Ok all you Californians.....

[nusman68]

When we went through CA recently from TX on 'our excellent bike adventure' roadtrip; I noticed a few things that were 'just a bit' different from TX:

1) I would have liked to have had the purchase order for all the 'radar enforced' signs. I believe every speed limit sign I saw had one affixed below it. Didn't matter if the town had a population 36 or 50,000. I especially liked the 55 MPH speed limit for 'trucks and autos with trailers'. It was nice to go through AZ on the way home: 75 MPH for everybody.

2) The gas nozzles SUCK. No, BLOW. Around (relative term) Sacramento, we had to deal with the full length 'nozzle foreskin'; tried pulling it back & holding it to fill up the tanks on the bikes. Some were so bad, or set so sensitive (I guess) that we could only get *less* than 2 gals of gas in our tanks. Others of the same design allowed nearly a full tank (within 1/2 gal of full). As we got further away from the area the 'foreskins' got shorter, then completely disappeared, where the nozzles only have the perforation holes in the end (like what we have in TX).

3) Please explain the building code to me where you have to have your central A/C unit mounted on top of your house; that had to be the goofiest thing I saw...A/C unit thefts that big of a problem? Some rare freon sensitive ground hog being affected? Inquiring minds want to know...

4) Of course, gas cost more...expected that. Paid about .60 gal/more while there. Got gouged in a little coastal town while on Hwy 1...Gorda? Yeah we got gored at 4.99/gal for premium.

5) As nice as our ride was, (and so many fine roads) I don't know how you all afford the sky high housing...the relative of mine in Tracy, in a subdivision with no amenities has a 1500 sq/ft house (he bought about 7 yrs ago for over 200K) now reports it appraises at 400K+. Great investment to be sure, but how do you afford it to begin with? 400K in Houston or its surrounding counties will get you 5000sq/ft of space. Or, to put it another way, a new 1800 - 2000 sq/ft house will run you about 110-135K.

6) Drove on the Golden Gate to do the tourist thing.. especially liked the emergency phones along the span with the blue public service signs : 'Emergency phone and Crisis Intervention'.. LOL! Your tax dollars hard at work...'Hello? Yeah my car just ran out of gas on the Golden Gate...aw, F*ck it, I can't pay my property tax either so I'm just gonna jump!' Once we got to the 'Vista point', I kid you not, my wife and I were the only non-asians there. It looked like the cast from a Godzilla movie... and true to the stereotyped joke, they all had cameras..... :lol:

 

[chipset]

When we went through CA recently from TX on 'our excellent bike adventure' roadtrip; I noticed a few things that were 'just a bit' different from TX:
3) Please explain the building code to me where you have to have your central A/C unit mounted on top of your house; that had to be the goofiest thing I saw...A/C unit thefts that big of a problem? Some rare freon sensitive ground hog being affected? Inquiring minds want to know...

Are you sure they were air conditioners and not swamp coolers?

Usually those are swamp coolers, not A/C units. Swamp cooler, or evaporative coolers, are mounted on top of houses as they force cold are down through an opening in your roof. Heat rises, so they tend to work ok. They do not remove humidity to the air, but in fact add it.

 

[zzkenoman]

Can't wait for this thread to get the hammer

 

[nusman68]

Can't wait for this thread to get the hammer

:lol: Hammer away! I figured I'd get some interesting responses...swamp coolers? ALL RIGHTY THEN!

Paging TWN...

TWN? You there? No? Toecutter in the house?

 

[evil_henchman]

1) I would have liked to have had the purchase order for all the 'radar enforced' signs. I believe every speed limit sign I saw had one affixed below it. Didn't matter if the town had a population 36 or 50,000. I especially liked the 55 MPH speed limit for 'trucks and autos with trailers'. It was nice to go through AZ on the way home: 75 MPH for everybody.

You can't compete with the labor cost. They're made by "California Prison Industries". We got the idea from China. We get a lot of ideas from China. Resistance is futile.

The gas nozzles SUCK. No, BLOW

No argument there. You just have to outsmart 'em.

3) Please explain the building code to me where you have to have your central A/C unit mounted on top of your house; that had to be the goofiest thing I saw...A/C unit thefts that big of a problem? Some rare freon sensitive ground hog being affected? Inquiring minds want to know...

Unlike Utah and other desert states, those are indeed heating and A/C units not swamp coolers. Most houses in CA don't have basements. A lot if not most of tham have concrete slab foundations as well, i.e., no crawl space under the house. That puts all the utilities in the attic as well as all the HVAC ducting. An HVAC unit on the roof makes a lot of sense with that set up. It's not a code thing.

