Back in 2024, the BikeMobile–Bike Works’ most nimble programming tool–was described as a vehicle that evokes almost as much joy as an ice-cream truck, but instead of ice cream, it serves up bike parts.
This big blue truck was a mainstay at community rides, street fairs, and especially neighborhoods that lack bike shops and bike infrastructure. During the warm months, it wasn’t uncommon to see the BikeMobile delivering free and sliding scale services to kids and adults whose bikes need service, but whose neighborhoods do not have a bike shop. Reminder that a well-maintained bicycle is safer for the person riding it, other cyclists, pedestrians, and automobiles. Few things are more delightful than a bicycle in good repair.
Last August, we made the tough call to sell the BikeMobile. After numerous break-ins, a stolen catalytic converter, and a sliced fuel line, it was decided that the big blue behemoth was more of a headache (definitely not a brain freeze) than it was worth. This long-serving flagship of the Bike Works Community Resources department was sold to an outfit down in Oregon, one that specializes in converting vehicles like the BikeMobile into food trucks.
So the old BikeMobile got a chance at a new life, and the Community Resources department got some time to envision what the next iteration of the BikeMobile would look like. One of the key needs was maneuverability–the old BikeMobile was notoriously difficult to drive through narrow Seattle streets and parking lots designed for maximum capacity. While the old truck didn’t require special licensing to drive, it did require special training from a place down in Sumner. Only a few staff members were trained to drive the thing, and nobody was super jazzed about it. Imagine being responsible for driving around a living room.
The new BikeMobile needed to be user-friendly, tall enough to stand in comfortably, and plain looking enough to blend into its environment. After months of craigslisting, facebook marketplacing, and strolling through used car lots with a clipboard and a list of ideal characteristics, the Community Resource team found precisely what they were looking for out in Port Orchard. The 2018 Ram Promaster 3500 EXT calls for an oil change every 10,000 miles and was designed for low-cost, low maintenance ownership. And while we won’t ever need to haul two tons of extra materials, it’s sweet to know we could haul around 8,581 mechanical XTR rear derailers if we had to. We are now, slowly but surely, building out the BikeMobile 2.0 into the thing we need it to be for the long haul.
Executive Director Ed Ewing says, “The new BikeMobile enables us to be in more places and serve more people, more frequently.”
This season the BikeMobile will split its time between City Hall Park, John C. Little Park in NewHolly and High Point, both neighborhoods within the Seattle Housing Authority, and a special guest appearance at the Seattle to Portland ride. All repair services performed by the BikeMobile are available for free or on a sliding scale. Most bike parts are offered at cost and we have used parts to fit almost any budget.
“The previous BikeMobile worked for us, but it was hard for people to watch us fix their bikes. Their bikes would disappear and come back repaired,” says Community Resources Director Bekah Ko. The old BikeMobile had a built-in bench that reduced the cargo area and also obstructed the view. “Now, kids and adults can stand by and watch. It takes some of the mystery out of what we do, and it helps us empower people to fix their own bikes.”
The current build of the BikeMobile does not include what we’ll refer to here as an ice cream truck alert system yet, though are anticipating crowds. But no headaches, and still no brainfreezes.