It’s been almost a week since the Tour de Fat, but it was a great event worthy of a write-up.

Kelly was going to ride on the back, but once I announced my plans to Rickroll she had no interest in being attached to this ride. Everyone else wanted to ride their own rides too (understandable), so we put the Halloween scarecrow on the back with a bike helmet. Perfect. Here’s the highlight reel:

This was my fourth year of Tour de Fat and it seems every year past year one they mess up parade flow. Last year, they had a huge turnout and tried to funnel part of it onto the greenbelt (bad idea). This year, almost last minute, it was like they were thinking “This is working too well” and they had everyone go up a curb and onto the lawn so they can pass the Tour de Fat main stage. Bad idea. It bottlenecked hard at the narrow entry to the road where lots of people were trying to start from to begin with.

Past there, they made a fundamental mistake. Understand that outside of New Belgium Brewing the organizers are local biking enthusiasts. They ride a lot on light bikes with multiple speeds. They aren’t in touch with the average rider in the Tour de Fat. I ran across an organizer about 6 months back and I was very obvious about not having a bench climb. Maybe next time I should get an email address or show up as a ‘user advocate’ (as I have for software over the years). Well, sure enough, there was a bench climb. My cruiser minded friends who showed up had Shimano 7 speed hubs, so they could drop down and climb. That’s not typical in cruiserworld.

As mentioned, my plan was to “Rickroll by Rickshaw”, which, if you are unfamiliar with Rickrolling, involves unsuspectingly bombing people with Rick Astley’s hit song “Never Gonna Give You Up”. We put the fake passenger on the back, I printed up a big Rick Astley on three sheets of paper on the DECLaser 5100 and joined them, and also printed the other signs and taped them on as well.

Burning the CD was fun. I could have burned just one track and put it on replay, but naw, I put over 10 copies of it on one disc instead.

I put the disc in the boombox and it played fine. Right before we leave for the tour, I decide to ride with the cd playing from the boombox which is bungied on the back rack. It was awful. I thought an occasional skip would be fun, but this thing was skipping to where it would stop playing within one minute. Awful. It would rarely skip if I carried it during while riding, so that’s what I did.

The Tour de Fat is my favorite annual Boise event, and this year was no different.

Kristin Armstrong won gold in women’s time trial cycling in the 2008 Olympics so it was time to celebrate in Boise. Instead of a typical parade, it was decided to have a bike parade from the YMCA on State Street (where she has worked) to City Hall where she was presented with the key to the city.

Bob rode along on the back, and thinking he might want to leave early, we put his Schwinn Racer on the back using a bike carrier designed for use on cars. It works pretty well back there, with the only difficulty being it makes the Rickshaw wider.

Things went pretty quick, so Bob and his Schwinn hung around for the full ride. All in all, a nice little event in beautiful Boise, Idaho. The Rickshaw odometer is now reading just under 110 miles so far.

(This entry backdated to July 19th. Actual date: September 4, 2008)

So, this dude Chad finds RickshawSeason.com while searching for Boise and Rickshaw. He’s getting married and wants to have a ride from his reception at The Linen Building in the ‘Linen District’ (or as I call it, the ‘Rhino District’) to the Grove Hotel. I talked to him, he sounds cool, so I’m all “Yeah sure, I’ll haul you.”

The Rickshaw has broken boards in the passenger bench (see Old seat fixed) so Kelly and I fixed that the day before. Everything was ready to go on wedding day.

I showed up about 30 minutes before the scheduled leave time. We ended up leaving about 50 minutes after my arrival. Watching other people’s reception once is kinda amusing, though I can see why the pros get paid for this.

Reception ends and it’s time to haul off. The bride and groom present me with an unseen challenge… …luggage! I really should have thought that through. Unfortunately, I had no bungee cords (I do now) and they had two bags. With bungees, I could have strapped luggage on the back fold down rack no problem, but that was not an option. Thankfully, there was room for one bag under the seat and the other went on the foot grate, less than ideal but doable. Here’s the picture as we’re leaving from the reception:

We took off, the bride and groom are stoked, I’m amused, and it was a nice night out and just late enough to where the LED canopy lights were starting to work nicely. I rode down Grove, up 10th, back down 8th (with lots of people on the patios… …nice) and then to a busy Grove with the fountain running. I ran the around the fountain 2 or 3 times and then rounded the fountain and dropped them off. It was an enjoyable experience and I hope I added something to their wedding night.

