The Doomsday survival bicycle

On Dec 21, 6:48*pm, pdxrandonneur wrote:
While I do stand behind my previous posting that assumes that post-
apocalypse bikes will be stolen often and one probably will need to
make do with Xmart stuff, I'll throw around some actual opinion.

Wheels:

Because the parts that will need replacement most often are the tires
and tubes, the 26 inch wheel will be the best choice. You will want to
be sure your rims are drilled for schrader valves.

Make sure you're also running schrader tubes on a utility bike.

(It is easy enough
to use presta valves with schrader holes simply by putting a valve nut
on either side of the rim.)

Nup, just run them nekkid. Putting a back nut on most presta tubes
won't go far enough down on the stem and create other issues. No
matter, as presta will be rare when the sky jew comes.

In addition 26 inch wheels are stronger by
nature than larger ones, and nearly indestructible rims are cheap. I
just had a wheel built with an Alex DM24 Rim ($24) and it appears fit
to last a lifetime of hard use.

DM18s are fine as well. Both will probably be able to fit an average
scavenged spoke as they're boringly shaped.

A set of mr.tuffys will be absolutely
required, of course.

More trouble than they're worth. A good belted tire is enough.

I have found that the slime in self-sealing tubes
doesn’t work and that it interferes with patching, and that anything
that is going to go through my tire and mr.tuffy is going to go
through the tube, no matter how “thorn proof”. My choice for tires
would be schwalbe marathons or specialized armadillos.

After a Jeebusalypse, I'd be fine with any quality tire. Both of my
bikes are now shod with beltless tires--not a flat in a year.

If pressed, the Schwalbes would be fine.


The next question is spokes. What are the commonest spokes? What are
the commonest hub flange diameters on BSBs and DSBs? Are DSB spokes
usable on BSB wheels? What is the most common Effective Rim Diameter
on both BSBs and DSBs?

Run Shimano hubs and Alex box rims, and the scavenging should be easy.
However, if you built good wheels in the first place, why worry about
spoke breakage? Worry about dysentery.

Gears:

The single speed set up is the simplest, and if you live in a flat
area it will be fine (although in the event of an extreme emergency
you may be forced to flee). The chains last nearly forever, and I
believe you can scavenge the single cogs freewheels from old bmx bikes
(are there threading issues here?) , and while fixie cogs won’t be in
great supply, they are small enough to carry without difficulty. With
a double sided single speed hub, two double sprocket freewheels and a
double chain ring up front you would have a decent choice of gears,
although it is still not going to fun if you have to ride a heavily
loaded bicycle through mountains.
Put a five dollar Falcon thumbie in your emergency kit, and you'll be
able to shift most anything.


With derailleurs the main problem is that BSBs use freehubs while DSBs
use freewheels, and I suspect that the a large percentage of the BSB
bikes sitting in garages still have free wheels. The only quality free
wheel hub left in production (AFAIK) is the Phil "Riv" Hub, expensive
but very nice with a matching front hub with the same flange diameter.
Shimano, sunrace and IRD still make freewheels, with the shimano and
sunrace ones being so cheap that you could have a stockpile of
lifetime of replacements (and trade goods) for a few hundred dollars.
With less dish, stouter chains and commoner replacements, the free-
wheel set-up has a lot to offer over the free hub on a survival
bicycle. With freehubs you would want to go with the shimano
hyperglide compatible ones, as they are the most common. The question
here is what size freehub will accept the most of the other size
cassettes?

Doesn't matter. If **** happens, swap the whole wheel and shift with
friction if you must.



Friction shifters will of course be a requirement for derailleur
users, with the new dia-compe down tube shifters being the gold
standard if you can’t get your grubby paws on some of the classic
simplex ones.

Bogus. You'll be fine with even the most craptastic Shimano indexing
stuff. Spit up the Portland Flavoraid.


Internally geared hubs are definitely esoteric

And probably fine, but a fringe discussion when you're being chased by
your creator's son-zombie who's high on bread.


Brakes:

Here the obscure (in the US) drum brake will rule the world. Working
more or less forever without need of repair or new parts and in all
weather conditions, any survival bicyclist would be a fool not to have
at least one as a back up. Sturmey archer has a new 90mm version on
the way that will hopefully pack more power than traditional drums.

When you're both eating and ****ing rats recreationally, carving a
brake pad out of an old Yokohama tire is a yawn.

[snip]

Frames:

The main question here is: steel or aluminum?

It doesn't matter one little whit.


-Rando

On Dec 22, 9:25 pm, landotter wrote:
On Dec 21, 6:48 pm, pdxrandonneur wrote:
While I do stand behind my previous posting that assumes that post-
apocalypse bikes will be stolen often and one probably will need to
make do with Xmart stuff, I'll throw around some actual opinion.

