Tuesday, May 7, 2019

cargo bug out bike 2


CARGO BUG OUT BIKE 2
I do not think bugging out is a great idea.  It is far better to be where you want to be, with hidden caches nearby that act like a backup to Home Invasion ( well, more realistically, Hovel Invasion ).  It isn’t always the best idea to trade bullets with others in a defensive position.  Sometimes it is preferable to run away, then come back and finish off the invader, ambush style.  “Bushwacker” might not be a compliment, but it is rather effective.  However, having said that, I know everyone’s situation is different.  It took me years to get off-grid.
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This I attribute to all those jerks who only advocated expensive property.  By the time I discovered property under $1,000 on E-Bay, only AFTER did I start reading a few authors on truly affordable land.  Then, of course, you can’t just drop everything and move.  You need to start investing and planning.  Well, if rent is coming due, there are no jobs and it is better to move now with some money left over, sure, you can go to your junk land on a wing and a prayer.  But usually, it takes some time.
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Some folks will never move, and that is fine.  One size doesn’t fit all.  Sometimes you are actually jumping from the pan into the fire if you move.  Hell, I’ve been Comfortable Enough plenty of times I had no desire to leave.  Everyone has their own pace on panicking.  Just because I holler, Da End Be Nigh, Yo!, certainly does not mean you feel the need to prep any faster.  I have the luxury of having already done the hard working panicking.  I can’t lose sight of how long it took me to actually get my head out of my ass and flee.
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So, realistically, it might be quite common that you are not where you want to be.  Bugging out might be the reality of your situation.  So here is one way to do so.  If you have a car, and you are ONLY planning on bugging out under an economic collapse ( NEVER!!! EVER!!! Do you bug out when everyone else is.  Too many cars and not enough fuel or freeway ), then this is no different than any other normal modern day move.  But if you think anarchy will descend quickly, here is your $70 BOV.
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A used bike, $20.  Two new Green Goop bike tubes, $15.  Two used duffle bags, $20.  Cords, bungees, pieces of pipe and misc., another $10-$15.  And that is the maximum you’ll be spending, more than likely.  You could get it for under a total of $20, if you find the bike at a give-away price and it has great tubes ( and you already own some of the other equipment ).  Then you just buy a can of Green Goop to add.  Just don’t cheap out on the tubes and tires, the heart of your system. 
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Now, again, this presupposes that you will need to carry a lot of weight.  I can actually see that, in my old situation.  I was living in Carson City, Nevada, and my land was in Elko.  Odds are I’d never need to Emergency Bug-Out, I would simply head up the hill into the Sierra’s.  But I did wargame the need to get up to Elko anyway, given the population down in my nicely watered location.  There were 60k population just in the city limits alone, and at one direction there was Reno just thirty miles away and the other direction Fallon Naval Base.
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The problem was I needed to get sixty miles between rivers. The stretch outside Reno up to the Humbolt river was where a lot of oxen died on the ol’ timey wagon train ( and furniture jettisoned ).  Not the most hospitable stretch to travel.  My travel-by-bike plans called for most of my weight to be water just for that one stretch.  It is where my Light Bike Traveling plans got into trouble.  But you also had the food issue.  Granted, beef jerky, peanut butter and Top Ramen will take you quite a way, but there always seems to be Too Much Weight there also.
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And what if it were winter?  You need even more food, especially fat, and you need a lot more clothes.  Suddenly, you can’t ride the bike, as there is just too much weight attached to it.  Yes, you could get a bike trailer.  The professionally designed ones ( not just a converted child carrier ) will hold hundreds of pounds.  And carry bulky items.  But now you are barely getting past walking speeds ( my long distance speed on a bike is 9mph.  Walking is about half that ). 
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And we wouldn’t want to be forgetting the passes you would need to navigate.  You need to go up several thousand feet getting over those.  Do you REALLY want to push a bike with trailer up those bad boys?  And, let us not forget, in this unfeasible but worried about scenario, I couldn’t drive because the VIPER teams ( remember those? click here ) had shut down transportation. I would be needing to bypass some checkpoints or other sketchy areas.  You cannot go cross country off road with a trailer.  And it would be hard to push just the bike, without modifications, off road.
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Better it was already set up to push by the handlebar and seat post extensions.  Millions of pounds of logistics pushed by bike with just these types of extensions helping to win the Vietnamese Independence War cannot be wrong.  They did the hard work of figuring it out for you.  Now, I understand how long it takes to pushing a bike, verses riding it.  And how much extra energy it might take.  But anything past about 200 miles and it gets to the point you are carrying far too many supplies to pedal anyway. 
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Unless you have the kind of body that can go long periods without eating while engaged in heavy labor, you will need a LOT of calories every day.  Even if you can replenish water every evening, you’ll still need quite a bit of that in your traveling time.  At least two gallons a day, which assumes NO interruption of refilling every night.  You’ll need a good three to four thousand calories a day food-the higher end if you are burning fat in cold weather.  A weeks journey and you are looking at twenty pounds of food alone.  Add another twenty a day in water.
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If any kind of stealth is required, or leaving the road, or getting around traffic jams, you’d be best off going with a bike as trailer.  If you are in hilly country, and assume half your time you are pushing rather than riding, a bike will still only get you 75 miles a day.  JUST pushing the bike will get you 40 ( ten hours straight travel, with time in between for breaks and end of day camp set up, plus extra time if hiding and detouring ).  JUST walking allows you an extra minimum of a hundred pounds of gear.
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We are all used to speedy transportation.  But that reliance also makes us vulnerable.  We are always on a choke point.  Granted, you are as well pushing a bike on a road, but you can leave that at will, easily.  In a car?  Impossible.  A car is also a lot easier to hit.  The engine area is a huge target, and something is easily damaged.  A bike is a smaller target ( although easier to acquire and track ).  But you can also dump the bike and hide a lot easier than you can de-ass a vehicle.
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Perhaps not the best way to go, Bike-As-Cargo-Carrier, but a cheap way, and perhaps YOUR best way, given circumstances.
( .Y. )
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24 comments:

