Do you own a car?

[Proto]

Ooh, nice. Have you visited International 2CV Friends?

No, will do so shortly.

Project going well. All engine and running gear back in place. Cables all connected etc. having a little difficulty with OS kingpin, too much play even with a new kingpin and bushes. Suspect the swingarm might be fecked. Doors all re-assembled awaiting to be fitted. Bumpers, headlamps and support bracket, and vent flap at the painters. This weekends task is to fit the exhaust and finish off the wiring. Then it might start.

Then I need to start assembling the body work. It hasn't been easy.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

... having a little difficulty with OS kingpin, too much play even with a new kingpin and bushes. Suspect the swingarm might be fecked.

Sounds like it. I have a pair of good spare arms complete with good kingpins and hubs, if you want them. They owe me £50. PM me if you're interested.
Or you can get oversize kingpins and bushes here.

 

[swee'pea99]

And just look at the amount of lorries on the roads, it's obscene!

I can't understand why canal barges haven't made a comeback. We have a great network of canals - why doesn't *all* gravel, concrete, pig iron and so on and so on go by barge?

(In a similar vein, a year or so ago in response to rising fuel costs, Maersk, the world's biggest merchant shipping operator, adopted 'slow steaming' on all voyages that were not time-sensitive, reducing from an average 25 knots to 14 knots. In the first nine months they saved $1/2 billion.)

 

[Rhythm Thief]

You have only to stand on the bridge over the M1 next to the Grand Union canal near Northampton, and count the number of lorries that go underneath loaded with 29 tonnes of sand and gravel to answer that question. Shame, but there it is. Now, if we still had a rail network worthy of the name, that'd be different.

 

[HJ]

I sold my last car in 1994 and haven't felt any desire to own one since, I rent a car maybe a couple of times a year for the odd occasions when I need one. I have consider joining the City Car Club, but I am not sure I would use it often enough to make it worth while....

 

[beancounter]

You haven't mentioned your fleet of Ducatis ..........................

I only have the one Ducati these days, plus the VFR800 for work....

bc

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Good idea ...up to a point.
I do realise that road transport does have it's advantages, and lets face it, it's just the modern version of the horse and cart. It's just when you are going down a moronway .....motonway ....motorway even, you see all the hundreds of lorries and start to ask yourself

'How many of these are actually necessary??'
'If other forms of transport were to get themselves sorted out, how many of these could be taken off the road?'
'How many lorries could, say, a freightliner replace??'
And so on.

(In a similar vein, a year or so ago in response to rising fuel costs, Maersk, the world's biggest merchant shipping operator, adopted 'slow steaming' on all voyages that were not time-sensitive, reducing from an average 25 knots to 14 knots. In the first nine months they saved $1/2 billion.)

I'm a great advocate for using rivers and waterways a lot more, (after all, I live next to the Clyde which has been chronically under used for decades, as well as the local canal, which was only restored 10 years ago), although I do remember hearing somewhere that in actual fact, if you were to sail over the Atlantic on a liner, then it would have produced as much pollution as an airliner.
Yet again, the passenger per ton of ...crap comes into play here though and it'll be cleaner over all. Sort of.

 

[ASC1951]

Because it's twice the price and you still need a lorry at each end.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Part of the trouble is that our waterways - or most of them - were built down to a price, so locks and bridges were built narrow. The exception to this is the Aire and Calder and one or two other waterways which were built to continental dimensions and are still used for freight.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Now, if we still had a rail network worthy of the name, that'd be different.

Too right, but just like everything else in this country, it has been strangled by decades of red tape and neglect, and Dr Beeching didn't help either.

That said, since pr*vatisation, there has been noticeable investment, but it's all just a drop in the ocean as to what really needs to be done.

The likes of Germany and Japan who were bombed to bits have got the better side of the deal as their systems were rebuilt, so this is the answer, declare war on someone and let the whole creaking Victorian lot be bombed!! (making sure you put all the best best into the likes of Box Tunnel first of course) and then get foreign aid to rebuild it all at the end!!

Or something like that.

 

[Plax]

Yes, I own a car. Bit of a necessity around here as the local transport is naff. I have however drastically cut down on its use, preferring the bike and usually do more milage a month on the bike than I do in the car. Summer I'll only tend to use the car once a week to go food shopping.

 

[darkstar]

Seems like quite a few people are ashamed to own a car? By saying 'oh but i only use it now an then' or 'but it's really old'. The latter is no good thing, likelihood is it's worse for the environment compared to a brand new one!

 

[The Jogger]

I have a Volvo V70 the fast one but I intend to chuck it in, for a Land Rover , in the near future.

 

[amnesia]

V6 Shogun and a gen 7 Celica for me...

Would love an Elise though.

 

[Headgardener]

In answer to the OP. No not allowed by law, I am an epileptic and need to be free of fits for one year or more. So far haven't managed to get there but since getting my first bike off of my brother haven't felt the need to either. Oh and I haven't had a fit on my bike either.