Conceivably I could do that, but my bike rack won’t fit the truck, so hauling the bike would be awkward. Also get a little nervous leaving the truck parked in remote areas. Truck attracts a lot of interest, and not just the good kind. And gas prices so high … easier to just ride an about-town bike for now. I don’t feel overly deprived
Another problem w/truck, someone might steal the bike from it on my way. Seriiously, I had a similar experience with the bike on the back of the Corolla, stopped at a stoplight, weird looking guy tried to steal it. He couldn’t figure out how to remove the straps before the light changed, otherwise I would have lost it.
That is awesome! No intention of selling the Specialized, and like you, I’ve gotten comments on it. I plan to keep the Specialized for trail duty and ride the new Trek on the pavement. I’ve ridden the Trek twice. So far, it’s lighter and faster with its larger and narrower rims. But the old bike, I’m going to keep it and beat on it off-road!
It really can’t. If it’s a “global market”, then oil companies really can’t be “price gouging”. If the government has zero control over price, I do not see how a single oil company can.
George, political stuff and oil prices aside, would be great to ride a trail together! My covid bike is a 24 speed “fitness bike”. I have to admit, it will ROLL on pavement. I’ve enjoyed it so far.
I imagine there are some great trails in the west. Would LOVE to ride on them. Mountain biking in Mississippi is kind of any oxymoron lol. Trail riding is a better term.
I just want to go back to the days of the magic wand where there was peace, and we were oil and gas independent. We can argue all day about whether a world market or price gouging but whatever the magic it worked. How soon we forget.
What I don’t quite understand, is if we are a “net exporter” of petroleum products, why we have no control over the price of gas and oil in our country. If it’s a “global market”, is everyone in Saudi Arabia (I’m assuming they’re net exporters also) paying over $4 per gallon at the pump?
I guess if we were really “energy independent”, we would have the ability to control pricing. As I understand it, we are net importers of crude (and have been for a very long time…since the 1940’s?), but we export enough (refined, I assume) to make us net exporters in total. I’m assuming we have no control over the price of the crude we import. I wonder what our fuel prices would look like if we were net exporters of crude? I wonder if that’s even possible?
That implies government control of prices, and it doesn’t exist in the US. A more extreme example is prescription drugs where a drug company can charge an immense fee for brand name drugs. The government can hold hearings and jawbone the brand name manufacturers, but prices rarely drop as a result.
You are an outlier in this respect, and way out there. Did you miss the pandemic? Almost the entire hotel and restaurant industries were shut down for many months. Almost no one at my place of work was allowed inside the gates, and there are several thousand employees there. Anyone that could work from home did, like me. There were many technicians that couldn’t work from home and lost their jobs, or at least weren’t getting paid. Millions of cars weren’t on the road. How do I know? On rare occasions I had to go in and the highways were deserted. Some people passed me at what seemed like 100 mph and no one was in the way to impede them.
Yeah, I didn’t necessarily mean to imply government control, but I figured someone would take it that way. I meant to be truly independent “we” as in domestic oil companies, doemestic supply and demand, etc would need to drive the price rather than…OPEC, I guess.
Two things: first, we were 'energy independent in 2020 and 2021, as far as oil and petroleum products are concerned. Not before, and nothing to do with who was President. It seems like another ‘fable’ (to put it nicely) has been created, that is, in fact, wrong. We’ll be slight importers this year, and expect to be net importers again in 2023:
Second, and more important, nothing ‘magic’ happens when the imports go to exports or back again. The world oil price dropped because of the millions of barrels a day of new US production, followed by the big drop from the Saudi/Russian price war and Covid. Prices then increased when economies and demand rebounded and the drilling couldn’t catch up, then exploded with the Ukraine war taking millions of barrels a day off the world market. The US being slightly positive or negative on imports affects, basically, nothing.
From what I’ve read we are able to be net exporters (sometimes) because of fracking in shale…I think, or something along those lines. That extra oil on the market did drop oil prices for a while. I think Obama was actually prez when we started exporting it. We export it because we have a glut, refiners do not like it. Has to be blended off with other crude in order to refine. Something along those lines. Agree, doesn’t seem to be too related to who’s prez. But…administration can hinder or aid production, (on natural gas as well) which will have an affect on pricing. Not as drastic as what we see now, though, I don’t think. Hard to distinguish all the facts from the political narrative on both sides, to be honest. As with everything else. Country is too partisan as of late.
Like I said, regardless of all the graphs and fact checks, I know for a fact that three years ago, prior to Covid, I was paying half of what I am paying now. I have receipts somewhere. Immediately in Jan 21, with the pipeline layoffs, prices started to climb, before the invasion. When you announce price increases are good to force electric cars, afttempt to restrict oil investments, and reduce contracts on gov lands, guess what happens? It is not by accident, it is by design.
My style of Stumpjumper below. Notice the unusual chain-stay rear brake caliper location. Mt Bike magazines at the time panned the chain-stay idea b/c their gonzo test-riders would sometimes have problems w/the rear brake clogging w/mud. Subsequent model years the rear brake was placed back at the seat stays. I never had any mud problems w/it though. If the trail was too muddy I’d just wait a day or two for it dry out.
I tried my other bike, the Covid hybrid bike, on a mountain trail. Pretty much useless for that application.
Long as we’re showing our non petroleum consuming alternatives:
Schwinn Frontier purchased for $80 and converted to e-bike 10 years ago, last 1.5 years with Bafang mid-drive kit $950.
60 mile range, 30+mph top speed.
Ridden to work most days, weather permitting.
Only time it’s been carried by a car was to drop the car off for a recall and bike home.
Burning gas to take the bike out to ride in nature is not my cup-o-tea.
My bike is hanging in the garage. I paid $100 for it in 1970 and used it to commute to work two miles because we only had one car and worked different shifts. Then my commute turned into 60 miles. I’m over 70 and don’t ride a bike for fun. I just filled up at $4.75 and hope I don’t have to put the bike back in action. It would need new tires anyway. God save the queen.
Drove my truck about 30 miles with the bike in the bed. Parked the truck at one of the stops on the trail, unloaded the bike, and rode about 14 miles to the next trail stop and back. Riding a bike in state highway traffic is not my cup of tea. Nor is a motorized bicycle, but I digress.
Side bar, it’s pretty hot today. Global warming and stuff. Because it never got hot in Mississippi before we figured out man was causing it.
