Ben Sollee, Marty, Katie and Jordon kicked off their tour across the United States, playing shows, seeing fans, friends and family and “re-humanizing” the musical experience. Ride on!
This tour is not about going “green,” even though it will have a smaller over all carbon footprint than a more traditional tour by van. Instead, its about re-humanizing the pace of the road. The bicycles provide the limitation on a local level. However, we have to be real. I have a family and we all have bills to pay so we can’t afford for this tour to be a musical vacation by bicycle. And, it’s important to us to demonstrate that biking to our business can be financially sustainable. We want biking to be a compelling choice to other businesses and artists. So, through some trial and error we’ve discovered a few things.
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.
The snobbiest cyclist out there lashes Surly’s Big Dummy Xtracycle cargo bicycle after a 6-month ownership:
I do, however, want and need to carry crap, and the Big Dummy immediately proved to be very capable in this regard. In fact, I was surprised to discover that it soon seemed indispensable to me.
Of course, the only thing that makes this decadent orgy of cycling smugness possible is that I have a relatively safe place to store this bicycle at street level, which is not the case for many people in big cities (unless you’re a wealthy person with a hyphenated name–even in 21st century bike-friendly New York, smugness is a luxury). Also, while I’m comfortable trawling the streets of Brooklyn with it and even locking it up occasionally, the stock Big Dummy is an expensive bicycle, and it’s too lavishly-appointed to leave unattended in a place like Manhattan for long periods of time. For the same functionality (assuming you have the room), you can obviously bolt an Xtracycle to a crappy old mountain bike, or just get the Big Dummy frame if you’re one of those people with a bunch of spare parts, since it’s got provisions and braze-ons for pretty much everything.
Whew, it’s tough keeping secrets, but making new products kinda demands it. One of our latest creations, Hoodie, has kicked around our brains, design tables and bikes for over a year now.
Last June, I got to borrow our solitary Hoodie to put it through some every day adventure pacing. While I couldn’t fit it on my Big Dummy (this current version is not compatible with Big Dummy, if you’re spending that kinda cash, just get the full blown FreeLoaders (plus they’re new for 2010!)), I was able to rock out the company FreeRadical.
2010 Hoodie Color Comparisons, none of which actually made it into production. Hoodie comes in two colors - Redical Red and Graphite Grey
My mission: gardening supplies and sustenance for los gatitos (cats for those not Spanishly inclined). Retrieve and pay for said items, load and lash as needed to my Xtracycle and ride home, event free.
My initial thoughts: lovin’ it. The sleek profile, minimalist style and straightforward features all appealed to me. The install was easy, like a glove. It felt secure, taught and ready to ride. The webbing down the spine seemed a bit over kill. Might be useful to tie things down to, but I can CamStrap more securely off the frame members of my bike or the FreeRadical (Note: the webbing is not on the production version). I’m happy the logo is small and subdued, a nice touch.
This is the Hoodie that Rick tested. That's the understated logo Rick liked, though production Hoodies have even more understated branding.
I thought I may have some issues with the lack of straps a la FreeLoaders, but the large side pockets held my goods with grace and fortitude. I wasn’t a big fan of how low the upper lip came, so we raised the height of the pocket about an 1″+.
Cinching down the pockets was easy and smooth. They held super tight, giving me confidence that they wouldn’t loosen or slowly open.
Since my pocket space was gobbled up by my soil bags, but still had cat food, litter and a lock left, I was happy I brought a CamStrap with me. Attaching to the handle of the FreeRadical, I looped it through the litter handle and over the food bag. I attached the cam end to the rear horizontal bridge of the FreeRad and cinched everything down nice and snug.
The ride home was uneventful. I shook, shimmied and slalomed down the biggest hills I could find, took the long way home, hopped a curb and nothing budged. Me like.
Conclusion: Hoodie rocks. From it’s clean looks, simple operation, nice lock pocket, reflective webbing and other features, I dig it. I know that may be a biased opinion, but keeping it simple has its merit. Another bonus, it’s $75! That, coupled with a FreeRadical, and you’re looking at $364 to fly your every day skies.
As we dial in our lives and rides we find things that work. When said things work smoothly, repeatedly we can sometimes become complacent and think, “That couldn’t/won’t/wouldn’t happen to me.”
Then, like a jealous, vengeful wrath, Murphy swings in and says, “Ah-a-ah… Let’s ground that ego for a bit,” and leaves you sweating, cursing and futzing with your previously perfect setup.
Vik experienced just that with his recent mega load on his Surly Big Dummy Xtracycle cargo bicycle in Victoria, BC.
Recent Comments