Keith C. Johns

Ranger Scott:

Nothing is ever as bad or as good as you feared or hoped
for. But fear makes us suffer before it actually happens,
and perhaps suffer worse. “A brave man dies but one death,
but a coward dies a thousand deaths.”

We may well see $10 a gallon gasoline eventually. Will it
alone end civilization? No. No more than $3/gal. has, even
when that looked unthinkable even a few years ago. We will
adapt. And some people will consider their FSUVs in a new
light. It might even benefit the world a bit if it drives
more people to consider healthful, environmentally friendly
alternatives like bicycling and walking and public transit
more than relying on the car to do everything.

Panics happen, and national emergencies happen, but we get
over them. Or we die, and that is itself inevitable (have
you dealt with that crisis yet?).

It is true that even with cars fully tanked, after Katrina,
many people literally were forced to abandon their cars
after they ran out of gas while waiting on the highway from
New Orleans which got blocked by an accident. So sometimes
the bike is the only dependable transportation in a crisis.
If someone doesn’t knock you off of it, that is.

As to your specific question about bicycles, I’d definitely
get some kind of folder. Dahons give you perhaps the best
bang for the buck; Yeah bikes are licensed Dahon technology
or actually made by Dahon and rebranded with some older
Dahon technology, I believe. Other brands are also good,
just more expensive. Why a folding bike?

<> Storage: You will be able to store it in your closet, or
under your bed or behind a door, or under your desk, or
behind the water heater.... Since storage is definitely an
issue with you, it ought to put folders into the forefront
of your options.

<> Portability: Carrying it down stairs is definitely
easier in the folded state. I have carried full size bikes
around bends in narrow stairs and wished I had a folder
then.

<> Anti-Theft: Wherever you go, or stop for the night along
your long journey home in your bleak scenario, you will have
to leave most full size bikes outside in the elements, and
risk theft. The biggest, baddest lock you can buy can be
foiled by a determined and properly equipped thief. Or he
can just vandalize it in frustration. But if you fold your
bike, it goes inside with you and it will not be taken
unless it is at gun point, and in that scenario the bike is
probably not what they want.

<> Adaptability: You may find yourself occasionally in the
position of being offered a ride, or wanting to take it on
public transit. Unless the vehicle just happens to have an
empty bike rack on it, you may be SOL. Or the person
offering you a ride may just tell you to ditch the bike if
you want the ride. Few will accomodate a full size bike in
their car. But with the folding bike, you make the bike as
welcome as yourself readily.

You may offer yourself your own lift, too: start out in
your own car with your folding bike in the back seat; when
you get bogged down in the traffic jam, you can pull out
the bike and abandon the car. Options!

<> Ridability: You will find that folding bikes ride as
well as any other comparable sized and accessorized bike.
The issue isn’t whether you should ride a folding bike that
distance, versus a non-folder; it is which folding bike. And
that gets into all the other aspects of bicycles such as
tire size, suspension, gear range, frame geometry, etc. You
can get really any bike type and components in a folding
bike.

I would steer you to consider the internal gear hubs for
their low maintenance, and the smaller wheeled bikes have
the benefit of smaller and thus more portable spare tires.

Get a folding bike and enjoy it and it may take your blood
pressure down and you will be able to envision a happier
future for us all.