Oh aye, very cool, and very sad...(Predicta owners look away)

[Eric H]

Originally posted by slminneman
leathers and a helmet are *much* better protection than the interior of a '57 Chevy, whose steering column *itself* is a deadly weapon in a crash.]
Scott

Off topic but...

My Mom had a 59 El Camino back in the 70's,. No seat belts and a solid steel dashboard!

It's a miracle anyone from that era lived to tell about it since a 30 mph crash would likely kill you.

Yeah, I thought about commenting on the swan song parallels between the Predicta and the Edsel (which someone suggested was a better example to use than the '57 Chevy), but I thought it might be interpreted as cruel.

;-)

Speaking of steel dashboards......the funny thing is that sometimes they're safer than the early padded ones. Some foam and plastic padding under high speed impact becomes unyielding, whereas steel is a constant in strength and unless you strike a creased section or an area which has a reinforcement, it'll most likely deform before your noggin does.

Plus my being a Crazy Calabrase means I have one of the harder skulls out there (Sicilians are only marginally harder, right Carmine? LOL)

Anthony

[Sandy G]

Ahh, youse Eye-Tallyin guys aren't squat compared to an old bullet-headed Kraut like me !! The dashboards on '50s & earlier cars were only half the story. Remember the crude suspensions, lousy brakes, & the WONDERFUL rayon-cord tires they had then? And "dial 811"-Yeah, right. Lots of times yr carcass got pulled from the wreck by the tow-truck driver, or if you were lucky, a state trooper. Rescue squads were few & far between. It IS amazing as many folks survived back then as did. -Sandy G.

[Charlie]

Scott,

I'm just glad to see that you didn't turn it into a fish tank!

[Carmine]

Since the relative virtues of "slam around the interior of an older model sedan" vs. "slide along the pavement in good leathers and a helmet" is a bit off topic, how about we agree to disagree on this one?

Oh, we go off-topic all the time. Check some other threads, lol.

Problem is once again the flawed analogy. You are assuming a best-case scenario for the biker; "Uh oh dude... trouble up ahead, better ditch my chopper in a nice gentle slide" and worst-case for the car driver; "Whoops, I'm headed for a bridge abutment at 70 MPH".

In the real-world, it's far more likely the biker will get run over by a 17-year-old girl yacking on her cell phone, while driving daddy's SUV. In this case, the leathers and helmet act only in the same manner as a good-quality sausage casing.

Meanwhile, "most" car accidents are fairly gentle fender-benders whereupon the '57 Chevy driver impacts a '02 Kia CrumpleZone GT, and the bulk of the crash energy is absorbed by the smaller vehicle.

My original aside comment was intended to point out the hypocrisy of nanny-state laws that try to regulate personal choices made by citizens. At some point in our history, our legal system moved away from protecting us (via equal justice under the law) from the illegal acts of another and towards "risk-management", as if we are all members of some huge state-run insurance pool; rather than sovereign, free beings.

[Cue music: Battle Hymm of the Republic]

Let's be honest, allowing people to ride 'cycles is just a loophole/holdover from a quaint era of personal freedom. The same folks who would like to control my decisions, will next week remove your freedom to ride, in the interest of lowering state-liablity or some other BS.

More on-topic is *my* opinion that people who admire something from another era should appreciate the entire package, warts and all. No pleasure without a little pain, no guts, no glory.

[Whirled One]

Looks like the story of this Predicta just got picked up on Slashdot ("News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters"):
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=0...&tid=1&tid=218

[peverett]

There is a person in our area who takes 1920s and 1930s radios, guts them and puts a modern AM/FM set inside. The work looks very professional.

As expected, most of my radio collector friends do not appreciate his work. He has the right to do this to his radios, but they also have the right not to like it.

Not too long ago I saw an article describing a shortage of late 1930s Ford cars in stock condition. It seems that so many of these had been customized, stock ones are rare now. A bit of history is being lost.

I am not to worried about the TV aquariums eating all the old TVs. There are many more old TVs than the demand for TV aquariums could ever absorb. They are more likely to be lost by being thrown in the garbage.

[maxm]

There was a story in the Chicago Tribune yesterday about people who are buying up all the big early 70s American cars to use in demolition derbys, since they are so strong and hard to smash. There is now a shortage of cars from the period, and prices are going up. Soon all the cars from that time will be smashed up for scrap metal, or for people's fun.
I know most of the cars are already beat up, but the cars from that time are some of my favorite, and the story depressed me.

