Pedicab Crew itt

Tarckives Bikes
1

Hey, it’s been a while since we talked about cabbing. Jim, you still kicking asses across town? Who else here cabs? Anybody new?

I got into it because I knew this girl Betsy that did it, and I knew I was at least as badass and strong as her, so I figured what the hell.

I’ve been cabbing since 07, living on nothing but pedicabbing since last summer. This winter has been rough; I got sick a few times from the wicked cold (so looking forward to spring) and a couple other times I couldn’t work because of non-work related ankle injuries. But mostly it’s been good. When the weather turns to shit, people appreciate riding under the canopy when I surprise them while they’re walking.

I live in a college town, so hella pedestrians to pick up. Since I’ve been doing nothing but cabbing, I’ve gotten a lot better at coaxing people into the cab. I’m super zen-polite.

The other day, I used my pedicab to haul some really big wooden crates that I found to my house. I made furniture out of them.

Sometimes, pedicabbing pulls in the sup-girls.

This summer when I get my awesome ghetto blaster I think I’ll bring it along on the cab sometimes. But not all the time.

This weekend I get to ride in a cool parade. It’s for True/False film fest, so it’ll be hella indie/hippie. It’s an all-human-powered parade, so there will probably be many a bike-float.

The other day I got a nug as a tip, normally that doesn’t happen until spring, so I was psyched.

Sometimes people on bikes skitch, other times they might push me if they’re feeling helpful. What I really like to do is find two people walking, and one of them has a bike that they’re pushing, because then I can pick up the one without the bike, and then we’re all three riding.

Mostly, older people don’t want to ride. Just the under 30 crowd. That’s fine.

People always ask if it’s hard. I tell 'em I’m strong.

Post pics everybody:

These dudes are friends of mine, they like to jam mobile:

Me with cab supgirl:

These teletubbies mugged a dude after this pic was taken. They knocked him off his bike and wrestled and stuff, it was odd:

Halloween. I was a mailman and I had weird packages in the trunk of the cab that I gave out:

At a Mizzou game, tailgating. You know I got in on that BBQ:

Parade last year, with Snow White, and a dude on a p-far:

I rode with this dude in DC. It was his first day, and he helped us covertly follow a girl we knew to the post-office:

These kids were tripping acid during a parade:

2

I drove a pedicab three times here in Philadelphia. It was ok, but the guy who owned the pedicabs sucked so bad that I never called him back. He didn’t pay, saying that I was “working for tips” and that “riding around is good advertisement for the pedicab, which will drum up business for you in the long run.”

He was a total jerkoff who just bought three $10,000 pedicabs from France and was worried about recouping on his investment. His cabs had this electric assist function that never worked, and were heavy as shit. Yours looks a lot better, because its more upright and gangsta.

This is what i drove

How is your pay? Do you mostly make wage, or tips? How far are your average fares? Do your cabs have electric assist? What is your max payload?

3

not a cabber, but I remember reading the links you have to pedicabbing stories and some other good write-ups when I first looked at tarck and thinking, “these dudes are right on.”

4

when i moved to denver, pedicabbing was my plan…still haven’t done it. i might once i need to make a little extra money.

5

No more pedicabbing. I got burned out real fast. The nights went from “shit, I only made $100?” to “HOLY SHIT I MADE $100!!!” The number of pedicabbers in town nearly doubled, with lots and lots and lots of independent guys snaking rides, hassling people, breaking traffic rules, and giving us a bad name in general. Then there were the guys who had never pedicabbed before buying up a dozen or so janky trailers and leasing them out to anyone with a bicycles shaped object. It got aggravating.

So I quit.

I miss it sometimes, and since I’ve still got my license and I’m still on the roster at the cab company, I’ve thought about going out once or twice, but I never do. The schedule just doesn’t work for me anymore.

6

That looks stupid. Do not want.

[quote=magic johnson]
How is your pay? Do you mostly make wage, or tips? How far are your average fares? Do your cabs have electric assist? What is your max payload?[/quote]

I make 3.50 per hour plus tips, with a min-wage guarantee if I don’t make tips. Tips are anywhere from 25cents to 5dollars normally, although on special circumstances I’ve made significantly more. Average fares are 2 to 10 blocks, normally class to work or from restaurant to bar or something like that. No electric assist (and we gots the hillz) but I don’t want one. Max payload hmmm… only 3 people can actually fit comfortably on the seat, so volume restricts my load more than weight. Once, I carried six people, cuz bachelorette party.

7

Sorry to hear you had to throw in the towel Jim. Sounds like things got super out of hand with the flooding of knuckleheads. I hope that never happens here. Right now there are only two cabs in CoMO, both owned by the company I ride for, and we have less than a dozen riders, all competent. But, there’s been murmurs about another fleet starting up.

Right now, my only competition is golf-cart courtesy rides provided by the university. But they don’t take much bread out of my mouth.

