[Revi]

This weekend our teenage kid was paid $50 to flag at a dirt bike race. I found out that there are two dirt bike racing circuits just in our area. At the race there were families who had brought their kids, a winnebago and all sorts of gasoline toys to race. How can they afford this? I figure that they burn up at least 100 gallons a weekend with this nonsense. That's about $300 a weekend and that doesn't even include food and entry fees. Where is the money coming from? Where is all that gasoline coming from?

[basil_hayden]

If they have "real" toys, then the cost is even greater than you might imagine, race gas with 110 octane has been over $4 a gallon for awhile.

Like anything else, you do what brings enjoyment to you, and right now dirt bikes/ATVs for riding/racing are cheaper than horses.

I wonder more about the traveling teams and how transportation affects minor league play. That must suck.

[NeoPeasant]

I see my neighbors all up and down the street living large with big boats and travel trailers and offroad vehicles and giant pickups to haul them all. It makes me wonder do they really make all that much money? Is that stuff all paid for? How big is their mortgage balance? How big is their credit card balance? What's going to happen to them if they lose their income?

[WisJim]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Revi', ' ')Where is the money coming from? Where is all that gasoline coming from?

[pogoliamo]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Revi', '.')..a dirt bike race...

[strider3700]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pogoliamo', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Revi', '.')..a dirt bike race...

[Chaparral]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('strider3700', 'D')epending on where you live it's far more likely that something like black berries or ragweed will take over long before the grass and flowers get there.

[Revi]

There will be a lot of people cutting wood out in the forests. The local dealer in gas toys now has a bunch of attatchments for a four wheeler to allow you to use it to drag logs out of the forest. It becomes a useful piece of equipment for getting wood out. I suppose if you put lights and turn signals on a dirtbike they could be used as transportation.

[dogf]

Very interesting question. I have wondered the same recently after seeing that there are many new TV shows about truck and car resorations/modifications etc. There are so many of these new shows being aired on Spike, TSN, OLN etc one has to wonder is there a conspricy developing here? LoL

However I am also guilty of this. Last year I rode over 20,000 Kms on my Harley, mostly for pleasure. This year I have decided to use it more for getting to the office just because I get 50 miles to the gallon.

But there is another issue here. As gas prices go up, less driving will be done. And vehicles will last longer and this will be a problem for the 1 in 7 employed by the auto industry. Less cars being replaced because of high milage means this will help speed up the unemployment numbers. Which will show the non-POs that we were right (unfortunately). Will this (driving less) create the curve to speed up?

[strider3700]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Revi', 'T')here will be a lot of people cutting wood out in the forests. The local dealer in gas toys now has a bunch of attatchments for a four wheeler to allow you to use it to drag logs out of the forest. It becomes a useful piece of equipment for getting wood out. I suppose if you put lights and turn signals on a dirtbike they could be used as transportation.

[strider3700]

1/2 acre on the side of a hill not likely that I can fit a horse. maybe a goat. That sounds pleasant.

[Revi]

Every house in the town I live in has a small barn that was used to keep the horse and wagon in as recently as the 1930's. It was the equivelant of the garage. I'm sure you could fit a little horse barn in somewhere if you had to. Pasture is another thing. 1/2 acre might be enough for a horse.

[Eddie_lomax]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pogoliamo', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Revi', '.')..a dirt bike race...

[Peak_Modernity]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Revi', 'T')his weekend our teenage kid was paid $50 to flag at a dirt bike race. I found out that there are two dirt bike racing circuits just in our area. At the race there were families who had brought their kids, a winnebago and all sorts of gasoline toys to race. How can they afford this? I figure that they burn up at least 100 gallons a weekend with this nonsense. That's about $300 a weekend and that doesn't even include food and entry fees. Where is the money coming from? Where is all that gasoline coming from?

[grabby]

4 wheeling is actually one of the cheapest things you can do.
for a 2 gallon tank you can drive all morning and another 2 gallons all night on the dunes.
We had all of them and engineered motors for racers also, running 4 quads all day takes less gas than a drive to the beach in an SUV.

But anyway, we sold all these including the old 68 mustang, not that we cant afford it, its just we want to get the money out of them while they are saleable.

the cost is in GETTING to the park (RV TRAILER SUV)
once you get there, you can stay on the sand virtually free.

I think offroading will be one of the LAST things to go. relatively cheap to run.

having a horse is far more expensive.
anyway, we sold the boat, the yamaha rhino the stroked yam yfz450's and the suzukis.
we have just two small cars and a pickup with a camper (got rid of the mnotorhome

we think the camper will soon be our permanent home after peak.
its got solar panels on top and the battery stays nicely charged even running the mp3 player all day and the hair curler in the morning. (I dont think well sell the hair curler, its the thought that counts)

we could have afforded all this even at 10 dollars a gallon, but we want to get ready for the dropoff where there is ABSOLUTLEY no gas at the pumps one day. I was in high school in the 70's and I remember it well
suddenly one day there was NO GAS
just like that.
that is how it will happen again.
no warning at all.

[deafskeptic]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Peak_Modernity', '
')I can tell you for a fact though that people who race at a more professional level are being hurt by fuel prices and many are scaling back their racing involvement.

[Revi]

I think NASCAR will keep going. I think it's the purest form of fossil fuel worship. I went to a bullfight in Spain and realized that I was watching a form of Roman game left over from a culture that died out 1500 years earlier. I think we'll keep doing the NASCAR thing long after the common man is out of gas. People will get to the spectacle on the bus. They'll camp out and it'll be a nostalgic thing for them to go to the races. They will still be able to watch it on TV, and have an opinion on who they like the best.
Nascar is kinda nostalgic now. They still use carburators. How long ago was it that American cars like Chevy Monte Carlo's that they use as stock cars were the most common cars on the road? Most people drive either SUV's or little foreign cars like Kias now. Nascar is like the bullfight, but in our case it's fossilized 70's culture. It harkens back to our golden age. I happen to be a Kurt Bush Fan. He drives a Ford.