That youtube video is awesome! My thinking is more along the line of bad storm, no power, high water, etc. I'm in a very rural area and power sometimes takes a couple weeks to get back online. I'm also in a valley and it's flooded in the past. Once, no roads were passable via car so this might be a good idea to have a bike that could get you and your emergency good through.

Well, I'm not worried about that. Every bike I own has it's own pump mounted to the frame. Problem solved. At least for emergency use.

I'm not worried about zombies. Have you seen how slow those things are? I can even outrun them on my Trek 520.

I try to make sure that my CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) kit will fit in one side of my freighterbike. Otherise, no major changes..
Also, by disaster, I presume that one is speaking of something similar to an erthquake, or New Orleans style evacuation, or such. In my part of Alaska, the CERT are mainly focused on earthquake response since they discovered a major faultline nearby that is due to break loose again; wildfire was also glossed over. Other places vary.

You live in a liquor store?

Here is a website that deals with preparation and bugging out due to a major disaster like Katrina. Has a lot of good information on it.

Aaron

Can I come and work with you? I love zombie debates but since the only other zombie-loving colleague has now left I no longer get the opportunity to discuss my fav topic.

As I've said before on other threads, in New Zealand with have a big earthquake threat so I carry enough stuff in my pack to keep me going for a few days, tools, first aid kit, small survival kit, food etc.

Seriously, for the bike I would want to have

appropriate Allen wrenches
pliers
multi-tool with flathead, Phillips, and knife blade
spare chain, or at least a few spare links
chain tool
2 tubes
patch kit
tire irons
pump
zip ties and tape
a few spokes
blueberry pie (for zombie bait)

I had a similar situation in Y2K. I was mildly worried till I watched a show about survivalists who were getting ready to survive Y2K. Turned out he planned to move about 7 miles away from where I lived. After that, I got real and just spent New Years Eve doing a backup of my computer.

But Michigan??? If it were me, I'd be trying to get to the Channel Islands off the California Coast. Back in the 80's when I lived near Goleta, it was doable. Now that I live in Arkansas, its highly unlikely.

I think if zombies take over I've got more to worry about than my bike. I started riding to work because of an emergency - the 2001 earthquake in Seattle that shut the city down for a day or two and closed a major roadway for a week (that same roadway will come down soon so this scenario will be repeated in more of a long-term way soon). Bicycling was the only way to get around with any regularity as the buses were all stuck in traffic along with the cars. It was taking cars 1-2 hours to drive a distance that normally takes 15 minutes.

I've got all the tools, extra lubricant, patch kits, etc. Need to get more spare tubes though - good idea! Plus two "extra" bikes. I can carry a lot too. Some people talk about how much of a traffic nightmare it could be, and barring the closure of a bridge, since bikes may be the only way to get around I tell them to get a bike!

Channel Islands--the location of a great survival novel and movie for children, "The Island of the Blue Dolphins". An Indian girl is marooned on an island and survives alone for 18 years.

Exactly, which is the problem with most of the "whoop! whoop! prepare for disaster! make a kit!" ballyhoo. My likely disaster isn't your likely disaster, so my kit isn't gonna be your kit. Even talking about a kit that will be carried on a bike, there are still too many unanswered questions. Since you're on a bike, it's a given that you're evacuating, but evacuating from what? How does that affect which routes are open to you? Are you evacuating to a location where everything is intact, or will you be without access to clean water, food, shelter, heat, electricity, medical care, etc.? There's really no point in assembling a kit until you have answered those questions.

LOL, I think a lot of folks will be heading to the liquor store then, while the rest of us head off in the opposite direction. I liked the similar post you started a few months ago, what changes did you take after receiving all the advice you got there?

Sure zombie's are slow, but don't forget they travel in groups. If they surrounded you they could easily make you crash. Which brings up a good question. Can zombies ride bikes? I mean having zombies trying to eat me is one thing, but it would really suck if they took my bike too. (not to mention they'd be a lot faster on a bike)

Started putting some basics together, but it's been sidelined by the economy. (Can't buy anything.)

I currently have enough in an inappropriate bag by the front door to get my family through the first minor abrasion, wild pigeon attack, and snacktime.

Perfect. All you guys go on over there, away from here. Just keep on moving.

The perfect place to be is on high ground, in the midst of plenty of forested land where there is game and wood for fuel, around plenty of fresh water, ground that will support growing things, and not someplace highly desirable to be like someplace often thought of as a nice warm paradise.

I'm in the country with a couple of acres to myself, 1/2 mile away from thousands of acres of state game preserves and in the midst of dozens of lakes (yet our land is 150 feet above lake level, and 450 feet above sea level), and ammo to take birds and small game for years (22LR ammo is cheap and works great).

Yes, but you also have to factor in the winds to be sure that the radioactive/biological/chemical contaminants cannot reach you. That factors out most of the United States. But the Channel Islands are upwind of all of that. Santa Rosa and Catalina are probably the best. Santa Rosa's valley could be close to heaven.

Arkansas has plenty of nice forested high ground with game, water and not thought highly desireable, and a warmer climate than Michigan. But then you have to factor in the Nuclear Power plant, and the chemical weapons stockpile, and I'm sure there is more that I don't know of. Heck, a killer fault line just showed up this week.

Yeah. My commute's a bit like that.

The worst disaster I could survive is a week of dial-up internet.

I think my bike is more likely to be the cause of the emergency than the solution to it.

Hey just a thought, but an old bike fork would make a pretty good zombie killing weapon. I would go for something with a very long steerer tube. You could have an uncut one as part of the bike supplies/tool kit and if the one on the bike gets tweaked too bad, swap them out and have the old one become the weapon.

The actual point of the post is, I was thinking of how many things could be put into an actual emergency kit that would serve 2-3-4 purposes. Trying to see how much usefulness can be packed into the fewest items. That is what I like about 'commuter' bikes -- they have a lot of usefulness in a single package.

lol!!!

Any disaster I could survive isn't worth surviving.

That's it. Next time Haley's Comet passes by, I'm hopping aboard and traveling to heaven.

On second though, it would drive me nuts to spend eternity with those people, and I wouldn't know what color toga would be appropriate. Heaven would be hell for me. I'm going to Pluto.