[ExI] The silent PV revolution

[spike]

From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org
[mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Dave Sill
Sent: Friday, March 30, 2012 11:49 AM
To: ExI chat list
Subject: Re: [ExI] The silent PV revolution

 

On Fri, Mar 30, 2012 at 2:27 PM, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:

 

>>.No need to outlaw trucks.  Divide the existing high-speed roads to
physically separate lightweights from the existing fleet.

 

>.That's not going to be cheap... It's not a showstopper.

 

Dividing roads will be cheap enough, using existing tech, those highway
barrier things.  Keeping the surface smooth enough for low-structure weight
vehicles will cost, but I have an idea, a radical one.  Make a law requiring
all motor-fuel taxes to be used only for road maintenance.  Those taxes
cannot be used for the general fund.  Currently fuel taxes are used by state
governments the way Lucy used the football to repeatedly trick Charlie
Brown.  They keep using rough roads to raise taxes, then dump the money into
the general fund.  The California taxpayers fall for it time after time, and
we have not yet booted that football.

 

>. but it'll require leadership and commitment that aren't in sight.

 

Not here yet, but perhaps in sight.

 

 

>>.Dave me lad, there are PLENTY of technologies for lightweights that have
patents long since expired.  ..  We had everything we need, way back in my
own misspent youth.

 

>.Hobbyists can get away with patent infringement. Nobody cares. But once
you start selling a product, IP sharks take notice. And while it might be
*possible* to avoid all existing patents, it's extremely difficult to know
what patents you might be infringing.  -Dave

 

Disagree sir.  Everything you need to make a high mileage vehicle has been
with us for a long time, way longer than the typical 20 yr life of a patent.
You don't really even need microprocessors.  The single cylinder 50cc
scooter motor, which has been in continuous production nearly unchanged for
over half a century is the basis for plenty of super high mileage contests.
You can use good old fashioned bicycle sprockets and chains, even go ahead
and use off-road bicycle derailleur systems.  Those are just sturdy enough
to handle the torque of a detuned 50 cc single.  In fact you could even go
with a belt driven torque converter or an electronically controlled
mechanical transmission, both of which we had perfected back in the 70s.
Injection molded plastic has been around my entire life, and plain old flat
track cart racer frames would provide at least a modicum of weather
protection.  None of this has any patents applicable: they used to play flat
track racer when I was a kid.

 

They used to call that sport Mini-sprints, and there are now 1000cc
micro-sprints:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwO_PCjvkDM
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwO_PCjvkDM&feature=related>
&feature=related

 

The frames for this are already mass produced, although even this would be
overkill: these are made for racing and can handle the torque from a racing
tuned 1000 liter 4 cylinder engine.  I am talking about 200cc twin cylinders
motors, detuned for optimal fuel efficiency.  Note that mini-sprints will go
100 mph if you have room to turn them loose.  The mini-sprint frames will
handle typical street roughness as well.

 

Honestly, we can do this now, we can run these rigs on our streets.  All we
really need is to find a way to run them safely, and I think we can figure
out what is needed to do that.  Our existing high-speed streets are already
wide: we can divide off a narrow low speed lane and pave it glass smooth.
Our suburbian surface streets are narrower, but they are already lower speed
routes.  I predict that such a system would carry 20% of the traffic within
five years if we would just do it.  So let's just do it.

 

spike

 

 

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