the bike shed

[Yenn]

Are cars really travelling faster nowadays? I know I am not, it is too expensive to travel fast, but what I found was that travelling slower resulted in more fatigue. I really noticed this many years ago when I took a couple from Gladstone to Brisbane, s trip that was easily done in 5 hours, but I was not allowed to exceed the speed limit and I felt tired out when I arrived. Nowadays I do not have a car capable of the speeds I used to do, so I am never as alert and often find that I am missing something that I would never have missed in my fast days.

Cars are certainly better in crash protection than they used to be and more predictable. I have had a few tyre blowouts at high speed (over 80mph) and one in a big american Pontiac with power steering was scary, whilst the others were just interesting.

[spacesailor]

NO !?

Definitely much slower on the average distance traveled, take Sydney to Brisbane! .

Old times straight run 9hours with 1 fuel stop.

Today it takes Two days, and have to overnight somewhere.

Two hour drive with a half hour stop, the second two hour drive becomes 5, yes five hours, then 8 hours bocomes 10, by which time your to tired to go further.

spacesailor

[Old Koreelah]

1 hour ago, Yenn said:

Are cars really travelling faster nowadays? I know I am not, it is too expensive to travel fast, but what I found was that travelling slower resulted in more fatigue...

 

Me as well, Yenn, but I suspect the general flow of traffic is faster. Anyone traveling a smidgeon below the speed limit is considered a traffic hazard.

As you say, alertness is a crucial safety factor. Comfort is the enemy. I have struggled to stay awake in the car after driving only an hour or so. 

I often rode trips of 8 hours or more, including thru the night, but never went to sleep on the bike. 

 

Some people go to extraordinary lengths to stave off slumber; I recall one long night trip when boredom overcome my mate and he suddenly overtook me at massive speed, standing on the seat!

1 hour ago, Yenn said:

...I have had a few tyre blowouts at high speed...

The only blowout I’ve had in a car was a non-event; my awesome Mitsubishi RVR had a front tyre ran flat for ages; the loud music masked the noise as it shredded, yet it drove straight and true.

[old man emu]

Given other factors being benign (road design and weather and no overcrowding) traffic speed is heavily influenced on enforcement. If driver's are aware that the various enforcement tools are being used on a stretch of road, then the average speed of the traffic will be below the signposted speed limit. As in any statistical data, there will be outriders travelling at speed more than 20 kph above and below the average speed of the rest. 

 

Along with the intensity of enforcement, there is the in-built inaccuracy of vehicle speedometers. In general, you can say that the usual vehicle speedo over reads the true speed by about 8 to 10%. That means that if a driver is driving at 100 kph according to the speedometer, the actual speed can be as low as 90 kph. I used a GPS on a regular basis and found that my speedo was about 8% fast. So I drove to the speed indicated by the GPS, which put me up to 10 kph faster than the rest of the traffic, but still not exceeding the sign posted limit. I also drive (drove pre C-19) buses with tachographs. In these vehicles, the speedometer output is set to the correct road speed. So I merrily pass vehicles on the freeway secure in the knowledge that I'm not breaking the Law.

[facthunter]

I drive on GPS speed too, but lately I find others must be doing it as well. You can go many "K"s on cruise control without the distance between you varying by much at all, Good roads and quiet cars equal a tendency to boredom. Divided roads MUST reduce fatalities. I can recall a few times driving to Sydney from Melbourne (or the reverse) having to avoid someone who" lost it" coming my way on a corner, and coming across some horrendous crashes. You don't want that sort of thing too often.. Nev

[old man emu]

I find the most boring part of the Hume Highway is from Wodonga to Campbellfield. A flat, featureless road haunted by the knowledge that there is no leeway if you stray over the speed limit by a very few K's.

[spacesailor]

A trick to get Your speed up to the GPS speed, is larger profile tires.

Your speedo will read less but, the GPS speed wil be closer.

And at the end of your ownership your odometer will be less K,s traveled 

.

spacesailor

[facthunter]

You need to ride a pushbike or a very old motorcycle to "FIND" the hills, OME. Nev

[willedoo]

On 28/12/2020 at 12:30 PM, Old Koreelah said:

 Black cows should be banned, or forced to wear reflective paint.

Already sorted.

 

[onetrack]

I don't know about black cows, but I ran into a line of brown-coloured cattle crossing the road, in my truck at 8:30PM between Mullewa and Murchison (W.A.) in March 2019.

 

It's all reddish-brown countryside and I couldn't see them, until it was too late. I aimed for and took out a beautiful little heifer, to reduce the damage. A crying shame, she would have been worth quite a bit, too.

 

I bent the bumper, busted the grille and displaced a couple of headlights, but the damage wasn't too bad, fortunately. Luckily with a forward-control Isuzu, the radiator is well back and was undamaged.

[old man emu]

2 hours ago, onetrack said:

I aimed for and took out a beautiful little heifer,

Will you keep the discussion to the dangers of wandering stock and wildlife on the roads, and keep your dance hall reminiscences for elsewhere?

[Old Koreelah]

In another century I did lots of night trips on my XS-2. 
I was only an hour from home when the plurry headlight failed. Being young and bulletproof, I kept going by tailgating cars. When the last one turned off, 12km from home, I carried on, puttering along the familiar road by starlight. 

