Truckshaw!

Thanks to Mr. Ron Linkers, the Bike Co-op now has use of an authentic rickshaw cargo trike from India. There are also three other rickshaws owned by Ron, one deluxe and two regular passenger models, that may be put to use as well. The truck will be for carrying our mobile workshop to the Farmer's Market, providing delivery services, and carting around bikes when the need arises. We'd like to use the pedicabs to provide chartered rides as part of the Athens Yellow Bike Taxi Service sometime in the future. The biggest obstacle to these endeavors is, of course, the topographical nature of our city. Besides lowering their gear-inches, some electrical input may be necessary if we want to take these beasts up anything over a %5 grade. If anyone in blogland can offer some engineering expertise as far as making an electric assist happen, that would be swell. I already have a solar panel trickle-charger that would be useful for recharging. Ideas for the pedicabs included installing a sound-system like Cory's pedal-powered one, so that passengers could plug in their iPods and bump their tunes while being carted around. But, without major funds to make these improvements, we'll have to keep the rickshaws in the low-lying parts of Athens, mainly the bike path. If you're interested in this project want to make money doing deliveries or driving pedicabs, let us know!