  1. How about writing the Bison Bicycle Book; a comprehensive look at your suggestions for all of it - bike, tires and tubes, et cetera. Over the years you have written quite a bit about the subject but it would be nice to have it all pulled together in one location. Would be worth buying I think.

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    1. I'm almost done with the Hermitage book ( posted at my e-mail newsletter. Once I'm done, it will end up at the same location as all the other books ). I was going to start the Civil War 2 book, but I'm not sure I'm really excited about that. If not, your idea is perfect. Thank you.

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  2. “But if you think anarchy will descend quickly, here is your $70 BOV. A used bike, $20.  Two new Green Goop bike tubes, $15.  Two used duffle bags, $20.  Cords, bungees, pieces of pipe and misc., another $10-$15. “



    And don’t forget about your partner riding shotgun. The one with the 10/22, and a backpack full of pre-loaded 50 round banana clips. Because you’re gonna need that to get away on a bicycle :D (But in all seriousness, you will).


    “The problem was I needed to get sixty miles between rivers.”

    “My travel-by-bike plans called for most of my weight to be water just for that one stretch.  It is where my Light Bike Traveling plans got into trouble.”

    “If any kind of stealth is required, or leaving the road, or getting around traffic jams, you’d be best off going with a bike as trailer.”


    Yeah, I think that the heading for the Sierra’s plan, would have been a far more realistic plan, than the trying to make it to Elko plan. You would have to travel though the desert, because it would be nuts to stay on the roads. There is no water; in some cases, as you say, for several miles. You will get lucky at times, in that much of the Nevada desert is flat. But there are also the higher mountain ranges of northern Nevada. There is probably the rare, Olympic quality athlete out there that can pull this plan off, but I doubt that there are many.


    I know that you don’t want to hear this, but a motorcycle or a Jeep would be a far more realistic plan, if you were traveling through the desert, and trying to make your way to Elko (Yes, I get that there will come a time when you won’t have this option, but you do now, so don’t deny it to yourself). I also get that you don’t live there anymore. But even where you are now, you are off of a major interstate. If there ever is a hard crash, you will have to leave Elko proper ASAP. And that lot of land 5 miles outside of Elko, isn’t going to cut it either. Food for thought, because I care :D

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    1. Interstate location is NOT automatically a death sentence. There is no farming here, nor trees for winter heat. This location was never viable pre-Carbon Fuel Age. I know prepping on assumptions are bad, but I think I am fairly, mostly, probably, safe assuming most asswhores will abandon this location post mining activity. Which already looks likely and soon. Then, once the economic collapse happens, they cannot afford winters here. You are welcome, Las Vegas, here are all OUR people. Payback, you Cali refugee rejects. We should shrink here, down to just a few thousand folks ( and most of those retirees ), even before real hard times hit. The only perfect plan is hermitage, so baring that I don't think I'm gambling much being here.

