4 dollar gas and its effects on metalworking at home

[bighammer]

4 $ A Gallon Gas ?????

No problem here, eastern Ohio, western Pennsylvania, I am getting rid of the car and both trucks and buying an Amish SUV. The only truly green vehicle, also an Amish sports model {horse only, no SUV} am saving my last five gallons of gas and am keeping it til 4th of July holidaqy week when gas will be at its most expensive here and going to the bank and pay off my mortgage on house and the shop.

[wirewrkr]

What really pisses me off is that the cost of insurance for my 398cc motor cycle has gone up 500 percent in the last 6 years. It used to cost about $100 for six months summer insurance and now it cost more to insure than my pickup.

Damn Evan, who do you insure with? That's outrageous!!!
I have 4 bikes on my policy with Progressive, ( one is a brand new 1854cc Star with FULL coverage) and the whole bill is $250.00 annually.
Robert
Santa Cruz

[Bob Farr]

Possible,but so are the costs of doing nothing in response to jihad.The costs incurred from 9/11 are still being computed.If we had done nothing would we have been attacked again,and would investors and business had the confedence to rebuild and invest after another attack?

http://www.ccc.nps.navy.mil/si/aug02/homeland.asp

Easy WS, I happen to lean toward "nuke and pave" as a foreign policy for dealing with states that harbor or give aid to terrorists. My reserves of patience for diplomatic solutions were used up in '79 when our embassy was invaded in Iran.

Thanks for the CCC link.

[torker]

LOL! That's good! My 1200 Sportster costs me about $1000 for 6 months. Basic pink slip. Clean driving record for 30 years.

[Too_Many_Tools]

With the higher cost of gas, I would expect higher prices for shipping.

I do know that the UPS and FedEx packages I am getting are costing more to ship. Since HSM tools and supplies tend to be on the heavy side, I would expect our costs to climb accordingly.

TMT

[dp]

THE state considers a motorcycle a luxury. NOT a cheap method of transportation. OUR honda car gets better mileage than my Roadking. In that aspect they are right.

I have a Road King that gets about 42 mpg. Two up that's 84 passenger miles/gallon. Compare to a Honda car with 4 people in it. If the purpose is to move 4 people from Seattle to Kansas, motorcycles are a miserable way to get them there. You can load all the people in a truck and put the bikes in the back and still save money on gas.

Regulators and civic busybodies look at passenger butt miles/gallon first and always. Our bikes don't even register on their radar. That's why they design light rail that doesn't go anywhere useful or interesting (Seattle example).

[snowman]

I just went and paid my bill at the steel supplier.

He said to expect a dime a pound in April and to expect may to jump again.

I knew it was gonna be bad when the scrapyard started paying 180 a ton for shred.

[macona]

$1000 for 6 months on a motorcycle????

I think I pay $100 for 6 months on my BMW R1100R. Full coverage.

Might be riding that more here soon. I get about 40-45 around town and longer highway trips about 60 to 65.

As for alternative fuel with the prices in other countries being as high as they are you would think there would be a greater push there for alternative fuel research, yet there is nothing really new coming out there. As it stands the technology is not there. It will be soon I think with better batteries and super-capacitors, but not now.

[Allan Waterfall]

I'd like to know why diesel is a lot more expensive than petrol in the UK.It always used to be cheaper.

As I understand it, diesel emissions have less of the CO.2 in that petrol engines have.If that is right why haven't diesel owners seen cheaper prices than for petrol? Anything else gets rewarded for producing less emissions
Surely there's less refining cost for diesel than petrol yet it costs more at the pump.

Only reason I can think of is that this lousy government we've got see the rise in popularity of the diesel car as a means to get more tax revenue because in general they travel further between filling up.

That ba***ard who's in charge now ruined a lot of peoples pensions and seems intent on depriving everyone of a decent standard of living in any way he can.

Allan

[macona]

With modern refining techniques they can turn a batch of crude to all diesel or all gasoline. Not so much reliant on the fractional distillation that used to determine the amount of diesel vs gas you get out of a barrel.

At least this is what I have been told....

[lazlo]

I'd like to know why diesel is a lot more expensive than petrol in the UK.It always used to be cheaper.

Same thing in the 'States: diesel is more expensive than premium unleaded. The truckers are (rightfully) furious.

With the higher cost of gas, I would expect higher prices for shipping.

It's raising the rates of everything that's shipped (either by truck or by air): milk, eggs, UPS, ...

[Evan]

Damn Evan, who do you insure with? That's outrageous!!!

Basic insurance is a state monopoly in this province. The crown corporation is the only provider of basic coverage and they set the rates. That rate isn't the only problem. There is no discount for insuring additional vehicles. Each one is rated as if it is the only one you drive no matter how many you insure for yourself as the principle driver. You pay full rate for each one. Believe me, we are very POed about this situation. Especially since it just hit the news that the top management of the Gov insurance corporation has been involved in a big scam where they write off top end accident vehicles that are then repaired at the appraiser training facility at our expense and then auctioned off in a rigged auction so that the management always wins the auction with a lowball bid.

GRRRR.

[tony ennis]

$4 gas is an annoyance, nothing more. I don't burn enough fuel for it to really matter. I'll probably have dinner out one less time a month, or something.

For professional drivers it may be a different story.

[oil mac]

Allan- Well spoken on your post re disgraceful cost of diesel, compared to petrol, As regards "our beloved leader", Speaking as one who was born only a distance of approx 2000 yards from where the first true British socialist James Keir Hardie, a true christian believer and one dedicated to bettering mankind was born, I can only say the great man must be turning in his grave, at the conduct of the present incumbant in 10 Downing St, when one thinks on what he has done to our pensions, humping us on fuel taxes , general costs to the average Bill Muggins on the street, and every other swindle they can dream up, O and in case i forget, what are they doing for the manufacturing base--zilch!
And as for the last " beloved leader" enough said, We are all sick of Champaigne socialists, and political correctness !

[Mark McGrath]

Allan and Oil Mac,you have it right.This present leader we have has not got a clue.He has put more extra taxes on us than we had in the previous thirty years.Diesel at $11 a gallon and tipped for $13.60 before the end of the year.
Lowest tax band removed giving the few people still doing an honest days work a bigger tax bill.Steel prices going through the roof.The Office of Fair Trading has accused thirty four construction companies of operating a cartel on goverment and municipal contracts.Would not have been difficult with these muppets running things.
Done and doing nothing for business,these guys don`t have as much as a sweetie shop between them,they just don`t understand what it`s about and they`re not interested anyway.
Brown`s got his nose into everything but the problems in his own country.He wants to cure poverty in Africa,he`d be better curing it in the UK first.
Don`t get me started on the councils.
Mark.