The Ultimate EOTWAWKI Prepper Vehicle

Rule #1? Cardio, and it looks like I could use some more of it.

Just a Little Getaway

Not all escape methods are big and in plain view.

Bicycle Trailers and Cargo

As a prepper, and as a fairly broke one at times, I have found myself with an opportunity to get something useful (55 gallon drum, free tools, lumber, mobile fire pit, etc.), but no way to transport it.

At other times, I have found myself with a bicycle as my primary form of transportation and had to plan accordingly, even when carrying tools to a job site.

If TSHTF and you need to evacuate, a bicycle does not require fuel (beyond the food that you eat, which you need to do anyway), can reach a surprising number of places, and is relatively easy to repair and obtain replacement parts for.

Methods of Bicycle Cargo Transport

Panniers (aka saddle bags)
These are bags, boxes, or baskets in pairs that hang over the frame or wheel, typically the rear wheel, and can be anything from canvas bags to old ammunition containers. If the loads aren't properly balanced (see Cargo Balance, below), you will expend a lot of effort just staying upright, which exhausts you quickly. If properly loaded, they can still cause some hassle when turning but they are an excellent way to store and carry smaller loads, such as groceries.

If you have a locking pannier it is an excellent place for a small tool kit or a first aid kit. I like to keep my tool kit on one side, with my bike chain and lock on the other while I ride.

Baskets
They can come in a variety of forms, from small wicker affairs strapped to the front of the handlebars to large wire baskets that hang over the rear wheel. These make the best transport for things that come large enough to not slip through the gaps and will be taken out quickly.

I like to line mine with IKEA blue shopping bags, so that if I need to quickly weatherproofed what's inside, I can just tie the bags shut.

Holders
These are almost always purpose-built for something like a water bottle or a smartphone, and can be super useful to access something without having to dig it out of your bag.

Cargo Racks 
Typically a platform that you strap things to. I find it very useful for carrying certain kinds of loads that will not fit well into a basket or pannier, such as a car battery or a tool box.

Trailers 
These are a wide field in and unto themselves, but break down into two broad categories: utility/cargo and passenger.

Passenger trailers tend to have fabric floors and walls in order to save weight, making them much less useful as a cargo trailer, but I have carried water bottles to a parade in a passenger trailer. Unless it was a true emergency I would never put a child on a utility trailer.

Utility trailers are the real workhorse of cargo on a bicycle. Trailers are best for things that are oversize/weight and will not fit the other carry options: I have actually seen someone bike to a junkyard, pull an engine, and put it on their flat bed utility trailer to take home. Not something that I would want to do, but a lot better than nothing. They are also fairly easy to pack and leave packed in case of bugout.

Straps, Bungee Cords and Rope
I don’t really recommend these on their own (they work, but are a pain in the butt), but they make an excellent addition to just about any other method mentioned here.

Bags 
These are something that you generally carry on yourself. This is the first go-to for most people that use bikes, and is sometimes the best option, but in the case of a utility vehicle may not be enough.

Cargo Load Balance
This is important when carrying large loads over a distance, especially if you use panniers, and can make the difference between carrying 30 pounds of cargo and carrying 130 pounds of cargo.

• Make sure to balance right to left first, and then front/back if it applies. 
• Try to balance weight so that it presses slightly to the rear of the center of balance, typically around the seat. 
• Most mountain bicycles can handle around 450-500 pounds (including rider) if properly distributed and still be a comfortable ride.
• If you are towing a trailer, make sure to balance weight to the front of the axle. It can cause disastrous problems if you accidentally balance it to the rear, and the trailer comes unhitched. I have done this, and had the trailer roll right back down the hill I was biking up.

Whichever options you choose, remember that using care when installing can save a load of hassle later, and that if you decide to use these cargo options, you are being good for your wallet, your heart, and the environment.

Don’t forget to practice.

Bicycle Maintenance

Many of you are no doubt wondering, What does bicycle maintenance have to do with prepping?

My answers:

1. Bicycles are the lowest-cost vehicles I could think of that will get someone out of a disaster area. There are a great many people who cannot afford something bigger.
2. There have been times in my life that I have only been able to get out of a situation by having a bicycle on hand.

