It's HOT isn't it?

[Graeme M]

Yep, it sure is. Why just last night I tried to spend a pleasant hour in the non-airconditioned garage to see whether the bits of 2005 YZ125 I bought will actually fit a 1980 IT175G (the good news is that yes, they sorta do). But in the end I had to bail cos the sweat was dripping onto my work.

Of course, the question is - is this evidence of global warming? You'll observe that the state of mind of the general population is influenced over time and before you know it, prior experiences are lost and a new 'model' for thinking becomes established even when that model is not a step forwards for the collective wisdom. Don't believe me? How about 4-strokes Vs 2-strokes. Nowadays everyone rides a 4-stroke. And the accepted wisdom, at least among those too young to know any better, is that 2-strokes are a thing of the past. That somehow, a bike that is heavier, slower, more costly to maintain, and generally more tempramental is a better mousetrap. Worse, there is even the idea that a 2-stroke is some kind of fire-breathing demon that will rip a man a new fundamental orifice if he dares to get on one any bigger than the magical 150cc...

So too with global warming. The general population believes it, so expertly informed are they by any number of hockey sticks wielded by apocryphally insightful men such as Al Gore. And lo, before you know it, a hot dy is a HOT day. And several hot days is a HEATWAVE such that we need to have pretty much 24 hour media coverage of how ma and pa in SA are coping. And a heatwave is an almost unknown phenomonen that just HAS to prove global warming is real. Especially if you're under 30 and don't remember the heatwaves of earlier generations.

All of which leads me to suspect that global warming is not the reason I couldn't get that swingarm roller to fit the lug on my IT175 frame... I'll try harder tonight.

[paul]

what you dont know is the because off the polar ice caps starting to melt the earth is now starting to spin awkwardly on its axis there fore the sun is in either further or closer daily as we rotate  ,there fore we are haveing crazy weather ,with woorse to come. really this is it , really the begining off the end now mankind has really stuff this planet and there no turning back so have as much fun as you can while you can ,because in 5 to 10 we will be cooked alive ,good luck with the swing arm roller and we are truely watching history take place ,43 degrees tomorrow here
 ,ps
any maico s for sale

[firko]

Graeme......I've been in the shed all morning and have to agree...it's bloody hot. I've just come back from a trip to Super Cheap (Sorry Lozza) and the computer thingo in the car told me the ambient temperature was 47degrees. It's so hot in fact that I'm not going to the pub this arvo, a rare thing for me to forgo a brew with the lads on a Friday.
 Back to the shed.... I've recently made one major update that's made my life so much easier. I've airconditioned the garage. My dear old Aunty Judith had ducted air fitted to her house and she kindly donated her old 2hp Mitsubishi air con to the cause. I've got it set on 16 degrees and its a treat to work out there now. If you look, you can buy second hand air conditioning units for as little as $100 on eBay or the Trading Post that'll work just fine in the garage. With three projects not counting the latest Jag, underway, I'm spending a lot more time in there these days. Luckily the pool isn't too far from the rear garage door too!  Global warming? I seem to remember it being over 100 degrees all summer when I was a kid. .......good luck with the swingarm. I'm having a similar battle with my Cheney. I can't use heat either or it'll ruin the nickel plating. Anyway..off to the pool.

[felix7]

Just for general info: Last year, the world had the coldest 12 months for more than 30 years.
Global warming or television fodder? I dunno. Yes, it gets hot but it also gets cold. More media means we know all about the extremes.
Yes, Firko, everrything is relative and because we're old-ish, we talk from experience!
 I grew up in near the centre of WA and then moved to a "cooler" place - Port Hedland - where a few summers hit 50C.
Graeme - basically, there is no excuse. You just have to get back to the shed.
By the way, sorry about the weather for youse eastern staters. We (Perth) had a gutful recently so it's your turn.