4) Of course, gas cost more...expected that. Paid about .60 gal/more while there. Got gouged in a little coastal town while on Hwy 1...Gorda? Yeah we got gored at 4.99/gal for premium.

One of the reasons I'm a full time Motorcycle commuter. That and the great weather. Premimum is for suckers by the way.

5) As nice as our ride was, (and so many fine roads) I don't know how you all afford the sky high housing...the relative of mine in Tracy, in a subdivision with no amenities has a 1500 sq/ft house (he bought about 7 yrs ago for over 200K) now reports it appraises at 400K+. Great investment to be sure, but how do you afford it to begin with? 400K in Houston or its surrounding counties will get you 5000sq/ft of space. Or, to put it another way, a new 1800 - 2000 sq/ft house will run you about 110-135K.

Haven't you heard? We're all millionaires! Most people strike gold in their yards. But seriously, it's called debt slavery. Most people can't wait to be part of the "American Dream". I can happily say I don't participate.

6) Drove on the Golden Gate to do the tourist thing.. especially liked the emergency phones along the span with the blue public service signs : 'Emergency phone and Crisis Intervention'.. LOL! Your tax dollars hard at work...'Hello? Yeah my car just ran out of gas on the Golden Gate...aw, F*ck it, I can't pay my property tax either so I'm just gonna jump!' Once we got to the 'Vista point', I kid you not, my wife and I were the only non-asians there. It looked like the cast from a Godzilla movie... and true to the stereotyped joke, they all had cameras.....

Well at least we have tourists. By the way, you were one of them. Hope you got plenty of great pictures! :lol:

 

[pennerk]

I'm a sucker and I'll bite on your remarks.

Signs about radar are cheaper than actually having patrol officers doing there job. If you happen to run the freeways at less than 80mph you will be run down.

The roof top air conditoners are also the furnaces and having them on the roof costs less for the required ducting than having them on a pad on the ground. Some of the homes do have the ground units.

The idea that buying property in Calfornia is a good investment is a sham. All those young folks who thought their investment would grow and bought home with little down and financed with ARM loans are going to lose them because they will be upside down on their loans when they refinance them.

The vapor recovery nossles on the gas pumps are a total PITA but that's what happens when the environmentalists run the government.

Coastal gas prices are legal robbery but you have no choice if you don't fill your tank in a city area. Gorda is VERY expensive. Running regular gas, it hasn't made any difference in the performance of my 05.

I hope you enjoyed the mountains and vistas of the California experience and come back some other time.

 

[exskibum]

Well, evilhenchman pretty well nails it. I HATE those F#@$ing gas nozzles!!!! And the gas prices!

Radar postings are required in order to enforce a radar ticket in California. It's a little known defense to a radar ticket that the road isn't posted. I haven't had occasion to look at it in 15 years or so (a friend from law school beat a speeding ticket on 89 in Tahoe that way when I lived there, and I note that 89 is posted now -- and is a regular microwave fest), and don't know what posting intervals are required, but if the roadway isn't posted indicating that radar is being used, radar won't be admissible in court. That doesn't mean that the LEO's eye witness estimate that you were doing 95 in a 55 won't be enough for the judge to ratify a performance award for less than or up to that estimate, though.

 

[nusman68]

-I'm just learning more all the time! Yeah, gotta use premium in my old '82 GS1100L that my wife was riding...and you're right...did get some great 'postcard shots'. The scenery and roads made it all worthwhile, to be sure...

But hey, things could be more expensive...

On the way to CA, we stopped in Wyoming & checked out the Grand Teton mountains; beautiful! We saw these modest 'log cabins' in a valley near Jackson Hole. Saw one in the build process..2x4 stud construction, 'log cabin' veneer, steel roof..not sure...perhaps 1800 sq/ft? on maybe 1 or 2 acres. Found out later it sold for probably 1 Mil! :blink: Avg home price in Jackson Hole? Yeah, 1 mil., due to the land value.. A guide also told us it was the richest county in their state..(as I witnessed a Lear jet taking off from a airstrip in Teton Nat'l Park) We were told it was the only Nat'l Park with an airstrip in it, grandfathered in since the '50s by the affluent, and that many of them are pissed because of noise pollution restrictions that were recently passed: according to our guide, the 'muffler' that will be required for some of the affected private jets will cost the owners the same as... their house!

