This week’s Readers’ Rides comes from our buddy Jared in Raleigh, North Carolina, with his Omnium e-Cargo, equipped with a Bike Lane Sweeper he calls the “Wheelie Clean.” We love e-mobility and Omnium cargo bikes and know y’all do too, so let’s check it out!
I purchased this Omnium e-Cargo bike last autumn to help reduce my car trips even further. It has essentially become my truck, my work vehicle, both figuratively and literally. Since becoming the E.D. of a bike and transportation focused nonprofit, I’ve found myself, weirdly, driving more than I did when I was a local bike shop grease monkey.
Being a one person staff means hauling a lot of items solo, whether it’s a table of swag and resources as a vendor or running a fully mobile free bike repair pop up workshop. This cargo bike, my first cargo bike and my first e-bike, helps me do more of that kind of work by bike.
One of our recent acquisitions is a pull-behind-bike bike lane sweeper, which we’ve named Wheelie Clean. The sweeper is a custom built, homemade gadget from bikelanesweeper.com. Ours is the “hybrid” model. It picks up debris and sweeps it to the side. It looks pretty fantastic when attached to my cargo bike, so I thought I’d take a few photos to share.
For Bike Month this year, we gathered some volunteers, grabbed some shovels and brooms, and took Wheelie Clean for its inaugural run on a downtown bike lane that’s often littered with trash, debris, sand, and gravel. This particular lane is problematic because it sits on an overbuilt, three lane wide road that’s as straight as an arrow, which encourages cars to drive too fast.
Having to veer out of the narrow painted bike lane to avoid debris creates an unsafe experience for all who use the lane. Now, it is, at least for the time being, clean.
You can check out a short video Reel on our Instagram or YouTube to see it in action.
In the photo, I’m pulling the sweeper while hauling 10 traffic cones, trash bags, 3 trash grabbers, a push broom, a snow shovel, several safety vests, and a leaf blower. You can do it too, with the right tools… and the right bike. Follow us to see more of Wheelie Clean in action!
Wheelie Clean branding by Evan Weselmann.
“Can’t the City do it?”
-Jared Harber
Oaks and Spokes
Raleigh, NC
We’d like to thank all of you who submitted Readers Rides builds to be shared here at The Radavist. The response has been incredible and we have so many to share over the next few months. Feel free to submit your bike, listing details, components, and other information. You can also include a portrait of yourself with your bike and your Instagram account! Please, shoot landscape-orientation photos, not portrait. Thanks!
