Gas Prices And Riding Your Motorcycle

Petro-Canada is charging 6¢ a litre
more for super than ESSO is.

I was out and about on two wheels both Saturday and Sunday last weekend.  Because I live in one of the most geologically tedious places in the world, I often have to ride for 20 minutes just to find *any* corner.  This has me juggling contradicting ideas when it comes to the latest round of record-breaking fuel prices.  On the one hand, fuel is more expensive.  Thirty bucks used to be as much as I ever put into a bike, now it's over forty.  On the other hand, after riding for twenty minutes to find a damned corner there are far few people driving around like gormless idiots on it so I get to actually enjoy the lean.  I think I'm OK with the return on investment with strangely high gas prices: it's expensive but the roads are nicer to ride.

This isn't the first time fuel prices went this high.  They did in 2012 as well due to Middle Eastern instability, but back then (with costs per barrel similar) fuel at the pump out this way reached $1.36/litre and had everyone apoplectic.   A decade later the same crude oil prices have us paying almost $2.50 a litre, but hey, if you can't get rich from declining resources and a climate disaster you were instrumental in causing, you shouldn't be running a petrochemical company.

My son and I two up on the Kawasaki are averaging over 42 miles per gallon...

The Tiger is mainly doing one-up work now that the Concours takes care of pillions.  With its new sprockets the RPMs have dropped a few hundred in any given gear and it's now averaging over 60mpg on long, top gear rides.  At this kind of mileage I can handle higher fuel costs.

LINKS

2012:  "Retail pump prices rose early in the year, starting at $1.21 per litre, peaking at $1.36 per litre in April, declining to $1.23 per litre in July"

"Crude oil prices... ]averaged $703/m3 (US$112/bbl)"

https://www.statista.com/statistics/262858/change-in-opec-crude-oil-prices-since-1960/

It might be unpopular, but I believe we should be charging the environmental damage in each litre of gasoline.  

The True Cost of Burning Hydrocarbons:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-015-1343-0

https://archive.thinkprogress.org/heres-what-gas-would-have-to-cost-to-account-for-health-and-environmental-impacts-c0ed088e8f38/

https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/our-natural-resources/domestic-and-international-markets/transportation-fuel-prices/4593

NOTE:  when gas was $112US/barrel in May this year, retail pump prices were $1.95/litre.  Someone's getting rich off climate disaster and political unrest.