So-called bug out cars are a rather silly venture that serve little purpose more than snagging your jumper. The odds of a car working well through a nuclear winter are rather minimal. But what about a bicycle? On paper it’s a better choice, with extreme efficiency, reliability, and runs off whatever sustenance you can find in the barren landscape of a collapsed society. But [Seth] over at Berm Peak proved an apocalypse bike is at least as silly as a bug out car.
While a utilitarian bike fit for a cross-country trek across a nuclear wasteland can certainly be a reasonable venture, this particular bicycle is not that. This three wheeled monstrosity of a bicycle (is it still a bicycle if it has three wheels?) was built by [TOMO] for the Bespoked bike show’s apocalypse buildoff. It placed second among a number of strange bikes with features ranging from pedal driven circular saws to beer keg grills. But this particular example of apocalypse bike is easily the strangest example of the lot.
The features on this custom build are rather extensive, but the star of the show is the trailing link two wheel drive rear end. The third wheel was thrown on last minute with a random shock providing some measure of compliance to the rather unwieldy system. But while adding unnecessary complexity, the third wheel does offer the benefit of bringing along a number of spare parts on the last bikepacking trip of a lifetime. Moreover, it can be easily removed to get something resembling bicycle.
The aforementioned front of the bike while being an actual bike, is likewise a rather strange build. It’s best described as a fat-tired long nosed tall cargo bike. The removable cargo rack is quite effective in storing heavy loads by keeping the center of gravity near or below the axles, it can remain rideable with quite heavy loads. But, if ground clearance is needed, then simply remove the cargo rack, and the bike becomes a bike capable of navigating the nuclear wasteland it was made for.
While this is a silly and questionable bike, it’s certainly not the first strange bike we have seen.
given how many derailleurs ive destroyed over the years having a spare is nice, but then you still have derailleurs to worry about destroying. you probibly still want a couple spares in a compartment for proper apocalypse application. of course abandoned busted bikes will likely be plentiful for salvage along your way (even in the pre apocalypse era ive been known to borrow parts off of bikes abandoned in ditches, provided they look like they’ve been there awhile).
for additional redundancy, you could do an inverted trike with a third center fork for conversion to an inline configuration should you lose a front tire. just remove the fork on the offending tire and move the still functional assembly to the center position. then you could lose a front and a rear and still have a functional vehicle. also in the initial phase you can carry a lot more cargo between the front forks (canned goods for urban survival to last you until you can get far enough into the wilderness to hunt).
which reminds me of something missing from these apocalypse builds, a gunrack. im partial to shotguns for ease of field reloading and the ability to use practically anything as a projectile (see taufledermaus), and a small antipersonel pistol for close quarters, and perhaps a machete or large knife (more for utility purposes).
Nice face-catcher strapped to the front.
Can you guess what happens once they clicked “Upload” on YouTube? My bet is someone grabbed a plasma cutter and cut this thing into manageable pieces to be scrapped.
It was neatly disassembled, boxed up and sent back to the builder by Seth (He showed that in a later video) and the original builder had kept it around all that time so it’s unlikely they’d scrap it now. I understand how current youtuber trends can make people cynical of this sort of thing but that’s not the default.
There’s always the option to use a hand-cart. While never all that popular with hikers, there are usually a couple of light-weight options in production that’ll still increase the amount of supplies in your SHTF bag (sometimes even options that belt on to leave your hands free rather than having a normal handlebar) but are frequently marketed as a mountain bike trailer that can also be dragged by a handle.
If those are unavailable, a utility garden wagon or something custom built would work.
Truth be told, in a SHTF situation, most people would walk 10 miles on the first day, get tired, camp there and use up all their supplies, then proceed to die.
Doesn’t matter if they have some gadget or contraption to carry more stuff, they just aren’t prepared for any sort of sustained physical effort.
You’re vastly underestimating the amount of bitching, moaning and trying to make their problem’s, somebody else’s (feed us!).
Most people have never bothered to ‘backpack’ a single day hike.
Not having that experience, they will attempt to carry far too much crap.
It would be like the B-arc in hitchhikers guild…Down to leaves as currency.
And the chain breaks…..