Katrina, one for the books

[xs650mike]

After going to a high of $3.299, $3.399 & $3.499 for 87, 89 & 91 octane gas at the cheapest stations in Lake County, prices suddenly went down to $3.199, $3.299 & $3.399 after California Attorney General Bill Lockyear announced the launching of an investigation into profiteering by oil companies, gasoline wholesalers and retailers. He reminded the public that California law forbids raising prices more than 10% during a declared emergency. Prices went down within hours of his announcement.Take that, gougers!

[gaffer77]

$1.80 A LITRE!!! YES A LITRE!!!

IN UNITED KINGDOM NOW!!!

SAY $8.00 A GALLON APPROX 4.5 LITRES !! NOT US GALLON ??

say $27.00 to fill my sf special tank!!

[xs650mike]

Ouch! That's looking at the dark side.

The Imperial gallon is 25% larger than the US gallon, that is to say 5 US quarts = 1`Imperial gallon. Now, to look at the bright side, that means that your pint of beer is 25% larger as well. Not only that, IMO you in the UK also have the best beer in the world. So you can see that it's not ALL bad.

[gaffer77]

probably $5.00 a pint of that beer as well!!!

your SF sounds interesting and your philosophy on laziness!!

any chance of a pic of the rust bucket???i like the sf

[Parr8hed]

Gotta step in here. UK best beer in the world? I am not going to say that they do not have great beer, but best in the world is a little strong. I have been to some great micro brews here in the US that could give the UK guys a run for their money.

If you ever get a chance to see the Louisville Riverbats ( a AAA baseball team) they have a great micro brew and steak house right in the stadium. Good stuff. Also some of the best beer that I have ever tasted is in a little mom and pop pizza joint in New Albany IN called Sportstime Pizza. They have a community dark that is out of this world.

I am trying to start some home brew here in the house. Collecting some things right now... Sorry I just noticed that I have gotten way off topic. I just get to talking about beer and...

[xs1100yam]

Hi Gaffer 77

Unfortunatly, you're right !
Here, a LITER is 1.42 Euros X 4.5 = 6.39 E X 1.25 = 7.98 US $

You've said "Katrina" ???
... Or Oil companies and Gov. taxman profit

Patrick

[xs650mike]

OT Beer

You're right about American microbrews Travis, but with very few exceptions most of the good brews seem to be in the English style. Just over the ridge in the next county (Mendocino) is Hopland which is home to the Hopland Brewery which is the pub of Mendocino Brewing Co. which has claim to being the first micro-brewery in the US. They are the makers of Red Tail Ale and several other great brews. My own County of Lake has the Mt. St. Helena Brewpub in Middletown whose Pale Ale and India Pale Ale are as good as any I've tasted. But I still have a fondness for Fuller's ESB from London and also Samuel Smith's Sovereign Bitter from Yorkshire which are really hard to find in the States and aren't as good here anyway since live beer doesn't travel well. When hosting riders from out of town, my routes nearly always include Hwy. 175 from Mt. St. Helena Brewery in Middletown over two ranges of the Mayacamas to the Hopland Brewery. It's usually best to drink the local brews since they're good and fresh and these days nearly every locale in the US now has a good microbrewery.

What's the local brew in Gloucestershire Gaffer? I'll try to put up a good pic of the Rustbucket soon, meanwhile you can look at the end of my ride report "August 13th California get together" where there's a couple of shots.

[xs650mike]

OT Rustbucket pic

Gaffer, here's a pic of Rustbucket taken at the end of my street the day I bought it. I've been calling it Rustbucket since not only is all of the chrome pitted and the alloy salty, the exhaust headpipes and the trim piece on the triple tree are totally brown with rust and it just turned 47,000 miles. The bright side is that the bike runs perfectly. I see from your profile you've got a restored Bonneville. I used to own a '68 Bonnie many moons ago. Also owned 2 Matchless G12s, one CS and one CSR, really loved them. I too am a former postman, small world isn't it.[IMG]i13.photobucket.com/albums/a292/xs650mike/8d667623.jpg[/IMG]

[xs650mike]

OOPS! Did that wrong, I'll try again...

[DeanR]

Man, wish the end of my street looked like that!
Bike looks much the same though.

[xs650mike]

I have much the same view from my house but from a slightly lower perspective, it's the main reason I bought the house!

[gaffer77]

Stella Artois!! Kronenberg !! we got a whitbread brewery and fosters not far away

not really much of a drinker so all the bitter is wasted on me over here prob john smiths and mc ewan is what id prefer!!theres so many like i say i might be missing out im happy to drink a pepsi max for life!!!bikes and smoking are my vices!!

the rust bucket looks real good and original in the pic

my bonnie is coming home in a week or 2 a friend restored it/assembled it and rebuilt the engine etc ,he is up in Newcastle

I am waiting on a swing arm once back from powder coat bike is sorted its been waiting on this for months!!!

here are a couple of pics when we did a quick mock up been pulled apart and tweeked many times since!!

[xs650mike]

Stella Artois, Kronenbourg...so you prefer the lagers instead of the bitters. IIRC Kronenbourg's from Alsace in France and Stella's Belgian. Belgium is a great place for beer, they've got more breweries per square mile than any place on earth! I do love beer but my doctor has ordered me not to drink, boo hoo. I cheat by allowing myself one beer per week! I ordered a Pepsi with my meal once in Paris and the waiter said "Ah yes, American wine!"

The Bonnie looks great. The tank looks larger than the Bonnies that came to the States. Man has this thread gotten off topic!

[gaffer77]

we'll put it back on track, we got a fuel blockade on the refineries

soon spose it's not the oil companies but the Governments tax that is the prob tho.

Yep tank is bigger,i do like the uk spec but love a us export as well and allot of others do as well strange hey??, maybe Triumph didn't know thier market as much as much as they thought???!!

bigger tank means more $$$ to fill her up so we are back on topic

,well one of the topics anyway!!

[xs650mike]

In California not only do we have a supposedly cleaner blend of gasoline which is more expensive we also have $0.13 per gallon more taxes than the rest of the country. California is nearly self-sufficient for oil but they're shipping a lot of gas out to make up for the shortages elsewhere from the disaster. All in all fuel is still pretty cheap here at $3.199/gal. compared to the rest of the world. Before Katrina we were paying $2.859 here. When I was young we had 25 cent 101 octane and 25 cent cigarette packs...ah those were the days. I don't smoke now, I'd rather put my money in the tank!