Depaving?

TimC said:

[1] We don't care about cars already on the road. You never have to
get them roadworthied, so you see cars driving around all the time
with headlights missing, etc. But any cars coming into our state, and
changing hands at the same time, have to be roadworthied.

I thought you had regular inspections of all cars, which is why all the
bombs are here in SA :-)

--
Home page: http://members.westnet.com.au/mvw

On 2005-12-21, Michael Warner (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

TimC said:

[1] We don't care about cars already on the road. You never have to
get them roadworthied, so you see cars driving around all the time
with headlights missing, etc. But any cars coming into our state, and
changing hands at the same time, have to be roadworthied.

I thought you had regular inspections of all cars, which is why all the
bombs are here in SA :-)

Nope. NSW has yearly inspections, but my car passed that every year.

In Melbourne though, they check chassis integrity. Who cares if the
chassis was twisted[1], and it was liable to break up in the middle of
a drive? Doesn't sound major to me!

[1] The last accident it had been in, short of very little bings that
resulted in pushed in headlights, was more than a decade ago before we
bought it. It survived every inspection until it came back to
Victoria.

--
TimC
"On a clear disk, you can seek forever..."

TimC said:

On 2005-12-21, Michael Warner (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

TimC said:

[1] We don't care about cars already on the road. You never have to
get them roadworthied, so you see cars driving around all the time
with headlights missing, etc. But any cars coming into our state, and
changing hands at the same time, have to be roadworthied.

I thought you had regular inspections of all cars, which is why all the
bombs are here in SA :-)

Nope. NSW has yearly inspections, but my car passed that every year.

In Melbourne though, they check chassis integrity. Who cares if the
chassis was twisted[1], and it was liable to break up in the middle of
a drive? Doesn't sound major to me!

[1] The last accident it had been in, short of very little bings that
resulted in pushed in headlights, was more than a decade ago before we
bought it. It survived every inspection until it came back to
Victoria.

Hmmmmmmmm

What you need tim is someone wot knows someone who does roadworthies 🙂

On 2005-12-21, dave (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

TimC said:

Nope. NSW has yearly inspections, but my car passed that every year.

In Melbourne though, they check chassis integrity. Who cares if the
chassis was twisted[1], and it was liable to break up in the middle of
a drive? Doesn't sound major to me!

[1] The last accident it had been in, short of very little bings that
resulted in pushed in headlights, was more than a decade ago before we
bought it. It survived every inspection until it came back to
Victoria.

Hmmmmmmmm

What you need tim is someone wot knows someone who does roadworthies 🙂

Yeah, I could have done that. I could also have reregistered it at
mum's place in NSW, or gotten her to come down and say she was moving
to Melbourne, so it wouldn't change hands.

Of course, now I'd need to find out which scrap metal people it went
to, and ask for it back before persuing further 🙂

Of course, it was really the excuse I was looking for to just ditch
the stupid thing and use my bike fulltime. Have only had a handful of
occasions since then that I could have done with a car -- for
instance, getting a new vaccuum cleaner home. Sure, I have heard of
people strapping them to panniers, but... feh.

--
TimC
That [Tim-Tam] would be the Classic. Not to be confused with the
Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate, and Double Chocolate flavour.
(Personally, I prefer Cadbury's Doubles myself. Tim Tams don't taste
enough of chocolate.) -- Faceless Man on ARK

TimC said:

On 2005-12-21, dave (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

TimC said:

Nope. NSW has yearly inspections, but my car passed that every year.

In Melbourne though, they check chassis integrity. Who cares if the
chassis was twisted[1], and it was liable to break up in the middle of
a drive? Doesn't sound major to me!

[1] The last accident it had been in, short of very little bings that
resulted in pushed in headlights, was more than a decade ago before we
bought it. It survived every inspection until it came back to
Victoria.

Hmmmmmmmm

What you need tim is someone wot knows someone who does roadworthies 🙂

Yeah, I could have done that. I could also have reregistered it at
mum's place in NSW, or gotten her to come down and say she was moving
to Melbourne, so it wouldn't change hands.

Of course, now I'd need to find out which scrap metal people it went
to, and ask for it back before persuing further 🙂

Of course, it was really the excuse I was looking for to just ditch
the stupid thing and use my bike fulltime. Have only had a handful of
occasions since then that I could have done with a car -- for
instance, getting a new vaccuum cleaner home. Sure, I have heard of
people strapping them to panniers, but... feh.

