After 50 years passing without me riding a bicycle, I tried last week,
and found untrue the saying one never forgets how to. Something about
me being top heavy like you are also, but as that other saying speaks
about "use it or lose it" the built in gyroscope in my brain turned off.
I haven't bicycled in ages, either, but am sure I still could since I've never completely stopped motorcycling. As for top-heaviness, this sabbatical has done me a lot of good by removing me completely from the sedentary routine of my job. As a result I've gone from 230 lbs July 1st to 208.2 today and hope the momentum continues. Will have to find ways to escape the office chair or have the energy after work to be more active.
I'd actually like to get back into bicycling, but a huge barrier is my gravel road. I've always hated riding on gravel and a bike suitable for it isn't suitable for the pavement the rest of the ride to/from work would be. Walking a good pavement bike the half mile to the blacktop might be a possibility, though.
I seem to recall the California market is large and too hard to satisfy
the higher emission requirements, so that prevented a US market entrance.
Have to admit I hadn't considered that. Does that mean the Jetta TDI isn't available in California? Has the change to the much lower sulfur content diesel changed anything? What about the fact that even a diesel hybrid would qualify as a PZEV (Partial Zero Emission Vehicle)?
Someone give me a Jetta TDI, a Camry Hybrid, and mechanical and engine management systems experts to help, and I'll give you a car that gets 100 mpg and can do 100 mph.
One of the big benefits of the diesel in a hybrid setup (IMO) is actually one of its few downfalls in non-hybrid. Though a gas engine completely shuts off fuel delivery when you're rolling at a decent speed and take your foot all the way off the throttle (even in an automatic), effectively turning into a very large air compressor, contributing pretty strongly to decceleration, diesels don't/can't do this. Diesels run at the equivalent of WOT (wide open throttle) at all times as far as air is concerned, regulating engine speed simply by metering fuel, so on trailing throttle they don't slow the vehicle down as much (which is why jake brakes are so common on them) and even at trailing throttle, they're still using fuel because it's not just fuel; it's lubricant.
If it's going to be using fuel anyway, take advantage of its massive torque to really put some generator load on it. And since it's not helping in braking, that's more of the car's momentum that can be used for battery-charging.
You could contact a start-up company doing new research and tell them that
you have the mechanical ability to become a alpha/beta test site to help them
transfer lab testing into the real world. If so they could provide you with what
cost a million dollars to produce to have you use to save on your gasoline cost
to power your car hauler.
At this point it's really just nothing more than a collection of hare-brained ideas that require at least proof of concept. Expensive to do so, and time-consuming, but if I can try out the concepts using what's available to me, it's easy enough to extrapolate the potential and determine if it's worth it when you go all-out with what's available in terms of much more powerful electric motors (like the wonderful one in the Camry hybrid which makes nearly 200 lbs of torque and can do it for 20 miles on a pretty small 144-volt battery pack), capacitors instead of or in addition to batteries, etc.
Well, off to move a bunch of dirt around in the 973. It really wouldn't be a bad way to make a living. Playing in huge Tonka Toys all day. Today's project: Finish the dumptruck-friendly roadway out of the lake leading to the field where the muck will be dropped off. The test will be seeing if my truck can make the climb with a full 7-yard load. It's very underpowered so if it can do it, the ones I'll be hiring later should be able to. |
