Survivalist bicycling

Keith said:

If things go really bad environmentally, petrol prices rise way out of
reach of the average commuter and there is rationing to ensure
essential services have fuel, transport costs rocket and spare parts,
welding and replacement bikes are hard to come by, what sort of bike
would be ideal in such straitened times? In the scanario I paint, we
can assume there will be fewer vehicles of all kinds on the roads, but
the roads themselves will not be maintained well, or cleaned of glass
and other litter. Furthermore, if I were to build up supplies, how
would I maintain a stock of tyres and tubes - or would they perish
within a few years?

A good steel mountain bike with high quality tyres (Scwalbe Marathon) will
handle most roads in poor condition. Tyres and tubes will keep for quite a
few years without perishing (at least 5 if you don't leave them in the sun).

Bikes and tyres would probably be the least of your worries. More pressing
may include:
- long term food supplies.
- lighting and heating, esp in a Melbourne winter
- how to maintain good medical care and deal with emergency situations
- keeping the pumps and systems going to maintain water supplies and
sewerage treatment
etc.

Cheers
Peter

All you need is more guns and ammo than everyone else, and a fortress,
and some tinned beans, maybe a bunker ....

Keith said:

If things go really bad environmentally, petrol prices rise way out of
reach of the average commuter

Come on, cool down. They are only projected to rise to $60US a barrel
for crude.

Quoted message said:

and there is rationing to ensure
essential services have fuel, transport costs rocket and spare parts,
welding and replacement bikes are hard to come by, what sort of bike
would be ideal in such straitened times?

1) Steel because you can weld it with batteries (Leyden Jars anyone?) or
Oxy.
2) MTB, with trailer(s) for various tasks.
And Chen Shing tyres will last for over 16 years out of the sun (so
far).

Quoted message said:

In the scanario I paint, we
can assume there will be fewer vehicles of all kinds on the roads, but
the roads themselves will not be maintained well, or cleaned of glass
and other litter.

Less vehicles means less litter, but it will never happen.
Because there are various alternative fuels already in existance that
can replace oil. Worst/best? case is urban dwellers go to electric cars
fuelled by coal fire power stations.

Quoted message said:

Furthermore, if I were to build up supplies, how
would I maintain a stock of tyres and tubes - or would they perish
within a few years?

Dry, out of sun.
Tubes will perish relatively quickly compared to tyres.
So far Chen Shing (?) tyres have lasted for over 16 years (so far) out
of the sun (Purchased as spares for 1988 Cape York trip and still
around).

Hmm, must check the 28" for brand and condition (about 30 years old)

Seriously, did you ever watch Black Mechanics or whatever it was called?
Well, firstly you would start stuffing the tyre with grass, then you
would end up wrapping the remains of grass and tyre with knobby {:-)
duck/duc/duct tape. Eventually it would be who is the best possum/cat
skin wrapper.

And cable operated disc brakes might be best for brakes to clear all
that.

Hmm, actually wonder if it would be feasible to grow tall thin saplings
to wrap around the rim as wooden tyre.

" Master Blaster runs Bartertown ".

MTB, big pavement tyres & a crossbow.

Keith said:

If things go really bad environmentally, petrol prices rise way out of
reach of the average commuter and there is rationing to ensure
essential services have fuel, transport costs rocket and spare parts,
welding and replacement bikes are hard to come by, what sort of bike
would be ideal in such straitened times? In the scanario I paint, we
can assume there will be fewer vehicles of all kinds on the roads, but
the roads themselves will not be maintained well, or cleaned of glass
and other litter. Furthermore, if I were to build up supplies, how
would I maintain a stock of tyres and tubes - or would they perish
within a few years?

The ideal bike would be what the peasants in regional China have been
using for years. They already live under such conditions.

Marty

Marx SS said:

" Master Blaster runs Bartertown ".

MTB, big pavement tyres & a crossbow.

Naah, the crossbow is a complete waste of times and totally
unAustralian.

First of all, cats can only run for about 1/4 mile, so you can easily
run/bicycle them to ground. And for anything else, it is Australian to
use and axe to chop it down.

Keith said:

If things go really bad environmentally, petrol prices rise way out of
reach of the average commuter and there is rationing to ensure
essential services have fuel, transport costs rocket and spare parts,
welding and replacement bikes are hard to come by, what sort of bike
would be ideal in such straitened times? In the scanario I paint, we
can assume there will be fewer vehicles of all kinds on the roads, but
the roads themselves will not be maintained well, or cleaned of glass
and other litter. Furthermore, if I were to build up supplies, how
would I maintain a stock of tyres and tubes - or would they perish
within a few years?

this should do the job: http://tinyurl.com/4zc8h

--
Peter McCallum
Mackay Qld AUSTRALIA

"Marty" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

The ideal bike would be what the peasants in regional China have been
using for years. They already live under such conditions.

