Here is an excerpt from an e-mail that I sent my sister. It is not
totally bicycle oriented but I believe it says something that we could
all relate to on this group.
Bill Baka
It is total bull that we are digging deeper into our pockets and the oil
executives are getting richer over this. Now I know the real reason Bush
won't get out of Iraq. All of his buddies are getting rich(er). In
California we have 3 refineries that are down due to age and workers
getting killed in the worst possible way in the fires that break out in
1940's type equipment. I also posted that we should tax SUVs out of
existence, for our own good. The car makers are totally blowing smoke
when they claim that 30 MPG is hard to achieve, since I know for a fact
that 40 MPG is not a stretch for a small car. If I could modify a 1961
Rambler with an 'antique' flat head six to get 38 MPG on the highway why
don't all newer and smaller cars get 40+???
Gearing.
It only takes about 12--15 HP to maintain 60--65 MPH and just about any
engine can do that at a speed just over idle, or about 1,000 RPM. The
problem is that at that speed there is no instant acceleration, and
people want the impression that they have lots of horse power under the
hood. BZZZTTT, downshift. Is driver competence a thing of the past? Most
new cars with little 4 cylinder engine run about 2,000 RPM or more and
all the gas is wasted on making the pistons go up and down. It isn't
rocket science.
The other thing sucking up gas is under the car. No matter how sleek a
new car looks you can bet that under the car is a bunch of stuff that
takes a lot of power to force through the wind.
Maybe I should have been an auto engineer, or maybe the engineers know
this but are told if they want to keep their job they will just not
mention it.
If you ever get the chance to walk by a muffler shop or other repair
shop take a look at the bottoms of the cars and it will be obvious.