Bikes at the Starwood Festival

Starwood is another festival held at Wisteria down in Meigs county, only about 25 miles from my house. I took advantage of the proximity and packed two trips. One for the tents and bikes, and another for all my accoutrements and some more bikes.

I was there with some new bike innovations I had been working on (see upcyclebikes.com) to either sell or rent, or at the very least just to inspire and spread joy. These four new bikes were completed in about 6 days just before the week-long festival began.

And of course, I had the ever-dependable Rasta Buggy out (after the rains dried a little) to cart people (sometimes things) around and make a few tips.

I had a super stellar time at Starwood. This festival is dripping with pure awesome sauce. If you need some reassurance of that fact, check out the bonfire:

Coming home, I somehow managed to pack it all into one trip. My purchases from vendors at the fest include 2 new sarongs, a really inexpensive pair of brown leather pants, 3 old hats, and a grey short-pile tight-fitting fur vest.

Summer Solstice 2013 at Wisteria

NMF

Upgrades and Summer Festivals

Upgrades:

Heavy Duty rims with 12 gauge spokes
Kenda Kiniption 24" x 2.3" tires
Shimano Megarange 34 tooth cassette
replacement stem
replacement cranks/chainrings
replacement chain
replacement seat (not pictured)
(2) 5 LED taillights (not pictured)


Festivals:

Nelsonville Music Fest (I'll be outside the fest working the campground and parking lot since the Fest organizers don't care enough to make room for pedicabs to enter the festival)

Wisteria Summer Solstice

Spring Festival Season

 Howdy-ho BBI fans! How's business been lately, you ask? I'd say it's doing splendidly. I've just passed the $2,000 mark in earnings for this year, and have been setting records here and there for most earnings in a single night ($183 on Mom's weekend) and most earnings for a three-day weekend period ($345 on Mom's weekend and then $347 this weekend at Palmer Fest.)

I also have been appreciating what a formidable reputation I've made among the OU student body. I get more people calling me by name all the time, more great regular customers, hear myself being mentioned on OU Crushes, have been recorded for Vine and Snapchat, and get lots of gratitude from people who have seen me working or have ridden on the pedicab before. Thanks everyone for sharing the joy of human-powered transportation with me and your friends!


 Here are some pics of Palmer Fest. Thanks Sarah Tilotta for taking the first pic for me!

2013

Ahoy thar lead lubbers! Yer Cap'm here is lookin' forward to another exciting season of human-powered deliveries. Cold though it may be, operations are currently underway and looking ship-shape. The Cap'm would like to remind you that with snow and ice on the deck, a pair of sea legs can be treacherous, but a trio of tires will be smooth sailing. In other news...

The video log from last October has been put by the wayside. I like being able to post video logs and hope to do more of them in 2013, but they are tricky to film and time-consuming to put together. Lighting the subjects (you guys) is the hardest part, and so I've got plenty of footage with nothing but darkness and assorted noise. (maybe I could make an audio podcast, but it would probably be lame) Anyhow, for these reasons I haven't gotten around to completing the last video log.

As an alternative, however, I do plan to start producing slice of life comics based on events that occur during my adventures as a pedicab operator. (Bike Man: the Anachronous Chronicles is my other comic project, but it's more of a historical fiction sci-fi steampunk graphic novel that also tends to fall by the wayside because it demands more time in order for it to become what I want it to be) Anyhow, the new series is simply called "Bikes Bring It Illustrated" or BBII for short. I will take my favorite memorable moment from each night and create a 1-page comic of what transpired. Comics will be posted to this blog- just click "BBI Illustrated" up on the header or follow this link: BBII . Producing BBII takes a lot less time and tech so I hope to stick with it throughout the year. The stories write themselves, and I'll keep my drawing skills in use so that I have better output by the time I complete the narrative for "Bike Man".

Cabs are still available for rent, although the Rasta Buggy is out of commission at the moment. When I have enough to buy a quality wheelset it will be back in business.

On the manufacturing end, I'm currently working on a new produce cart. Once the Upcycle page gets updated I'll point it out to y'all. After that project is finished I would like to build some more 20" sidecars this year.

As we prepare to disembark from this particular blog post, the Cap'm would like to thank all of his lively, brave, and wonderful passengers who have come aboard so far this year! Drink hearty, mateys!

Thanks for tuning in to the Bikes Bring It blog! See you out in the streets.

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!