Early Retirement Extreme Forums

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@vexed87, living in it, mostly.

Though now it is just for part-time living and taking up space is not the big deal, but rather the effort it takes to load/unload. I wouldn't be opposed to a vertical bike rack with handlebar and pedal mods to flatten the bike. Though really an external rack works best (you just have to consider people messing with it and lack of stealth).

Come to think of it, a lot of the transaction cost is tied to placing the bike in the rear of the van, accessible by rear door, instead of on the side, where you could access it from the side door. Parallel parking and having to open two rear doors fully to load/unload is much costlier/riskier than being able to access the bike easily from the side.

I like unicycles as a mental/physical skill similar to juggling.
A 20" BMX wheel unicycle is about the same speed as a casual walk.
You would need a 26" or 29"/700c wheel to be faster than walk.
These larger wheel unicycles seem rare and/or pricey.

Does a basic $50 garage sale bike and u-lock fit your setup?
Travel, park in city. Unload bike once and bike stays unloaded till you travel to another city.
Bike stays locked outside van when sleeping to something on the sidewalk.
Minimal acquisition costs.
Doesn't work in higher crime areas.
Probably fine in most small towns.

I have a hightop sprinter dream that has a high bed and bike racks under. Similar to this:

> Bike stays locked outside van when sleeping to something on the sidewalk.

This should work most of the time. Unfortunately for me even with a U-Lock and proper locking technique, I woke up once with the bike missing in the morning. Ended up buying it back from a homeless guy a few days later for $20 or so (think I originally bought it on craigslist for $100-200). Since then I've kept it with the other in the van. Maybe I should just go back to locking it on the street.

To each their own for van layouts, but that looks like a sinful waste of floor space to me (and doesn't work 100% if parallel parking and wanting to quickly unload/mount.

How good was your D-lock, a couple of gold security rated d-locks would deter all be the most determined thieves. Or even better one good D-lock and a monster chain. Yes, having two locks will be more inconvenient, I know MMM did a post about how convenience outweighs security, and I agree to a point, but unless you avoiding camping in high risk urban areas, you'll have to sacrifice a little convenience to store it outside because people like this really exist.

It was a Kryptolok Series 2 Standard. Replacement is the Kryptonite Evolution Mini-7.

The kryptolok series 2 has only 13mm diameter bars which are not particularly great against a thief armed with a large bolt cutters. Your only protecting yourself from opportunists with those. Sadly, your replacement is not much better, albeit it has hardened steel, so it's going to take a bit more effort. I wouldn't put much faith in the evo series, I know of two bikes that were stolen here at the office with those locks, anecdotal evidence I know, but on both occasions, the locks were 13mm diameter, the more expensive bikes (therefore you would assume these would be targeted) locked with 14-16mm locks parked nearby were untouched.

Go for at least 15mm bars, 16mm would be much better, as it takes some serious effort, and getting the leverage right is essential, this will be neigh on impossible if your bike is mounted up in the air. Cheaping out on locks is a false economy.

I have one of these locks I use with my Fargo:

https://www.abus.com/eng/Media/Multimed ... -Plus-6500

It's just barely long enough to lock the frame and front wheel together to a pole or bike rack.

Having said that, my bike is rarely out of my sight for very long.

> Replacement is the Kryptonite Evolution Mini-7.

I misspoke. I was looking at my Amazon history and this showed up but I think I immediately returned it and had bought an ABUS U-Mini 40 U-Lock locally instead?

That Abus is much better!

Foldable kick scooters. They make them with tires 26", 20" , 12" on down. Great for around town and odd enough to be not worth stealing. I recommend pneumatic tires for sidewalks & roads. The vibration is worse than the increased effort.

An example:
http://www.sidewalkerusa.com/foot-bike.html

Why don't you get a boosted board? They are electric, have a 7 mile range (2 battery, go 22mph, and have regenerative breaking. It's not cheap ($1,299 or $1,499) but it's super portable, fast, and can be recharged in 75 minutes . Here's their website: Boosted

No need for a boosted board over a longboard I suppose.