Bikes Bring It

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Beginning of Fall Semester

Now the doldrums of summer have been swept away by a flood of fresh bodies filling the sidewalks and spilling into the roadways of uptown Athens after midnight. Bikes Bring It is working to meet the demand of an ever-larger student population by putting more pedicabs on the streets during the hours that you need them most. Currently there are 3 sidecars in the BBI fleet, and we are now seeking to hire more drivers to keep these bikes working and serving the public. I hope to expand our hours of operation and make rides available from 9pm to 3am on Thursday through Saturday, but not until there are enough operators in action. Contact me at cycleric@gmail.com if you are interested in this fun and challenging position!

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Epic Summer Recap

That sure was a lightning-fast summer, wasn't it? I had a good time out at Wisteria attending the Summer Solstice and Starwood festivals. A new pedicab was finished for each of those events and tested out during the week-long Pagan party scenes. I refer you to these photos for edification:

The Rasta Buggy, a 3-seater sidecar with 24" wheels all around and the first design to incorporate a hand-crank for auxiliary power input by the outermost passenger.

The Skycar, a 2-seater sidecar with 20" wheels and another hand-crank, although admittedly not as effective due to its aft position. This one, however, is by far the lightest sidecar construction as of yet.

By the grace of Wisteria's non-existent clothing policy I also have some pictures of two lovely naked women on the Bumblebee Bike, but of course I'm not allowed to post things like that here. Use your imagination, I guess.

Another event that BBI made an appearance at was the annual Boogie On The Bricks, which is Athens' only street festival where you get to drink beer and dance on Court St. to your heart's content. It's always a good time, and I even had one of the performers on slide whistle at the Washington Street intersection spontaneously incorporate me and the Skycar into their gypsy music act. It was great!

Good turnout for this event!

I won't lie, I did get a little fuzzy.

That's my good friend Rachel from Elemental Groove Theory rockin' out.

Also, Bikes Bring It held a Grand Opening Party in conjunction with my birthday celebration, which not only provided an impetus to clean up my garage and workshop, it also made for a good time with a whole weekend of visiting friends, music, and rock climbing.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Got Smart

Introducing the Ultra-Widgy: a Samsung Transform Ultra

I'm pretty stoked on this new smartphone device that I bought for my business. I spent all last week discovering and testing ways that it can help me track, log, record, share, and display information about Bikes Bring It. Besides, it has unlimited entertainment value as well, being able to play music, movies, books, and games.

Here's a list of a few applications that I will be using frequently:

Twitter: Now updating twitter and logging fares is easier for me, since I can create tweets by voice and keep my hands on the bike more.

Facebook: I recently created a Facebook page for BBI, so same goes for updating that- can be done by voice and from virtually anywhere.

Camera: You may have noticed some new videos and pictures coming from this device, the quality of which I am pretty impressed with.

Endomondo: A workout tracking app that records routes via GPS and keeps stats on mileage, duration, average speed, top speed, and altitude changes. All records are saved to my Endomondo profile and added to a worldwide list of cyclists and other sports participants. The leaderboard shows Athens as having the most cycling miles per capita of all cities in Ohio, which makes me proud!

Open GPS Tracker: I haven't field tested this one yet, but it seems like a good app for tracking individual fares as opposed to the whole night's operation. It gives a live map with the route drawn on it, with a color gradient to represent speed, as well as a compass and a readout of current speed, time elapsed, and miles traveled. It has an option to post trips to Twitter, which I can use to collect more information on each individual fare and determine average tips based on the distance or duration of my trips.

Square: This one was a big surprise to me- it's a credit card-reading device that plugs into the headphone jack on my phone. BIKES BRING IT NOW ACCEPTS ALL MAJOR CREDIT AND DEBIT CARDS!! It allows customers to sign their name on the touchscreen for transactions over $25, and I believe allows receipts to be sent by e-mail. The company providing the service charges %2.75 on each transfer, which is less than the %6.9 that Paypal gleans off of each use.

Google Calender: This one technically isn't an app, but by pointing the phone's browser to my Google Calender, it formats the website for mobile devices well enough that it functions basically the same as an app. Now my calender is accessible and updateable from virtually anywhere.

Clock: Displays date and time, has buttons to go to weather, alarms, gallery, music, and dim the screen.

Calculator: For when I need to crunch numbers and get some averages out of my data. Saves the last 10 operations.

Tiny Flashlight + LED: Added as a widget on the home screen. Just punch the icon, and the camera flash begins continuous illumination, which can be really handy. Opening the app from the menu also gives you options like strobe light, programmable morse code flashes, and imitations of flashing traffic lights, an incandescent bulb, or police lights.

Skyclerk: A simple ledger app that I use to record all profits and expenditures

TinyShark: An un-official Grooveshark player. Now I can plug the portable battery speakers on my sidecar into the phone and stream my own custom playlist from the internet!

Here are some accessories I've bought to go with my new phone:

-a cheap generic case from Big Lots modified to be the camera pole mount

-a cheap bluetooth headset by Emerson, also from Big Lots.

-a simple black plastic case from RadioShack

-a car vent-mounting universal holder adapted to attach on the pedicab's left armrest, beside my right hip and visible for the passengers as well.

-the Square device (see above).

-a 16GB MiniSD data card. Last three items were from Staples. Thanks to my cashier, NeoFox! He's a furry, too!

-a tripod adapter that clamps onto devices.