Note the Following
Keep in mind that this is a basic to intermediate guide, not an in-depth guide. That said, this covers the majority of things that you will ever run across. The focus is on the kinds of things a prepper will need.

This article is targeted at mountain and commuter road bikes. Most of the principles will still transfer to other kinds (racing, BMX, etc.) but they may have some specific differences to be addressed.

Suggested Tools

• Bike pump
• Pressure gauge
• Tire patch kit
• Tire slime
• Tire tool
• Pliers
• Allen Wrench set
• Chalk or grease pen
• Crescent wrench
• Teflon lube
• Screwdriver
• Quality duct tape

Flat Tires
Flat tires are the most common problem. Either your tire has a slow leak, (somewhat normal, even with a brand new tire) or it has a puncture. Either way, pump it up and ride it around for an hour or two or as normal. If it goes flat within that time, or will not pump up, it has a puncture; otherwise it has a slow leak.

Fixing a Leak
If your tire has a slow leak, put tire slime in it if it does not have any, and pump it up. (Tire slime goes “bad” after two to four years in my experience, and has to be renewed every so often).

Fixing a Puncture
If it has a puncture:

1. Take the wheel off of the bicycle and use your tire tools to dismount the tire. (Butter knifes can be used in a pinch, but make sure not to bend the rim or cut the tube). 
2.  Remove the inner tube and carefully run your fingers on the inside of the tire, and carefully check for sharp objects that are puncturing the tire. Even if you find one, there may be others, so do a full circuit. It may help to use a grease pen or chalk to mark one point on the tire so that you can tell where you have checked.
3. Fill a sink with water and put some dish soap in it. Inflate the tube, and rotate it slowly inside the sink so that the leak will bubble air out and show itself. Make sure that you check the entire tube over for multiple leaks.
   
   If a tube has more than about three patches, it is probably time to replace it. If the hole in the tube is more than a quarter inch long, replace the tube.
   
   
4. Patch the tube according to instructions in the patch kit, put it back in the tire, and put the tire back on the bike. 
5. Inflate the tire. The correct pressure when inflated for most mountain bike tires is around 30 PSI and up. Make sure not to overinflate.

Make sure not to ride on a flat tire, since it can damage the rims.

Wheels
True your bicycle's wheels every so often. For most bikes, this can be done with a crescent wrench and a lot of patience. I recommend doing it at least once a year for bikes that get ridden with any regularity.

1. Turn the bike upside down and slowly spin the wheel by hand. 
2. If/when you see any wobble in the wheel, tighten or loosen the spoke nearest the wobble using the crescent wrench, to pull it tighter or looser on the hub.
3.  For more in-depth instructions with illustrations, read this Instructable article. 

Seats
Adjust the height as needed (a wrench may be required). You may never need to set it after the first time, but riding is much more comfortable with comfortable seat height, and can actually reduce the wear on the other components.

Brakes
Every so often you should oil any exposed cables with a teflon-based lube, either spray or dropper style. I do this about once a year, but I also live in an area with a lot of salt on the roads in the winter. If I lived somewhere less corrosive, I might only do this once every five years or so.

When adjusting brake pads (for the most common “pad against wheel rim” type):

1. Use an allen wrench of the appropriate size and an adjustable wrench to loosen the nut holding the pad until it moves just a bit. 
2. Have someone slowly grab the brakes, and move the pads until they have the best contact with the wheel rim. 
3.  Tighten the nut back.
4. If you have to replace brakes it is the same procedure except that you loosen the nut enough to remove the pads.

I also like to rotate my pads about twice a year, but that is because I am cheap and like them to wear evenly instead of replacing them.

Gear Shifter
Oil this with the same teflon-based lube whenever it gets “sticky”. You can use a screwdriver to adjust it as needed, but that is beyond the scope of this article.

Chains
If these get to dirty, they will not grip as well. Mild dish soap and water with an old toothbrush works great to clean them.

If they are especially worn you may need to replace them, which is not difficult, but requires a special tool.

Miscellaneous Bits
I recommend checking your bike for anything loose or out of place about once a month for every month that you ride it. You will notice most of these things as you ride, and allen wrenches are wonderful for adjusting them.

Field Expedient Fix of a Broken Frame
I have only had this happen once. If this happens to you, replace the bike at earliest opportunity.

