[gregsfc]

Thanks to everyone for the feedback and support, and I apologize for my rant. I just needed to vent a little, and I surely have no ears in my social circles with my interests or any expertise with respect to optimizing motorcycle mpg.

I truly understand what Craig is trying to do and illustrate with his events, and the focus being on only what is really "needed" for two and three wheel transportation from a size, horsepower, weight, and displacement standpoint. I think the frustration for me arises mostly from the fact that so little attention is paid to fuel economy in our motorcycle cultures, and if this were not the case, I could go to a different type of event that focuses on different designs and engine efficiencies with all types of two and three wheelers and I could more easily meet the restrictions, but since it appears that only a very small percentage of riders even think a moment about anything to do with fuel economy, the Vetter Challenge is about all there is that I can find, and so I'm happy that he keeps putting them on and letting all comers come and ride. I want to come and ride and meet my personal goal with my mostly-stock bike, but I also am excited about coming to see what all the misers are doing; especially the diesels and electric bikes; those streamlined and even those that are not. It's sort of like all the runners that enter marathon events. More than ninety-nine percent of the contestants don't enter to win. Rather, they want to meet their own goals, and they want to hob-nob with like-minded people, and they want to see the best in action That's where I am in this. I'm just wanting to come and be a part of it, and meet my goals with the machine I've got as an added bonus.

I really appreciate, respect, and am in awe of what streamlining does for bikes and the ingenuity of the folks who take on these endeavors, and can't understand why streamlining hasn't taken over the MC manufacturing industry. However, at this time, that's not what I'm in to doing with respect to owning and riding a bike. I'm a daily commuter on a 500 lb bike that averages 72 mpg, and I want to share that experience. I'm not very mechanically inclined, and I'm not willing to take the time or spend the money that it would take me to get there right now in my life. Also, I've got a new bike with a five-year extended warranty, so I'm not going to be lowering the seat or any major mods that's going to permanently change my bike. This may be something I get in to later, but not for now. What I am in to is maximizing and optimizing on the cheap, my very regularly-looking, useful, mostly stock bike without having to put in much effort or without having to put a lot of money in to the endeavor. Getting the best available, practical, cheap, easy-to-design and install windshield, fairing, chain/sprocket combo to maximize my mostly-stock bike is as far as I'm going to be going with respect to this bike.

I also get excited about simple, cheap solutions that work. For instance, I'm very stoked about my ugly top box, even though I didn't have to do hardly anything mechanically to make it work. For $52 I found a Dewalt tool box that has 55 liters of interior space. I took off my seat and strapped the box to it with lashing straps, remounted the seat, and then tied it down in the back to the rear fender with strong cord. It holds large, bulky items very well, because it's tall and rectangular, and it cost me only $62 total, and since it is mounted close to my back and is narrow (only 14" wide), it does not seem to hurt mpg. I know that my box would be even better if it tapered to a point in the rear, but making the bike useful without noticeably increasing drag is enough to satisfy me right now.

Seems to be a great forum with good, helpful folks and topics are very interesting to me. It's good to be here. Sometimes the discussions get way, way over my head from a technical standpoint, but I can still pick up on the main points of most of the posts, so I'm going to learn alot here.