dogbitteneear

While I was making my last homebuilt bike, I wondered to myself---Is this the same as riding the rail of
the 1930's? By this I mean cutting cost of living to a minimum. After all a person is not coupled to the
gasoline cost associated with cars

LesterOfPuppets

When you say riding the rail, do you mean hopping on freights or purchasing passenger tickets?

Be careful out there if you're thinking of taking up hopping freights.

You could have no troubles, or get a trespassing charge, or worse...

LesterOfPuppets

Also be careful where you ride if your homebuilt was something along these lines.

dogbitteneear

Just comparing the hoboes of the 30's with the modern occurance economic dispair. The able bodied moved to where the jobs were. And in that context would not be a possible view?

dogbitteneear

I see this thread is about to get distorted---Bicycles--road or recumbent bike are meant for the highway. Trains for the tracks and none are to meet by accident.

LesterOfPuppets

I haven't noticed an uptick in bike hobos around here as of yet. If gas gets back up around $5 per gallon, it might happen, I suppose.

It's a looong bike ride from OK to CA, which was a common freight train hop back in the day.

Concentrating on the Advocacy and/or safety of that, bring a LOT of water for AZ and NM. I've ridden on parts of I-40 in AZ, but not sure if it's legal all the way across.

DX-MAN

Wow...everyone on thorazine here? Don't think anyone's talking about reinventing the old hobo lifestyle.

The comparison, as I see it, by the OP, is between the "King of the Road" hoboes (see Roger Miller's old song), and the modern car-free citizen. Yes, there are bike-riding hoboes (now called 'transients', like the one that was hit by the freight train the other day), and the parallel is the cost-free transport.

I'm not transient, I'm a homeowner, but things are SO tight that I can't afford the extra $80-100/month just in OPERATING costs for a car! So I am car-free.

dogbitteneear

What's to look for? If they weren't looking when it was built too bad. After all it(the bike) is a vehicle for transportation not mas destruction!!!

rnorris

In the most general sense, yes; but most of us aren't like the hobos of the 1930s. By and large they were single men and many lived a rootless life, riding the rails trying to find jobs or living in squatter's camps. Most of us have families and homes and our bike rides are taken at times and places of our choice. Also we don't have to worry about getting beaten by a railroad cop. I like our way better.

David13

Beaten by a railroad cop. Or beaten by any of the many psychos who rode the rails, who used alcohol and drugs on a large scale wholesale basis, and had no regard for human life. There have been instances of railroad hobo serial killers who killed hundreds of persons. Dead bodies in the hobo camps were numerous.
However, the biker, more upscale, faces death and injury also from the way the idiots drive cars and trucks, and buses.
So there is certainly a common danger/death element, but less of a financial or economic connection, I think.
dc

LesterOfPuppets

No Thorazine here, but I'd have to imagine anyone who can see an Advocacy or Safety angle in the OP must be on some more experimental drugs.

You should probably keep the car just in case you need to live in it at some point.

Roody

The common thread is that people like to romanticize hard times.

frymaster

i know no shortage of people who read this book and hopped the rails across the country. most came back and got jobs, but a fair number just stayed away too.

srmatte

I started riding to save on gas when it was $4 a gallon. But I don't ride to save gas money anymore. I found that riding my bike cost about the same as driving my car. New bike shoes, upgrade pedals, thinner tires, panniers, and so on. I've been riding for 2 years now, I spend more on biking stuff than on my gas. Just the shoes and pedals I just got is equal to about 10 weeks of gas.

LesterOfPuppets

Using clipless pedal systems clearly deviates from the hobo concept.

Roody

You either buy extremely expensive bike parts, or you don't dirve much.

bicyclerampage

well around here many hobo's do ride bicycles in fact if you ride through downtown most likely you will be mistaken for homeless. so maybe if you want to cut your expenses you could put a change jug on the back of your bike and act a little erratic. and maybe you could not only be getting a free ride around but you could be getting paid for it..... or am i wayy off subject here. im just saying if you play your cards right pretend hobo's can make a pretty lucrative living. and what better way not to blow your cover and be mobile as to be effective in your begging than by hopping on your bicycle. you just have to have something believable. old huffy with a milk crate on the back held in place with coat hangers. be creative.

mikeybikes

Wait... what's this thread about again?

I-Like-To-Bike

Riding the rail with Boxcar Bertha?

frymaster

killing time at work.

dogbitteneear

I wrote this thread to see if anyone else could see the comparision between now and then.
No romantic notion included here.

rwp

There is one similarity - namely that riding the rails was a way to travel cheap back then and for many a bike has the same purpose today.

Big difference though is that '30s hobos were at the point of desperation. The whole reason for riding boxcars was to move in search of work. These guys had given up hope of finding jobs where they lived and as a last resort where making a dangerous and illegal move to other parts of the country. Very few cyclist in this decade are quite that hard up. Most of us still have jobs, places to stay and a reasonable expectation of eating each day. Here's hoping it stays that way.

DX-MAN

Hmm, you got jokes today....

Car's been gone almost five years; had I kept it, the house would have been gone the same five years.

Car's a little tough to fit eight people into. Oh yeah, and I don't live in one of those f'ed up parts of the country where $1000+/month for a 2-3 bdr. house is the norm.

Send me a signal when it's time for me to laugh at your little attempt......

LesterOfPuppets

Um, that was no joke, well in a way, but I think you're taking it wrong, perhaps as some kind of personal attack? It was a joke about the economy, not your personal circumstances. If you can't laugh about hard times, then, I dunno, bro, you got problems.

I lived in a car briefly in the 90s. It could happen to anyone at anytime. When I was out riding Saturday, I saw someone waking up in their car; they had quite a few of their worldly possessions in there too.

If you've 8 people, holy cannoli, that's a big family! Converted schoolbus, perhaps. Hopefully push won't come to shove, however.

Signal sent. Laughter is good medicine!!!

frymaster

i lived in a tree fort for about 6 weeks in the early nineties... fortunately it was mostly august.