
Hey disaster novelists: Remember bicycles - brudgers
http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/008895.html
======
kragen
Here in post-collapse Argentina, I semi-regularly attend a free bike repair
workshop run by a bunch of anarchists who occupied a pizzeria abandoned in the
collapse, twelve years ago. They turned it into a library, a community garden,
a clothing workshop, and a bike kitchen. So I have some insights to offer:

1\. It's remarkable how quickly bicycles can break down, especially when
they're not made to be ridden (US department-store bikes, all Argentine bikes)
and when you repair them with improvised tools and improvised or substandard
components.

2\. There are a fair number of specialized tools that you need for bike repair
that are pretty hard to do without. You can maybe cut a cone wrench from a
flattened spoon, and you can "press" out chavetas (cotters) with a hammer and
chunk of steel instead of a cotter press, and you can true your rims on the
bike if you have to, but how are you going to unscrew your freewheel without
the right shape of freewheel extractor? Or break your chain without a chain
breaker?

3\. A bit further afield, you have to patch or replace your inner tubes when
they spring leaks. But it's increasingly difficult to get working vulcanizing
fluid for patching after the economy collapses; that shit doesn't have an
indefinite shelf life. Ultimately you need to put together some kind of
chemistry lab, using chemicals of unknown quality, in order to renew your
supply of bike patch kits.

4\. More generally, bicycles, like other industrial machinery, are allergic to
entropy. The crucial resource needed to repack your wheel bearing balls isn't
the steel to make the balls or the dead cow to grease them with; it's the
_knowledge_ about which balls are the right size, and which ones are already
subtly cracked. Buy them in bulk and they cost a fraction of a cent. Install a
ball of the wrong size and you could wreck your cones or your hub or even your
body.

So I think bicycles are an important part of post-apocalyptic transportation,
but keeping bicycles running without an economy populated with specialized
equipment, materials brought from far away, and people with specialized
knowledge could be quite challenging indeed.

~~~
astrodust
You make it sound like cars are somehow easier to repair. They are
fantastically more complicated in comparison, with specialized tools required
for particular models.

How popular were bikes in Argentina before the collapse? How popular after?
They haven't really taken hold in the parts of central America I've visited
even though the weather is almost always suitable and the roads aren't that
bad. People just take the bus, drive their car, or at worst, a small
motorbike.

It's like bicycles don't even come up as an option.

Speaking as someone who lives in the bike theft capital of North America, it's
possible they're too easily stolen and therefore people don't bother buying
them in the first place. Cars are harder to steal since the police will at
least pretend to investigate an automobile theft. They're also tagged with
license plates and VINs to provide a small deterrent to theft in the first
place.

~~~
stretchwithme
They are more complicated to repair. But they are also more resilient. Broken
glass is less likely to disable them.

If you have a fairly new car and you can get fuel, you might be able to travel
thousands of miles without a repair. And they come with a spare tire. And you
can carry tools and extra oil and a mechanic.

~~~
kragen
I'm skeptical.

FWIW, you can carry more spare inner tubes on a bike than spare tires on a
car, and although I've had bike inner tubes punctured by goatheads,
maladjusted brake pads, tacks, and a burr on a spoke nipple that cut its way
through my improvised post-apocalyptic rim strip made of electrical tape, I
don't think I've ever had a broken-glass puncture.

I think both bikes and cars have highly variable resiience to hostile
conditions. You can get bikes with big fat BMX tires, put Kevlar strips and
thick inner tubes inside, and pour in a bit of Slime, and you probably don't
have to worry much about punctures or pinch flats or blowouts, unless you have
misadjusted rim brakes like the ones I mentioned before. And there are plenty
of cars that aren't fairly new and can't travel even dozens of miles without a
repair.

~~~
ygra
The last puncture I had was on the rim-side of the inner tube and probably was
there when I bought the bike. Before that ... I think that was years ago. Most
touring bikes these days also come with tyres that have a puncture-preventing
layer [1]. Racing bicycles are probably not well-suited for post-apocalyptic
duty.

But as far as repair equipment goes, I think I think a bicycle repair kit
(should be good for half a dozen punctures and they last years) and a
multitool (for removing wheels and the like) should suffice for a lot, even if
certain occasions need special tools.

