The average person can walk about 3 to 4 miles per hour, or 20 to 15 minutes per mile. Let’s give the average person the benefit of the doubt and say they are in rather decent shape, so 15 minute miles will be our standard (walking). According to the Commuter Analysis Report the average one way commute distance to work is 40 miles. Doing the math that means it would take someone 10 hours to walk home from work should the SHTF and traditional methods of transportation were rendered ineffective. 10 straight hours of walking in work attire probably is out of the scope of what most people are able to accomplish, especially with no sources of resupply for food and water. Realistically that trip home would take at least 2 days.
Let’s take it a step further. Your BugOut location is 100 miles away and after SHTF the roads are absolutely gridlocked making driving out impossible. You could walk out with your family but that means you now have to carry all of your BugOut gear on your back. This increases your minutes per mile to something like 20 to 30 (especially if you have kids). At 20 minutes/mile it would take you 33 hours to walk to your BugOut location. Realistically that would translate into about 6 days as moving under heavy loads with your family would probably limit you to 5-6 hours of walking per day.
Now let’s factor in the use of a bicycle. Typical speed on bicycles are 10 to 20 mph so we’ll split that down the middle at 15mph. Instead of taking 10 hours to walk home from your job after SHTF it now would take 2 1/2 hours to ride. Instead of taking around 6 days to walk to your BugOut location you could ride there in 6 1/2 hours (or maybe take 2 days factoring in fatigue). The point here is a bicycle should be standard on every prepper’s “must have” list. Bicycles are great for staying in shape during peaceful times but post SHTF will be invaluable as alternate means of transportation. In addition to being ridden bicycles can serve as mechanical pack mules so that even if you had to walk, you could strap your heavy loads onto the bike and just push it along versus having to carry the pack on your back.
For practical purposes mountain bikes and hybrids offer the most versatility. If you already have a bicycle or are planning to get one most definitely get a couple flat tire repair kits to stuff in your bag as well. Not all bicycles are created equal but even the cheap ones which can be purchased at Target for $100 would be better than nothing at all should SHTF. As a final note, earlier in this article I mentioned riding home from work in a worst case scenario. You might be wondering about a practical way to transport a bike during your commute which does not involve strapping a full size bike to a rack.. If you are willing to spend a bit more money, consider a folding bike which easily fits in the trunk of a car.
Bicycles are great for staying in shape but could prove essential should some major collapse happen and normal forms of transportation become strained or shut down altogether. I hope that I have been able to spark some thought and maybe some genuine concern about your state of readiness if you do not own a bicycle. Good luck and happy prepping.
3 comments
In any prepper discussion of bicycles or bike trailers, things usually turn to how cheap you can go. If you use a bicycle everyday, you soon rack up the milleage; I calculated that my everyday bike has done over 15,000 miles. Bicycles are safety critical, if they break, you can hurt. Whereas firearms may be carried often and used little, bicycles are used hard everyday.
The price/performance curve optimises around the midmarket ($500-800). $300-500 works OK. Buy here if you can. Lower priced models can work if they are simple but avoid at all costs cheap, full-suspension. In an emergency such as a Get Back Home disaster ANY bike will do.
Practical bikes need solid frame attachment points (threaded eyelets) for rack and fenders. If you have them, use bolt-on accessories, and use quality bolts.
The model of use for prepper shooters is usually some variant of hunter/soldier/cop. What model of use for the cyclist? Not road-racer or even off-road-racer. Look to cycle-tourists, hardcore commuters and utility riders for your inspiration. They know what works.
I like the use of a bicycle but as Michael stated ‘you can hurt’. I have a long-term injury from a bike accident, basically a truck with extended mirrors clipped me riding down the side of the highway. Driver didn’t stop, maybe didn’t see me, maybe just a jerk, I’ll never know and that part no longer matters! I was wearing a approximately 20lb. backpack on at the time which of course didn’t help. Always carry extra weight on the bike frame! Anyway, I’m still looking for a quadricycle that I can enclose for fowl weather and better aerodynamics (less wind resistance equals less effort to run) and of course, something I can afford (they ain’t cheap!)!!! As well as being much more stable, quads can carry more cargo though at the cost of speed, but since I’ll probably be carrying most of the extra weight for my little group if we’re forced to BO, speed probably won’t be much of an issue because I’ll still be the fastest rider! On a tactical note, mounting a gun-mount on the center of your steering column could allow you to fire back in an ambush situation, though not exactly ideal! If your quad was set up in a reverse tandom form (the driver/pedaler facing forward and the rear passenger/pedaler facing backward, but able to cover both sides), then you would have twice the firepower and 360 degree coverage and twice the pedal power, though the extra weight would keep your speed down! Shotguns would probably be the weapon of choice for this situation IMHO! GLAHP!
Are there any alternatives to inflated tires? Frequent blowouts make walking comparable. What about something sturdier than spokes? I’m looking for a lightweight, tank bike. Haha. Any ideas?