educated and everyone obeyed the rules of the road and made use of all mirrors etc.(In india, for example we most of us,only have our rear view mirror and we most of us, don't have to pass any test to get a license) yet it seems I would feel safer on my bike here?
[ May 28, 2008: Message edited by: Arvind Birla ]

Originally posted by Arvind Birla:Why is biking considered so dangerous in the West?

You mean in the American West? or West in general.

Bikes are dangerous in the US because nobody rides them. They were much more common in the 1960s and early 1970, with the Honda ads "you meet the nicest people on a Honda"

There are so few bikes on the road in most of the US that car drivers literally don't look for them, and don't see them.

And partially because 17 year old males buy something like a Hurricane 600 as a first bike. In the 70s, you would buy five or six bikes before moving up to a 600. The first bikes were slow and kept you out of danger. A modern 600 is wicked fast. Most 17 year old riders have no experience and hardly any judgment.

The huge Harley's are much safer, not because the bikes are safe, but because they cost so much money, say $25,000, that only rich old guys can buy them. So the riders are older and more cautious.

Originally posted by Stevi Deter:
Those of us in the US really need to get a reality check. Our gas is still pretty cheap, comparitively.

Saudi is cheaper than 45 .. It is only 15 cents.

I have a SUV and fill up for 5$ only ...


Aryan

Originally posted by Aryan Khan:
Saudi is cheaper than 45 .. It is only 15 cents.

Don't they have the world's largest reserve? They can afford to subsidies it.

I just wish the US would raise gas/fuel taxes so we send less of our money to the Kingdom