[bgadow]

About 10-12 years ago I went to a salvage yard with some buddies, they had '70 Chevy pickups and I was working on my '67 Impala. We were all broke, but it was fun to look. This place was huge, with probably 30 or more of those 67-72 pickups and maybe 6 or 7 '67 Chevy's, which are hard to find anywhere. I think they even had a wagon. This place had everything. I had always wanted to go back, especially when, by the later 90s, I could afford to buy some things. So finally I got down there one Saturday and there were maybe 6 vehicles left built prior to 1980. Everything else was long gone to the crusher. Heartbreaking. Man, the stuff they had-maybe a dozen 60s Dodge pickups, all kinds of 60s cars.

Even stuff from the 80s is getting pretty tough to find-in fact, its getting so early 90s stuff is even getting scarce at many junkyards! I went to get something for an 80s Crown Vic the other day and the guy said every last one was crushed the week before because scrap metal prices were up.

I don't know that we will run out of tvs or radios in our lifetime, BUT we may run out of VIRGIN sets. And thats sad.

[Carmine]

...but the cars from that time are some of my favorite, and the story depressed me.

Depressing for you my friend? Heartbreaking for me! I've damn-near filled my old car sanctuary (aka backyard) with original cars that the derby scumbags would love to get their hands on!

[Carmine]

...And if you want to know why scrapmetal prices are WAY up, it's because China can't get enough steel to keep their factories running. No BS! So they are buying all the scrap (raw materials) we will send them. The garbage pickers are practically getting into fist-fights for a junk washing machine.

Wow, just like a third-world country without having to get on a plane.. How nice. I wished they'd just start WWIII now, and come take our raw materials. Then at least some of the corrupted leaches (on both sides) in Washington DC might get theirs.

My other '73 Imperial...

BTW If you're wondering what that front license plate says, it reads "Proud to be part of Chrysler Engineering" and comes from the better days of Iacocca. I would grafftio it by adding "I used to be...", but since Chrysler no longer exists, I really don't need to.

I'm pretty sure the Chinese are still using our tooling to build 2.2L engines. At least the Chinese Jeep that runs over my body 15-years-from-now will have one of "our" engines.

While many of today's products are very nice functionally (when they're working) they are essentially non-repairable...either from a physical OR monetary standpoint. Older devices were much simpler in terms of rebuildability (is that a real word?). While they have been quite complicated in terms of tube electronics, they were at least serviceable without the need of an electron microscope and a nano technology assembler.

Once again Carmine is inside my head, I've been saying for years that the Chinese are going to eventually start some sheite with us once they develop a strong enough military with the technology our stupid gov't has handed them. As it is, for the past several decades all the CIA books (scenarios) have consistently shown that we'd lose in a battle on the basis of their sheer numbers of combatants, can you imagine their overwhelming superiority with high tech weapons at their disposal?

The irony of all of this is that first they'll beat us economically....think about it, a commie country beating us with capitalism. And should anyone think I'm seeing conspiracies in the shadows, consider this, China's history is one of multiple invasions by capitalists with attendant horrible treatment........the thought of "getting even" has been ingrained into their society from birth......they've been biding their time for lo these many years and once all they gain an upper hand you had better believe that they'll play it.

Speaking of conspiracies, I find it very interesting that most everytime after I post some pseudo political post that someone inquires about me on some website (which shall publicly remain nameless). What's that all about? I thought we were (still) free to be critical of our gov't. Am not being subversive in the least, as a matter of fact whatever my criticisms are they are to make others aware of ultimately damaging decisions and actions that are made on our behalf. Achtung, baby!

Anthony

[Sandy G]

Why would China wanna attack us? That would tear everything up. Hell, at the rate they're goin' in a few years, they'll simply be able to BUY us...Saw in the news today GM is gonna start MAKING Cadillacs in Shanghai...supposed to start early next year. Wow. Wonder when they'll start sending the Chinese Caddys back over here to sell? And what's the Chinese curse-"Pray that you don't live in interesting times"- well these are some VERY interesting times, indeed, IMHO...-Sandy G.

I already stated why they'd attack us: payback/retribution. Our only hope is that once the population at large has a taste of capitalistic goodies that they won't bother with thoughts of retaliation. We're already in a world of hurt in that we've lost many critical core industries and can literally no longer produce items ourselves. When Amtrak wanted to build some new passenger cars they discovered that there were no longer any presses large enough to stamp out the sides.

As for the interesting times....that's actually a Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times"

Anthony (yes, I have a positive outlook, I'm positive that something will go wrong)