And the Cubans also live under these conditions. They've had a major bicycle
resurgence.
http://www.gayayers.com/CU004Bic.htm

Cheers
Peter

Peter McCallum said:

this should do the job: http://tinyurl.com/4zc8h
--
Peter McCallum
Mackay Qld AUSTRALIA

LOL! Actually, there's a source of this sturdy technology available via the Vintage Cycle Club of Victoria. 😄

On Fri, 18 Mar 2005 at 09:35 GMT, Peter Signorini (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

Keith said:

If things go really bad environmentally, petrol prices rise way out of
reach of the average commuter and there is rationing to ensure
essential services have fuel, transport costs rocket and spare parts,
welding and replacement bikes are hard to come by, what sort of bike
would be ideal in such straitened times? In the scanario I paint, we
can assume there will be fewer vehicles of all kinds on the roads, but
the roads themselves will not be maintained well, or cleaned of glass
and other litter. Furthermore, if I were to build up supplies, how
would I maintain a stock of tyres and tubes - or would they perish
within a few years?

A good steel mountain bike with high quality tyres (Scwalbe Marathon) will
handle most roads in poor condition. Tyres and tubes will keep for quite a
few years without perishing (at least 5 if you don't leave them in the sun).

Bikes and tyres would probably be the least of your worries. More pressing
may include:
- long term food supplies.

Who needs food? At least we've got bicycles! No wait, snakes and
jellybeans are classed as food, aren't they? D'oh!

--
TimC -- http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/staff/tconnors/
Sorry if there are errors in transmission - I'm sending this message
down the gigabit ethernet fiber with a laser pointer.

Ray Peace said:

Chances are, they will gradually convert from oil to hydrogen

Only problem with that is that nobody has discovered a hydrogen mine
yet. Oh, yeah, you could use hydrocarbons as a source of hydrogen, but
isn't that sort of defeating the purpose.
--
Peter McCallum
Mackay Qld AUSTRALIA

On Sat, 19 Mar 2005 at 06:04 GMT, Peter McCallum (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

Ray Peace said:

Chances are, they will gradually convert from oil to hydrogen

Only problem with that is that nobody has discovered a hydrogen mine
yet.

Just set up a big sail to catch all the stuff whizzing by Earth at
500km/s. Sorry Pete.

--
TimC -- http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/staff/tconnors/
Disclaimer: Due to feline interference, this post may contain typographical
errors.

TimC said:

On Sat, 19 Mar 2005 at 06:04 GMT, Peter McCallum (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

Ray Peace said:

Chances are, they will gradually convert from oil to hydrogen

Only problem with that is that nobody has discovered a hydrogen mine
yet.

Just set up a big sail to catch all the stuff whizzing by Earth at
500km/s. Sorry Pete.

I'm sure that you could sell that one to G Dubya B.

--
Peter McCallum
Mackay Qld AUSTRALIA

TimC said:

Who needs food? At least we've got bicycles! No wait, snakes and
jellybeans are classed as food, aren't they? D'oh!

Tried rats and spiders?
I just love to ask "do you like rats"
"Err Yuk" or similar is the usual reply.
..

On Sat, 19 Mar 2005 at 07:12 GMT, Terry Collins (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

TimC said:

Who needs food? At least we've got bicycles! No wait, snakes and
jellybeans are classed as food, aren't they? D'oh!

Tried rats and spiders?
I just love to ask "do you like rats"
"Err Yuk" or similar is the usual reply.

Rats make cute pets.

I can't be that aracnophobic -- remember that story about my heartrate
a few days ago (I got me refered to a cardiovascular specalist) -- I
tested my heartrate when I was putting up the washing on the line, and
reached to grab a peg, and my fingers stopped about 1cm short of the
big nasty looking spider on the peg - my heartrate was still 48
despite my large jump!

But to get back to the topic of cycling food, I haven't yet found any
lollies made in the shape of spiders or rats. Only racing cars and
dinosaurs.

--
TimC -- http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/staff/tconnors/
Jun 26 14:08:17 kernel: troll-o-meter (pid 15134) killed: memory exhausted

"TimC" wrote in message ...

<snip>

Quoted message said:

But to get back to the topic of cycling food, I haven't yet found any
lollies made in the shape of spiders or rats. Only racing cars and
dinosaurs.

Jelly rats certainly used to be available. Perhaps the dinosaurs killed them off.

Parbs

TimC said:

On Sat, 19 Mar 2005 at 07:12 GMT, Terry Collins (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

TimC said:

Who needs food? At least we've got bicycles! No wait, snakes and
jellybeans are classed as food, aren't they? D'oh!

Quoted message said:

But to get back to the topic of cycling food, I haven't yet found any
lollies made in the shape of spiders or rats. Only racing cars and
dinosaurs.

You neet to shop around more. {:-) I've seen jellybeans, jelly babies,
frogs, snakes, killer pythons, rats, spiders and sharks at various
times.