Yesterday, I went to the Coca-Cola plant on Butterworth to pick up some 50 gallon plastic barrels that will be turned into rain barrels. Monday I will have a rain barrel workshop at my house. Eight rain barrels will be built after a pleasant potluck with some of my neighbors. The rain barrel program is sponsored by the West Michigan Environmental Action Council and is part of their efforts to reduce stormwater runoff into the Grand River. One inch of rain onto 1000 sq. ft. of roof creates 623 gallons of runoff. By capturing some of that water from our roofs, collecting it in the rain barrels, and releasing it at a later time onto our garden or lawn, we can work to reduce the overflow events when sewage floods into the Grand River. One fifty gallon rain barrel won’t make much difference. But hundreds of them, installed all over the city, can have a significant impact!
But, that wasn’t the cool part of my day yesterday. The fun part was carrying four of the 50 gallon barrels back to my house using my Xtracycle and my Burley trailer. When I first told Kristi, the program coordinator, that I was going to use my bicycle to carry them, she acted with a bit of disbelief. But, once at the Coke plant, she patiently helped me use the bungee cords and rope to secure them to my bicycle. I got a lot of looks and attention on the way home and it was a ton of fun. I even modeled the loaded bike back at the WMEAC offices and heard that my photo will be featured in the next WMEAC newsletter! Awesome!
People often underestimate what you can carry on a bicycle with some simple tools like a rack, panniers, and with some extra investment, an Xtracycle or trailer. It would certainly have been a bit easier to borrow my in-laws’ SUV and put them in the back of that, but it wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun!
For more inspiration, check out the “I Carried This on My Bicycle” community on Flickr.
Here are a few more photos of my load, or view my set on Flickr.com.
Way to go! Good barrels for free too.
Good effort hauling all that stuff across. Must have been a bit of a challenge to navigate!
Too bad there were no river crossings on the way home – you probably could have made it!
Andreas: It was a little sketchy at times, especially when the top barrel began falling back. But, overall, steering wasn’t THAT hard. Just keep pedaling.
bikejuju: I had one person yell at me “Is that some kind of boat?” in a sort of amazed kind of voice.
[...] On hauling large items with a bicycle [...]