The AK-47 or pump shotgun on slung on your back will deal with the
stealing issue, and the whole point of the post is setting up a bike
that can use xmart stuff.


Wheels:

Because the parts that will need replacement most often are the tires
and tubes, the 26 inch wheel will be the best choice. You will want to
be sure your rims are drilled for schrader valves.

Make sure you're also running schrader tubes on a utility bike.

(It is easy enough
to use presta valves with schrader holes simply by putting a valve nut
on either side of the rim.)

Nup, just run them nekkid. Putting a back nut on most presta tubes
won't go far enough down on the stem and create other issues. No
matter, as presta will be rare when the sky jew comes.

I have a bad habit of pulling the stem out of the tube without the
second nut in place. I have yet to encounter other issues, but I'm
running big fat tires on flat rims. Clearly a v-rim with skinny tires
could have problems with this set-up, but why would you have such a
rim drilled for shrader in the first place?


In addition 26 inch wheels are stronger by
nature than larger ones, and nearly indestructible rims are cheap. I
just had a wheel built with an Alex DM24 Rim ($24) and it appears fit
to last a lifetime of hard use.

DM18s are fine as well. Both will probably be able to fit an average
scavenged spoke as they're boringly shaped.

A set of mr.tuffys will be absolutely
required, of course.

More trouble than they're worth. A good belted tire is enough.

Until you put a major hole in your tire. With mr.tuffys you can patch
the tube and still ride home (once you have rotated the mr.tuffy). Of
course you can improvise with something else, but I have picked big
chunks of glass out of my shwalbes that would have caused a flat
without the tuffy many times.

I have found that the slime in self-sealing tubes
doesn’t work and that it interferes with patching, and that anything
that is going to go through my tire and mr.tuffy is going to go
through the tube, no matter how “thorn proof”. My choice for tires
would be schwalbe marathons or specialized armadillos.

After a Jeebusalypse, I'd be fine with any quality tire. Both of my
bikes are now shod with beltless tires--not a flat in a year.

If pressed, the Schwalbes would be fine.

You'll be burning in eternal hellfire when (whichever) prophet returns
in any case.




The next question is spokes. What are the commonest spokes? What are
the commonest hub flange diameters on BSBs and DSBs? Are DSB spokes
usable on BSB wheels? What is the most common Effective Rim Diameter
on both BSBs and DSBs?

Run Shimano hubs and Alex box rims, and the scavenging should be easy.
However, if you built good wheels in the first place, why worry about
spoke breakage? Worry about dysentery.

Because being able to travel long distances to the safe water supply
that doesn't cause the dysentery will require working wheels.

snip
Doesn't matter. If **** happens, swap the whole wheel and shift with
friction if you must.

Or when **** happens be able to scavenge the xmart freewheel and keep
your nice wheelset.


Friction shifters will of course be a requirement for derailleur
users, with the new dia-compe down tube shifters being the gold
standard if you can’t get your grubby paws on some of the classic
simplex ones.

Bogus. You'll be fine with even the most craptastic Shimano indexing
stuff. Spit up the Portland Flavoraid.

Until you need to kludge together a working system out of parts that
were not meant to work together and your indexed shifter kills the
whole deal.




Internally geared hubs are definitely esoteric

And probably fine, but a fringe discussion when you're being chased by
your creator's son-zombie who's high on bread.


The whole thing is a fringe discussion.



Brakes:

Here the obscure (in the US) drum brake will rule the world. Working
more or less forever without need of repair or new parts and in all
weather conditions, any survival bicyclist would be a fool not to have
at least one as a back up. Sturmey archer has a new 90mm version on
the way that will hopefully pack more power than traditional drums.

When you're both eating and ****ing rats recreationally, carving a
brake pad out of an old Yokohama tire is a yawn.

As a matter of survival, eating rats is a very bad idea since they can
carry so many human diseases. As for your romantic inclinations
towards them, as long as you buy them dinner first I guess it's fine.

-Rando

pdxrandonneur wrote:
On Dec 22, 9:25 pm, landotter wrote:
On Dec 21, 6:48 pm, pdxrandonneur wrote:
While I do stand behind my previous posting that assumes that post-
apocalypse bikes will be stolen often and one probably will need to
make do with Xmart stuff, I'll throw around some actual opinion.

The AK-47 or pump shotgun on slung on your back will deal with the
stealing issue, and the whole point of the post is setting up a bike
that can use xmart stuff.

That assumes you'll see /them/ before /they/ plug you. Not a wise
assumption, IMHO. Or maybe you read a better brand of apocalypse than I
do. Still think those lights are a bad idea. /2

Mark J.