All went well until I passes the local Aboriginal community. I didn’t slow down, even though the street lights had buggered up my night vision.
Out of the darkness came the flash of a white Hereford face and down I went. More damage to my pride than the bike and the damned cow walked away as well.
 

[Bruce Tuncks]

I was amazed to read that a new car these days has only 30 hours of labour built in. 30 hours is nothing much on a repair, and this goes to explain why write-offs are more common now.

[Old Koreelah]

Bruce I’m familiar with the economies of mass production, but that number seems a bit small. Perhaps that 30 hours is the actual time spent on final assembly.

If you factor in the man hours invested in designing each car, building and maintaining the factories, the handling and transport of components, etc. I suspect you’d be in the hundreds of hours per unit.

 

Another aspect that often escapes accounting is the cost of closing down, dismantling and demolishing each factory when no longer viable, as well as cleaning up waste residues, etc. 

 

 

 . Can you share the source?

[facthunter]

I'm not surprised by that figure at all. Finished parts are only a small margin above materials cost. A lot of the design parameters are in the existing digital programmes. It's cheaper to assemble a car than pack and catalogue the same amount of parts .. It's another world since the 50's.. Nev

[willedoo]

Saw the GOMA motorcycle exhibition at South Bank in Brisbane yesterday.  It's well worth seeing and will be on until 26th. April.

 

 

[willedoo]

[Old Koreelah]

15 hours ago, willedoo said:

Saw the GOMA motorcycle exhibition at South Bank in Brisbane yesterday.  It's well worth seeing and will be on until 26th. April.

 

 

The first three are familiar bikes that I have lusted after, but what is the last one?

[onetrack]

The missus was watching "Desert Collectors" on Seven and called me in to watch it. This bloke goes around the rural areas of W.A. and digs up these people who are collectors and hoarders.

Some of them have quite good museums, and I know of several of them. They're not open to the public, because they don't want to pay the huge PL premiums - but you get a personal invite to inspect, if you get friendly with the owner. I've been blown away by the size of some of these peoples collections.

 

So, the Desert Collectors bloke finds this bloke "Tom", (nickname Toad), who has a bike collection. And he has about 400 bikes. But really, he's just a hoarder, not a collector, because he restores nothing.

Everything he owns, is in original, as found condition. A lot came from the rubbish tip where he worked for many years.

The collection is just amazing, and one day, there's going to be a collector motorbike auction to beat all auctions.

 

https://www.bikeshedtimes.com/the-man-they-call-toad-and-his-lifetime-collection-of-bikes-that-no-one-wanted/

 

Edited February 21, 2021 by onetrack

[willedoo]

4 hours ago, Old Koreelah said:

The first three are familiar bikes that I have lusted after, but what is the last one?

It's an Italian 1957 Aermacchi Chimera. This link has a list of the bikes plus a few photos.

 

https://blog.qagoma.qld.gov.au/list-of-motorcycles-from-humble-origins-to-cutting-edge-prototypes-the-motorcycle-design-art-desire-australia/

 

And also a walk around video someone posted on Youtube.

 

 

[willedoo]

4 hours ago, onetrack said:

The missus was watching "Desert Collectors" on Seven and called me in to watch it. This bloke goes around the rural areas of W.A. and digs up these people who are collectors and hoarders.

Some of them have quite good museums, and I know of several of them. They're not open to the public, because they don't want to pay the huge PL premiums - but you get a personal invite to inspect, if you get friendly with the owner. I've been blown away by the size of some of these peoples collections.

 

So, the Desert Collectors bloke finds this bloke "Tom", (nickname Toad), who has a bike collection. And he has about 400 bikes. But really, he's just a hoarder, not a collector, because he restores nothing.

Everything he owns, is in original, as found condition. A lot came from the rubbish tip where he worked for many years.

The collection is just amazing, and one day, there's going to be a collector motorbike auction to beat all auctions.

 

https://www.bikeshedtimes.com/the-man-they-call-toad-and-his-lifetime-collection-of-bikes-that-no-one-wanted/

 

It's hard to imagine what that auction will earn one day.

[old man emu]

Apparently there is a bit of a scam going on with Phase 3 GTHOs. A couple of owners are said to be buying each others cars at inflated prices to puff up the valuations.

[Jerry_Atrick]

I bet they're bankers.. it's a very common trick in financial markets - it's called wash trading (or collusive wash trading)... Highly illegal...

 

[edit] they must think they can seriously inflate the price.. how much is stamp duty on cars now? [/edit]

 

Mind you, it's getting stupid now.. .This XC Cobra: https://www.australianmusclecarsales.com.au/cars/1978-xc-falcon-bathurst-cobra-31-bathurst-homologation-special-244315

 

Offers over $600K. A couple of years ago, I could see similar marques for $150K..  Which was already stoopid...

Edited February 21, 2021 by Jerry_Atrick

[old man emu]

No worry about Stamp Duty because that is a fee related to the registration of a vehicle for road use. These cars would never be driven on a public road. You have to consider the GST which has to be paid though the Auctioneer to the Government, but the question is, "Is the Auctioneer selling an item of goods, or only providing a service?".

[red750]

How do you feel about stradling one of these?