Why don't you walk, ride a bike, or build a cheap EV?

[jamesqf]

Bonsai mountains :-) From the Wikipedia page (Mount Tom (Massachusetts - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) ): "Mount Tom, 1,202 feet...".

[Formula413]

Originally Posted by jamesqf

Bonsai mountains :-) From the Wikipedia page (Mount Tom (Massachusetts - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) ): "Mount Tom, 1,202 feet...".

I am very sorry that Mt Tom does not meet your demanding standards for a mountain. [/sarcasm]

An 8% grade for 1 mile is more than I, or most people (even cyclists) for that matter is willing to tackle on a bike every morning.

[bgd73]

no brainer? yes. You said it.

here is a no brainer story for you:

disabled man drives old sube. walking gimp and terrified of electricity (internal combustion babble =done yet?)smallest engine and one of the oldest, designs: world record holder, set to a conservative 14 second quarter and 38-60mpg...with dual range awd.

extinct now......

garage next to the parked old sube has odors all day long from the modern mishap called automotive engineering.Fuel injection == Retard.

one 13 inch wheeled fuel injected neighbor tells a 24 inch four door ford landlord: the old sube smells like gas.

the four door ford landlord goes out of his way to confront disabled man with world record holding design ecobuggy with dual range awd and 38-60mpg (who is recently enthused for the upcoming 18 inch blizzard) that: does the old sube have a gas leak?

Once again integrity in the name of four door fords god is challenged by a 13 inch wheeled fuel injected neighbor to bother a world record holding einstein because of a retards fuel injection...

put integrity where truth is, and scare the falsities away...the omen that crushes everything....shamefully the wrong things...


"why don't we all drive fairy tales?" could have been the question.

real engines once existed. marketing is killing us all with permanently....Breakable...expendible...purposely misguided gadgets for the cheap expense to sustain billions in profit. I hope the real crushing continues.

[MetroMPG]

Wow. Well that clears things up!

[Frank Lee]

Ummmm....yeeaaaahhhh....

Years ago I selected my house such that it be within decent bicycle commuting distance from work. Someday I should calculate an estimate of how much fuel I saved. I biked year around, through nasty winters and all, and I have the frostnips to prove it. Biking is great though. Plus it allowed me to eat like a horse (which I love to do) and not get fat.

I yoosta go through snow with 10-speed touring bikes but have found the fat tire mountain bikes to be more snow friendly... although care must still be exercised on ice.

My interest in EVs comes and goes. My hangup is winter operation, where I take it battery capacity goes down the tubes. An EV to me might be like another motorcycle- gotta park it for several months every year. Then it sorta gets "toy" status.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Formula413

I am very sorry that Mt Tom does not meet your demanding standards for a mountain.

An 8% grade for 1 mile is more than I, or most people (even cyclists) for that matter is willing to tackle on a bike every morning.

Sorry, but where I live, 1200 ft is a hill. Coincidentally, it's pretty close in size to these hills The Santa Teresa Hills which I used to ride up most mornings, back when I worked in the Bay Area. Never worked out the exact grade, but it's about 1.3 miles, mostly in my lowest gear. Now I'll grant you I never had to do it in the snow, so I'll let you slide on that.

[some_other_dave]

Sliding is what most Bay Area folks do on snow anyway...

Me: I have 2 cars. No room for more. You're not getting either one I currently have away from me, either! No outdoor outlets, because I have to park on the street.

Bike? Love to. The Boss won't let me. She says that it's far too dangerous (I tentatively agree if the bike is powered, but I feel that a bicycle is safe enough) around here unless you have a lot of metal around you. And I ain't hauling several hundred pounds of metal on a bike.

So instead my commute barely warms up my commuter car. Even more so, now that I turn the engine off for as much of the commute as I can!!

-soD

[ATaylorRacing]

I am a stay at home dad so walking is mostly out of the question with a 2 1/2 year old.

When the weather warms I will get a bike trailer for the toddler.

EV? Do you know how many gallons of gas I could buy for the $$$ used in making a low cost EV? Let's say gas was $4 a gallon again and I could build a EV for $4000, that 1000 gallons could be used to drive my Geo Metro at least 50,000 miles! This is not factoring in the slightly (?) higher electric bill.

[McTimson]

I'm in the EV range, but it's just not practical right now. I commute to my school, and I'll be living in apartments for at least the next year and a half, and I'm paying for school with student loans, so there's really no room in my budget for an EV. I'd love to build one, and hopefully I'll have a chance to once I graduate, but until then, I'll get by with small cars.

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

My hangup is winter operation, where I take it battery capacity goes down the tubes.

Only if it's not designed properly for cold weather use - like the 3 cheap car EV's on this site. (And the CitiCars too.)

I know of people who drive EV's year round in Ottawa and Montreal, with insulated (and optionally heated) battery boxes. An EV that's used as a commuter - ie daily - will retain heat from charging/discharging to keep the pack comfortably warm in properly designed boxes.