 

[Groo]

On the way to CA, we stopped in Wyoming & checked out the Grand Teton mountains; beautiful! We saw these modest 'log cabins' in a valley near Jackson Hole. Saw one in the build process..2x4 stud construction, 'log cabin' veneer, steel roof..not sure...perhaps 1800 sq/ft? on maybe 1 or 2 acres. Found out later it sold for probably 1 Mil! :blink: Avg home price in Jackson Hole? Yeah, 1 mil., due to the land value.. A guide also told us it was the richest county in their state..

Got a laugh out of that same stuff.. we were at a ranch just across the state line in Idaho from Jackson Hole a few years back... went into town to walk around and such... picked up a real estate flyer from some brokerage that they had outside the door... got an eyeful of "fixer-uppers" going over 6 figures....

Very cool place to be though... scenery is magnificent, Snake river is right there, Yellowstone is a hop/skip/jump away... but man... gotta have some serious dinero to even get a sniff.

 

[Bugnatr]

Groo, It's Kailfornia now. The FJR runs fine on regular 87 octane just stay away from that 85 octane crap in Utah(don't ask me how I know). Those rubber things on the gas nozzles are refered to as donkey dicks and we hate em ' more than you but at least we can pump our own gas unlike our Oregon brothers. Been here since 79 and it gets more screwed up every year but I try to hide up in the hills where it's a little bit better than the big cities.

 

[ShinyPartsUp]

Groo, It's Kailfornia now. The FJR runs fine on regular 87 octane just stay away from that 85 octane crap in Utah(don't ask me how I know). Those rubber things on the gas nozzles are refered to as donkey dicks and we hate em ' more than you but at least we can pump our own gas unlike our Oregon brothers. Been here since 79 and it gets more screwed up every year but I try to hide up in the hills where it's a little bit better than the big cities.

Gas stations in Oregon do allow motorcyclists to put the gas in the bikes themselves.....just pass the nozzle to the attendent when done... but it is true you don't push the buttons, swipe the credit card, etc. Which I find convenient because I don't get off the bike to gas up, and I get going faster.....

And I hate donkey dicks and gas prices on the coast highway........

 

[twowheelnut]

Tra-La, la, la, la, la...

Everything is beautiful in its own way.

Like the starry summer night, or a snow-covered winter's day.

And everybody's beautiful in their own way.

Under God's heaven, the world's gonna find the way.

La, la, la, la, la...

:****:

What a half-a-mil will buy you in my hood.

And yes, the gas nozzles suck muchly. :angry2: But many Mobil and Shell stations have a short version of the boot that helps... Someone makes a plexi bridge just for these long versions. Forget who, though.

 

[Groo]

What a half-a-mil will buy you in my hood.

I don't even want to show you what $250K or less will get you in Friendswood.... 3800 sq. ft. on a quarter acre corner lot...

 

[twowheelnut]

I don't even want to show you what $250K or less will get you in Friendswood.... 3800 sq. ft. on a quarter acre corner lot...

Yeah, but you don't get the fancy jar of Vaseline...

 

[nusman68]

Damn, TWN...no wonder all the realtors there are smilin! I now see new career possibilities...I can move in with you & the Missus until I'm on my feet, right?

 

[ShinyPartsUp]

I don't even want to show you what $250K or less will get you in Friendswood.... 3800 sq. ft. on a quarter acre corner lot...

Yeah, but you don't get the fancy jar of Vaseline...

A double wide for half a mil? Unbelievable!!!!!!!! No wonder so many Californians come up to Oregon to retire.

I hope the salaries match the cost of living.

 

[twowheelnut]

A double wide for half a mil? Unbelievable!!!!!!!! No wonder so many Californians come up to Oregon to retire.
I hope the salaries match the cost of living.

Sadly, they don't. We are facing a crisis here in town. The worker bees can't afford to live here and must commute from more reasonably priced communities: Lompoc, Santa Maria, Ventura, Oxnard... Now with the cost of fuel, more of these critical support workers ain't gonna be making the trip because the cost of fuel skews their pay to a point where it no longer makes sense to commute for work. Pretty soon Mr. Howell and Luvvy will be pruning their own trees and unplugging their own loo!

 

[Groo]

... and unplugging their own loo!

"Luvvy deeah... would you mind fetching me that gold plated Plunge-o-matic I purchased at the Sharper Image stowah yesterday... your meatloaf seems to have gotten through me fairly undigested again..."

:lmaosmiley:

 

[gulag]

Califernians,I read on Yahoo they sold a HOUSE TRAILER in San Francisco for $1.2 MILLION! DID NOT INCLUDE THE LOT !!! That possible?