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@Object
Loving this thread, nice work Velocio.
A solid starting point would be looking towards a touring bike which has been made with travelling the world in mind. Such a bike would have been created with the intention of being able to keep it running when faced with broken parts in the middle of nowhere.
I've long been a believer in equal length spokes for such bikes, back to the travelling for polo days of carrying the bare minimum.
My BMX uses almost exclusively a 6mm allen key to dismantle it (Despite the variety of thread sizes). The only exceptions being the Thomson Seatpost and my bar end plugs and the need for a chainbreaker. I'd want to replicate this as far as possible on a touring/apocalypse bike.
Fixed and brakless seems like a logical outcome but I'd definitely be starting with a 1x6 setup using a friction shifter and Hope Pro2 Trials. The ISO disk mount on the other side housing a fixed cog for if when that setup breaks down. You could actually run an additional chainring on the front and manually shift the chain across if the need arose. It's not you'd need to have the quickest shifting in the world.
Wheelsize, In europe 700c would be fine but if there's a possibility you may need to be somewhere else then 26" would be preferable for availability of spares. In a pinch you can stretch smaller tubes from kids bikes and make them work in a 26 too.