Hmmmm I moved a lounge suite on a motorbike once

I started my car last about 11 months ago. It started first turn.
Probably got a flat battery now 🙁

Theo Bekkers said:

Scooters and small motorcycles, with a purchase cost of between $2000 and
$4000, come out best.

Theo

me thinks, worldwide the average cost of bikes would be no where near the cost of motorised scooters and with the number of bikes, the av cost being (say, my guesstimate here no head for stats to do this one, unless someone (space cadet maybe?) knows the $figure) $200 AU, they should romp it in as lowest cost, fastest av speed and still above all, as we all know anyway, the most efficient mechanised form of transport man has...

but see this month's BYCLING Mag (US)-Rodale Publishing) great article on the Invisible bicycles of LA, av cost $79 US and the ONLY form of transport low cost workers can afford and rely on as their lifeblood transport and a great push for manufacturers to make a commuter bike for around $100 rather than a stumpjumper the mass stores sell over there ( and here).

Bring in the Flying Pidgeon, we would all have a reliable (somewhat heavy), but definite competitor to the Car, just ask most bike riding Chinese in rural and outer urban China ( except Beijing pre Olympics where they want the car to rule) what they use for transport every day?....Oh I digress....time to walk to the kitchen and fuel up my engine for tonights Southern Vets at Sandown, come one come all...Santa might be there too!

TimC said:

Of course, it was really the excuse I was looking for to just ditch
the stupid thing and use my bike fulltime. Have only had a handful of
occasions since then that I could have done with a car -- for
instance, getting a new vaccuum cleaner home. Sure, I have heard of
people strapping them to panniers, but... feh.

two words "bike trailer" 🙂

my "Bob" trailer can cart two cases of beer or a large box of oranges, a
vacuum cleaner would be no problem.

Theo Bekkers said:

Scooters and small motorcycles, with a purchase cost of between $2000 and $4000, come out best.

Theo, come for a ride on my not so pronto Bug Pronto!

Lotte

zog said:

two words "bike trailer" 🙂

my "Bob" trailer can cart two cases of beer or a large box of oranges, a
vacuum cleaner would be no problem.

Nice!!

We've just bought another house closer to town, and I plan to build up a bit of a 'shop bike' to use for short trips to the shops etc. I'm thinking milk crate on the back etc - really ugly stuff! It would save driving to the shops and looking for a park. A trailer would be cool, but nothing too flash - those kiddy ones are around the $600 mark and that's just too expensive...

That said, I've been carting Christmas presents home on my scooter all week. The other day I had the 'boot' full of books, a bag full of wrapping stuff hanging from the hook under the bars and my backpack full of stuff as well. No wonder the poor thing stopped on the highway (lucky it started again!).

LotteBum said:

Theo Bekkers said:

Scooters and small motorcycles, with a purchase cost of between $2000
and $4000, come out best.

Theo, come for a ride on my not so pronto Bug Pronto!

That looks cool. Is that picture of the blonde on the brochure you? :-)

Theo

TimC said:

Of course, it was really the excuse I was looking for to just ditch
the stupid thing and use my bike fulltime. Have only had a handful of
occasions since then that I could have done with a car -- for
instance, getting a new vaccuum cleaner home. Sure, I have heard of
people strapping them to panniers, but... feh.

Tim, to make that an easy task, one thing - BOB trailer. Much cheaper than a
car. Moving a new washing machine in, on the other hand, is a bit beyond it.

Cheers
Peter

rooman said:

me thinks, worldwide the average cost of bikes would be no where near
the cost of motorised scooters and with the number of bikes, the av
cost being (say, my guesstimate here no head for stats to do this one,
unless someone (space cadet maybe?) knows the $figure) $200 AU, they
should romp it in as lowest cost, fastest av speed and still above
all, as we all know anyway, the most efficient mechanised form of
transport man has...

But of little or no use for someone like me who lives 55 kms from work (by
choice, of course). Running costs of a small motorcycle are quite low and
the capital cost of a $4000 bike you keep for ten years is only about $2000,
or $200 per year. Where the cyclist loses is in the time required to get
anywhere. The motorised vehicle will, in most instances other than jammed
traffic, arrive in less than half the time. My 55 km commute by motor is
45-50 mins, by bicycle it would be two hours or more each way and require a
much higher level of fitness than I have currently.

I did all the maths twenty years ago in response to an article in a cycling
magazine which said the cycle was the fastest effective vehicle and, to my
surprise, they published the whole two pages of my [censored] including my
spreadsheets. They even agreed with my conclusions which was that a
125-250cc motorcycle had the quickest effective speed. With the recent
explosion of small scooters, I would think they are probably the current
winners.

