I was reading Bike Snob NYC's blog today and he mentioned that most post-apocalyptic fiction shown no other forms of transportation between motor vehicles (a la Mad Max) and walking or running on foot. It got me to thinking, what would be the best post apocalyptic form of transportation. Bicycles come to mind rather quickly. Imagine, you are being chased by zombies and need to get away, running puts you marginally ahead of them and as we all know zombies never stop or tire so they would soon be back upon you once you stop and rest. If you had a bike you could be miles away in just a matter of a few minutes and hopefully they would lose your trail.
Let's look at the bike specs in more detail:
What would be required of a bicycle in that type of society? It would need to be bullet proof (figuratively if not literally), it would need fat tires for handling all types of terrain, those tires would need to be flat proof since the odds of replacing them start getting slim as time passes post apocalypse. The drive train would need to be low maintenance. For truly rough or steep terrain one might argue for gears, but the maintenance and failure factors would make this a poor choice. It would need to handle large loads as it would become the defacto "truck" of the times.
WBR's buffalo bike would seem to be a great fit for this world with some slight modification of the tires. Flats would be intolerable so a solid rubber tire would be best. Sure it will provide a harsher ride, but the increase in reliability would be well worth it.
So, for my money, a well built, steel fixed gear with solid rubber, oversize tires would be the ideal vehicle in the post-apocalyptic world. What do you think?
Dan, as far as I am concerned the Apocalypse has already begun. But it is a lot of fun thinking about post-blow-up bikes and I do it all the time. There are a plethora of Survivalist sites and they like to ruminate about BOV's. (Bug Out Vehicles) and very few of them consider bicycles. But they do have some wild rides on those pages, although trust me, there won't be any gas around for more than a few days after any big trouble.
ReplyDeleteMy thinking is that the Apocalypse will be not a big bang but the absence of cheap water and of course gasoline.
My friend Nicholas over at Gypsy by Trade has spent a lot of time in the wild and seems to think the best bike for it is a Fat Bike. I tend to agree.
tj
Oh, and as far as the zombies go, I live in a trailer park so zombies are already a fact of life. Hmmm...yeah, brother, the Apocalypse has already begun...
DeleteTry runng tubeless with Stans laytex sealant. Lighter, faster than a zombie, smoother. See my post about Tubeless, when you try it you wont go back!
ReplyDeleteAs for the apocalypse, any day now! Metors & Popes resigning whats this world coming to.