I was riding my bike through Harpers Ferry, West Virginia today with a friend and stopped at the site of an old textile plant.

Everyone is familiar with 19th century water wheels powering small grain mills, but what was interesting about this pre-1850 installation was that they used four efficient turbines (see picture below) to drive an entire factory through mechanical transfer.

Water was gradually constricted by narrowing water tunnels, condensing the volume of water creating more power. Think of your finger squeezing over an open garden hose.

It was said that the factory could make fabric cheaper than mills in Baltimore.

Free power harnessed by American innovation 150 years ago ran an entire factory.

No worries about a 30% increase in the cost of natural gas. No hostile foreign governments to feed with our dollars. No commodity speculators to profit by escalation of price brought on by an energy monopoly strangling the economy. No competing for oil with India and China.

Free domestic power by harnessing the flow of nature.

Tunnels that brought water to the mill.

Posted in All posts from the start Innovation Motorcycles Water Power

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I was mowing with my electric lawn mower last night past my neighbor's full-sized Chevy pickup that now sits there for weeks at a time getting dirt circles under the tires. Chuck actually put stabilizer in the vehicle that gets 11mpg because it rarely gets used.

The cheap plug-in electric mower I purchased at the beginning of the summer is great.

Some handle hardware kept falling apart, but that was fixed with some lock washers for $2. It's quiet, doesn't stink when it runs, requires no maintenance and I haven't bought a drop of gasoline for a mower since.

The scooter that replaced the truck for commuting two months ago now has over 1000 miles on it.

Chuck's co-workers asked him if we was going to keep using it now that gasoline has dropped more than 50 cents a gallon. His reply, "No, now it just costs me $3.50 cents to fill the tank instead of $4." He often marvels at how much more money he has in his pocket now that it isn't getting burned up on gasoline to push around a huge metal box.

So as the summer comes to a close and gas prices decline because of a reduction in demand, the question is will people go back to consuming as it becomes more affordable.

Posted in All posts from the start Innovation MPG Motorcycles

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Interesting thing about riding alone on a motorcycle trip is that you are never really alone. There is a bond formed by two-wheeled travelers. Perhaps it is the shared risk or the shared responsibility for each other. It's symbolized by "the wave", a synchronized passing of open palms in opposing lanes.

I decided to take the long way down to my destination on the coastal border of North and South Carolina. The Outer Banks of North Carolina connects back to the mainland with a system of ferries.

Motorcycles are strange creatures on small ferries. Ferries bounce and roll and riders are usually advised to stay with their bike.

With the first ferry, I shot past a line of 50 cars because there is always room for a bike.

With the second ferry, I was first in line with a Harley rider named Mike. We were tucked between the lines of cars in the center of the bow.

Two hours standing guard over land loving machines on choppy water. Two hours of shared conversation spanning a lifetime

Posted in All posts from the start MPG Motorcycles

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My fascination with two-wheeled journeys began freshman year in high school.

Three buddies told their parents that they were staying over each other's houses; we hit the road and bicycled through the night. The exhaustion, the moments of fear, the laughing made it memorable. I don't even remember if there was a destination. We were just going far.

It was a world shared by no one. All those people trapped in their cars going somewhere or sleeping the night away were getting nowhere. We were kings ruling our adventure kingdom.

Motorcycle trips are usually framed by weather reports and last week was scheduled to fall apart right in the middle. It really doesn't matter if the weather changes because that often creates an place to stop and you might just meet someone you wouldn't have met otherwise.

There is an unwritten law about not leaving on a trip in the rain. That's just miserable. This week turned out perfect with windows of clear riding and a rain stop just as planned in the middle.

Posted in All posts from the start Environment MPG Motorcycles

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In the 1980's and 90's, I used to slam the vacation road in a VW diesel Golf.

My concept of vacation planning was to head west and make a right at North Dakota... or wander southwest until... I needed three days to get home.

Once I was having such a good time in Pitkin, Colorado after taking on a new identity for two weeks, that I left there on a Friday evening and had to be back at work Sunday morning in York.

For the past six years, my vacation has been motivated by a motorcycle. Sure there is something wonderful about driving a few hundred miles and filling up with $10 of fuel, but with simple frugality comes a richness of experience.

Smells are richer, those you come in contact seem kinder because of your vulnerability. Fellow riders strike up a conversation without pause.

Once you loose two wheels and let the air pour though your clothes, it's hard to hide in a car during a vacation again.

Cars are for work. Cars are filled with fast food wrappers and stress.

My bike is freedom.

Next: 1259 miles of adventure in five days.