Theo

Theo Bekkers said:

That looks cool. Is that picture of the blonde on the
brochure you? :-)

Yes, that's me - extensively airbrushed and modified.

Lotte

LotteBum said:

Yes, that's me - extensively airbrushed and modified.

Lotte

Yeah, here's a recent picture of me, slightly elongated.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/cfsmtb/cfsmtb3/recentpictureofme.gif

Dunno about the dorky riser bars or el cheapo headstem tho...

LotteBum wrote:
<snip>

Quoted message said:

We've just bought another house closer to town, and I plan to build up
a bit of a 'shop bike' to use for short trips to the shops etc. I'm
thinking milk crate on the back etc - really ugly stuff! It would save
driving to the shops and looking for a park. A trailer would be cool,
but nothing too flash - those kiddy ones are around the $600 mark and
that's just too expensive...

<snip>

I'm looking for a cheap, horrible bike to do this to. When's hard
rubbish pickup happening - it's been too long!

Tam

"Theo Bekkers" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

But of little or no use for someone like me who lives 55 kms from work (by
choice, of course).

Gotta say that's an interesting choice to make. I'm sure you have valid
reasons for making it.

At some time in the future, (when petrol breaks through the $5 barrier?) you
may be forced to reconsider the wisdom and sustainability of such a choice.

Cheers
Peter

Stuart Lamble said:

Zebee Johnstone said:

For the commuting motorcyclist, the numbers tend to work out much better
than they do for cars. If the biker chooses the bike properly!

Oh, definitely. I think the ultimate point that the whole philosophy is
making is: what is your decision in transport costing you, and is it
worth that cost? For example, I drove my car in today, because I'm going
diving this evening: it's a bit hard to take dive gear (weight belt and
all, although I didn't have tanks this morning) on a train, bus, or
bicycle. In this instance, the extra cost of driving in is balanced out
by the sheer impossibility of doing what I'm planning on doing any other
way.

You can do it with a motorcycle - I have a nifty big backpack that all
my dive gear fits in, including weights (resting on the pillion seat),
and a small tank. It's not much chop if I want to take the twin
100cf's though 🙂 There's trailers for motorbikes too, but IMO they
suck, better off hiring a car for a day or car-sharing with a friend.

Peter Signorini said:

"Theo Bekkers" <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

But of little or no use for someone like me who lives 55 kms from
work (by choice, of course).

Quoted message said:

Gotta say that's an interesting choice to make. I'm sure you have
valid reasons for making it.

We went from living on a 725 metre block on a street where we did not know
our neighbours and 27,000 cars passed our front door every day, to a 20,000
metre block (5 acre) where we know all of our neighbours and are involved in
the community and 27 cars pass our front door every day. Mind you the front
door is 75 metres from the roadway. We get to eat fresh eggs from our chooks
and grow a few fresh vegies as well. And the fruit trees are starting to
....... fruit.

Quoted message said:

At some time in the future, (when petrol breaks through the $5
barrier?) you may be forced to reconsider the wisdom and
sustainability of such a choice.

Maybe. I'm currently telecommuting two days a week and will up that to three
days sometime next year. In the meantime I'm driving a company car with
company petrol in the tank.

Theo

Tamyka Bell said:

LotteBum wrote:
<snip>

Quoted message said:

We've just bought another house closer to town, and I plan to build up
a bit of a 'shop bike' to use for short trips to the shops etc. I'm
thinking milk crate on the back etc - really ugly stuff! It would save
driving to the shops and looking for a park. A trailer would be cool,
but nothing too flash - those kiddy ones are around the $600 mark and
that's just too expensive...

<snip>

I'm looking for a cheap, horrible bike to do this to. When's hard
rubbish pickup happening - it's been too long!

posty (push)bike.

I want one too ... at the moment I walk to the stupormarket with a
rucksack, but that's 20 mins each way, I'd ride it in 5 🙂

Theo Bekkers said:

We went from living on a 725 metre block on a street where we did not know our neighbours and 27,000 cars passed our front door every day, to a 20,000 metre block (5 acre) where we know all of our neighbours and are involved in the community and 27 cars pass our front door every day. Mind you the front door is 75 metres from the roadway. We get to eat fresh eggs from our chooks and grow a few fresh vegies as well. And the fruit trees are starting to....... fruit.

You could have solved your problem by moving to a quieter street and maybe even try to get to know your neighbours!

Theo Bekkers said:

Maybe. I'm currently telecommuting two days a week and will up that to three days sometime next year. In the meantime I'm driving a company car with company petrol in the tank.

And company petrol is great for the environment, isn't it?