Petrol/Gas prices. UK.

Ouch! Time to dust off the old Royal Enfield motorbike. (and set the Daimler on fire to collect the insurance.) Johnny, you may not be aware that in the US, motorists who own big SUV's and Hummers are sometimes turned down by the dealers when they want to trade them in on a little gas-sipper. They just shrug and ask "who are we going to sell 'em to?"

Is an imperial Gallon is larger than a US gallon? People are being offered so little for 4wd hogs that many will not trade them.

Is an imperial Gallon is larger than a US gallon? People are being offered so little for 4wd hogs that many will not trade them.

Hi,

A UK gallon is 4.5 litres give or take.

It was just announced on our News program 20 minutes ago.

4X4 sales down 18% over last months.

Little cars sales up 34%

and bicycles sales is up 10%.

But its in the pipe line for BIG road tax hikes. Big 4X4s will be circa £400 next year rising to twice that before 2010.

Johnny UK

I think that is happening now to.

Ok on the Enfield. I was a bike man in younger days, Have a plated right legs to prove it Lol.

Had,

225 Francis Barnett 197 Dot Scrambler. 600cc Norton Dominator 500cc Gold Star Club man ( WOW ) and ended with a Royal Enfield 750cc Constellation. Late with a Garrard Sidecar on it. It was the one with the construction like Banana sections. Maybe it never got to the states. But it was top of the heap then lol.

I remember the Enfield had a Nuetral finder on the gearbox. You kicked the lever with your heel , rear of the gear change. I real novel addition lol.

Johnny UK

I would have guessed that the way gas prices are heading, US 4x4s and SUV sales would have dropped about 90%, but somehow they keep selling. I do understand that there are some absolute needs (supposedly anyway, like carrying plywood twice a year), but only a 10-20% decrease? Is it just me or am I missing a weekly drop of 10-20%/week on light truck sales over the last several weeks? Soon, they will be worth more in scrap metal than in trade in value.

In Taipei I didn't see any Suburban size or 1/2 ton 4x4s and somehow they get by, and no they are not midgets. But you ought to see and hear 3-400 2 stroke scooters all take off from a red light at the same time in the deep metro areas(think smoky bar bee hive). I did see a dad with 2 kids(backpacks) and a dog, and brief case all heading out together in the morning on a 150cc size scooter. I don't thing we're ready for that yet in the US, especially in January in the midwest. But who know, if prices get as high as they are in the UK, you may see a lot of changes in trasportation lifestyle. It's coming, just don't know when. My 75 year old dad just bought a bike for the first time in 35 years and is riding it to the store, that's a shift.

I wish your Dad all kinds of good luck with his bike....but since I don't relish being mowed down on a two-wheeler by a Lincoln Navigator or Chevy Suburban, or even a Yaris, thankyouverymuch, I'll bite the bullet and pay the extra couple of bucks for fuel and keep driving a car. I can imagine a scenario wherein a guy languishing in a hospital bed with a broken pelvis, a compound leg fracture or a cracked skull muses to himself "If only I'd paid the extra buck for a gallon of gas, I wouldn't be here!:" This is what keeps me from getting a Vespa, though I love scooters - my first vehicle was a Cushman about 60 years ago, and it was the only vehicle I ever owned from which I got a concussion. Don't get me wrong - bikes are great, on bicycle paths 'way away from automobiles.

Johnny, The prettiest motorcycle I ever saw was a late 1940s Sunbeam, in a showroom in Hollywood, California. Second best was a friend's Ariel Square Four, which sounded like an automobile when started. Another beauty was the Triumph Speedtwin. The only Triumph I ever rode on almost killed me, since I got the hang of it while riding slowly in a parking lot, and when I was going to take it out onto the street, ran into a stranded steel cable which was ...neck high. Fortunately, I was only going two miles an hour, so it dragged me off the seat and the back fender, but had I been going just a tad faster, I'd have either broken my neck or .......been decapitated. Fifty plus years later it still gives me the shivers how close I came to a quick demise.