Tag Archives: broom bike

Sweeping the streets…one Haul-A-Day at a time…

Our friend Matthew has been working on a little project with his creation called Bicimakina for many moons and its tale we set before you about a man on a mission.  A life free from flats, no longer having the need for emergency repairs.  Find his story below and may your journeys take you to faraway lands, where the streets are littered with smiling faces rolling on two wheels for miles of smiles.

Enter the mind of Bicimakina solutions for changing the world:

 

For a long time, I had terrible tires, something cheap, I don’t remember. I kept meaning to buy new ones, but I’d forget until I inevitably chanced upon some broken glass.

I could never risk running over the glass, it was a guaranteed flat. So the choice was always either to swerve into traffic or screech to a halt. It was a frequent and frustrating occurrence. Of course, instead of just getting some sturdier tires I concocted the most stupidly elaborate solution possible: put a broom on the front of the bike.

 

Thankfully, as I had a Haul-a-Day, I could easily build an attachment for a deployable push broom. All I had to do was design it around the convenient headtube mounts, used for the front rack + plate. So, during quiet hours in the shop, I tinkered away until I had a working prototype.

The idea was good in theory: an angled broom, like a snow plow, would push all of the glass off to the curb. Better bike lanes for all. There was only one problem. It doesn’t work. Like at all. Unless you’re sweeping bouncy balls or getting geese out of your way, it’s pretty useless. The glass just rattles around under the bristles and then pops out of the back and you run over it anyway. It’s not even any good for getting leaves or debris out of the lane.

So this is where we call on all our BFF’s(Bike Friday Friends) and encourage you to get involved, help our friend Matthew at Bicimakina bring this solution to life in a truly functional way.  Makers of the world unite…with many minds we can change the world one bike at a time.  Can you help us with this project?  Support our friend and fellow maker who wants to ensure flats are a thing of the past and smiles for miles are a thing of the future.  Enjoy the video below and then share with us your ideas…how would you take a Bike Friday Haul-A-Day and adapt a broom to it for clearing the bike paths as needed?  Show us your stuff!