AgentR11 wrote:Lore wrote:Will these places have the resources in workers, power and material to do so is the question? It's not that they can't, but if they could.
How much resources do you think it takes to melt some aluminum, cast it, grind it, cut some threaded holes and screw it to a bike frame?
This isn't even advanced machine work here.
You bring up rationing back in WWII; you know what was the hardest thing to get? TIRES. It wasn't the crafted metal in anything, the screws, the car, the motor; it was the dang TIRES. Fortunately, bike tires, ridden on gently, last for a long time, and tubes can be patched over and over.
Think it through, where would you get the proper aluminum alloy and tool steal. That same alloy may now be more valuable and have more important uses else ware, or it may be on limited allocation altogether. Much of the mechanism is stamped, not cast, so you would need to mill those parts too. That is unless you had a several ton hydraulic stamp press. Now, can I count on the guy who can do this showing up tomorrow? I'm on 8 hours of electrical usage. Is that the best use of my power of what is now very expensive resource. What you end up with is a part too expensive to import and too difficult and expensive to make locally.
People will walk more in such a future because the alternatives will be just too expensive or impractical for where they live.
You're wrong about WW2, almost everything needed for the war effort was on allocation. People sacrificed from growing victory gardens to tin foil.