[Dukat_Reloaded]

[TommyJefferson]

That thing is just a piece of crap Harley in a fiberglass shell with training wheels. I bet it maxes realistically at 50mpg.

Actually, the new fuel-injected Twin Cam 88 Harleys already get 50mpg. And that's with all the fringe and chrome doo-dads hanging off them.

My 1997 BMW motorcycle only gets 42mpg.

I had a Honda CT90 when I was a kid. That thing was indestructible! I jumped it, took it mud-hogging, loaded it with three friends, and it still kept ticking. I loved it.

[nocar]

All these things that get lots of mpg also have small gas tanks. When you run out you run out. They are almost as vulnerable to disruptions in the distribution of fuel (it is not a good idea to store gasoline at home).

I vote for a bicycle. Or tricycle.

Nocar

[BlisteredWhippet]

All these things that get lots of mpg also have small gas tanks. When you run out you run out. They are almost as vulnerable to disruptions in the distribution of fuel (it is not a good idea to store gasoline at home).

I vote for a bicycle. Or tricycle.

Nocar

I totally agree that all this is unworkable without the infrastructure. However, given enough time and resources (tools and knowledge), an ethanol still, and appropriate tools, we could make piston engines work in combinations with other technology to perform tasks perhaps more effectively than with, say, a horse or mule.

But how hard is it to retrofit existing technology? It seems to me that a small displacement engine, with tolerances that would accept running pure ethanol, that had a simple ignition advance, that ran without a battery (on a magneto, for instance), that ran without needing highly specific oil lubrication....

Am I thinking of a steam engine? Sterling?

[JEMASCOLA]

I don’t think the future will ever look like the past. Even without cheap energy, we’ve learned a lot and have new useful technologies such as bicycles.

Future transit systems will take the best parts and ideas of the past and combine them in new ways:

Exactly, I agree. I mean, anyone with common sense would realize that peak oil will not be a complete setback to the past. Since the era before we used petroleum, we've discovered so many different renewable things found alone in nature (right now, I'm not talking about energy use.)

As I've said on many other boards, hemp biofuel could work, as it grows tall and thick, and it requires few fertilizers and pesticides. The EROEI is low, though, but it would still work on a small-scale, local economic basis. Also, much needed landspace for plant-based biofuels must be cleared by reducing the population by several billion. But I have a feeling it will be a long time before our population effectively drops.

[BlisteredWhippet]

Also, much needed landspace for plant-based biofuels must be cleared by reducing the population by several billion. But I have a feeling it will be a long time before our population effectively drops.

So you're saying that bio-power will be in short supply but manpower will not be? Then this is the car of the future:

[JEMASCOLA]

All I'm saying is that the less humans there are on earth to take up space and use up resources and land, the better off we'll be.

[Jellric]

http://www2.warnerbros.com/web/hannabar ... all&rank=1

It won't let me post the picture for some reason.

[bike756]

How's that for aerodynamics?

It's better looking than that car too.

[Keith_McClary]

We discussed sports cars previously:
[web]http://peakoil.com/fortopic6900.html[/web]

[Omnitir]

But then, if things go bad, maybe something more like this (crappy future where cars don't fly, only hover):