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We got another horse vs. bicycles for the post apocalypse folks
(old.reddit.com)
Synthesis:
Train the horses to ride bicycles.
On the one hand you best start now, on the other hand damn would that be efficient
Resources are super scarce, so let me explain how it is more efficient to also care for this 1000lb+ animal.
Eating grass is pretty useful
It is, though horses, especially those doing regular strenuous or heavy labor, usually require more nutrition to supplement pasture/grazing. It takes a lot of effort to keep giant high-anxiety beasts with temperamental stomachs healthy and happy!
E: Plus you gotta maintain the grazing area, since horses are liable to get sick from any number of plants, mushrooms, insects, or other unsavory things they may accidentally munch on.
Plus you gotta maintain the grazing area, since horses are liable to get sick from any number of plants, mushrooms, insects, or other unsavory things they may accidentally munch on.
This just cannot be a necessity. "Take your hundreds of horses to a new place when the old place ran out of grass" was a valid strategy for several cultures for millenia.
Depends on how much you care about individual horses. If you have herds, you can lose some to sickness (or have them be inactive while being treated/recovering). If you're caring for individuals for transportation, you should pay attention to their wellbeing
Plus! The lands are polluted to hell, filled with garbage, potential biohazardous materials, sharp or physically dangerous refuse
E: Also important to consider - many people who wish to own horses don't live in areas naturally suited to the horse's ecological niche, not even considering environmental changes in the modern era. Huge ranges for roaming herds in grasslands aren't ubiquitous - and much farm and pastureland isn't naturally occurring, rather it is clear cut and maintained as such, hence why there may be flora/fauna detrimental to their health.
sorry, bikes are the most energy efficient form of transport. add a mountain ebike and a solar panel and youre even more OP. battery goes bad? go spelunking for discarded evapes and build a new one. in fact go to a workshop rn on building batteries and electrical systems theyre easy to build
But Rick Grimes looks so cool horseback! Even though later on at the end of the episode the horse literally gets eaten.
It's a fun debate to have.
Bike maintenance might become untenable after awhile if you can't get ahold of lubricant or tire repair material. Even some of those new-fangled airless tires will eventually need wear down and need to be replaced. I expect that it would be fairly high priority of a rebuilding civilization to get that figured out, otherwise they're going to have to revert to horses out of necessity.
Bike maintenance might become untenable after awhile if you can't get ahold of lubricant or tire repair material.
I think a lot of this is down to a perception that your bicycle is broken if you can't run tubeless or pneumatics or whatever but whenever people were in the shit these 2 points have been figured out. Fill your tyres with cork or make springtyres, just slather on some canola oil on the chain (more often than some specialized bicycle chain brand) and it works. Nobody does this today because it'd suck and they have other options, but it'd still beat walking
some of those carbon fiber chains can last eons too if you dont get shit fixed by then its kinda over.
carbon fiber chains
I've never seen that before, is it like a regular steel roller chain but made with carbon fiber? Or do you mean the rubber belts with carbon fiber reinforcement?
https://www.gates.com/us/en/innovations-and-solutions/urban-mobility-and-powersports-solutions/belt-drive-systems-for-bicycles.html referring to the gates carbon belt, its single speed and common on ebikes. ive been using one almost daily for like 8 years with minimal maintenance and have 8k miles on my bike. in fact i dont think ive even touched the chain once, it doesnt need lube. its made of nylon, polyurethane, and carbon fiber. its attached to an internal geared mid drive hub. its rated for like 10k miles or something. if you got like 10 of these babies in storage youd be set for life i think
I'd love to spend my post-apocalypse doing a lot of extremely specialized work to maybe have a mode of transportation if nothing goes wrong, compared to, like, keeping my eyes open while I'm looting anyway, to look cool when I ride into town
I guess im just not seeing the maintenance issue as much as anyone else. As long as you have a somewhat functioning village sized society replicating either a basic bicycle or a horseshoe shouldn't be too hard, no? Like if we maintain the basic engineering knowledge.
I guess wheels are tougher, requiring rubber. But you could use other materials, i mean humanity did. Wooden wheels work for a bicycle, it just sucks compared to rubber.
I guess im just not seeing the maintenance issue as much as anyone else.
I agree. Cars are absolutely ubiquitous. Nearly every tool one would ever need to maintain a bicycle can be found in any suburban garage. Not to mention, there are a handful of auto mechanic shops and hardware stores in every single town where more niche tools can be found. A calamity of one sort or another which severely disrupts supply chains might make niche materials and gases more difficult to obtain, but even in the event of a global nuclear war, there would be many surviving manufacturing facilities and the means to produce these things. There is an inconceivable amount of manufacturing capacity which is dedicated to consumer slop and industrial supply. A lot of production facilities dedicated to cranking out Labubus and golf carts and robotic vacuum cleaners can be re-purposed to produce staple items like tires, wheels, and ball bearings. Larger plants making automobiles, oil and gas machinery, etc can also be repurposed.
It won't exactly be efficient, but the obliteration of production for exchange value would free an unbelievable amount of productive capacity. If the markets which make these factories profitable go up in smoke, the buildings and machinery will still be there.
Wooden wheels work for a bicycle, it just sucks compared to rubber.
Compared to the old-school road tires which run at 90+ PSI, a wooden wheel might actually be more comfortable (ok this is a joke). There is a lot of potential in plastic recycling as well. Butyl (rubber) inner tubes are already being replaced with TPU (a flexible thermoplastic also used in 3D printing) in performance road/gravel bicycles.
I think both'd be pretty hard to do but for entirely different reasons. You can probably find a lot of people who could technically weld you together a bicycle frame but then how do you weld in the post apocalypse. The horseshoes is way easier to manufacture but then that has the problem of there isn't exactly a lot of guys, material or manufacturing equipment left to manufacture horseshoes because nobody needs them anymore
but then how do you weld in the post apocalypse.
(okay it still conventionally relies on brazing / welding, but I don't think it is an absolute requirement of the technique. Though brazing makes for a very strong bond between the lugs and the tubes, they could conceivably fastened by bolts or rivets)
Bicycles are more common than horses and they dont die. If you have several broken bicycles chances are you can make a working bike from em. I would assume an apocalypse would be pretty damaging. You really dont need to go into what is more effective because what is easier to find wins in what is presumably a survival situation.
If you have several broken bicycles chances are you can make a working bike from em.
a wizard told me the same is true for horses
Horse golem
Frankenstein DVM
cart doesn't need a drivetrain, but i'd still take bikes
Disagree, the drivetrain for the cart just weighs 500kg and is liable to break a leg or get colic
So not only should people be riding bicycles, but we should see people using cargo bikes of all types.
you could sword the jaws off of zombies and rig them up to pull your cart after the horse dies of ligma
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this post was submitted on 13 Apr 2026
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traingang
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