So, crude oil set a new record price. I wonder if this is going to increase the cycling population. At all.

Ot!

Also, around when the core price of a barrel of oil reaches $100 (meaning that the price fluctuates around 100 consistently, rather than just reaching it sometimes), it will begin to be profitable to convert coal into gasoline. Peak oil does not exist for this reason, unfortunately.

reminder kiddies, when the price of oil goes up also so does the prices of synthetic materials that are made from oil, such as synthetic rubber, tire prices will probably increase a slight amount in relation.

Yeah!

Oil shale extraction becomes profitable at around $95/barrel, and fortunately enough 3 trillion barrels worth of it (60% of world supply) is buried under Colorado.

I changed the front motor mount on my car tonight.

Gonna go drivin' later. WOO!

I heard the canucks have lots of that, too.

To metricoclock: as far as I know, tyre thread and sidewalls could be made of 100% natural rubber. Yes, bicycle tyres would be more expensive, too, but compared to cars, bikes seem stil cheaper. Cars have most all the disposable types of parts as bikes + gas consumption.

Tar sands in Canada too.

I just filled my heating oil tank. $636.39 for 230 gallons

The Alberta area right?

How long does that last you?

Screw oil shale. I want an alcoholic car.

Its pretty warm for fall now so it should last a while. In the real winter I fill up about every two weeks.

Thats a lot of bike bits!

it's still cheap considering how much energy is in just one gallon

I had an "online-friend" at a different forum who works in Alberta on those operations, apparently it really ****s the land (not that it's surprising).

yeah, I know but it still hurts more then last year....... sniff...

A lot of bike people get all wet over the high price of gas. They don't even think about the other costs. My winter fuel bill has tripled in eight years, not to mention electric(Which has not gone up near as much but still runs about a 20% increase). Since I fix bikes for a livng my income has not tripled, nor has it gone up at all in the past three years. Fortunately I enjoy ramen noodles.

I drive a small SUV so I'm cool...

This is the real reason I started riding fixed gear, I mean seriously $5-10 buck for brake pads?? WTF?

Oil won't match 1981 prices until it hits $98/barrel.
Even then, oil cost twice as great a percentage of household income in 1981 as it does today.

I see no fewer SUV's and macho-image pickup trucks today, because of higher gas prices, than I did before.

As for alcohol as a fuel, it costs us much more environmentally than does oil.

No, if we want to promote bicycle riding, we need to find something more persuasive than the price of oil.
The price of oil doesn't have the effect we'd like it to have.

I tell people if they'd ride a bike for two weeks, they'd never get back in a car, and I mean it.

I wish I could hold up some sort of spiritual and mental-health mirror in which SUV drivers could see themselves.
I think they'd stop driving out of sheer embarrassment.

not to mention the USD is WORTHLESS right now.

only outside of america

global warming is serious ****, and will end the natural world as we know it. it will probably be the driver that makes human civilization crash from its peak, which is probably now. expensive oil is a good thing, if it makes people use less. the key is using less and eventually none.

I dare you to back that statement up...

alchohol from brazilian sugar cane is more efficient than gasoline. if you do your research, the energy used to fertilize the crop, harvest the crop, feed and house the workers, extract the ethanol and transport it to market will leave you with slightly lower greenhouse gas emission than a similar lifecycle analysis for petroleum gasoline.

this is NOT the case for ethanol made from corn in the US, because corn is a less efficient photosynthesizer (by like a factor of 8 or 9 or something), and because american agribusiness is less energy efficient.

for the brazilian sugar ethanol, if you add in the emission from cutting down the amazon to plant the cane, it begins to lose again. same goes for biodiesel from oil palm in indonesia or malaysia.

there are no silver bullets or cheap solutions for saving the planet from out-of-control global heating.