The idea behind camouflage is to make something blend in, or at least not stand out. We can agree on that, yes? That’s why I had to stop and take a picture of this:

“Dude! What did you do to mom’s car?!”

First off, it’s a Subaru. Fine, durable cars. I still see tons of the old GL’s still on the road. But if you want to hide your Subaru you dont paint it in such a manner that makes passerby, like me, stop and take a picture. Thats, like, anti-camo. Leave it in its usual ‘Forest Green’ or something and it will blend in with the millions of other Fubarus in the organic supermarket parking lot.

There’s a time to be wearing camo and being stealthy. 10 AM in front of Ruby’s Cafe is not it. And, really,. of all the cars to butch up…a Subaru? In the body shop behind me is an old Dodge Crew Cab Power Wagon being restored. That monster is worth a camo paint job. It looks like it’ll mow down anything that gets in its way. Camo’ing up a Subaru is like putting a heavy spiked leather collar on your basset hound.

Interestingly, I do see a fair amount of vehicles with homemade camo paintjobs on ‘em. It can’t really be for hunting, since youre not supposed to hunt from vehicles and the wildlife here is pretty inured to vehicles (sometimes fatally so). Honestly, when I see vehicles with paintjobs like that I think of stereotypical redneck scraggly-bearded camo-wearing folks that give survivalists a bad name. Yes, I am succumbing to a stereotype.

Were it me, I’d just stick to a nice, even, flat-finish paintjob in something ‘coincidentally tactical’ like ‘coyote’ or a not-quite-military shade of green (‘sage’, perhaps. And when did they rename all our favorite camo patterns to these new names? We used to have desert, OD and a few other greens…now we have ‘sage’,'foliage’,  ‘coyote’ and some other trendy names. WTF, man?)

And what really kills me is that you go through all the trouble of painting up mom’s old car into a camo pattern and then you leave the bright chromey door handles. Fail. Also, the skid plate is a nice touch.

Man, all sortsa interesting vehicles are showing up on the local CL these days.

Yet another BOV-in-the-making.

Someday, I’ll have enough money that when my buddy sends me a link like this one I’ll be able to act on it.

Doesn’t that look like the foundation for an uber-BOV? Someday, man……….

American Company Profits With War Wagons

This is kind of a no-brainer. Why wouldn’t you deck out a pickup truck for duty as a MadMax/anti-zombie/security vehicle and market it to poorer countries. Strip away the government contracts and, essentially, what you have here is a company making BOVs. The video says its $25k for one of these things which seems like an awfully good deal, unless they mean $25k on top of the base price of the new truck. Interesting stuff.

Here’s a link to the company. Cool looking rigs. But I bet a DIY’er could part together the same thing.

Spring is, eventually, approaching. Montana has a few nice things going for it but short winters and early springs are not among them. We refer to spring as ‘mud season’ around here and with good reason. However, since we live in the ‘city’ here the problems arent mud as much as it is just the detritus of an entire winters worth of road sand and gravel. The point, though, is that it is rapidly approaching bicycle season. Bicycle season, by the way, may accelerate it’s arrival in direct proportion to the arrival of $4/gallon gasoline.

I’ve said it before, mountain bikes are a lovely way to move from point a to point z in a crisis. I’ll bet you a whole buncha yen that if you look at pictures from whats left of northeastern Japan theres far more bicycle traffic than private vehicle traffic. Even in the best of times, which these arent, bicycles give you a bit more mobility in a crowded environment. This isnt theory, you can see it proven if you live in a large city and have bicycle messengers. Sure, they ride with the same sense of self preservation as the typical Japanese Zero pilot, but the results speak for themselves.

For general preparedness, a decent mountain bike beats the crap out of walking. Can’t haul huge amounts of gear beyond a backpack or two, and if its raining or snowing youre probably going to be miserable, but when the gas pumps are locked up, the roads are jammed, and its time to head for greener pastures youre going to be glad you have one.

Like guns, you’ll need some reference manuals, tools, spare parts, and a small amount of mechanical knowledge. In my town, which is a college town, theres literally free bicycles if you scavenge around the dumpsters and such. Heck, the local police auction of lots of them from time to time…some cheap ones, but some good ones in there too.

I’ve been riding the same bike for a number of years now. I can be at my shop, from my house, in about six minutes if I really work at it. For a very long time all I had was a mountain bike and I never felt terribly inconvenienced by not having a vehicle. I wouldnt recommend having just a bicycle and no vehicle, Ill take internal combustion over infernal pedaling any day of the week.

I’ve been meaning to modify my bike and just havent gotten to it. More than anything else I want to strip the frame and have it powder coated a nice subdued color. Although, really, I could also just pick up a couple rolls of camouflage tape used for bows and guns and just wrap it around the frame when the need arises.

As it gets warmer perhaps me and the dog will head up some of the riding trails. Be good to tire him out and get some exercise.