|
By: Jason Giacchino
Email: offthepegs @ atvsource.com
June 2008 - Off The Pegs
Rising Fuel Costs and ATVs
 |
Let’s take a moment to talk about a very
popular subject of late: gas prices. I know! I
know! Before you start to boo in unison and
point the finger of blame to one of three
sources (the foreign countries who produce the
oil, the big oil companies that get rich off it,
or our own government for not doing something
about it) let me just clear the air by saying
that my article will in no way attempt to solve
the current oil crisis. That said, let’s take a
brief look back into high school economics for a
quick catcher-upper (Note to those of you not
yet in high school: Here’s a preview of what’s
to come). Free-trade economics are based on a
system of supply and demand. Typically as demand
increases while supply decreases, prices begin
to rise. Conversely, as supplies build up
and demand lessens, prices fall. While it may be
a cop out, the oil industry blames the rising
costs of late on the fact that demand for
gasoline is really starting to pick up in India
and Asia leaving long-time oil consumer America
to get in line with everybody else. Here’s the
part that gets fishy, though; sure demand is
cranking, but supplies aren’t in any real
jeopardy. If you’ll think back to our
brief economics lesson (its a few sentences
above in case your memory is as bad as mine),
you’ll notice that it usually takes an increase
in demand and trouble with enough supply to meet
the demand for prices to start taking their
meteoric rise. Yeah, that’s pretty odd, indeed.
I don’t mean to dash off into a whole conspiracy
theory; but don’t you get the nagging suspicion
that the oil companies noticed that even though
prices have been steadily rising, we will
continue to pay for our addiction to liquid
fuel? I suppose they can hardly be faulted for
trying to get the most they can for their
product; after all we’ve proven that the demand
will remain strong regardless of the price.
I digress. What I really wish to accomplish by
bringing up the rising fuel crisis is to relate
the situation to our little corner of the world,
which, as I’m sure you’ve already noticed,
relies upon the liquid-gold from the pump as
well. Believe it or not, our sport is considered
third (out of three) when factoring those most
affected by increases in gasoline cost. The
first (as you may have already guessed) is
transportation: Fuel for our cars, pickups,
SUVs, fuel to power public transportation,
subways, buses, airliners, boats, etc. In second
place are our gas-powered utility equipment,
lawnmowers, weed whackers, tillers, tractors
etc. Also, back in the rear of the pack come the
recreation vehicles, which ATVs (like motor
homes, jet skis, snowmobiles and so on) happen
to fall under. Now before you get upset, sure
there is some crossover between the positions.
Many farmers and landowners use their ATV or UTV
for strictly utilitarian purposes and likewise
there are surely some individuals out there who
rely upon their quad for their basic
transportation needs. However, according to the
generalized hierarchy, a majority of the ATVs
purchased in the United States are put to
immediate recreational use: trail riding,
exploring, play riding, or racing.
So what’s the point you ask? Well, being last in
this line means that we are also in last place
as far as innovations and new fuel-saving
technologies are concerned. Transportation gets
the lion’s share of the attention (some of it
not by choice but rather by government
mandates), and we see this through concepts such
as gas/electric hybrids and E85 (ethanol)
burning motors. As of yet, as far as I know,
nobody has seriously put into action development
of a hybrid ATV (but you can’t help but think
that if anyone would, it’d be Honda).
Here’s the good news. While the rest of the
gasoline engine-powered world finds itself
scrambling to meet ever-tightening standards, we
ATV riders do have a specific advantage in the
realm of fuel economy. Once there was a time
when it was fairly easy to calculate the average
mile per gallon rating of every ATV on the
market (after all, most of them were relatively
small bore single-cylinders); nowadays that
prospect has become a bit more difficult thanks
to huge variations in weight (side by sides
weigh a bit more than your kid’s mini) and the
addition of multi-cylinder engines to many
fleets. Taking these factors into consideration,
conservative estimates still come in placing the
average ATV fuel economy somewhere between 19
and 43 miles per gallon. All in all and
especially when compared to the auto industry,
we’ve got it pretty good. While it’s still too
early to begin considering what will happen to
ATVs should an alternative fuel source become
the dominant supply in the country, we can at
least be thankful for the fact that for about $4
these days a quad can be counted on to deliver
somewhere between 19 and 43 of the most exciting
miles on the planet.
|
