Any prepper CYCLISTS here?

[Ukprepper88]

Depends what you want to know as my knowledge is limited but I was a member of the CTC (cyclist touring club) for a few years and used to spend the occasional Saturday helping out at my best mates grandparents cycle shop and managed to cobble together a working bike from 3 rusty mangled ones a couple of years ago to cycle to work 12 1/2 miles away

[Lightspeed]

Push Bikes are my long term transportation of choice.

I especially look out for 1970's tourer type bikes as well as better quality steel framed "mountain" bikes. These are inexpensive and fairly widely available.

Steel frames can be "cold-set" back into alignment if they get bent.

Steel frames with the right braise-ons can carry huge amounts of luggage.

Friction gear selectors allow human intelligence to adjust for wear,

Low gear count means much stronger and durable chains.

Take a look at some of the 30+year old bikes on e-bay. There are loads of them. Old technology was designed to last and be repaired at home, I wonder how many aluminium framed 27 gear marvels of technology will stillbe usable in 30 years time?

Getting an old bike of the types described above and then refurbising it yourself is an excellent training on how to maintain it on your own in the future.

[Metroyeti]

Got a cheap mountain bike, but want to replace the suspension,for a solid frame, never had suspension before and found it akward to ride

[Lightspeed]

(27 August 2012, 10:02)Metroyeti Wrote: Got a cheap mountain bike, but want to replace the suspension,for a solid frame, never had suspension before and found it akward to ride

Well noted Metroyeti,

Suspension adds to the weight of the bike, robs energy from your legs by bouncing up and down, and most importantly, its another thing to wear out.

Old steel framed bikes have somewhat springy frames, especially those built out of quality tube sets like Reynolds 321. These are vry comfortable on long road rides.

[Metroyeti]

Found it hurt my arms.

are the front forks easy to swap? I dont know a thing about bikes but I need to learn fast,stuff like changing the breaks and inner valves is next on my list.

[Lightspeed]

(27 August 2012, 12:49)Metroyeti Wrote: Found it hurt my arms.

are the front forks easy to swap? I dont know a thing about bikes but I need to learn fast,stuff like changing the breaks and inner valves is next on my list.

Changing forks can be tricky. Firstly steerer tube needs to match that of the suspension fork. More importantly the rake of the replacement fork needs to position the wheel in about the same place as it was on the suspension fork, otherwise the handling of the bike will change.(meaning it'll manoever more or less stable than before) The Sheldon Brown site has info on this.