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mad max on bikes would be amazing (quokk.au)
submitted 6 months ago by [M] to c/sigh_fi@quokk.au
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[–] 13 points 6 months ago (4 children)

The issue is tires. Rubber wears out, old rubber oxidizes and breaks down, etc. they'd last for a while, but within 10-20 years they'd be pretty much useless for transportation, unless someone figured out a substitute.

They are precision machines though, and could be repurposed for water wheels, windmills, and other geared machines.

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  • [–] 8 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    If you've ever been to Mexico, one of the most common things you'll see is a shop with Vulcanizadora in big letters by the side of the highway. They're tire repair places that use the vulcanization process to cheaply repair tires.

    Vulcanizadora en Mexico

    You can also use the process in reverse to generate useful rubber from a used tire. In the modern world with global supply chains etc. most tire "recycling" is just burning the tires for energy. But, if it were important to get the rubber out because the post-apocalyptic world is short of rubber, that's entirely possible. It wouldn't be cheap or easy, and you wouldn't get anywhere near 100% of the rubber back. But, in a post-apocalyptic world there are bound to be mountains of used tires that you could feed into the process to get some new, fresh rubber.

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  • [–] 4 points 6 months ago (2 children)

    Wait, are you telling me they actually REPAIR the tires there?

    There are places advertized for "vulcanization" here in romania, but here, all that means is that they can mount and balance tires...

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  • [–] 2 points 6 months ago

    I think it depends on the place.

    I think in the big cities, like Mexico City, it's just the name for a tire repair shop, where they balance and replace tires. They don't actually do vulcanization anymore. But, I think in poorer or rural areas, they actually still do repairs using a vulcanization process.

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  • [–] 6 points 6 months ago (3 children)

    I suppose you could probably create wooden wheels with hide leather treads.

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  • [–] 12 points 6 months ago

    saddle up the bone-shakers, we're riding to iron town

    Boneshaker (or bone-shaker) is a name dating from the 1860s for the first type of true bicycle with pedals, which were called velocipedes by their manufacturers. "Boneshaker" referred to the extremely uncomfortable ride, which was caused by the stiff wrought-iron frame and wooden wheels surrounded by tires made of iron.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velocipede

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  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago

    This is what annoyed me about the recent Mad Max movies -- the brand-new knobby tires on every vehicle. I get that they were shot mostly with practical effects and needed good tires for safety, but it's just such a jarringly unrealistic element to a post-apocalyptic scenario. IIRC the original Mad Max had lots of shitty, bald tires because that's all they could actually afford.

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