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Here is the deer bike. I had to put a suspension post on it, raise the handlebars, and put a kickstand so that I didn't have to lay it down in the mud when there wasn't a tree handy. It fell over half the time anyhow. 🙄
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I was able to ride within 75 yards of this buck. He never paid any attention to the bike.
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I bought myself this bike below a while back but it was a disaster so I eventually gave it away.
It cost about ÂŁ350 (481 USD) and I couldn't resist buying it when I saw it in the bike shop because it seemed to tick the right boxes, namely a nice stealth grey, and it was a so-called 'hybrid' model which mean it was a cross between a mountain bike and road bike, good for racking up the miles offroad AND onroad..:)
But my smile vanished when I got it home and began checking it out, because it was far too fancy and complicated for a simplicity-freak like me.

For examp, it had 3 different spoke sizes, one for the front wheel, one for the right side of the rear wheel, and one for the left side.
Each spoke length was only a couple of millimetres different to the others meaning they were almost impossible to tell apart by eye, especially if you were trying to replace a bust spoke on a dark rainy night.

Also, it had 3 chainrings giving a total of 30 gears which were far too many, and I had to fiddle like crazy tweaking the lever to flick the chain from one ring to the other, then fiddle with the other lever to find a comfortable gear.
The wheels and tyres seemed a bit too fancy too, as did various bits and pieces, so if I was out biking and something bust there'd be no guarantee that the nearest bike shop would have a correct fancy replacement item.
Next time I'll buy an ultra-simple no-frills bike for less than half the price..:)

PS- another thing I didn't like were the three welded lugs under the crossbar (see pic) which carried the rear brake cable, because it meant every time I picked up the bike to carry it on my shoulder over a stile or stream, the lugs stuck painfully into my shoulder.

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Saracen bike. Urban Myth maybe? Should be all standard parts. Standard 14 gauge spokes.


I think it was a Saracen or Urban Myth but I can't remember the exact model.
All I know is that i asked the dealer to sell me a few spare spokes and he said "Which wheel? it takes 3 different spoke lengths".
I said "I don't know", so he gave me 3 spokes, each of a different length.
 
In the old days 40 years ago, bikes were much easier to buy, I simply went down the dealers and pointed to a cheap no-frills road bike and said "I'll take that one"; I must have bought at least 5 like that over the years and they got me around well enough..:)
Here's one of mine on a cycle-camping trip from Leicester to Paris and back (total 700 miles) over 8 days in 1975, you can't beat a sleek lightweight road bike like this for eating up the miles..:)

Top- entering Amiens,
bottom-in Paris

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The OP referenced how you'd get around if there is no gasoline. Unless you have an electric vehicle that's charged with wind or solar, the viable options are basically your feet or a bike of some sort. Bikes are much more efficient, and the best part is that the more you ride the better your condition, and the greater your range. Exercise is a great prep, and bikes are great exercise.
 
the best part is that the more you ride the better your condition, and the greater your range.
Up until the point that you blow your knee out from repetitive stress. 🙄 (happens to 40-60% of avid cyclists eventually)

It got so bad I could only use one leg to go up stairs or stand up from a chair. The cartilage would not heal until I took platelet rich plasma treatment a couple of years ago, and it's been slowly getting better since. I'm hoping I'll be able to get back on the bike again eventually.
 
I dislike modern bicycles, we have a pair of hybrid bikes but they have stupid valves in the tyres that you cannot pump up with a foot pump and its to easy to pull the valve out then you cant get it back in and yes I've done it.
I would prefer an old fashioned bicycle with car type valves and no gears, if the hill was too steep to pedal up you got off and walked(keep it simple!). it was also easy to build a bike out of different parts.
 
I dislike modern bicycles, we have a pair of hybrid bikes but they have stupid valves in the tyres
FMD Paul, you really are a luddite lol lol. They are called Presta valves, the old type are schrader. You can buy adaptors you know, I use them, I don't have a Presta pump at all, I use 12V electric car pumps with the adapters.
 
Up until the point that you blow your knee out from repetitive stress. 🙄 (happens to 40-60% of avid cyclists eventually)

Well that sucks doc. I don't feel so bad about missing my ride this morning now.
I basically ride for cardio fitness and estew hills aside from the very gentle ones. I'm always striving for higher cadence (on hybrids) which of course means faster peddling but less force put through the legs. I wonder if that's a recipe for avoiding what you refer to? I have been riding for 20 years now, with a year off here and there, but only once a week for 30 or 40km typically. I was thinking of upping it to twice a week now I don't do much else.
 
I'm always striving for higher cadence (on hybrids) which of course means faster peddling but less force put through the legs. I wonder if that's a recipe for avoiding what you refer to? I have been riding for 20 years now, with a year off here and there, but only once a week for 30 or 40km typically. I was thinking of upping it to twice a week now I don't do much else.
LOL, my wife kept telling me "just use a lower gear." But unfortunately it doesn't work that way. It is a REPETITIVE stress injury. I was going 20 miles a day before I started having problems. At first it only hurt for the first couple of miles, but eventually I had to start cutting back on the distance until I finally threw in the towel and went swimming instead.
 
Well I'm not having any problems yet but at least I have an option if I do. I went from running, back issues, to cycling. Did you do much hill work?
Nothing extreme. The bike trail is a converted railroad track, so the grade is limited. There is one loooooong uphill stretch however.
 
I am an avid cyclist.

Years ago, I had a lot of debt, I was depressed, overweight, and so forth.

I adopted a bicycle lifestyle and retired my car. I had a trailer--which hooked up to my bicycle--which I used for groceries and so forth.

If it was raining, I had a fold-up bike which I could collapse and carry on a bus or train for my commute to work.

The money I would ordinarily have spent on gas, registration, car insurance, mechanical maintenence, and so forth was applied to my debt.

I was able to get my finances in order, I lost weight, I had more energy for work, and so forth.

Everyone was intensely judgmental toward me for giving up my car. I was even drug-tested at work, as people automatically assumed that I must have gotten a DUI or something.

In any case, I don't care what people think. Using my bicycle instead of a car fixed a lot of issues that were holding me back.
 
I also forgot to mention that I used a bicycle when I was a relief worker after Hurricane Andrew. I carried lab specimens, records, and medical supplies to and from different clinics. A bicycle was great because I could carry it around road obstructions, I could ride on sidewalks, there was no need for gasoline, and I could carry it inside a building to keep it from getting stolen.

Using my bike under these conditions freed up vehicles for other purposes.
 
The OP referenced how you'd get around if there is no gasoline. Unless you have an electric vehicle that's charged with wind or solar, the viable options are basically your feet or a bike of some sort. Bikes are much more efficient, and the best part is that the more you ride the better your condition, and the greater your range. Exercise is a great prep, and bikes are great exercise.


Yes, in his true WW2 book 'The Jungle is Neutral', Freddy Chapman and his sabotage squad behind enemy lines used to walk around carrying loads of explosives to blow up Jap trains and stuff in Malaya, but they later switched to bicycles because they realised they could cover much greater distances..:)
 

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