Posted in All posts from the start Diesel Environment MPG Motorcycles

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So Chuck has been using his scooter to commute to work since June 9. His Chevy truck has been sitting in the drive collecting dirt rings around the tires for two weeks straight now.

He has logged 320 miles. Had he driven the truck for those miles it would have cost him $126 in gasoline. After burning through a free tank of gas from the dealership, the scooter has cost about $12 in fuel.

Chuck admits that he is driving the scooter more than he would had he only had the truck adding that after getting back into the truck 6 liter truck after two weeks that it felt sluggish compared to the scooter.

Scooter shopping day 1
Scooter shopping day 2
Scooter shopping day 3

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It has a 100 cc engine, zips smoothly through traffic, can cruise up to 55mph, gets close to 100 mpg and has a price point under $3000. It has the support network of Harley dealerships in most every major town and people want to buy it because it's a domestically produced scooter that is designed by us to help us get ourselves out of a fuel crisis.

Ok, I know this doesn't exist and people will tell me labor costs are too high here to build something that cheap and it doesn't fit the Harley image... but Harley has made everything from golf carts to bomb casings and Holiday Rambler recreational vehicles.

A flag waving on a domestically produced, super-economy machine would bring a new found smile to many.

Posted in All posts from the start Hybrid Motorcycles

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I tend to over think purchases. After looking at everything everywhere, we decided to purchase this new 2007 Honda Elite 80. The Elite, assembled in Mexico out of Japanese parts is about to disappear as Honda will replace it with an Indian made scooter with more storage and probably a slightly larger engine.

The Elite is a lone scooter survivor of the 1980's Scooter market and has been marketed here since.

It's somewhat 1980's-ish looking and definatley doesn't scream steal me. It has a long track record of durability, a dedicated parts network and even in a doomsday scenario there will be parts on EBay for the next 30 years because they have has such a long production run.

I had the honors of taking it home. The 80cc engine goes up and down Mount Zion hill at 35-40 mph and the scooter can hit 50mph on the flats. It as a variable speed transmission and an automatically engaging clutch. It engine breaks down long hills.

Not something you would want to take on Interstate 83 or the the Rt 30 bypass, but very serviceable for most any other road. It will out accelerate most cars and is rated at 115 miles per gallon. The one gallon fuel tank had 88 miles and 1/4 left on the gauge, so i don't doubt it will hit the mark.

We figured out that to run the truck to work five days a week costs about $56, while the scooter costs under $4. The crankcase holds about 2 cups of oil.

Also see:
67 mpg motorcycle grocery getter camper (greenmesh 05/2008)

Posted in All posts from the start Motorcycles

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So Chuck checked out a local East York used car dealer turned scooter franchise and presented me with some figures. The Chinese made Roketa scooters sure have a low price point.

Scooters haven't been a big sale item in the U.S until the recent gas crisis. I remember my father buying an Austrian made Puch moped in the 1970's during that gas price escalation. Today, the Motorcycle Industry Council estimates that 50% of the world's scooters originate in China. In many parts of the world, a scooter is the dominate mode of transportation. Honda actually sells more motorcycles than it does cars.

New scooters can be purchased in four ways:

---Mainline dealerships that carry familiar nameplates.
---Independent motorcycle repair shops that carry a line of scooters.
---Business entrepreneurs (often car dealerships) that offer a line of (most likely Chinese made) scooters.
---Internet purchase with drop shipment (usually Chinese made)

Posted in All posts from the start Motorcycles

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My neighbor Chuck drives a Chevy Pickup with a 6 liter engine that gets 11 mpg. Last week he saw my light on around midnight and came banging on my door. It seems that the money he had budgeted for gasoline has gone beyond that budget eating into food, vacations and everything else. He got the truck to pull a camper and uses it to commute to work.

“This guy at work bought a motorcycle and I was thinking, why spend $9000 to get 35mpg when I can spend $1500 on a scooter that gets over 100 mpg.”

This is coming from a man who loves big Detroit iron and has a truck named Big Red. Ford was right when they said there is a structural difference occurring in the market. Yes. Basically, people can't afford to eat or go anywhere so they are rethinking life.

I have owned three motorcycles and have shopped for them endlessly even when I wasn't in the market. There are so many varieties of motorcycles and it can be confusing, but the scooter market in the Spring of 2008 is a strange combination of backyard entrepreneurship and an evolving supply and demand issue.

A wide assortment awaits the buyer from major makes in motorcycle dealerships to Chinese-built platforms that come with many different names and seem to have a lot of the same parts.

Follow along on the scooter adventure and see what we bought.

Posted in All posts from the start Motorcycles

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