____

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kevlarreifen.jpg>

~~~
masklinn
> Most touring bikes these days also come with tyres that have a puncture-
> preventing layer

And "airless" tires are starting to appear as well.

> Racing bicycles are probably not well-suited for post-apocalyptic duty.

Probably not, a touring or XC-type mountain bike is probably a better idea (or
an hybrid, more efficient than an XC but with more "all terrains" abilities
than a straight touring bike).

~~~
kragen
Airless tires are quite a lot older than pneumatic tires, actually. But the
introduction of the pneumatic tire made bicycles practical for a much wider
range of people and uses.

~~~
masklinn
Yes, I meant airless tires which can actually compete with pneumatic on
efficiency and comfort, obviously you could always have a back-breaking full
cylinder of rubber.

~~~
kragen
Oh? How do those work? Obviously they're physically possible (you could fill a
tire with Utility Fog) but I didn't realize they were yet technically
feasible.

~~~
masklinn
Flexible spokes, same principle as Michelin's tweel:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tweel>

Although they still have the issue outlined in
[http://www.livestrong.com/article/222689-airless-bicycle-
tir...](http://www.livestrong.com/article/222689-airless-bicycle-tires-
review/) (on the subject of the previous airless generation, using flexible
foam instead of rubber fill): shocks can't be spread around as they are in
pneumatic tires (where the tire gets overpressured all around and most of the
shock's energy is spread around the tire unless it's so big it reaches — and
damages — the wheel's rim)

------
cdcox
It really depends. In a lot of disaster novels, things like roads are
destroyed or unusable (packed with crashed in cars). While a bike might seem
convenient at first, it quickly becomes an impossible burden at the first
blown out bridge or packed highway intersection with a massive pileup.
Similarly any 'road junk' from crashed cars or nature can easily damage tires.

As others have mentioned, the resources to maintain bikes are not zero cost.
Also, bikes rust in wetter areas fairly quickly if left outside/not maintained
(your average chain is going to last ~ a year outside if not reoiled).

Bikes, mile per mile are more dangerous than walking, this might be because of
cars etc, but with cracking roads and overgrowth, the risk to riding a bike
becomes higher than walking. A single screw up on a bike is survivable in the
modern world, it is less so in a post-apocalyptic one.

Bikes leave you vulnerable while travelling, you have to stick to main
developed roads, you can only move so fast, you are easily taken out by a
simple road trap. You have very little ability to 'take in surroundings' and
you have to stop moving and abandon your bike to fight or hide. In a 'world
gone mad' scenario someone on a bike moving overland is an easier target than
someone on horse or on foot.

Bicyling long distances sucks a lot, especially for people who don't do it a
lot. It's brutal on the body, hard to cross anything with elevation, and hurts
the body in unique ways. Your average person might give up cycling fairly
quickly for this reason. Horses, at least, travel with you when riding on them
sucks.

Bikes don't work as well under non-ideal conditions. Heavy
rain/snow/ice/elevation/heat all make bikes difficult to use or damage them.

Skateboards solve a lot of these (as they are easily portable). But the risk
factor gets higher.

I'm not saying these items would be useless in a post-apocalyptic scenario.
However, like most items, if someone wasn't extensively prepared to maintain
and use them in a similar scenario, it's going to not work out for them except
in the short term. (The same could be said about guns/cars/motorcycles).

~~~
kragen
I'm not convinced. Horses, maybe, but horses are a lot of work, a lot more
than bikes.

~~~
cdcox
I agree, cars and horses fail in many similar ways to bikes. Feet can handle a
lot.

Horses and dogs take a lot of maintenance (more for horses obviously), but
unlike a bike, car, or gun, anyone who owns one and thinks of taking it on a
long trip is more likely to know how to keep it alive.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
More importantly, horses and dogs require minimal industrial infrastructure to
maintain, which isn't true of bikes and cars. As long as you can feed the
horse really, and all you need is some land with grass. Minimal tech is
required to shoe the horse, etc....

------
Tiktaalik
Bike couriers and hipsters will have an advantage in the post-apocalyptic
future, as fixed gear bikes have fewer complex moving parts and break down
less often.

~~~
Narretz
Actually, the general populace will profit from well maintained hipster bikes,
because hipsters will die in the apocalypse first. You know, before it becomes
mainstream.

~~~
klibertp
I'm curious: will this remark get upvoted because it's genuinely funny, or
downvoted because it's too reddit like? Anyway, I smiled. Thanks for this :)

~~~
jholman
In my opinion, many reddit-esque comments are genuinely funny. I love pun
threads. I'm amused by self-referential hipsterish humour. Etc. This, it turns
out, is not relevant.

