A couple weeks back, my local Albertsons had a sale on pasta and, in the typical fashion, I picked up a small quantity. Yesterday was the day to pick up a commensurate amount of jarred pasta sauce. While I was at it, I stopped off at the restaurant supply store and picked up a couple 5# ‘logs’ of Italian sausage. With nothing better to do, I made up a huge batch of spaghetti sauce with sausage, distributed it into styrofoam containers, and loaded up the freezer.
The apocalypse may come, the economy may sour, the world may burn, but Crom as my witness there will always be a baked ziti in this house.
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After a somewhat successful 12-year run, my beloved mountain bike tried to kill me the other day. I was pedaling furiously to get to an exam and -bam- one of the welds on the frame came apart like a Clinton alibi. Broke a toe, maybe two, in the process. So, I’m now having to shop for another mountain bike. Given that winter is going to be here in short order, it probably makes more sense to wait until spring to buy one rather than tie up that money now. From a survivalist standpoint, though, a good mountain bike really should be on the list of ‘must haves’.
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Fall is definitely here in Montana….65-70 degree days and nights in the low 30’s. Thats how we roll here in the climatic lab experiment that is the great state of Montana. Fall is my favorite season…you go outside and theres that smell in the air that activates some part of the brain that says ‘get your crap together….the cold and dark is coming.’ Of course, there’s also the impetus of hunting season.
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And, finally, elections are just a few weeks away. In typical fashion, Montana politics boils down to where someone is from. Not the issues, not the promises, nothing of real substance….the deciding issue is usually ‘were they born in Montana’. A sad way to decide your vote considering that some of the lefty-ist idiots to run for office are homegrown. Heck we even have a Californian, educated at Berkely, who is running with a pledge to ‘do something’ about assault weapons ‘for the children’, and she’s trying to run as a “Pro 2nd Amendment” candidate..complete with the usual picture-with-a-shotgun-and0orange-vest. Somehow, in the minds of these leftists, hunting somehow has something to do with the second amendment. Go figure.
I don’t know if you read “Off Grid” Magazine or not, but they had an interesting article a couple years ago about building out a bug-out bicycle. Enjoy!
https://www.offgridweb.com/gear/two-wheel-road-warrior/
N.B.- Off Grid is one of the better publications catering to our community of like-minded individuals. If you haven’t read it before, it’s worth a few bucks to pick one up the next time you see it in the grocery store magazine rack or a Barnes and Noble.
Do you know a good welder?
The damage is a bit beyond welding, I think…there are great gouts of metal missing and shredded.
Frankly, One is none, and you obviously have been using the bike quite a bit. Get a used one at Craigs list like right now, and start shopping around for the one that you want. Personally i actually bought a bike some seven weeks ago at about 900$, a conservative Street bike like something out of the 1940s except for it being seven gears and having a Hub generator.for the front light. Being somewhat on the taller side and not really into bicycles since i got my moped at age 15 this is the first bike in decades that actually isnt too small for me. A bit of a revelation using a big enough quality bike. Made the suffering far smaller than expected.
Another piece of economic prepping is getting a really economic car.
About a week after i got the bike i got a call from a childhood friend. It went something like this,. “Hi, Its Stefan, How are you?” “just fine thanks, and you?” “Just fine, Studying for an exam in Patent Law. Do you want a car?” “A car?” “Yes, It is a Hyundai Atos 2001, Broken rear window since some idiot threw a rock through it while parked at a Marina. Otherwise in Decent shape, and recently inspected, it goes for a year until next inspection and road tax is payed.”
Basically, living in central Stockholm he had no room for the car when he no longer need it after the boating season is over. With the broken window it is worth too little when trying to sell it so he just scoffed at the lowball offers and gifted it to me.
The thing is that it runs at half the fuel of my station wagon and costs 25$/month to insure, so i actually save money on driving this stupid thing around town rather than my big station wagon.
My suggestion to everyone is that if a Bicycle is not practical for your everyday use, perhaps a really cheap econobox with good gas mileage in addition to your BOV might be a good idea. It saves on gas as well as wear and tear on your real car when you are just hauling your lazy ass to work or school or the store.
The 2001 Atos is far from a nice car, but it does what it is meant to and that is to get me to my job, on my errands and so on, while the Bicycle gets me to school since the parking there is terrible.
A beater is the gray man of cars,park it anywhere,maybe not even lock the doors,no one bothers it,won’t steal it,invisible to police,everyone will let you merge(you have nothing to loose),bums don’t ask you for$(they feel sorry for you),person asking for ride is desperate, park near front of lot and not worry about dings/scratches. If she will ride in it she is the One,will usually start when the new cars all need a jump,parts can be dirt cheap
12 years is a pretty good run for a bike.
I think there’re a couple Surly dealers in Missoula, you might want to check out the Surly Bridge Club. Stick one of Surly’s 24 Pack racks on the front and the rack of your choice on the rear and you should be pretty well set up for The Zombie Times.
Hope the toes heal quickly.
I hope the toes soon better.
“complete with the usual picture-with-a-shotgun-and orange-vest.”