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    2. Yeah, I recall from before that you were banking on the area clearing out post oil age. I’m sure that’s a reasonable assumption, but I still think it’s bad to be near the town center when it first goes down. You figure that at least in the beginning, you will probably still be dealing with some mad max style motorcycle gangs, and I don’t think that I have to tell what a potentially huge pain in the ass that could be :D

      I posted before that you should get some topographical maps, and chart out all of the water sources in the area. Keep in mind that water sources listed on the topographical map, and actual water sources, may vary. You can confirm them to point with google earth, but again, some images are behind a year or two, sometimes more, so no guarantees. If you had a few lesser known, but reliable water sources in the area, then I would suggest that your bicycle bugout plan might actually have some merit. Keep in my mind that you are also bugging out with an older person.

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    3. Well, I'm also counting on a slow enough collapse, or me calling Chicken Little faster, and getting out by vehicle ( for the slower in my party ). If not, it will be a slow walk. Even if I wake up one morning to an EMP, asteroid strike or Yellowstone, I'm sure I'll beat the panic. There might be plenty of prepping Mormons here, but they are mostly delicate wallflower Yuppie Scum. Or, they are headed in the opposite direction than I am, anyway. Probability does imply some warning. Going farther out in a true bug out? Yeah, much more problematic. But I'll get there. I'm branching out more than before.

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  3. Jim, good break down of field reporting and scenario assessments for the Minionites wearing rose colored glasses in class today. I have bicycles×2 for a niche pre collapse moderate usage and collapse prep planning equipment. It will be down the list in implementation but nice to have there and somewhat set up in case of scenarios arriving. Having a bike in the truck bed or on a rack carrier is kinda like a sailing yacht towing or carrying a dingy or row boat as "back up". You will be leaving a lot of other sucking wind struggling refugees behind by having the pedal power options.

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    1. Smoking crack, or smoking Ronald McDonald's dingus, no one will have the wind to bug-out in non-vehicular form. Bikes, the force multiplier ( "dammit, man, I only wanted semi's, FLIR scopes or sexy comm gear as a force multiplier!" )

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  4. Those who have never ridden their bicycles more than a few miles should also try longer distances to make sure they and their bikes are ready for it. That sounds obvious, doesn't it? Here's my story.
    I was 26 years old and riding my bicycle virtually every day for commuting to work, getting groceries, etc., a few miles at a time. Then one night, beer being somewhat involved, I decided to take my bike, rather than driving, to visit a buddy who lived about 30 miles away out in the country. I slept over and woke up the next morning with, not a sore head, but a sore crotch. VERY sore, stupendously sore. Getting back on the bike to head home was out of the question. I asked to stay one more night and got back on the bike Sunday morning, like it or not (I didn't).
    Lesson: Make sure your bicycle seat is comfortable enough to sit on for long distances, and there's only one way to do that.

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    1. Ya! Yeah, my back-up bike was treated as a red headed stepchild. I only ever put a rack on the back but spent no other money on it. The few times I had to use it, with its sexy skinny seat, my balls were screaming in agony within two miles ( granted, washboard dirt road ). You'll be forever grateful you spent $15-$25 for a padded wide seat. Here is an example:
      https://amzn.to/2POeHWm
      Even the crappy Wal-Mart one lasts a good number of years. Longer with gorilla tape.

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  5. I once read about a guy who had the goal to walk across all the continents on Earth. He did it while pulling a two-wheel dolly cart hitched to his belt. He was his own burro, a genius idea to remember if you're ever desperate. If I remember correctly, his tow load averaged about 80 lbs depending on his water storage. That seems like a reasonable amount to pull and still have enough gear to set up camp instantly if the need arose. Anyways, it would be a hell of a lot better than humping 80 lbs on your back. Bicycle wheels and tires would be perfect for making a pull cart with, so keep that improvisational idea in mind if your bicycle suffers catastrophic mechanical failure to gears or frame. It would be cheap and light weight to carry spare wheels and tires on your bug-out.

    To me, the ultimate bug-out vehicle would be a small off-road motorcycle. You could easily get 20 or 30 miles away from trouble in an hour. My kids had a tiny 80cc dirt-bike when growing up and it would do 40mph even with my 200lb carcass riding it. A small trailer pulled behind it (that could be easily 'ditched' if the need arose) would be ideal. Also, a small motorcycle would be just as easy to hide as a bicycle at your stealthy campsite.