8

Electric assist usually requires special permitting and road rules (it does here at least), and it makes you wuss. You gotta power up those hills and WORK for your money. The riders see you working, feel the cab crank up the 12% grade, and know you deserve a $20.

9

Jim,

Do they not limit the amount of pedicab licenses/permits?

10

Nope. There was talk (and still is talk, and probably only ever talk sadly) about trying to figure out what to due as far as that goes, ie limit permits or limit cab numbers. Limiting the permits or cabs puts all the power in the hands of the cab owners. Which is fine for the indy guys, but for the rest of us it’s not fair. the owners can jack up lease price or charge riders for maintenance or whatever, and if we complain just say “tough shit. If you won’t pay it someone else will.”

Ideally, it would be better to outlaw the trailers, only allowing trikes to operate. They are safer, more stable, better built, and very easy to control. There were trailer guys wrecking at least every two weeks; dumping the trailers over after hitting a curb, bike sliding out in a puddle, jack knifing… The only trike accident (not involving a car of course) was a freak accident when a fork snapped at the crown (which was oddly the last of the old style forks left on our fleet). The higher cost of entry also eliminates the fly-by-night, “I can weld too” guys. Not that there’s anything wrong with competition, but you’d be appalled at some of the home built trailers that we were seeing, or some of the rusty outdated seatpost breaking trailers that this new guy was leasing.

I don’t want to sound like a bitter TRIKES RULE guy. I started out on a trailer, and moved to a trike as soon as there was an opening available. So I’ve seen the best and the worst of both forms, and the trikes are BY FAR the better solution.

11

There is a local pedicab co with those lame french pedi cabs. I’m in the mood for a weekend night job to make some cash, should I start my own cab co? I know there is a $70 registration fee with the city and I’d probably need insurance of some kind. Which pedicab manufacturers would I look at?

12

I think a NYC style cab lottery system for pedicabs would work. I convinced a guy driving a yellow trike to let me drive it while he rode in the back with my girlfriend. It was pretty fun, I wouldn’t mind doing it.

edit: I guess they tried and it failed.
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/17/court-strikes-down-pedicab-licensing-plan/

13

I’ve never seen any of the trailer pedicabs in DC, only the trike ones with triple tree forks. GIS revealed this beauty, and holy crap I would not trust a stranger to ride me around in one of these things.

14

I found the instructables for that thing:

oh mans.

15

for many bike messengers, $100 a day is a good day.

not sure how long a “night” is, but still

16

[quote=shiftpgdn]I found the instructables for that thing:

oh mans.[/quote]

If you look through the link the guy actually puts some wooden panels on the trailer frame and upholsters the seat and in the end it looks pretty nice. But still ghetto as fuck, would not partake.

17

for many bike messengers, $100 a day is a good day.

not sure how long a “night” is, but still[/quote]

For real. I wish I could make over 50 per day regularly. Honestly though, I’m kinda lazy; I work hard, but I do short hours. I’ll probably go longer when summer comes, and then 100 per day/night will be common hopefully.

18

[quote=VT tallbike]I’ve never seen any of the trailer pedicabs in DC, only the trike ones with triple tree forks. GIS revealed this beauty, and holy crap I would not trust a stranger to ride me around in one of these things.
[/quote]

I wouldn’t want to attach a trailer like that to a bike I owned. at least not a bike I wanted to last more than a season. People are fat sometimes.

19

[quote=kjohnnytarr][quote=VT tallbike]I’ve never seen any of the trailer pedicabs in DC, only the trike ones with triple tree forks. GIS revealed this beauty, and holy crap I would not trust a stranger to ride me around in one of these things.
[/quote]

I wouldn’t want to attach a trailer like that to a bike I owned. at least not a bike I wanted to last more than a season. People are fat sometimes.[/quote]

That’s a trailer built by local douche bag Luke Iseman. Everything the guy touches turns to shit. NOtice how that’s built from stop sign post? The stuff that’s supposed to give with pressure?

That’s the nicer one he had out there.

Wheelbase is too narrow, passengers sit too far forward.

20

for many bike messengers, $100 a day is a good day.

not sure how long a “night” is, but still[/quote]

For real. I wish I could make over 50 per day regularly. Honestly though, I’m kinda lazy; I work hard, but I do short hours. I’ll probably go longer when summer comes, and then 100 per day/night will be common hopefully.[/quote]

A night would be from 7 or 8pm to 3:30-4am. $100 got to be far below average, that’s why it was a big deal. Some nights people didn’t make lease on their cab, so they ended up working for free. But the good nights were great. Get some loaded fuck trying to impress some shallow gal, and he’d drop $100 on you to drive around for 20 minutes, or some older couple with means would ask for a tour of downtown and give you $100. SXSW and ACL Fest were both great, easy $1000 week or better. I pulled $1200 during SXSW, one guy (ripped as fuck, tall Aryan, ladies love him) made that on the last NIGHT of SXSW. Those were long days though, riding from noon to about 5am.