1. Take a crescent wrench or any other long piece of metal. 
2. If the break is on one of the frame bars, tape the wrench on the break. Be generous in your use of tape.
3. If the break is a burst weld, place the wrench at an angle to the weld so that it forms a triangle with the weld in the corner, and use duct tape to “tie” it on. Once again, be generous with tape. 

Bicycle Generators

I slowed down my pedaling as I looked at the charge indicator. My battery was nearly full… and there we go. I dismounted, took the cable for my cell phone, and plugged it into the inverter.

A bicycle generator creates electricity through pedaling. In other words, you are the power source. 

While such a generator will not power your air conditioner (unless you are Lance Armstrong), it will power small electronic devices, such as a cell phone, tablet, or flash light, which can be a literal lifesaver after a major event such as a hurricane or earthquake.

What You Need

• Bicycle (Remember those bikes you scavenged? One of those is perfect for this.)
• Base (I like a bike stand that allows the back wheel to spin freely) 
• Electrical generator (I like to use a car alternator) 
• Board
• Strap
• Car battery
• Inverter like this one
• (optional) an inexpensive multi meter to use as a charge indicator.  

How to Build It

1. Secure the bike to the base. 
2. Connect the alternator to the battery, like you would in a car. 
• If you are worried about this, pull an alternator from a junkyard car and cut off the wiring adapter with about three inches of wire at the end.
• When you get home, look up which wire is which, and splice it in using electrical tape. 
3. Bolt or screw the alternator to the board. 
4. (optional) Hook up a cheap multimeter and use it as a charge indicator.  The voltage on the battery increases as it is charged.
5. Do the same to the bike stand. 
6. Run the strap (often just a couple of old inner tubes stitched together) between the bike and the alternator, around the back wheel.
• There should be some tension on the strap, but not so much that it bends anything. 
7. Bike like it is your only way to watch cat videos. 

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Build-A-Bicycle-Generator/

If you'd like pictures, follow this Instructable link. Note that if you use an alternator instead of a motor, you don't need to add the diode.

How to Use It
When you are ready to charge your device, connect the inverter to the battery and plug your device into the inverter. You can keep biking to charge your device directly, or let the energy stored in the battery do that for you.

Scrounging a Bicycle

There are a great many uses for a scrounged bicycle in the world of prepping. In its original form, you can use it for transportation, entertainment, and exercise; you can break it down and part it out for raw materials for projects or sell the pieces as trade goods; and with some work, you can even use it as a power generator.

The problem is that a lot of people don't know how to obtain a scrounged bike. Fortunately for them, I have many years of experience with this; I make a hobby out of acquiring donor bikes and combining spare components into working units, which I then either sell for a small profit or give away to people who could not otherwise afford one.

Location
I've found that the single best place to acquire free bicycles is in college towns. This is due to a turnover of high population that wants low cost transportation and a tendency to leave those bikes behind when they graduate, since the cost of bringing them back home wouldn't be worth the cost. 

My personal favorite source is college town apartment complexes. It amazes me how many of them have bikes literally piled up in a corner, and have to pay someone to haul them off, because people leave them behind. Once, a couple of phone calls and offering to print up a flyer that they can tape to the bikes asking if the owner is still around yielded more usable bikes than could fit into a one ton truck and a hauled trailer, and none of them needed repairs beyond a patched tire.

Thrift stores often receive too many donations to actually use all of them, and in my experience will actually throw away a certain percentage of things that come in. If you spend a few weekends volunteering for a few hours, they are usually happy to let you have first pick of the rejects as they come in (and sometimes even some of the good stuff). There is often nothing wrong with these other than cosmetic issues such as scratches or light rust.

Bicycle co-ops are also a great place to source inexpensive (or even free) bicycles, if you have one in your city or nearby. If you need one for transportation, they are usually fixed to the point that they work well enough for travel. If you need one for a project (making one into a generator, for example) they will often have components sitting around that they will give you for free, and since many of them are very into DIY, they might even help you assemble the project if you ask nicely.

Finally comes dumpster diving. There is nothing wrong with this, but I leave it as the last resort, because bikes found there tend to have more issues than bikes from other sources. That said, I have seen brand new racing bikes come out of dumpsters behind a mall, with nothing wrong with them but a flat tire.

