Springtime Fests

Hi there everybody!

I am very excited that it is springtime once again. Flowers are blooming, warm breezes are blowing, and of course, lots of college students are partying here in Athens! This is the time of year where you'll find Bikes Bring It offering services during the daylight hours, provided there is a street party happening somewhere in Athens that day. You might see me starting around 2pm and going home for a break at around 6pm, and coming back uptown for my regular shift from 12am to 3am.

I apologize to those who got my card and tried to call me during the fests. I neglected to adjust the settings on my google voice number, which only routes calls to my phone during the regular shift times. I will try to remember to fix that before heading out to the next street fest this Saturday.

Mill Fest was a hell of a good time, and good publicity for Bikes Bring It. I was featured on the front page of the Athens News, and also appeared in a short clip from the video produced by The Post. Many thanks go out to those media outlets that helped me get exposed to larger audiences than ever before.

 
At a certain point Mill Street was closed off at the intersection with College Street, forbidding me from carrying passengers down the hill. This was a bit of an inconvenience for me and cost me one fare, but I kept on at it and simply took people on a little detour to the next intersection thereafter. I had the pleasure of taking a break at 89 Mill after I was finished working for the afternoon, where the mud seemed not to care about the delineation between indoors and out, and I also met some eager fans. One even boasted to me about how he presented an essay two years ago to his public speaking class on why everyone should ride the bike taxi. I was delighted!

High Fest came the following week, and I started off by heading to the Cycle Path to upgrade the drivetrain on the Rasta Buggy. My granny gear had been sucking chain since I started riding this year, and I was simply using the middle ring instead, which meant pushing a heavy gear ratio when it came to hill climbing. Not exactly what I wanted to do for the fest located on some of the steepest grade in Athens, so we replaced the cranks, chainrings, chain, and bottom bracket. My granny gear is two teeth better than the last one, my chain is heavier duty, and the BB is sealed for years of maintenance-free usage. I felt really good having half the shop's staff out there on the street helping me install the new parts, like it was a full-service gas station or an indycar pit-stop. The difference was amazing and I left spinning my way happily up Union Street. Next I had a nice brunch on the College Green with my ever-loving partner, Sarie, and then I was off to see what kind of fares I could get before the parties died down. High Fest is not particularly well suited for pedicabbing, but I did all right.

 So this weekend it's time for the most notorious of all the Athens fests, Palmer Fest. We shall see how that one goes!

Thanks for tuning in! Bike Man out.