What a trip

[Millietant]

You sure about that Dean?
I've heard that they plan on stopping the sale of new ICE vehicles in 2030.
Different than an outright ban.

The latest "cunning plan" (as Baldrick would say) announced by one party is that our Road Transport System will have to be carbon neutral by 2030 - so whilst that isn't announcing an outright ban, its effectively saying that we can't have ICE vehicles on our roads (as we don't have the "resource" available to balance/offset the carbon output).

This is the build-up to our General Election Pat, with each party announcing plans to out-do the others on issues that they "think" (or what the media tell them) will get them more votes. Luckily, the "carbon neutral by 2030" party don't have a snowballs chance in California of getting in......but unfortunately, one of the other main contenders might just try and trump that idea !!!

[Pat Conlon]

My granddaughters lovingly refer to me as Papa petrol head. They sneer at classic muscle cars, sneer! They say the old cars smell funny and are too loud. They cover their ears when I warm up my FJ.

We are doomed.

[Motofun]

There may be hope...My 4 yo grandson climbs up on my bikes, grabs the twist grip and Vroom Vrooms as loud as he can.   
He also watches all the races on TV with me when he is staying over.  He sits there enthralled, which is quite a feat for 4 year old.  My daughter is quite concerned! 

[rlucas]

We are doomed.

...now get off my lawn.

[Bill_Rockoff]

Pat, I hope you're diversified and invested for the (relative) long-haul. An industry with long lead-time can have good years in the middle of a long downhill run, or off years in the middle of a climb. And any company can have good or bad quarters as they take turns leading or losing the lead of an industry in ascendance.

You know who was shitting in tall cotton 25 years ago? MCI. Man, telecom was a huge big deal back then, the long-distance market was just de-regulated, and MCI was a frontrunner 25 years ago. If you had told MCI management "you guys are a telecom company, and in two dozen years everyone will have their own portable phone. Some people will have two, one for work and one for personal. Their CHILDREN will each have one. Computers will telecommunicate too, and those will be portable. How does that make you feel about your company's future?" they would have celebrated with even more booze and cocaine than they already celebrated with every day. (Which, I have it on good authority, was a fuckin' LOT of booze and cocaine.) There's a pretty robust telecom industry, but those guys are nowhere.

Did you ever use cassettes? Were you a Maxell guy or a TDK guy? How are their sales now?

So whether or not you believe electric cars, and/or electric energy storage, and/or end-user-level electric energy production, are markets that have a future, and whether or not you believe any one particular company has a better long-term outlook than any of its competitors, you want to make sure you are not all-in on MCI or Maxell. 

When you invest in a company, there are some decisions to make about whether or not you want your money to support (even indirectly, like buying shares in a publicly traded stock) what that company is and does. If your dad started smoking in WWII and died of lung cancer when you were a kid, you may not want to buy R J Reynolds stock even if they're paying an 8% dividend and growing 5% a year. "Screw those guys, I hope they go out of business, and I don't want to tie my fortune to theirs. In fact, screw that whole industry, not just RJR, I'm not investing in Phillip Morris either."

But you also gotta get PAID, and that means that you probably wouldn't have wanted to invest in Piaggio stock.

If belief in the product was all it took to make a good investment, I'd have $30,000 worth of Motus parked in my garage and at least that much invested in their firm. And I'd be double-screwed.

[Pat Conlon]

Bill, well crap, funny you should say that...I was going to sell some of my Tesla stock and buy a Motus....

I got a chance to ride a MST-R for a day and I really liked it... I fit well on the bike.

Point taken about diversification.

Cheers

Pat

[Bill_Rockoff]

I used to work 10 miles from them, and what's not to love about a sport-touring bike powered by an engine that's basically half a Katech V8? I still kick myself for not even going by their place on a lunch break. I LOVE the idea about everything they're doing.

(I also would have loved to have met them in person. And I would have loved to have seen the bike in person, because maybe it's much better looking in person than in photos, like a C7 Corvette is. Or maybe I could have said the right thing that would have helped them turn it around, like "See that Ducati? It  is half the power and one-third the usefulness of your bikes, and is in every objective way a much stupider motorcycle. The new version costs $20,000 and there's a line for them. You could make yours that pretty for a lot less money than they could make theirs as good a motorcycle as yours. MAKE YOURS THAT PRETTY. Don't get an engineer to do it, we all think plaid shirts go perfectly well with striped pants. Get a design person to do it, or just put BMW K75 parts on yours, or something.")

They should have had all the sales Indian and Victory have had over the last five years. THEY MADE THE BEST MOTORCYCLE.

But that's not enough to make it a good investment.

Tesla stock, on the other hand... Even if you don't care about (or actively dislike) electric cars, 1) that company is not just about cars, they are also about electrical energy storage, and 2) there's a huge share of the car market that sells to people who either DO like electric cars, or they happen to like THESE PARTICULAR cars either because they're electric or because they're kinda neat looking, or they don't care about cars, they just wanna get where they're going. But mostly 3) you don't have to like electric cars, you just have to like money, and believe that Elon will make his company (and your part of it) more valuable next year than it is now.

Of course, you are roughly my age, so at some point in the next 10 years you will want to ditch the roller-coaster ride and find something that pays you dividends. Ford is currently paying nearly 6.9% right now, with a share price that is basically where it was 10 years ago, and 30 years ago. This would seem like a great idea except they just gave up on the car-making part of their business to focus on trucks, and no matter how much you like trucks you have to wonder "is making those things a great idea for the next 30 years, or does it make them more like Motus, where they build this thing I like but not nearly enough of them? Will they pay me 6.9% for five years and then go to zero, like GM did ten years ago?"

[ZOA NOM]

Take a look at Ilika, Pat. Interesting technology ahead. The guy in this video claims 2025 will be the beginning of something pretty incredible. Still can't stand electrics tho.   

[Pat Conlon]

Thanks Rick, that does look encouraging! Yea, lithium ion is just a temporary place holder for sure.
China has been busy buying up all the lithium reserves, leave it up to a Texan to put the screws to them.
"We don't need your stinking lithium...we got Sodium...from the ocean" "Bitches"
You gotta love those Texans.

LOL Classic

[Pat Conlon]

Bill...perhaps you are right, I should diversify. If I sell 80 shares of TSLA I could have this as an investment...

https://www.cycletrader.com/listing/2018-Motus-MST-R-123358195


Think of all the money I'll save with those hydraulic lifters, never needing a valve adjustment.

When these 2018 MST-R's are gone, they're gone.

[Millietant]

What kind of Honda is that Pat, a VFGL sports tourer 

[Pat Conlon]

Dean, what do you know about the Motus MST-R's? 180hp and 126 ft/lbs torque. That bike boogied.
It would pull the wings of the V4 ST Honda.

[Millietant]

LOL Pat, I'm very familiar with Motus    I was just being a bit facetious as the photo has the bike parked under a Honda dealership sign   

[Pat Conlon]

Oh....Ok, gotcha
I am a bit leery on spending $28k on a bike that's out of production.

[FJ_Hooligan]

I am a bit leery on spending $28k on a bike that's out of production.

Says the guy that's probably spent at least that much on his FJs over the years.   :-)