Safety
Try to have a second person with you, especially when dumpster diving. People get hurt, from simple scratches to broken bones.

Wear gloves if you are not sure what the bike has on it, or if it in an overgrown area. I have been stung by wasps because I had disturbed their home. It was unpleasant, and I do not recommend it.

Wear a helmet. When you are riding a bike, a helmet can make a difference between a long hospitalization and/or death, and a funny story that you tell your friends. If you are in an accident, replace the helmet if it got bumped. Your life is worth looking like a dork, so long as you are a living dork.

Permission
I strongly recommend getting permission from property owners before going dumpster diving on their property. If you choose not to do this, be aware that there may be legal consequences afterwards.

A quick phone call ("Hello [apartment complex], do you have any bicycles that you need removed?") can save a lot of time and energy when it comes to finding donor bikes.

I find that people are remarkably open to someone offering to remove what they see as trash in order to recycle it, and will sometimes offer to help or even pay you to remove the bicycle from their property.

I have also found that apartment complexes with high turnover tend to be more than happy to have someone haul the bikes off, since a lot of them get left by previous tenants.

Getting It Home
Some lucky few of you will be close enough to the source of the bike, and find one in good enough condition, that you will be able to ride it home. Others will either have a pickup truck, or have a friend who does. Failing that, however, there are several options.

Consider public transportation, as you will often be fairly near to a bus stop, especially in a college town. People may give you an odd look, but it is a lot easier to haul a bike around on a bus for a few miles and then drag it home than to haul a bike with flat tires for ten miles. Public transit will also get you a remarkable distance, so if you do some research and make some phone calls before hand, you may be able to pick up multiple bikes for nothing more than the cost of a bus ticket.

Depending on the number of bikes that you are obtaining, you may want to rent a truck. A U-Haul or similar can be rented for about twenty dollars a day plus mileage and fuel.

If you remove the wheels using a crescent wrench, a great many cars can actually fit a bike in the trunk. My accord can fit my commuter bike with the wheels still on it, because the seat folds down.

If you are stuck with dragging it home, make sure to bring plenty of some sort of penetrating lube, and a water bottle. I have done this, and it was not fun.

Basic Tools

• Adjustable wrench, crescent style for removing parts like wheels (or putting them back on)
• Small pump for tire inflation
• Emergency tire inflator. Sometimes the easiest way to deal with a flat is with something like this. It inflates and seals the tire, but will eventually eat through the tube.
• Hacksaw. If you have to cut through a lock that was left on the bike (sometimes because the person who owns it lost the key), this can be very useful.
• Rag to clean off goop, especially when it gets on your hands.
• Cleaner. LOC, Simple green, or even heavily diluted dish soap in a spray bottle. Just to clean off the worst of whatever may be on the bike.
• Lube. A decent aerosol lube can be a major help for everything from stuck bolts to rusty chains. 
• Helmet. When you ride it, wear a helmet. Don’t get killed.
• Gloves
   to keep your hands from getting poked by a random piece of wire or bit of rusted steel. Also good for bikes that have been in especially nasty conditions. These don't have to be expensive, just something leather palmed and cheap.
• Tire patch kit.
• Bike Chain/Bike lock. Having your bike stolen really sucks, so make sure to lock it up.
• A cheap backpack to hold all this stuff. 

A Few Useful Tips
Whenever I have to commute on a nice-looking bike, I cover it in bumper stickers and/or cheap spray paint. I call this "urban camouflage" and it makes the bike look unique, and not as nice, so it is much less likely to be targeted by thieves. I understand that this may not be for everyone.

If you want to keep it nice, paint a custom scheme (even if it is just a stripe or two) on the bike using a nice enamel. It makes it much easier to track if it gets stolen. 

Keep a picture of the bike on your phone and in your email.

Don’t ride a bike with flat tires. It is not just harder to pedal, it will also destroy the rims, making it impossible for them to hold air anymore.

Having a paper trail can help to avoid police problems. Even if all you have is a record of text messages or emails showing that you have permission to remove the bikes, it can save a lot of hassle. My preferred method is a piece of paper with a signature saying something like “Scott Bascom has agreed to help me remove these bikes from my property” or something similar. Getting stopped by the police while you are doing what looks like stealing bikes is fairly stressful, and showing that you are just removing trash tends to get a good response.