    The off-road, but 'street-legal', Enduro (has lights, turn signals, etc,) is the motorcycle to get. Then you can use it everyday for your needs while waiting for the balloon to go up. A single gallon of gas will get you far away from trouble, and in a very short time. Image what 5 gallons would do.

    Your blog has improved considerably since your retirement. I want to send some cash remuneration for your good work, but am wondering if the semi-rural mailbox is secure until you can collect it?

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    1. The mail is a cluster box, like you see outside an apartment. I never considered security of it before, but nobody has mentioned sending mail I never got. In advance, appreciated.

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    2. Game carts. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=game+cart&crid=1CSLF7D4W6LXM&sprefix=game+cart%2Caps%2C141&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_9

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    3. A game cart sounds like a good idea. Attaching it should be easy. But, longevity? Have we talked about this before?

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  6. Your plan when living in Carson City to bug out to the Sierra's was unworkable. ANY person who currently has a plan to bug out to the Sierras is UNWORKABLE, unless they have a fire-proof retreat to get to. The entire Sierra Nevada mountain range will burn to the ground with some possible un-burned pockets once there is an extended grid outage. Out here in ruralville, in my general tri-county area, there are multiple vegetation fires per day that start during fire season (it's started), each capable of being the one that burns the entire mountain range if the fire department wasn't on top of it immediately.

    I've recently been looking at real estate in the greater Elko area. I can't find a single super-insulated or passive solar structure that'd be worth owning. It seems most people have wood stoves, pellet stoves, or electric heat. Some people have wood stoves in areas that don't even have the "luxury" of sagebrush to burn. I know someone who lives in NV in sagebrush lands who heats his house with a wood stove. The only way he can afford the wood stove is he has family with land in the Sierras where he goes and cuts all he wants for free and hauls it back to the desert.

    I think your distance estimates of 75 miles a day riding in hilly country or 40 miles a day pushing are overly optimistic. Maybe you could do that now, when the roads aren't just an opportunity to wander into ambush after ambush by desperate, needy people. As soon as you go off road, which you would need to if you wanted your bug out to last longer than 1/2 a day, you would likely struggle to get more than 10 miles a day. Your feet and legs would get quickly thrashed by off-angle stresses of off-road travel compared to the consistency of asphalt. Walk a day off road, rest until recovery, until your body gets used to it. The other option would be to go full bore, walking until you're crippled by it. I stay in shape, but we aren't getting any younger, and off-road travel is HARD.
    Peace out

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    1. Good point on the Sierra's. I was so worried about population surges up both sides I didn't even ponder fires. Duh, right? As for ambushes, okay. I can see that from car stranded folks. But line of sight here is really good. There is railroad right of ways. Not saying it is easy, and yes, I was being extra optimistic on the ranges. Isn't the rule of thumb when travelling in Indian country to assume three times the projected travel time? Guess I should have focused on that. I'd always build that safety factor in. My plan would fall apart if it was too much off road though, yes.

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    2. Line of sight works both ways. You can see a long ways, but others who aren't just focused on hustling down the road will see single-purpose you long before you see them. You have "bridges" over washes that are great hangout places (in the shade) while someone waits for their bicyclist victim to wander along. No easy answers.
      Peace out

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    3. Valid points. You can see why I was so motivated to be up here rather than just hoping/planning.

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  7. I think hybrid options never get enough consideration. There is no law saying you must complete your trip with the same form of transportation you started with. The obvious would be to start with a car and bike in the trunk. Bike until the supplies you are carrying dwindle. Then walk the rest.

    The most overlooked option involves picking up Transportation along the way. Beg borrow or steal car bike or skateboard as you travel. You could walk around roadblocks or difficult to travel areas and pick up more Transportation on the other side.

    -Novice

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    1. Good point, but just how good of a transport mode is a skateboard, really? Doesn't seem very caloric friendly.

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  8. How about a unicycle, squirrel monkey and a bennie cap! The monkey could help pull the trailer load during the bugout and cover your 6!

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    1. Let's be real! You can't pull anything on a uni, and you need a solar powered pith helmet. Have rear view mirrors on that. The monkey is more of a distraction if attacked. He can throw turds at the enemy while you are reloading your bolt gun.

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    2. I've long thought that if you put a set of temporary handle bars on a uni anybody could ride one. I learned the hard way when I was but a lad, by cracking the back of my head on the basement floor a couple times. Somebody should build a uni with a "hubless" wheel, that would be eye catching.

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    3. The hitting your head a couple of times on the cement explains quite a lot...:)

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