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Written by Erik Osborn
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Thursday, 17 December 2009 |
Eco-Bike Wash
 One of my favorite home improvement projects from 2009 was a rain barrel system. I made it for watering the garden, but I discovered that it makes a great bike wash as well. I took these pictures after a muddy late-fall ride. It was just above freezing, so the sock wash was friggin' icy. I took the rain barrels down for the for the season right after this so they wouldn't freeze solid.
Here are a couple of hints for planning your arse kickin' eco bike wash for next summer:
Check around for a source for used barrels. Here in Southern Maine there is a guy named "Bob the Barrel Man" who will meet you in a non-descript parking lot in Scarboro then lead you to his trailer of wonders: full of barrels of all sizes reclaimed from food-service, etc. Yes, this does sound sketchy. Yes, if he had tried to blindfold me I would have run. But as it turned out Bob is a perfectly cool guy. My terracotta-colored barrels had former lives shipping olives from Italy. Classy.
 Get your barrels about 3' off the ground to give you more pressure in the hose. Don't forget that water is heavy, though. When full, this pair of barrels weighs about 1/2 a ton. You absolutely don't want this tipping over on you! Make your stand sturdy, and give it a good foundation. I put a cinder block under each leg.
Use a big valve. Commercially available rain barrels seem to come with standard garden spigots, which is a problem. These valves have a lot of pressure loss: not a big deal when you have 100 psi water from the City or your well pump, but a rain barrel pushes less than 5 psi, which won't push much more than a dribble through a spigot. I used 3/4 pipe fittings for my rain barrel, with a full-port ball valve which doesn't restrict the flow at all when it's open. This gives me enough juice to clean the goobers out of my cogs.
Now, go forth and get muddy!
Erik
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