Gas Crunch

I heard on the radio today that gas prices were jumping twelve cents, thanks in large part to Hurricane Ike. So after heading over to my local Red River Co-Op to fill up($76.50) my family van, I thought I would share how I've coped with the ridiculous gas prices this summer.

I've seen signs up at various intersections around the city advertising "a way to get 100km to a half gallon of gas." After doing a little research on the web, I found quite a few web sites shipping chinese moped conversion kits. So, I picked one and ordered a kit from an importer in B.C.

It took about a month to get the kit- an 80cc single cylinder two stroke. My lovely wife Lani had an old mountain bike she was willing to sacrifice for the cause, and after about a week, I had it up and running and past the break-in period.

I looked into registration issues, and found that my motorbike would be classed as a power-assisted bicycle, and no MPI involvement is needed, as long as it is under 50ccs. Oops! Apparently, if it's over 49ccs, or if you're going over 32km/h, it needs to be registered. On the plus side, the engine is not stamped with the displacement, so there's no way to tell it's been bored out to 80ccs. Hooray! So as long as I keep it under 33km/h(when there's cops around) I should be fine.

I can get to work and back(a twenty minute ride, each way) four times on a single tank of gas/oil mixture. Because I don't have a speedometer, my conservative guess on top speed is somewhere between 45 and 50 km/h. Great fun! There's nothing like blowing past someone who paid $3000+ on a lame-ass scooter. With shipping, I paid $270 for the kit, and in total, it probably took about 7 hours on and off to put everything together.

For a long time now, I've been toying with the idea of getting a motorcycle, but now, after riding this thing around for the summer, I'm not so sure. When I ride my motorbike, I can ride on the road, and most of the time, I keep up with traffic pretty well. On a long stretch, I find myself pulling up alongside the same cars at every red light. I also ride on sidewalks, bike paths, pedestrian bridges, and other places only a bicycle can go. Instead of sticking to major routes like automobile traffic, I can travel across the city in pretty much a straight line. The freedom is incredible.

I've only had one problem with my kit, and that comes from the tensioner on the back of the frame. The tensioner keeps slack out of the chain, allowing for a smoother ride. After first installing it, no matter how much I tightened it up, it would twist, and end up caught in the back spokes. If I was travelling fast, no big deal, the back tire would lock up, and I'd skid to a stop. One day, on my way to Home Depot for some bee killer, I was waiting at a red light. When the light changed, I stood up on my pedals to get the most of my start. Well, wouldn't you know it, the tensioner caught in the spokes and because my weight was so far forward, I went over the handlebars and the bike landed on my leg. Embarassed and minorly injured, I got up real quick and pulled my bike onto the boulevard. After wrenching the tensioner out of the spokes and replacing the chain, I assessed the damage on my leg. It looked like the teeth on my pedal had bit me pretty bad on the back of my calf, and the muffler had burned me real nice on the inside of my leg- Awesome! So I bled out a little in Home Depot while I found the insecticide, and when I got home, I had my lovely wife wash the wound, and took this nice picture. Best injury, summer 2008!

I fixed the tesioner by welding it into place, and it hasn't moved since.

So if you want to beat high gas prices, and have your shoes smell like exhaust, check out Zoom Bicycles and order yourself a kit. I can say without a doubt, it's totally worth every penny.

Election Call

It's Fall, and here in North America, Election fervor is in the air! No, I'm not talking about Obama or McCain, I'm talking about Canadian politics! I know, I know, after 2+ years of American election campaigns saturating the infotainment sphere, who can think of anything other than the world's greatest two-party system, right? Thankfully, instead of 2 years of campaigning, we get 2 months.

Last election, 45% of Canadians made their way to a voting booth to perform their patriotic duty. As we all know, the conservatives won a minority government, with the liberals coming in second and forming the official opposition. The bloc Quebecois came in third and Smilin' Jack Layton and his New Democrats came in fourth place. There was also one lonely independent(now Green Party).

So The Right Honourable Stephen Harper and his cronies have decided that the House just cannot work in its current form (read: a minority government) and have gotten the Governor General to dissolve parliment. So much for fixed election dates, right Steve?

(A brief explanation of minority/majority governments:
When a federal political party(of which there are sixteen) wins more than 50% of the seats in parliment, a majority government is formed. If a majority cannot be formed, the party with the most amount of seats becomes the minority government, and is forced to work with other parties to pass any new bills.)

In the last election, I voted NDP, the party I feel most closely represents my political views. Their failure to form a majority government does not bother me in any way. Sure, it'd have been nice to have an NDP government, but really, I was pleased with the minority government situation. It lends itself to an atmosphere of flexibility, as opposed to the totalitarian leanings of a majority government.

Now, because the Right Honourable Prime Minister cannot force the other parties to cooperate with him, he feels that the only way he can effectively serve the Canadian people is to dissolve parliment and cost the taxpayers a hefty burden to promote his conservative agenda.

Thank you, Fearless Leader. Thank you for saving Canada from the horrors of a minority government. Just imagine what kind of awful situation we would be in if the parties had to cooperate together in parliment!