I have posted that same message on several politician’s websites and the NRA’s too. A picture of a candidate shooting an O/U is NOT an indication of 2A purity and with me it is actually the opposite. If a politician wants to impress me, show a picture of building a “ghost gun” either 80% or 3d printed. Most pols are lawyers, so where is your pro 2A work? Extra points for pro bono 2A work. Instead of a posed “orange vest and borrowed O/U” how about a video of their most recent IDPA run or 3 gun?
Commander:
Sorry about your foot, but your comments about not buying because bad weather is coming are faulty!
If most people share your views, then this is the right time to pick up a bargain.
Whether you want to buy new or excellent second-hand, there should be room to haggle.
Keep cycling!
Fall and winter is when u can get a better deal on a mountain bike
Check out a Rambo Ebike. Worth every penny; simply great. If all else fails, it’s our BOV. Saddle bags, trailer, extra battery and we’re good to go. Both the wife and I love them. Great hunting bike; very stealth.
Hi TommyJoe!
Where do you intend to store your e-bike?
Or do you consider EMP a low probability?
I suspect the charging system on the bike would get fried…
There are a strong case to be made for E-bikes. though i would make sure to have a couple normal bikes first.
For one thing an E-bike gives low effort travel in a situation with low availability of fuel. If you have a couple of solar panels on your house an E-bike with a trailer or a cargo e-bike makes transportation even of heavier objects easy and cheap. For a Bug out vehicle i would probably not use a E-bike (unless my Bug out is reasonably short. a good E-bike with an extra battery would probably get me to any one of three of my BOL:s if i rationed the electricity just a little bit.) but rather hang my streetbike on the Bike-rack of my car and drive as fas as i could before possibly getting on the bike.
For keeping up a semblance of normality around town in a slow decline or reasonably manageable SHTF i would love to have an e-bike. (Might also be a good argument for getting a cheap ass electric car running on lead batteries).
Aluminum frame?
People like aluminum frames because they think they’re lighter, and they don’t rust. But aluminum doesn’t handle stress well — it cracks if it is repeatedly flexed, while steel does not.
If you’re looking for a bike for the end of the world, look for a steel-framed mountain bike with either plain old steel forks, or the simplest most user-maintainable shock-absorber forks. Not a Walmart-grade “steel plumbing pipe welded in a Chinese sweatshop by a 12-year-old” steel frame, but a decent quality frame made from tubing good enough that there’s a sticker describing it on the frame. Surly’s been mentioned here — they make good frames.
Older bikes are an option, if you can be sure that they haven’t been abused, and have been stored properly. Check inside the seat tube for any signs of rust. Coating the interior of the tubing with linseed oil — pour some in, move the frame around so it coats the interior, then let it drain and harden — is an old and reasonably effective rust-preventative treatment. There’s most likely a better purpose-made product these days?
Get a bike with a decent — and maintainable — set of parts on it. Avoid the newest most expensive options, they’re usually little more than the second-tier parts with a prettier finish. And they’re likely to be full of trendy “great ideas” that will not pan out in the long run, like the oval chainrings that were all the rage at one time. Be aware that the current 9 or 10 gear rear hubs use cogs and chains that are thinner and weaker than the older 6 and 7 gear hubs. Shimano makes decent parts, but they refuse to stick to any sort of standard, so it can be a problem to find parts for older bikes and they often require tools that are expensive and specific to that generation of parts.
This is actually a good time of year to bike shop. Going into the off-season, a lot of bike shops turn into ski shops and are trying to free up floor/shop space and inventory dollars. All of what Earnan says is good advice. Must be a bike shop guy. I was in that business for 20+ years. Older steel framed mountain bikes are a good choice but, old steel bikes rust just like old steel cars. A lot of early mountain bikes took design cues off of touring bikes of the late 70’s – early 80’s. If I were bike shopping, I would get a Surly Long Haul Trucker. It’s a touring bike, steel frame, not light at all. It is a true long haul touring bike. Can handle fatter tires than regular road bikes (even some knobbies), wide range gearing, plentiful rack and fender mounts. Some years it even came in OD green. Unless you are a serious trail rider, a good touring bike will handle most requirements. If you are a serious trail rider, you knew this stuff already.
Avoid aluminum. Think of how aluminum cans shear. Same thing happens with bikes. Shear leads to catastrophic failure. Steel (cro-moly, really) fails by degrees. And can be welded back together. Aluminum can too but, the heat treatment goes away.
If you want to spend real money on a custom made frame, this guy in Whitefish is a friend of mine.
http://www.boediecycles.com/home.html
Hope the toes heal fast,saw the pasta pist and wanted to one up you-got 12# for.01$@# with a coupon(had to pay tax) and stocked up on the rest @.50$(years supply). Now is getting to be the best time to buy second hand bicycles,lawnmowers and motorcycles,just keep your eyes open and it will appear. When you stand in front of Crom will he ask you the secret of the sauce? Here we don’t have to ask politicians stace on guns we just hope they get in the way of a gangbanger or homicidal cop(did you see video of cop shooting a kid for no reason then claiming he was”in fear of his life”)