Ian Ritchie, a chef in Louisville, KY, delivers homemade “soup by cycle” after his own experience losing his job. Now he delivers his culinary delights on his Surly Big Dummy Xtracycle cargo bicycle.
Ritchie says he started his one-man business after being laid off. “I had trouble finding a job, you know, with today’s economy not too many people are hiring,” he says.
So after doing a little research, he began his operations at the end of winter. He says, “I just decided to cook some soup one night and go around and deliver it to make a little money.”
He started by delivering to a few friends, then word got around. So he’s been delivering a few more bowls of soup each week.
His business is not yet profitable, but he hopes to make it so as cooler weather approaches and there is more demand for his product.
The name of the business is SoupByCycle. Customers can order on line at http://www.soupbycycle.com. Mondays he spends shopping for the ingredients, Tuesday he spends the day cooking, and Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are delivery days — about 25 miles of cycling in the hot summer weather each day.
“Everyone I run into seems to like soup, and I love making soup,” he says.
Soup delivered by bicycle - FOX41.com Louisville News Kentucky Indiana News Weather Sports.


On the third stop of the Xtracycle Holishift Tour, founder Ross Evans shared his inspirations and experiences with Maker Faire attendees.
Permaculture.TV has a great post up with video of his talk and some Worldbike.org videos as well.
Don’t miss out on the tour. Carmel is tonight, followed by some more stops in SoCal before heading west to Arizona and New Mexico!

An electrified Xtracycle is joining a fleet of utility bicycles in Portland at the Metro agency. Noting that “13% of all vehicular trips” are bicycles over four bicycle-friendly bridges, the agency wants to encourage the bicycle’s place as a healthy and clean means of transport.
Metro greens up with special bikes | Full Article.
Video detailing upgrade and transportation shift.

Jason Jamnik, a 22-year-old college student from Naperville, IL, works as a pizza-delivery boy man. Except he’s not delivering pizza the traditional way (in a beat up Honda Civic blasting teenage-angst rock), he’s using his Surly Big Dummy to get those pies to their final destination.
His customers are given two options for delivery: carbon-consuming-car or carbon-saving-cycle. Choosing the latter option saves them the $3 delivery fee, and helps their keep their community carbon-clean.
We don’t know yet if Jason is using our PizzaLoader design to help him deliver his pies, but we look forward to finding out!
Update: Well, looks like Jason IS using the PizzaLoader on his routes. Check out his comment below to see how he pulls it off. Thanks, Jason!

Jason about to deliver a hot pizza to a hungry customer
Photo: Danielle Gardner/STNG
Read the entire article here

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