πππππ πΆππππππ πThey say big trucks are just a reality if you want to make deliveries in the city.
I say there's other ways to solve the "last-mile" problem...
There's your beer kegsβsorted.
π§΅
#Paris has got your last rites taken care of.
A small funeral home called βLe Ciel et La Terreβ (The Sky and the Earth) uses a bicycle-hearse called βCorbicyclette.β
"Bicycles offer advantages in express delivery: they can bypass traffic and make up to 2x as many stops per hour as a truck. Total cost of ownership over lifetime is less than half of a van. And they generate zero emissions."
βCEO of DHL Express
βCEO of DHL Express
If you combine cargobikes with existing urban tram and bus networks for freight delivery, as many cities in Europe do, you've cracked the last-mile problem (and reduced pollution and congestion in cities).
I dig deeper in this #Staphanger dispatch:
https://www.straphanger.blog/death-to-the-sledgehammer-flyswatter/
nicksname he/him
Mathijs Booden
Anna Miriamsdochter
Marcos Dione@straphanger I remeber seeing on television in Argentina in the '80s a section about bike couriers in NYC, how they could beat traffic. I remeber images of the couriers on a fixed bike, balancing on a red light, and speeding down some slopes. Of course, they only had a small briefcase on a sling, so they only carried small stuf, but it impreased me so I mounted my bike and for 25y I almost didn't use any other vehicle. Another 20y and I'm coming back to them, thanks to electric versions.
Kalytis
Janice Pearce@Kalytis @straphanger ah ouais et elle les met oΓΉ, les fleurs, quand il pleut ?
@PearceJanice2 j'ai bien une idΓ©e
PaquitoBernard
James Green@PaquitoBernard @straphanger This could be how they remove the Guinness Trucks from Dublin's Quays!
Voline@straphanger
There used to be a bicycle hearse in Oregon, as well.
https://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/david_sarasohn/2013/05/oregon_way_of_death_is_departi.html
There used to be a bicycle hearse in Oregon, as well.
https://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/david_sarasohn/2013/05/oregon_way_of_death_is_departi.html
Laloofah@straphanger Iβd love for something like this to haul my someday carcass to Recomposeβ¦
https://recompose.life/
https://recompose.life/
Davie Duck@Laloofah Here in my Florida community we are 1/3 of the way toward having the funds to buy 100 acres of nature for a reserve that will include a green cemetery. We have until the end of October to pay off the land. Wish us luck. @straphanger @thepoliticalcat
@WackyIdeas @straphanger @thepoliticalcat Youβve no doubt explored this, but thought Iβd pass it along just in caseβ¦
https://www.greenburialcouncil.org/funding.html
https://www.greenburialcouncil.org/funding.html
Georgiann Baldino@Laloofah @straphanger https://earthfuneral.com/resources/tree-pod-burial-explained/
When I'm dead, I asked my son to use my ashes to fertilize a tree π³
@obtener @straphanger You might want to read the part on this website about π₯ cremation (π§ cremation is an up & coming option thatβs also described here). It discusses the common misconceptions about its environmental friendliness & the fertilizing value of cremains, & offers a couple of useful things to know to help mitigate the issues:
https://www.greenburialcouncil.org/other_disposition_options.html
https://www.greenburialcouncil.org/other_disposition_options.html
@Laloofah @straphanger I have a great resource in my son, who is an Environmental Scientist.
Annette C. Boehm@straphanger I love this idea.
DemonHusky@straphanger I want this to bring my dead body to a composting facility
BensGreenGamingAc@straphanger That's really impressive.
James Zimmerman@straphanger
I love everything about this and am 1000% in favor of the bike solutions.
The engineer in me suspects this particular setup is working for empty kegs only and I wonder if there's a beefier system for delivering the full kegs. If these bikes are able to deliver half as many full kegs, consider me gobsmacked.
Jay@zimfam @straphanger Yeah, if thatβs a 50 liter keg, which it looks tall enough/wide enough to be, the guy being filmed has 17 of them (14 behind and 3 in front). At about 62 kilograms per keg, heβd be hauling over a thousand kilograms. If theyβre all empty, itβs 204 kilograms; still pretty good, though.
Gary Parker@zimfam @straphanger @cstross there used to be a fantastic, eco friendly way to deliver full beer barrels in large quantities: dray horses π
Very similar in breeding to traditional war horses, too
Charlie Stross@witewulf @zimfam @straphanger Yes but ...
Devil's advocate: drays are incredibly difficult to reverse, horses can be spooked and bolt (lots of idiots in cars with no idea how to drive around livestock), they shit in the street, and so on. Also they're expensive to feed and labour-intensive to care for! Which in combination is why the breweries gradually gave up on them.
@cstross @zimfam @straphanger corollary: loads of old Victorian train stations now have serious structural issues. Classic model is limestone build, entrance on a bridge over the tracks. Decades of horses pissing in the taxi ranks while waiting for a fare takes its toll on the stonework!
Yvan@zimfam @straphanger yeah, this is a kegstar empties collection. Identifiable by it all being kegstar kegs with no dustcaps on the receivers. (Also the sound they make and the way they move.) That said, it's great to see it being done by bike.
