Bicycle BOVS

[bigpaul]

our bikes are Claude Butler Hybrid bikes 21 gears, we bought them off a cycle hire place last year, they had(until we bought them) been used for about a maximum of 3 months and then not every day so were practically brand new and serviced as well, took a bit of getting used to, I was brought up on bikes with NO gears, if you came to a hill you either stood on the pedals and weaved or you got off and pushed! so to have 21 gears was a real eye opener.

[Mosstrooper]

[/quote]

I see another MAJOR mistake with going fixed gear.

Professional cyclists get in heavy training sessions riding fixed! If you've ever ridden fixed, please tell me how you coped with hills and the alike? Also, how did you cope with doing that while loaded up? Just as easily questionable, how did you find getting started? No way you could start by riding up hill, fully loaded, and fixed, unless you were an elite Tour rider or Track rider [/quote]

yup ive ridden a single speed bike ! but I don't own one
but as a BOV this is what I would prefer due to ease of swapping wheels if I needed to (26` preferred) and there’s less to go wrong and would be a simple fix to the chain.
I coped well the hills, going up not so much fun as going down ...and alike ?
either with a 35ltr or 75ltr pack its tricky, the weight distribution does effect your balance .. even panniers take a bit of getting used to.
ive carried 35ltr pack on my bike up cross fell (echo) and once you get going its fine depending on the incline though (that's why they call them push bikes ) not sure how this is questionable
i know my limits and im no elite tour rider or track rider but i know what have and haven't done which isn't questionable to me !

[Franc]

Most older mtb's which make great BOV's have thumb shifters, that do both index and friction shifting.
If you need to swap the wheels over in an emergency, you just set the shifter to friction mode, that gets you home using most of your new gears, and you can tune the index part in when you get back to base.

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no need to go single speed. you can swap out your 8 gear rear, for a 5,6,7,8,9 whatever geared wheel.

[Franc]

Interesting article on using military bags as diy cycle luggage.
http://outyourbackdoor.com/article.php?id=1828

[Kiril]

Definitely something to look into. Also very good if you want to keep fit.

[Scythe13]

I see another MAJOR mistake with going fixed gear.

Professional cyclists get in heavy training sessions riding fixed! If you've ever ridden fixed, please tell me how you coped with hills and the alike? Also, how did you cope with doing that while loaded up? Just as easily questionable, how did you find getting started? No way you could start by riding up hill, fully loaded, and fixed, unless you were an elite Tour rider or Track rider [/quote]

yup ive ridden a single speed bike ! but I don't own one
but as a BOV this is what I would prefer due to ease of swapping wheels if I needed to (26` preferred) and there’s less to go wrong and would be a simple fix to the chain.
I coped well the hills, going up not so much fun as going down ...and alike ?
either with a 35ltr or 75ltr pack its tricky, the weight distribution does effect your balance .. even panniers take a bit of getting used to.
ive carried 35ltr pack on my bike up cross fell (echo) and once you get going its fine depending on the incline though (that's why they call them push bikes ) not sure how this is questionable
i know my limits and im no elite tour rider or track rider but i know what have and haven't done which isn't questionable to me !
[/quote]

Really good post MossT. You're right, there is always the option to push the bike. If that was the case, I'd try and find some way to rest my bag on the frame of the bike so that I didn't have to carry the bag and push the bike at the same time. Would be better to push the bag and bike together. But would want it to be quickly detachable so that I could drop the bike and run into some woods or something like that, if need be.

[Kiril]

I tended to walk up hills with the bike, well, steep ones... I was 12 at the time.

Here's a question, couldn't somebody quite easily pull you off the bike? Plus motorists even in everday life they can be aggressive, imagine what they would be like WROL, running people down just for the fun of it...

[bigpaul]

as a BOV we wouldn't be riding on the roads, probably jammed with vehicles and roadblocks anyway and an easy places for ambushes, our own plan is to parallel the roads using rivers, electric pylons etc as landmarks and reference points.

[Scythe13]

(26 September 2013, 10:11)Kiril Wrote: Here's a question, couldn't somebody quite easily pull you off the bike? Plus motorists even in everday life they can be aggressive, imagine what they would be like WROL, running people down just for the fun of it...

That's a very fair question.

Personally, if I do opt to bike it (unlikely) I'd ride at night and stop now and again to check the area I was in. Also, roads would be fine...about 2 weeks after a SHTF situation, but only for short periods of time. Cruising on the roads won't be ideal, but there will be opportunities to move quickly with the roads free of cars.

[bigpaul]

(26 September 2013, 11:16)Scythe13 Wrote:

(26 September 2013, 10:11)Kiril Wrote: Here's a question, couldn't somebody quite easily pull you off the bike? Plus motorists even in everday life they can be aggressive, imagine what they would be like WROL, running people down just for the fun of it...

That's a very fair question.

Personally, if I do opt to bike it (unlikely) I'd ride at night and stop now and again to check the area I was in. Also, roads would be fine...about 2 weeks after a SHTF situation, but only for short periods of time. Cruising on the roads won't be ideal, but there will be opportunities to move quickly with the roads free of cars.

there was a case recently where a female jogger was seriously injured when a trip wire was hung NECK high across a bridge, you wont be able to see this at NIGHT, also someone might have NIGHT vision goggles(we've talked about that often enough on this site) you might want to revise your plan and travel at dawn and dusk when you might at least be able to SEE these sorts of obstacles.