It's not relevant because funny joke comments are worse (from the perspective
of ideal HN behaviour) than unfunny joke comments; it's the funny ones that
get more replies, and that means more off-topic noise hiding the on-topic
signal (where topicality is defined in newsguidelines.html).

------
speeder
I have the impression that disaster novelists think that as our technology
level drop and lots of stuff become lost technology, society become something
like medieval era instantly, with several common day use objects instantly
disappearing or becoming unusable...

Yet, when I think about possible collapse I do worry about some interesting
things, like, who will replace my glasses?

I never heard in a disaster novel of people having problem to find glasses,
yet I believe glasses manufacturers will not be much...

~~~
fallous
Twilight Zone episode "Time Enough at Last"

~~~
ErikAugust
That's the one where the guy has all the books to read but breaks his glasses?

~~~
zacharycohn
Yep. The famous line being "But there was time, now!"

------
dripton
They don't all forget. S.M. Stirling's _Dies the Fire_ series is full of
bikes.

------
eksith
And some machine oil. Never can have too much of that stuff, plus you don't
want your bike/scooter squeaking when escaping zombies.

If you're the rebuilding type (and not escaping zombies), add to that list :

    
    
      Steam locomotives
      Sleighs (and horses, goats, oxen, dogs etc... to pull them)
      Hang gliders
      Ethanol converted 1968 Lincoln Continental
      And extra feet
    

If the apocalypse does happen, the civlized world will likely fare the worst.

p.s. Max Brooks: Zombie Survival Guide was thoroughly enjoyable.

~~~
cpeterso
When I bought the Zombie Survival Guide at my friendly neighborhood bookstore,
the guy working there told me the bouncer at the bar next door bought both the
Zombie Survival Guide and the Anarchist's Cookbook. He said the bouncer
returned the Anarchist's Cookbook the following day because the Zombie
Survival Guide was "more informative." :)

The Zombie Survival Guide also recommends motorcycles and machetes.

------
watmough
Interestingly, this guy
[http://www.amazon.com/Nova/e/B002YU0QTE/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=13...](http://www.amazon.com/Nova/e/B002YU0QTE/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1360639097&sr=1-2-ent)
covers fairly extensive use of bicycles in his post-apocalypse USA novels.

I know many of these comments are somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but really, there
will not be a survivable apocalypse. Sorry, survivalists, just. not. gonna.
happen.

------
WalterBright
If you want to store up trade goods for the apocalypse, try:

1\. liquor 2\. cigarettes

Cigs have often been used as a substitute for money when there wasn't money.

~~~
jivatmanx
Both can still be made fairly easily after the collapse (Well, perhaps not
cigarette paper, but tobacco and pipes, anyway)

------
lysol
I think another problem is suitable roadways. There's probably trails
available everywhere but there is definitely going to be a reduction is
available surfaces to ride bicycles on. I don't know if this changes the
proposition, but it definitely introduces a new complexity that should be
explored in fiction.

I just kind of think a bicycle may not be that useful in some parts of a
zombie-infested rural Georgia.

------
mhb
_How about superglue? Stores for a long time_

Really? I find that mine has always turned into a solid block whenever I need
it.

~~~
stock_toaster
I have some really old j.b.weld that still works a treat. Being an epoxy with
separate hardener and resin, it seems to last quite well.

------
bdunbar
After the world ends, bikes and etc. will be fine. For about two years ( less
in warmer climates ).

After that the roads are going to be torn up by weather and no maintenance and
then riding a bike may or may not be such a good choice.

~~~
brazzy
Actually, without cars and especially trucks driving on them, roads will last
a lot longer than that.

~~~
bdunbar
Point - I hadn't considered the impact of cars on frost heaves.

------
skrebbel
> _So make your post-disaster personal transportation realistic._

Oh come on. This is like complaining that The Matrix has inconsistencies.

------
Ghandi
Would likely help with the whole 'sound attracting x kind of post-apocalyptic
monsters/raiders' thing, at least a little, too.

~~~
FreeKill
Although, with everyone else dead, it would be an ideal opportunity to ring
the little handlebar bell all the time without worrying about a punch coming
from the sidewalk :)

~~~
derleth
You could continue to blast full-speed down sidewalks and blow through red
lights, so no change there.

~~~
derleth
Whoever downvoted this either doesn't know how cyclists actually act in the
real world, or does know and doesn't want to admit it.

