You are hereLuke Iseman and his DIY pedicab get city approval
Luke Iseman and his DIY pedicab get city approval
Looks like Luke Iseman finally got the OK from the city to operate his home-made pedicab, according to today's Austin Chronicle:
http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A681437
The article is rather interesting and goes into detail on Luke's inventiveness (hell, he created an anti-theft bicycle stun device) and explains the numerous trials and tribulations he had to go through with the city to finally gain approval.
One of the major obstacles was an arbitrary (and until Luke's pedicab un-requested) requirement for the trailers tires to be able to bear loads of 1000lbs. Luke pressing the issue with the city actually caused a scare that all the pedicabs in town would be shut down since there aren't any bicycle tires in existence that are actually rated for that. Thankfully the city relented and approved the use of Maxxis Hookworm tires, which is what the local pedicab industry has been using to great effect for years now.
Hell yeah Luke! Way to be tenacious and get what you're after.
As a fellow pedicab operator I have to say, this guy shouldn't be on the streets. If he wanted to build his cab as a fun project, to take on rides, thats one thing, but it does not belong on the street with paying passengers. It is unsafe, poorly constructed, and a danger to the whole pedicab community. He was not being held to any higher standards than the rest of the cabs, ask any of the number of cabs out there that are DIY (he is definitely not the first), his cab is just not up to the standards of what should be on the street.
He is endangering passengers and giving the rest of us a bad name in the process. The original cab is shoddy, the seat angle is unsafe (causing the passenger to fly forward, as was mentioned), and the construction is just plain unattractive. He has thusly built a new cab as well, that has corrected the seat angle issue, but due to his lack of actual engineering skills, the wheel base is now too narrow under the seat width (think of a 1990 ford bronco and how top heavy they were). Which is asking for a wreck, seeing as trailers already have somewhat of a tendency to tip and roll.
These are just a few things mentioned, there are a whole slew of other things I would like to go into about the means he took to get this thing approved and the issues it is going to bring the pedicab community, but I think I have said enough. The article was bogus, and I don't speak for every cabbie out there, but I know I can speak for enough when I say "this guy gets no respect from me."
Thanks for your input, Caden. I hadn't talked to any pedicabbers about his project so it's good to hear how y'all feel about this. When I first saw it I had my concerns (looks very erector-set-like and "springy") as well but I figure the city inspector was doing his job when he finally passed it. I don't like reading that it tossed him from the seat several times. I didn't think an emergency eject was standard on most models of pedicab. Time will tell how his cab holds up, though hopefully not in any injurious way.
I guess I shouldn't have said a "higher" standard, but it seems from what I read that they hadn't tried to enforce the 1000lb tire requirement until he got in their face. Now they're overlooking it and allowing Maxxis Hookworms? You'd know better than I how the process works, I've only gotten information through the article and second-hand.
As for the DIY aspect, I think Damon has my favorite DIY trailer in town. One of these Critical Mass rides I need to steal it from him for a couple hours so I can chariot my wife around on the ride while she shoots video from the back. It'd be badass.
No Jason, Thank you for posting this stuff and giving us a place to discuss it. And funny you should mention erector set, that is our name for this guy on the street. You should check out the discussion we got going over on the chronicle page, it has gotten quite a few hits at this point from many other pedicabbers, including a few owners themselves. Keep spreading the good word of the bike my friend, Caden.
i saw him busting ass at ACL on sunday. way to go, man. hopefully this paves the way for other DIY'ers on the 'cabs!
-Jessica
bike nerd fo' life, yo
Yup!
Exhibit A, Exhibit B.
Yeah, he brought his pedicab out on a mass ride a couple months back. I think that's when I first heard about him getting shot down by the city several times, and before he'd finally gotten approval. It's cool that he saw this through and got the OK from the city, even though they were trying to hold him to a higher standard than they held the existing pedicab companies.
DIY is the shit!