Small Group Reactions

We talked about the bombings a bit last night. The odd thing about bombing public transportation in London is that everyone uses the tube and the double deckers. Especially the tourists. And the terrorists picked high traffic areas to increase the lethality of their attacks. What this means is that even in Delaware (or Texas as Kim du Toit demonstrates) people have memories of these places. We're personally involved.

We also mentioned skyrocketing gas prices. If you didn't notice, they jumped fifteen to twenty cents yesterday. The interesting thing with gas is that while prices are going up, the absolute difference between regular and the higher grades is remaining pretty constant. So in relative terms, the hit to step up to premium is getting smaller.

Now good gas burns better than cheap gas, so with the same engine you get a little better fuel economy with premium. Probably not enough to justify the extra cost yet. However if you rework your engine to a higher compression ratio that requires premium gas, the effect becomes even more pronounced. This requires new engine internals so it ain't cheap, but at some point this might be worth it.

In the meantime I should think about picking up a new performance exhaust for my Protege. My warrantee is up, the cost of the parts isn't especially high, and it will pay for itself in better fuel economy. Maybe putting it in would help me bond with my Dad too.

Of course another way to blunt high gas prices is to go to more fuel efficient transportation. I think there will be a market for commuter motorcycles soon. I think urban populations are going to see the return of low displacement scooters and small bikes. Meanwhile longer distance commuters like myself may look towards middle displacement bikes (like the 800cc class) to get us where we want to go at highway speeds. I think adoption will lag the economics because of safety concerns.