Now only if more Citys were " bike freindly " i would be riding Las Vegas everywhere, only using a
car when really needed, but the system is build around autos for transport. They want us to fill up..

I did ride here as normal commute and what i felt was a total lack of respect for anything not as
fast as a car? all temps i rode in, even 120 F that was a risk, but i was smart about it as much as
i could be. felt like i was living in the depts of hell.. hehe feet on fire, body/mind adjusting to suffering
but better then a bus.  4hrs? vs 1.5hrs.

Joe

-----Original Message-----
>From: River Clan <ri@RIVERCLAN.ORG>
>Sent: Apr 20, 2006 11:00 PM
>To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>Subject: Re: Gas price war / costs of road trips
>
>I have gotten a kick working with biodiesel over the years, and the
>wide belief that making your own is cheap, easy, or even really
>possible on a long term basis.
>
>Biodiesel is created with methanol and lye, and without energy
>intensive processes of reclamation, all that nasty ends up in your
>glycerine. Then, your glycerine ends up in a barrel. What to do with
>it? People everywhere are trying to come up with ways to burn it,
>compost it, etc. There isn't a good solution yet at an individual level.
>
>I know a bio producer in my hometown that must have 45 barrels
>sitting around their garage with their bad batches, glycerines, lye,
>etc. If this is environmental, please explain it to me.
>
>Being a biodiesel advocate for 3 years now, driving over 80k miles on
>biodiesel... we found the real solution is having a large batch plant
>in your community that can handle the additional energy use of
>reclamation, washing and astm certification.
>
>Personally, I question who is going to ship the vegetable oil to the
>restaurant, and where the methanol will come from if we are without
>petroleum.
>
>We did a 32 mile bike ride today, just to get ready. ; )
>
>Cheers,
>
>Ri
>
>http://www.greaseworks.org
>http://www.riverclan.org
>http://www.sqbiofuels.com
>
>
>
>
>On Apr 20, 2006, at 6:48 PM, Robert Fisher wrote:
>
>> The adaptations required to rid ourselves of our oil habit, at
>> least as
>> individuals under current circumstances don't have much to do with the
>> matter at hand unless you just decide to forgo the trip entirely.
>> I'm not
>> aware of any practical way to take the family camping on a bicycle.
>> I can't even really take my daughter to school on a bicycle and
>> that commute
>> alone is costing us about $220 a month. Nobody out here to carpool
>> with
>> either. Needless to say everything else we do in town revolves
>> around the
>> trips to the school.
>>
>> I've been thinking every day about resurrecting that old Rabbit
>> diesel... or
>> if it might be cheaper to find a runner instead, perhaps use mine
>> for parts
>> or combine them. I don't know what driving that stick would do to
>> my knees
>> (I had to fold up pretty tight to drive that thing, even in the
>> day) and I'd
>> have to teach my wife to drive a stick (which she should learn
>> anyway), but
>> it would worth it at this point 'cause it would give us a ton of
>> relief in
>> fuel costs. Most of our mileage at this point results from trips
>> that only
>> involve one or members of the family at a time, so the Rabbit would
>> be fine
>> for that- after all, it is mostly flat around here. : )
>>
>> Along with that, most of my customers are restaurants and
>> supermarkets. I
>> can get all the veggie oil I can stand- I've already talked to some
>> of them
>> about it. Taking that line further, part of my equipment runs on
>> diesel. If
>> I were able to obtain a diesel truck and convert my rig engine over
>> to a
>> diesel (both things that I'd like to do anyway), I could be
>> independent of
>> the oil-fuel process in the two main areas of my personal comsumption.
>>
>> All it takes is money, right? Contrasted with the savings over the
>> years,
>> assuming my supply held out from future competition for it, even a
>> heavy
>> startup cost would be fairly quickly offset, but- you have to the
>> cash in
>> the first place and one of the ironys there is that these gas
>> prices have
>> tightened up an already lackluster local economy and have eaten
>> into my
>> profits. What I'm doing now is looking at any and all second-hand
>> equipment
>> around here that I might be able use and trying to make some kind
>> of a deal-
>> sometimes I barter my services (no, I don't do kneecaps) or hire
>> out for
>> things other than my normal business.
>>
>> Who knows? If I can pull this off maybe I can save enough money for
>> a TDI
>> conversion someday... then I could be off the teat entirely.
>>
>> Cya,
>> Robert
>>