There is at least 300kg of empty kegs on the trailer alone there as it is. If full kegs that would be over a tonne and you'd want some serious low gearing to get started, very good brakes, and legs like tree trunks. (Or some good e-assist!)
ohmrun@straphanger Me coming home from the shops
Obbie King@straphanger Those kegs *have* to be empty, right?
@ObbieZ @straphanger Yup: there are 24 kegs behind the cyclist and more in frontβif they were full, each keg would hold 50 litres, so that's well over a ton.
Scott Williams π§@cstross @ObbieZ @straphanger Not impossible with low enough gears and an even plane to get started, but braking would be π¬.
Isaac Ji Kuo@vwbusguy @cstross @ObbieZ @straphanger
Braking is easy.
Step 1) Reduce mass *
Step 2) Brake
* - Step 0 is be Homer Simpson, and also a cartoon so you ignore conservation of mass.
@isaackuo @cstross @ObbieZ @straphanger An object in motion will continue in motion until acted upon by an unbalanced external force, such as really good brakes, or finding the back of one of those busses.
@isaackuo @cstross @ObbieZ @straphanger Hydraulic disk brakes aren't unheard of on bicycles, but the ones I've seen are very thin and would heat up very quickly under that kind of load.
@vwbusguy @cstross @ObbieZ @straphanger
So first off, I was just making a silly joke about Homer Simpson drinking the beer, thus reducing the mass needed to be braked. But whatever.
If we take seriously the idea of propelling this sort of load with human power, thin little bicycle tires aren't going to be able to carry this load, much less worry about acceleration and braking.
You'll need beefier tires anyway, and off the shelf car tires have beefier brakes anyway.
Wilfried Klaebe@vwbusguy Also the tyres would need sufficient traction on the road surface. I doubt...
weebull@vwbusguy @isaackuo @cstross @ObbieZ @straphanger Fortunately those are pressurised kegs. So just expel the beer in the direction opposing your motion.
Doxin@vwbusguy @cstross @ObbieZ @straphanger Those do appear to be electric bicycles. You'd probably want the beefiest model available, but it seems doable.
Calum Day@Doxin @vwbusguy @cstross @ObbieZ @straphanger
Canβt be more than 250w, or it would be illegal here in the uk. No throttle either.
Ralph Angenendt@cstross @ObbieZ @straphanger Those probably are βonlyβ 30l kegs but still: That type of trailer typically maxes out at a load of 200 to 250 kg, the bikes at less.
Which means that you could transport 6 of those kegs if full, 7 if you like to live a bit on the more dangerous side.
@der_mit_ph @ObbieZ @straphanger They're in London (see the buses). Standard keg size is 50 litres because that's eerily close to 11 imperial gallons which might be of interest to the British pub trade for some reason β¦ (beer is still sold by the pintβdefined as 568ml). Source: my pet retired brewer.
@cstross @ObbieZ @straphanger I donβt want to split hairs (I still have a few, but I cherish them), the diameter of these kegs is larger than their height, though. That speaks against 50l. I must admit that I only measured, because I learned of Euro-Kegs 10 minutes ago, and with DIN-Kegs the 50l version is much slimmer (I carried enough of both sizes during my pub days). Not going to pick a fight over keg sizes, in any case π
@der_mit_ph @cstross @ObbieZ @straphanger they are definitely KegStar 30l rental kegs. (Speaking as a guy who works with such kegs full time for a decade.)
Most micro/craft breweries use these in this size. And they're centrally managed and collected back by KegStar.
Most beer by volume is definitely in 50l kegs but that's all the macro beers in their branded kegs that'll be going back on the same dray lorries that deliver them. (And a handful of microbrewery "core" beers.)
MarcusE1WI met one in London and asked. You are right, they do it with empty kegs.
@straphanger I had the sound on, and could hear them rattling.
I used to homebrew a keg at a time... Full kegs are about 125 lbs each. Anything more than 2-3 kegs will require flat terrain, special gears, and seriously powerful brakes.
Sally Strange
David Mitchell 
In a densely urban setting on a London street (with an unusually large number of red double decker busses) the video shows a man on a cargo bike: he has three large metal kegs of beer strapped on the front of the bike, and it is pulling a trailer with a double row of 14 kegs. The video appears to be taken by some riding a similarly loaded bike.
@DavidM_yeg @straphanger sweet. Thanks!
Krazov@straphanger, would that be safe/doable in a city with steep roads? Going uphill might be too demanding for the pedaller and going downhill could be dangerous.
For flat cities, that's a non-issue.
@Krazov @straphanger
Most of the large delivery bikes here have electric assist. Downhill they have these things called βbrakesβ that work well.
Most of the large delivery bikes here have electric assist. Downhill they have these things called βbrakesβ that work well.
@Voline @straphanger, they have stronger brakes you mean.
@Krazov @straphanger
Depends on how big the bike and intended cargo. The really large ones have disk brakes. But then, disk brakes have become common on even ordinary bicycles. So, not that different.
Depends on how big the bike and intended cargo. The really large ones have disk brakes. But then, disk brakes have become common on even ordinary bicycles. So, not that different.