Monday, February 19, 2007

Scooter Calculator

The "Between Two Rivers Scooter Club" has put together a web application, with information drawn from the US Energy Information Administration, to give you an idea of the impact riding instead of driving has on the Earth and the US economy. It's worth a look, if nothing else. Based on the vehicle I drove before becoming a 365 day biker, here are my stats:

Samuel, based on the above information, you burn 175.44 gallons of fuel in your Yamaha Majesty each year, and that amount of fuel costs you $359.65. In your other vehicles you burn 0.00 gallons of fuel, which cost you $0.00.
If you did not have your bike, you would be forced to put 10,000.00 miles on your other vehicle each year. This would cost you $1,025.00 in fuel charges each year. Having your bike saves you $665.35 in fuel costs each year.
Having and using your scooter also has in impact on the economy. According to the Energy Information Administration, the U.S.A. currently imports about 10 million barrels of oil each day. Each barrel of oil contains 42 gallons of crude. Each barrel produces about 21 gallons of gasoline, as well as other products.
If you did not use your bike, you would burn 500.00 gallons of fuel, but with your bike you only burn 175.44 gallons of gas each year. Therefore, using your bike conserves 324.56 gallons of gas each year. Translated into barrels of oil, that represents 15.46 barrels of oil that did not need to be refined for the gas you used.
If 655,180 people in this country rode a scooter like you, an entire days worth of oil imports into this country would not be required, resulting in more than $500 million dollars that the country would not need to devote towards foreign oil purchases.

Click the title link to try it for yourself.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Blue Skies Shining on Me


I just finished watching the documentary "Long Way Round" about Ewan Mcreggor and his friend riding around the world on motorcycles, and it put me in the mood to take a trip. Luckily for me, it was a balmy 58 degrees today. Erika and I took the oppertunity to take a ride down S.H. 9 to Lake Thunderbird for the afternoon.
The ride was nice, though a little on the windy side, as you can tell by the photo to the left. It seems like the wind has more effect on me with a passenger, or maybe it's just harder to compensate with the extra weight. I'm not sure. It was still a pleasant ride though. We visited a few boat ramps and docks, took some pictures, and really just enjoyed the stint of nice weather. Unfortunately, Erika deemed it too cold for swimming. The weather is supposed to be in the fifties and sixties for at least the next week, so I'm hoping to fit in a drive down highway 77 to Stillwater sometime next weekend. I'd really like to take a longer trip somewhere soon, perferrably an overnight, but I don't want to go alone, and I can't think of anyway to pack the tent and other camping gear without covering the pillion seat. I guess I'll just have to keep trying to talk Erika into buying herself a bike suitable for highway speeds. Until than, there are plenty of docks and lakes and whatever else to drive to within an hour or two of here.


p.s. I apologize profusely for the cheesy title...

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Gearing up for the cold

On the few motorcycle forums I keep up with, I've noticed a lot of people talking about the cold, and more specifically, how to ride in it without turning into a popsicle. Today here in Oklahoma, the thermostat was reading in the teens. It's rare for it to get quite that cold, but it happens, and having a motorcycle as my only means of transportation has given me some insight into dealing with it. What follows is what I wear when the weather's at it's coldest.

Layer 1
The first layer consists of thermal underwear or tights. On the really cold days (or the ones when I'm feeling particularly wussy) I've actually worn a pair of tights over a pair of thermals. I also wear a thermal top or longsleeve cotton t-shirt and a pair of normal cotton/polyester socks.
Layer 2

Over the thermals, I'd normally wear a long or short sleeve cotton t-shirt, a pair of jeans or cargo pants, and a pair of wool socks. There are few things that make me more uncomfortable than cold feet. Most of what goes on after this layer will probably get removed whenever I'm not on the bike.


Layer 3

The third layer has, in my opinion, two of the most important elements in staying warm. The first is a pair of windproof vinyl pants. These came from wal-mart. They were only about $9.00 if I remember correctly. They have an elastic waist and zippers on the ankles so I can pull them on and off over my boots. I like to keep a pair of these rolled up in my trunk in case of rain as well. The top part of this layer is key to my entire cold weather survival. It's an electrically heated vest that plugs into the bike. Companies like Gerbing make heated vests, as well as jacket liners, gloves, pants, and other items for roughly $100-$200. Mine is homemade, and cost me about $20 (granted, I already had the fleece vest). The vest is not only useful in keeping my abdomen warm. When your body gets cold, it's natural instincts are to restrict circulation to the extremities (like the hands and feet) in order to keep the essential organs warm. Unfortunately, this causes the hands and feet to get colder. The heated vest serves to keep my chest and essential organs warm enough, so the body can focus on warming the hands and feet.

Layer 4
The boots are the only other part of my gear that I don't remove when I reach my destination. I put them in this layer because I like to tuck the bottoms of the vinyl pants inside them to keep wind from rushing up my legs. I also wear some type of insulated jacket, like a hoodie. On my hands, I wear a pair of 100% synthetic glove liners that wick moisture away from my hands and serve as an extra layer of insulation under my gloves. On my head, I wear a balaclava made of neoprene with a fleece lining. I bought it at a ski shop for about $40 but you could probably find something similar at a sporting goods store for a better price. It's windproof and covers my neck and nose, which is nice because nobody likes a runny nose under a helmet.

Layer 5

Layer 5 is as much for crash protection as it is for cold protection. I never go anywhere without my leather jacket (yeah I know, no armor. I'm poor and it's high on the list of things I want to buy) or my helmet. Full face helmets are much better in the cold than 3/4's or anything else, for obvious reasons. I also wear a pair of ski gloves over the glove liners. I know there are motorcycle intended gloves that would probably work better, but like I said above, I'm poor, and I have to work with what I've got. I've tried a lot of different glove combinations to keep my hands warm, and my current solution still isn't quite as warm as I'd like it to be. The gloves I wear are windproof, and have much thicker insulation on the back of the hand and tops of the fingers than they do on the palms and pads of the fingers so they don't feel too bulky while riding. They're also naturally slightly curved to grip the handlebars, but my hands do tend to go a little numb in temperatures below freezing. One of these days I'm going to invest in some heated grips.

Layer 6

The final layer is just a windproof, waterproof parka. I only wear this if it's raining or if it's really unusually cold, but it's always in my trunk in case I need it. It doesn't actually have much insulating value, if any, but it's windproof qualities help keep the leather jacket from getting too cold.


Now I know what you're thinking, and yes, under all those layers I do feel a bit like a spaceman. It does keep me warm though, and everything I'm wearing is easy to find, and reasonably inexpensive. The key, I think, is to keep the wind off of you, and wear layers. The layers, obviously can be added and removed depending how cold it actually is.

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