save on gas big time and it is FREE

Doesn't resistance rise as the square of the velocity?

Yes, just found it.

DAS

For direct replies replace nospam with schmetterling

That's right. You can also see the whole drag coefficient equation here:

Speed has a greater-than-proportional effect on fuel economy. It's significant. Not nearly as significant as carpooling, though. You can triple your gas mileage just by taking two other guys with you to work, driving as fast as you want to.

My brother in law used to carpool with a good friend, 45 minutes each way. They would drive my brother in law's Corolla one week and his friend's International Scout the next. They didn't complain about gas mileage because they were saving so much money. I'm sure it was nice having somebody to talk to for almost an hour, too.

Yes, not regularly, though.

You have to work up to it. Do a few months of freeway riding and your arms will get a lot stronger, then it's doable. But, it isn't safe unless you have fine grained control and you won't get that unless your tucked down.

Ted

my arms are plenty steon since i have been wrenching for 25 years and raced mx

35 years

Ted Mittelstaedt wrote:

Car-pooling waas/is well-developed in some countries, for non-commuters.

When I lived in Hamburg (Germany, that is) in the early eighties I used to travel to Berlin sometimes. Through a car-sharing organisation I would sometimes carry paying passengers, who made a useful contribution to my trip costs. They may not even have had a car.

DAS

For direct replies replace nospam with schmetterling

In Australia a few decades ago the insurance companies treated even car pooling as a case of "...for profit or reward" (or some such wording; i.e., when B gives A a ride in exchange for A having given B a ride, A is receiving a reward) and insisted that the car owner would have to pay insurance premiums as though (s)he were running a taxi service. I don't know whether things have changed there since I left.

Perce

Just curious, Dori - at what point would the German gov't consider you a taxi service and require you to get a business/taxi license?

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Well, here in the States, our level of denial is such that email chain letters are being forwarded around with stupid schemes like "let's stick it to the oil companies by not buying any gas on July 13th" or some other kind of rot. "Send this to everybody you know!" I haven't seen any emails saying "let's stick it to the oil companies! Ride your bike to work for the next 20 years! Buy a small car the next 15 times you need a car! That'll show 'em! Forward this to everybody you know!"

So this thread is a bright spot. It even started out suggesting something that actually works.

I've had college-educated people tell me that "They just know" that GM and Ford are in some conspiracy with Exxon and Chevron to make sure a new pickup gets only 12 mpg. It alarms me just how stupid people are about certain subjects.

Good question. There were limits on what you could charge and the sums were fixed (limited) by the car-sharing organizers. The concept that the money was a contribution to your fuel only, IIRC. So one could not actually run a business on it.

Can't remember the insurance implications, before someone asks.

I found this as an example for the present:

Another concept that has started (maybe in US as well?) is car-use sharing. A club owns a fleet of cars and has the right to park them in various areas in a district. Club members use the cars when required. There is at least one of these in London.

Seems a mix of taxi and car-hire service. Probably wouldn't work for everybody but clearly works for enough to permit viable (AFAIK) operation.

DAS

How did you do on your gas mileage test? We bought a 1993 Civic last week. We drove it from Kansas City to Springfield MO and back this weekend and it got 47 MPG with the air conditioner running. Maybe I'll try running my route at 55 mph this week and see how it does. I was surprised at first that it has only a 9 gallon tank, but when you can get 400 miles out of that tank why would you need any more than that?

That's worse than what you were getting before, isn't it?