What do you get when you combine two bikes, a couple levers, and a home made wooden shovel? Why, a light duty tricycle plow, of course! [Craig] of Firefly Workshop cobbled together this contraption to assist him in shoveling his 90′ driveway when a few inches fall. More convenient than a normal shovel, and much more environmentally friendly than his 8 Horsepower snow blower, this trike looks like it could actually make shoveling the snow fun. Not really much more here than meets the eye, we just wish we had a video to share of this sweet ride in action.
Creative, yet I imagine it only works with the first few inches :)
Needs zipties!
http://gizmodo.com/5719594/zip-tie-snow-tires-the-cheapest-way-to-blizzard+proof-your-bike
He should add ‘Zip-tie-DIY-bicycle-snow-chains’
http://www.dutchbikeco.com/_blog/Dutch_Bike_Co_Weblog/post/Seattle_Snowpocalypse/
Very cool.. Glad to see he has the proper supervision out there too.
I doubt it could even push a few inches of snow. A few inches of snow cover quickly adds when you are trying to ride a bike with a plow down a 90 foot driveway.
I doubt it could push more than a few inches as well, which is probably why there is no video with it.
@GottaBeThatGuy: You’re right, but for a driveway that long you could always do what real snow plows do and mount the plow on an angle so that it just shoves the snow to the right as you ride along. At that point, as long as the snow isn’t too deep at any single point, it should work fine.
Could have easily hand shoveled the whole driveway in the time it took to build that contraption. This is not hacking, it’s slacking.
@Mitch: Ever heard of the philosophy that you work hard once so you dont have to a hundred times? That’s the whole drive behind invention and hacking.
That said, I doubt this even really works. The tires would simply slip without modification, and as others have already pointed out, the snow would get too heavy too quickly without an angled plow.
Bottom line. This is a cool idea, but needs some more modifications before it would work.
@mitch
yes, but you have to do it by hand every time now while this person only has to ride a bike from now on. its no more slacking then using a hammer instead of your fist to put in a nail is slacking.
very cool!!
I still think I prefer the plow on my 390hp Dodge Ram.
if you’re really lazy, you could just ask your mom to take care of it. then, the title would read “Your Mom built for Plowing”
would probably be more effective if the plow part was a wedge or on an angle.
I’ed like to adapt this to an e-trike! (Yes, I am that lazy!)
Now he just has to teach that dog how to drive the trike.
I have some pretty big seams in my sidewalk and driveway…he would last about 10 seconds before taking a ride over those handlebars
Send them to New York, QUICK before it’s to late!
@swantron
Did you read the article? He said the plow is hinged so cracks in the driveway wont flip the bike…
Am I the only one who wonders how he turns this thing around or makes another row?
@Birdman
Have you seen his sidewalk? XD
I’m sorry, what’s the point of plowing just a few inches? Where I am, a few inches can easily melt just from the sun even when the temperature stays below freezing. I don’t get why people bother shoveling it.
So andrew, born and raised and living in sunny california eh? cool.
Not to mention that this thing will back up into the mains so quick that you’ll be dead three times before you hit the ground.
-so wear a helmet.
In all seriousness, you can see the spot about a foot back where they started a small push for the photograph.
Heck, If you timed it right it could be a photograph of it pushing hot lava.
Photography.
I’m beginning to think that HAD posts goofy stuff like this with no other intention than to raise the amount of clicks the site gets as we hackers spin up our keyboards in outrage.
Meh. It worked on me. :|
-okay like two feet, sorry.
-and just to poke fun at myself I will state that the dog was photoshopped in also.
Ahh, just what Britain needs.
This one should have more traction:
http://1world2wheels.org/blog/for-real-pedal-powered-snow-plow/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VozlU8TXEvA&feature=player_embedded#!