Cyclerides.com Weekly Update
9/7/05 

Greetings Riders,
 
I don't usually tread in these waters, but I am taking a week off of the report of our Glacier Ride 2005 to tackle a subject that I think has now reached more than just a problematic status. It has been 10 days now since Katrina blazed a destructive path through Louisiana and Mississippi. We have seen non-stop coverage on all of the TV stations showing us the incredible destruction of the area and talk radio has their programming set for the next several weeks. We have seen the good deeds of Americans that are giving their time and money to help these people that have had their lives as they knew it, brought to a complete halt. It is really unimaginable what they are going through. But we have also seen the worst of what Americans can be with the looting, shooting and general terrorism that the gangs of New Orleans have been displaying. Hopefully these issues are now under control.
 
But one form of looting that is still going on is the looting of the entire United States population by the American Oil Companies. It is unbelievable to me that our own American based companies would take advantage of a National disaster to extract even more money from the American public and hide behind the fact that a couple of refineries were out of service. Gas in our area has gone up over 70 cents per gallon to $3.29 almost immediately after the hurricane. Some areas doubled in price to as much as $6.00 per gallon. It is hard to believe that the gas that was in the ground at the time of the storm cost these companies any more than the day before, but yet prices shot up immediately, and in fact a lot of them starting the gouging a few days before.
 
Last night, FOX News reported that the five major oil companies in the United States made over 16 Billion dollars in profit just in the last quarter. 7.6 billion of that was from Exxon/Mobil alone. JUST ONE QUARTER! Annualized that would be over 64 Billion dollars in profit for the year. It is bad enough when the arabs stick it to us, but when our own American companies are taking advantage of us during these world conditions and natural disasters, it really hurts. Unfortunately this could only be the beginning of our problems. With gasoline this high, and most likely going higher, it is going to affect many other parts of our economy including food prices, transportation of all goods and services, and all petroleum based products. It will trickle down to the point that not only are we paying at the pump, but in many other areas.
 
I think it is time that something be done about the oil price problem. What can we do? There are at least 2 ways to do it. The least desirable way is government intervention. In my lifetime the government has instituted regulations to clean up the air, water, roads and even the airwaves. Sometimes we didn't like these regulations, but for the most part they accomplished what they were trying to do. How did this get done? By advocate groups that got together as a group to finally force our politicians to do something about the problems.
 
As a group, we have the ability to do both methods, but the best way is for us to take the problem into our own hands and control our own destiny. As a nation we need to reduce our consumption of oil and gas. Fox reported that if we were to decrease our use of gas by just 10%, that would be enough to force the price of oil and gas down. If we were to ride our motorcycle to work just one day per week, we would lower our entire week's consumption by at least 10%. Here is the math. If you drive 40 miles roundtrip to work 5 days per week that is 200 miles per week. If you are getting 12 miles per gallon out of your truck or SUV, you would use 16.5 gallons per week, that is 3.3 gallons per day. If you rode your bike one day of the week at 40 miles per gallon, that is one gallon for the day, a savings of 2.3 gallons for the week or 14% less fuel. Not only that, you get a free lunch, because you just saved $7.33 in fuel that day and you also have a perfect excuse to ride your bike to work.
 
It sounds kind of crazy, but desperate times mean desperate measures. Smaller groups than the amount of motorcycle riders in this country have made a difference before. Here are a couple of things we could do: We could have a nationwide "Ride Your Motorcycle To Work Day" every Friday. It would bring more awareness to the problem and be constructive in conserving fuel at the same time. I choose to ride my bike 75% of the time. Be it across town and back for meetings or just those short trips for local errands. I rode 120 miles roundtrip to Mesa and back last week on the bike. I figured that I had saved over $21 in gas just for that one trip by using 7 gallons or 70% less gas. Not to mention the fun of riding the bike.
 
The second thing that you can do is write a note to your U.S. Congressman to let them know that you are very concerned about the price of gas in our Country and you would like them to start work on legislation that would help control the cost of gas and prevent the gouging by our own oil companies. An easy way to contact your Congressman is to click here: http://mygov.governmentguide.com/mygov/dbq/officials/ Just type in your zip code and put your State in the drop down box. Select your Congressman and in the contact information you can write a note right there. If you don't know who your congressman is, you can go to this site to find out http://www.house.gov/writerep/.
 
If we don't make a stand right now as a Country, the oil companies will continue to raise prices and make billions more in profits and we will continue to be hamstrung by the arab oil producing countries. The bottom line is we have to wean ourselves from the dependency of oil and gas. That is either by voluntarily cutting back our own consumption, (and as motorcycle riders, we have the perfect means to do that) or we need to develop alternative fuel sources such as hydrogen. Either way, as a group, we need to do something. These are a few of my ideas, if you have any others, feel free to share them with me. Maybe we can get this started right here in Arizona.
 
As for ways to help the Katrina victims, I am checking on ways that we can directly help the ones that have been sent to Arizona. I will be back to you next week with those possibilities.
 

If you missed any of the recent newsletters, you can reach them from the following links.
9/1/05 - Glacier Ride 2005 Days 5 & 6
8/24/05 - Glacier Ride 2005 Days 3 & 4
8/17/05 - Glacier Ride 2005 Days 1 & 2
8/10/05 - Glacier Ride 2005 Preview

Next Week 

Saturday, September 17th
Buddy Stubbs Harley-Davidson Chromecoming Open House. Stop by Buddy Stubbs HD from 9am - 6pm to see the newest H-D models and colors including the FXDI 35th Anniversary Superglide, The FXDBI Dyna Street Bob, the FLHXI Street Glide and the new Screamin' Eagle's Fat Boy, V-Rod and Ultra Classic. You can also listen to the new Advanced Audio System by Harman/Kardon, see the All New Motorclothes and Rider Accessories with a Fashion Show at 11am and 2pm. There will also be Free Food, Refreshments and Free Dyno Runs for your bike. Buddy Stubbs new dealership is located at 13850 N. Cave Creek Rd. in Phoenix. 602-971-3400. www.buddystubbs.com 

Extras 

After buying a new HD with a stock motor, I have found that the old power that I was used to in my other bike is just not there. Copper State Cycles has also recognized that problem and has a solution. For the month of September, Copper State will install a set of Wiseco flat top 95" pistons and a set of Andrews 21G gear drive cams for only $1750. This conversion does it's best work at normal road speeds. It has a much wider power band than stock and can pass a truck with a mere twist of the wrist-- there's no need to downshift. Useful power starts at a lower rpm and remains far higher than stock all the way to redline, with no loss of reliability and drivability is better than stock. For more information on how this upgrade can help you, or to schedule an appointment, call 480-596-6820.