And someone has one... Re: Virus Alert !!!

From: Geoff Roberts <geoffrob_at_stmarks.pp.catholic.edu.au>
Date: Thu Mar 15 04:34:51 2001

----- Original Message -----
From: "R. D. Davis" <rdd_at_smart.net>
To: "R. D. Davis" <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2001 5:19 PM
Subject: Re: And someone has one... Re: Virus Alert !!!

<snip>

> What's a Vespa? I've never heard of one, but I wouldn't want to drive
> something with a name like that.

Italian for wasp. It's a strange looking rear engined, small wheeled
motor scooter. Popular in the 60's. Made by Piaggio in Italy of Macchi
fame. There was a rival, also Italian, that looked similar, though a
little slimmer, called a Lambretta.
Honda have a modern 'look somewhat alike' called the Lead (one of those
translations from Jap to English that doesn't quite work)
I actually owned a Vespa for around 12 months in the early 70's and used
it to commute to high school. (Then I got a car, 48 Morris Minor,
sidevalve, that used 'Thermal Syphonage" instead of a water pump. This
really meant it boiled a lot, but it was a dry ride to school on wet
days. Probably the Vespa's most interesting features were the all
metal construction, even the side covers and the windguard etc, (but
they weigh a ton if you have to push them), a very large lockable
storage compartment in one of the side covers and the fact that a flat
tyre didn't strand you. The wheels bolt on a like a car, and it carries
a spare wheel on a pedastal just behind the windguard next to the brake
pedal (yes pedal). Stick it on the main stand, whip the bolts out with
the wheel spanner (included), change the wheel and off you go. This got
me home on several occasions where a plastic Jap bike would have had to
be left or pushed. Not fast, the 150cc version was flat as a pancake at
around 45mph, but it ran for a week on half a gallon of 2 stroke. (which
was about 50c at the time IIRC)

> Cheap? Over US$1.50 a gallon is not cheap; it was over US$1.70
> several months ago
You should come over here. Petrol is currently around 98c a litre, so
it's something over $4AU a US gallon or just over $2US.
And it will get worse now that the AU$ just took a dive below US50c. Be
happy with it at that price. I would be.

> it would be reasonably priced, however, if our
> dear lame-brained, tax-hungry, common-sense-deprived, politicians
> weren't taxing it so heavily.

Yeah, we have that problem too.

> At 12 to 13 miles per gallon on the highway, such prices have a way of
adding up.

Boggle! What are you driving? A cement truck? Yeech. I thought the
79 Volvo 244DL was bad at around 21 mpg around town.
I have an 84 Ford Falcon (XE model, 4.1 litre 6 cyl) sitting idle in the
back yard at the moment, too expensive even to drive to work. Yes, it's
worse than the Volvo, though not an awful lot, around 18 or so to the
Imperial gallon around town.

> Perhaps we should just
> find a way to bottle the hot-air from politicians' mouths and then
> find a way to use it to propel vehicles; then, there would be no real,
> or perceived, energy shortage.

Now there's a good idea. ;^)

Cheers

Geoff Roberts
Computer Systems Manager
Saint Mark's College
Port Pirie,
South Australia
geoffrob_at_stmarks.pp.catholic.edu.au
netcafe_at_tell.net.au
ICQ: 1970476
Received on Thu Mar 15 2001 - 04:34:51 GMT

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