Biz by Bike? Maybe it's a Car Wash. Tell Us Your Stories.
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 11.16.06
We regularly pummel our readers with the idea of riding bicycles as a carbon clean commute to and from work. But what about those of you who actually pedal for your job? Tell us your tales. Are you are bike courier, a postal delivery rider, a cycle cop, or maybe you’re more esoteric, like the gardener who uses an open-top work bike to move tools and materials around. We’ll start the ball rolling here with Peter Alford, who ironically operates a car-wash business from his bicycle. Once a chef in the South African navy, Peter had to look for an new job after a serious car accident (is that more irony?) When his bakkie [aka pick-up] finally packed it in, his daughter bought him a bike so he could keep the business on the road, so to speak. And for the past two years he’s been pedalling to half of his customers, complete with his car-wash equipment. Got a bike based business? Share your experiences, or stories of others you’ve seen. Crank them into our Comments section.
Wet car photo by Igor Alecsander.
One of my favourites is the Rinky Dink human and sun powered sound system. It can be seen at loads of festivals and protests in the UK and beyond, and they also do educational workshops for kids.
According to their website, they once even stopped a riot by playing "Dancing Queen".
There are a couple of guys in the basement of 720 Bathurst in Toronto that are making Mexican style chocolate. They are using a bike powered grinder and a solar powered roaster. It's a little under the radar at the moment and is being operated out of a sprout/wheatgrass store run by another group. I think the beans are grown for them organically by farmers they are in contact with, but I could be wrong about that last bit. The name? I don't think there is one yet....
Just a note from the developed equatorial island of Singapore. I wish pedicabs would work in my country. I would even quit my job, buy that sexy pedicab from AVD and start my own little business if I thought there were a slightest chance. There are 5 main reasons why it wouldn't work, as I see it:
1. It's too hot and humid. The "driver" would not look very professional soaked in sweat and it might be too hot for the passengers as well.
2. It's important to "show face" here, and riding in a pedicab just doesn't strike as high as an air-con car.
3. The passengers will suck in the diesel fumes from those air-con cars, and the buses, and the lorries... The Euro IV emission standard requirement set in just last month.
4. Metered fares for a taxi is very low here, so even in that department it's difficult to compete. About €1.8 for the first km.
5. Environment concern is not a hip word, well, most people doesn't even know about it. Maybe the island is not so developed after all.
Any feedback or support is appreciated.
It's not my company, but Peace Coffee makes all their local delivers in the Twin Cities metro area in Minnesota by bicycle.
I work at a holiday cebter in the New Forest National Park in England. I myself cycle the 16 mile round trip everyday to work,two of our maintenance/groundsmen ride round site as well as barbara one of our cleaners who cycles between lodges and caravans all day! Next I hope to encourage more staff to cycle and install a cycle power generating unit in the bike hire shop we have on site so that kids and adults can learn about alternative forms of energy(I've been to a few nightclubs/festivals and raves where the soundsystem was powered by pedal)...Congratulations on the e-mails and website-they always brighten up my day in front of the computer...
Tim Wilkinson(environmental coordinator and Ranger Sandy balls holiday center)
I have a Recumbent Trike based business.
I travel about learning about how people fuel their human powered journeys and where they think they could improve their nutrition.
I look for ways to deepen their understanding of what a body needs to properly regenerate inself day to day.
I also offer those that are not satisfied with their regular jobs a means to supplement or replace it... all from the comfort of my Trike...
You can see it at http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2104292312