[pancho]

i have lived in this area bounded by fairfield,canley vale, hargreave park villawood [and mulgoa for the last 36] years out of about 70 years beginning at fairfield. i can remember my old man coming home from working at dunkers wrecking yard at bossley park saying "it was 115 degrees today." that was about 1945 towards the end of a drought that started about 1939...BUT i believe global warming is an undeniable fact. i also believe that human activities have minimal impact on global warming, not to say it isnt time we cleaned up our act and stopped sh#ting in our own nest. to me the natural cycle of events like volcanic eruptions and normal cyclical alterations to the earths circuit around the sun make human activities to be of little consequence.

[TooFastTim]

Well said Wally.

[paul]

sounds like your,e very widely travelled!!!!!!!!!!!! what a joke

[dave king]

Its snowed here for 3 days on the south coast of the uk,  not snowed like this for 18 yrs,   Global warming my arse.

[Husky500evo]

If you believe some of the theories from the boffins that are talking about climate change , the UK & parts of Europe are actually heading for another ice age  ( while the rest of the planet cooks ) . Something to do with warm ocean currents that are no longer going to head up that way . It may mean that the pommy guys will have to start looking at vintage snowmobiles instead of bikes  .

[VMX247]

Down South WA ....
28 degrees today ,37 Sunday,,,,, oh poop. might have to take the ski boat out. 

[Tim754]

 Saturday North Central Vic  45 46 47 + Celsius  .06 humidity (FA...) and strong hot North winds and no recorded rain here at all for 65 days and counting ..Fire danger off the chart  Yet up north in Townsville QLD it has had more rain in the past week than we have had in 6 years....  WTF is "snow'

[STW996]

I'd do more travelling down south but not just yet to bloody hot down there, come up to sunny and cool Queensland only 30 degrees up here!!

[LWC82PE]

It may mean that the pommy guys will have to start looking at vintage snowmobiles instead of bikes 

 

[Graeme M]

Well, happy to report that despite the sweat, I did manage to have a look tonight and my YZ125 chainroller will, with a little work, fit my IT175 and work way better than the original item. As will the YZ125 fuel tap (and it's smaller to boot).

It was hotter tonight though.

But is it hotter than at other times in my life? I don't think so. When I moved to Canberra in 1991 the first 6 months I was here was stinking hot and dry. I went back home to Qld a couple of years ago and nearly died in the heat and humidity. I was sure it must have been much hotter than when I was there as a kid. Yet when I checked the weather records, it turned out that the year I left Qld the weather was actually hotter!

I have to admit to being very skeptical about global climate change. There may be a slight aberration in the overall trend at present, but even our entire life is but a blip on geologic time. Even a slight aberration may have a big effect for us, but be nothing in the big picture. Is man contributing? Unlikely is my guess.

Which isn't to say we aren't affecting the planet - we clearly are - and so any efforts now at addressing our less than admirable behaviours has to be good. So while I might not buy the global warming thing, I do support becoming more environmentally conscious.

That said though, I think the global warming scam is more aimed at economic and political gain than anything.

If you are curious about this stuff, this is a good link for an alternative viewpoint. Is this guy right? No idea. But it does suggest there is another way to look at the matter.

http://www.middlebury.net/op-ed/global-warming-01.html

[4RoBs]

Hot! Na lovely, but it was hot and humid up here over the last couple of weeks. But no worse than some of the summers I remember.

As for Global Warming being man induced - yep, without a doubt.

I agree that is has become a very contoversial subject mainly due to journalists not being able to get the facts across clearly in short articles.   

If you want to become informed read this book :

"Fixing Climate, The story of climate science - and how to stop global warming", by Robert Kunzig and Wallace Broecker

One of these guys is a climate scientist who's old enough to be Firkos old man, and the other a science writer. They make a logical, convincing and compelling story, but more importantly they offer seemingly viable solutions to managing it.

My Dad, a retired engineer, was very, very sceptical. We spared for years about the facts. He investigated it widely trying to shoot me down. He found this book recently and gave me a copy for Christmas. He wrote this in the front: ...thanks for opening my eyes about this.... That in itself is enough for me to recommend the book to anyone.

Yes it is uncomfortably hot. But if duckwit journalists keep blaming every snowfall or heatwave on global warming the masses are never going to believe in it.

I'm happy to lend my copy to anyone who asks (but I might tear out the page Dad wrote on and frame it)!