What about the engine? Is it capable of running on a range of fuels, including petrol, diesel, and e.g. vegetable oil? Post-apocalypse scenarios do not guarantee availability of well-specced fuels.
Well, it’s a moped so in the worst case you can just ride it as a bike. Unfortunately their site is broken so I can’t investigate further.
My first thought looking at it is: That looks overpriced. And I don’t even know the price tag.
Second thought: Are the tools integrated as part of the frame? Do you have to disassemble your bike and then put the parts together to make the crossbow?
True that re the price. It would be nice to have at least a rudimentary how-to/instructable for a DIY version.
Riding as just-a-bike is a good option. For prolonged use, however, e.g. in the no-fuel-available scenario, the engine presents a substantial dead weight to carry around. A “fuel-agnostic” engine would be a better variant. (Would a Stirling or something like that work? They are low specific-power, are fairly large in comparison to their oomph, but they could eat just about anything that burns.)
The integration is a good question. It should be designed in a way that the frame stays intact so you can have both the bike and the crossbow. Possibility to take a rider behind the driver, with the ability to pull the parts off the bike and assembling the crossbow during riding is for bonus points.
Why not just carry around a big sign that says, “I AM INCREDIBLY INSECURE IN MY GENDER PRESENTATION”?
Isn’t that what a SUV is for?
It looks really interesting, but from what I saw on their website, the one shown is more of a concept than something you can order at this time. They are getting a lot of neat attention right now, but it will be hard to take advantage of the buzz unless they have something to sell. I hope they get things together before everyone loses attention. It does seem like a clever idea. My son would love one of those. Of course we are very outdoorsy and rural people, so we would not look like psychopaths riding around on one of these.
That lack of fenders is going to let it blast you with mud any time it rains.
I hope it has an awesome muffler too. last thing I want is attracting zombies from miles around.
Couple encounters, the word spreads, and the sound will be repulsing them instead.
I have wanted to put together something like this but with a diesel motor as well. My thought was to have dynamo powered glowplugs and machine down the head on some 49cc two stroke(edit, yes I understand the stresses this would cause) so I would still fall under bicycle rules. A specially machined rim or maybe hub with disc brake mounting points for attaching a belt pulley and making a bolt on tailboard for the motor so it can be removed without greatly affecting the performance of the bicycle. I have not around to the motor stuff but the bicycle, built on a Dahon 20" wheel frame, is great for short or long rides, hitch-hiking, urban buses and taxis, and fits in the back seat of a Cessna 172 or on a train, fully disassembled it fits into a standard size hard shell suitcase. The only thing it isn’t great at is mud because of the clearance between road tire and fenders.
The bike in the story looks more like one well prepared for running out of fuel and having great mileage at low speed while being light enough to carry over obstacles and when fording rivers.
Why bother, when you’ll project it all over them, for them?
I’ll take an electric assist post apocalypse bike please. I should be able to recharge one from solar at least, and finding gas would likely be more of an issue that finding a solar panel (which I would only have to do once or twice instead of constantly).
That said, in Mad Max the motorbikes were mostly just to ride around looking menacing before being killed in some incredibly obvious way (assuming one wishes to stop an aggressor on a motorbike).
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