I'm hoping to get into a bike again so I can have a fun little thing to ride around. This winter I may just build one. I've got my eye on a few engines but they are limited since space requirements are an issue. I've got a friend with some flathead V8s I've thought about using.

My other optional engine is a B16A series engine. It's really gonna just depend on what mood I'm in at the time the thing starts getting built, if it does.

Yup, Marvin gets wayyy better city mpg under somewhat "hard" acceleration, give him 2500 rpm and let the torque do the work, then lift off instantly at the speed limit, or soon enough to coast to next light or stop. It ain't the rate of acceleration so much as it's the time you hold it or the speed you go. I can get 23mpg city out of him if the traffic is co-operative (i.e. no long waits and not getting cut off every 5 seconds) driving in a fashion that might seem "hard" but granny drive him below 2000 rpm and he just wastes gas splashing tranny fluid around and gets 19 or 20.

Wile-E however is difficult, still got a bit of an intermittent dead/rough spot around 2000 rpm that makes things tricky.

I have been known to overtake and try to out drag people in the name of FE though and of preserving my vehicle... the situation for that is usually rolling country roads with an 80kph limit, and people that want to do 70... it's not that I'm impatient, it's just that Marvins TC lockup is bouncing on and off and I'm cooking the transmission and wasting gas at 70kph-ish. I need to drive nearer 80 with it fully locked up... or just loaf along at 60, but the revs are backed off so much I'm probably losing to TC slip, I believe lowest minimum lockup speed is his best steady state mpg point. In fact I think 300 miles of driving on vacation last year, in hilly country, with too much "slow" traffic is what finished his 200,000 mile transmission off.

Some tailgaters are just plain weird though. You'll move into the left lane because a turn is coming up... the guy coming up it will get right on your bumper, then you'll signal in plennnnty of time and he's still there and you think he must be turning too, maybe come to a stop and he's still there, and you turn, and see him set off and go straight... and you wonder why he didn't just go round you.

Lol! I've noticed that many times slow and steady "wins" the race. (Assuming there is a race to be had.) Many times the aggressive, weaving drivers have their front end so close to the car ahead of them that they can't see the big picture and wind up getting stuck behind some horrible traffic further ahead in the lane they are in.

Just getting the big picture so you can see what's going on ahead is huge.

I do love the visual regarding these drivers wanting to see your car from all sides! :D

'80s pop music discussion moved to: https://www.gassavers.org/showthread.php?t=11519

Back to the topic, yesterday I was on an empty road where there was a long passing zone. A Jeep Cherokee flew up behind me and slowed, despite there being NO oncoming traffic. That was the perfect passing situation, just change lanes, zoom around me, and get back in the lane. Instead, the action was wait behind me until there was a short passing zone with traffic ahead and make a difficult pass in a slow vehicle...

He needed a little excitement in his life.

Yeah man , exactly like that. Gophers I dont mind so much , its the deer that do that stuff the aggrivates the crap out of me.