[irjones]

I know this may look out of place on this forum, but I was wondering if anyone uses a cycle trailer to transport their ladders and all their gear to do the their round, as I was thinking of going down this route till I start driving and get my van.


    many thanks Iain 

[thewindowcleaner1]

Before I went WFP I was playing with the idea of some kind of sidecar for a cycle ( just like the pictures Ive seen of pre war windowcleaners if nothing else it would attract attention and possible bring in lots of new customers.
If you go down that route I wish you the best of luck
(Hope you don't live in a hilly area?)

Alan

[rosskesava]

Hi Iain

There an oldish bloke around here who has a pushbike and wooden side car with a pram wheel who does loads of windows in this area. (He does our windows) It does look a bit strange seeing a mountain bike with a sidecar thing with 2 ladders on it plus bucket and cloths etc.

I've never seen him ride it - he's always pushing it.

He seems to do ok though.

The old fashioned look does get him noticed which is how he ended up doing our windows. Then when I said to my next door neighbour about him she asked me to ask him to do her windows. Now 18 months or so later, he does about 20 houses all within a stones throw of each other at £8 a go for simple semi's.

Sounds a good idea to me so go for it.

I've also seen someone else recently in a different area with a pushbike and ladders attached to a weird wheel thing.

Cheers

[marc al]

  Theres a lad around here who uses an old market barrow, all of his work is in his home village so he doesn't need a car.

[irjones]

Thanks for that i am going to price the cycle trailers @ the weekend, some one told me they were going down this route and he was going to let me know.

    many thanks Iain

[GRAHAM.K]

come on, you can't be serious ?
That is the exact image that would make  professional window cleaners cringe.
Lets go forwards not backwards.

regards

[baldeagle]

It might make some W/C's cringe, but 50 years ago, when very few people owned a car, most W/C's travelled on a bike.

Many had the pointer tied to the crossbar and carried their ladder over their shoulder and the bucket would be in the same hand that held the ladder!

Not suggesting that you try today - there's too many people flying about in cars and vans, ready to knock you off yer bike, [some are window cleaners, probably!].

But the novelty value of a trailer or sidecar would almost certainly get you some "freebie" advertising in your local press, so it may not be all that bad.

Baldeagle in Staffordshire,
[Who is definitely not going to cycle the 7 miles to "the patch", particularly up Yarlet Bank!]

[replacement]

This is what you need.

http://www.bikesatwork.com/bicycle-delivery-service/

Justin

[GRAHAM.K]

It might make some W/C's cringe, but 50 years ago, when very few people owned a car, most W/C's travelled on a bike.


welcome to 2005!
 Turning up with a ladder in a barrow or on a bike merely strengthens the publics perception that window cleaners are odd job men, a few quid for beer money, on the dole or down on their luck.
If an electrician or plumber turned up to do a job at your house with his gear in a wheelbarrow what would you think?....... exactly!

[irjones]

I was only thinking about  getting around to do the round Like I have said I DO NOT DRIVE AND IF I DID DRIVE I WOULD AND  NOT BE ASKING THIS QUESTION NOW WOULD  AND I WOULD HAVE A VAN.
So if that  is the case then the same could be said of a window cleaner that walked from house to house would be classed as an odd job man as well

 
 

[thewindowcleaner1]

Turning up with a ladder in a barrow or on a bike merely strengthens the publics perception that window cleaners are odd job men, a few quid for beer money, on the dole or down on their luck.

I don't agree a lot of the public want good old fashion service given to them by some one that they can relate to and apart from the marketing advantages I would imagine that the public would warm to a  character that presented themselfs in this manner.

welcome to 2005!

I think I've read an article somewere stating that Police forces are starting to bobbys on bikes, and my postman still comes around on his bike,the paper lad brings my papers on his bike, and I believe that commuters in large City's use bike's to get into work.
And if I'm not mistaken ain't a bike enviromently friendly?

So good luck to irjones (I wish I had the bottle)

Alan

[rosskesava]

I also think that someone using what ever means they can to earn a living is understood by most people. A few customers may be put off but most would accept it.

Our window cleaner pushes around all his gear with a pushbike and a sidecar and he's picked up work around here.

In fact, that's what gets him noticed. Around here there are countless vans with sign writing on them but one w/c with a bike and ladders? Who gets noticed more?

Cheers

[dai]

Or you could get one of those walk in front of milk floats, Do they still make them? A milk float would be ideal for me come to think of it. once I got to the estate that is. You could carry a fair size tank on one of those, and enough battery power to work 4 poles. No road tax or deisel, just plug it in when you get home, h'mmm. DAI

[dennis buller]

i use a trailer with my bicycle i like the novelty and between walking around with ladders or cycling i get about 40-50 extra pounds a week of bussiness. my missus is hysterical with laugthter about it and i enjoy the fresh air

[rosskesava]

Hi Dennis

Good on you.

Cheers

[Ian_Giles]

This is most certainly something that I HAVE DONE!!

Some years ago now, when I was still bothering to employ guys, I set them up in exactly this way.
Quite often these were young guys who didn't drive, one was working for me for quite a while, he was a good un'.
I always had guys who worked for me working by themselves (once fully trained and suficiently proficient ) They did more work this way.
Much of my round was very rural, on foot (those that didn't drive) that could be a lot of lugging a ladder around.
I designed and made up a side car that could be clamped onto a mountain bike. It was more of a 'side trailer' and was open ended and low lying, there was room to lie down an extention ladder, pointer ladder, bucket and a couple of 5 litre water containers.
These trailers looked well cool, I really, really wish that I'd taken some pics of them, well I am sure I have some somewhere, if I can find them I'll get them scanned into the comp and post them.
At one point I had three of these made up and three guys out working on them!
I would take them to the area they were working in, they would work their area and then cycle home. At times it was actually quicker than using a car, not to get home of course! But getting around estates and moving from house to house and so on.
A trailer is a bit of a non starter, tried to design one, but the problem is that with a ladder lay flat, the trailer has to be a long way behind you.
A trailer designed so that the ladders can be carried at more of an angle so you can be more compact and have the trailer closer to you simply makes the trailer too top heavy and likely to topple over.
At one point I even made one sidecar that allowed the bike to lean over to make cornering easier, but that one turned out to be a little more complex.

Trust me, this works very well! But you will have to get one specially made, I had access to a decent workshop and am pretty well skilled in these things (Scrap heap challenge here I come )

And it certainly doesn't look unprofessional.


Regards,


Ian

[GRAHAM.K]

Ian, If you just do your local estate then i agree you have the perfect vehicle.(I assume you mean housing estates and not country estates on your rural round )   some nice imitation burberry saddle bags...mmm

It certainly would look unprofessional outside your local ford dealership or office complex.(not likely you would be doing the jobs anyway)

As far as good old fashioned service, why not chuck away the squegee and revert back to mop and scrim, can't get much more old fasioned than that.
Police use bikes in city centres mostly because its the most practical method of transport, they don't tow a trailer in case they arrest some one.
Whats a postman?
My paperboy uses a skate board,now if any one knows a window cleaner who uses a skate board......

I totally agree that a window cleaner who walks everywhere, by definition is an odd job man, you are absolutley right.
Not to mention he will probably be working for heavily discounted rates to get jobs, undercutting the competition and generally depressing prices in the immediate area.