Mom and Bryce were on the back of the Rickshaw last year during the parade and it was a good time, so we returned this year.

The day starts by loading up the Rickshaw on Dad’s flatbed trailer for the trip from Boise to Eagle. He then takes it to Eagle, meanwhile I’m taking a friend and his musical gear to Eagle as well for an outdoor performance after the parade.

I meet up with the Rickshaw and get in line for the parade. Learning from last year, I bring a book to read while waiting. Mom and Bryce show up later, and after some more waiting, it is finally time to get moving.

This year’s parade was a bit different. We had experience. The parade route went the other direction. Unfortunately, somewhere before us there were a few horses.

I ran random circular patterns as usual and all were having fun except Bryce who for whatever reason wasn’t enjoying it like last year. Well, a quick passenger swap and Faye was now back there with Mom, and she was having fun.

Here’s some video I uploaded onto YouTube:

Parade riding is a lot different than regular. I’m doing lots of circles and I sit around more than normal.

The interesting (but sad) thing we saw this year was the engine on the Porsche 911 in front of us overheat. Those cars are rear engine and air cooled. The salon had a banner they wanted to show over the engine compartment and to prop the banner up, they stuffed the area behind it with towels. Unfortunately, this also blocked air from coming in and cooling the engine. Over time, the car started to blow more white smoke (it wasn’t blowing any at the beginning). The towels were removed during the parade, but it was a bit late. The 911 finally pulled over and stopped early near the end of the parade.

Mom likes being a passenger, and Faye does as well. She had figured out a sweet little wave for the crowd by the end. We regrouped with the rest of the family for BBQ after the parade ended. Total mileage for the day: About 4.5 miles with about 2 of that being the parade itself. The odometer is sitting at over 28 miles.

Today was the end of Boise Bike Week, and it ended with the highlight day for me, the Pedal Power Parade. It was uphill to the start, where we waited until a good 30 minutes after the official start time to start. Blah blah blah! Mom shared the back of the Rickshaw with both Bryce and Faye (alternating) during the ride. Kelly rode along side with her Giant Simple Single and a kid trailer.

The ride to Julia Davis Park was nice. Having the speedometer is fun. I was peaking at around 11-12 MPH. Depending on the situation, I run out of gear.

At Julia Davis (pictured above), I got free pizza, a salad, snack mix, Oreos and water. Thank you Old Chicago and Boise Bike Week. I took the Greenbelt part way home, so Bryce got some tunnels in. The trip was 7 miles, putting the odometer at 18.4 miles.

As seen in the picture on the right (click it for a large view), I added some letters for the back saying “RICKSHAW SEASON.COM” (about $2.30 a package at Wal-Mart, but it took multiple Wal-Marts to find two sets of the letters I wanted) and I heard at least one person say it during the event, so it was effective. It took two packages of letters to accomplish the task, and I had to fab a lowercase ‘l’ into a period. Cake.

I’ve been active in Boise Bike Week this year, attending an event every day so far. With one exception, I’ve been the only single speed cruiser guy, and that guy wasn’t a cruiser guy, he borrowed his son’s ride and forgot it even had a kick stand! Anyway, tonight’s event wasn’t a ride, but rather a gathering at Sachel’s in downtown Boise. For me that’s probably a hair over one mile each way. Well, the Rickshaw hadn’t seen action yet so I took it with Brother Bob on the back.

It was a good night. I need to air the tires up more often, especially the rear right one as it loses some air over 2 weeks, and I forgot my lock (again) for the second time this week. I just pedaled harder and we parked the Rickshaw in plain sight. Not a biggie. I’m going to dedicate a lock to the Rickshaw though, so I don’t have the lock problem again.

Boise Bike Week has been fun so far. The Rickshaw will return for the Pedal Power Parade on Saturday.

My odometer is sitting at about 10 miles now. A chunk of that is with no passenger, though.

The 2006 Rickshaw Season was the first. I started the year in poor shape, and as I’d mentioned many times “The way to get into Rickshaw shape is with a Rickshaw”. Evidently. The season was rough at the beginning, but sure enough, was more tolerable as it progressed.

The low point of the season was the Tour de Fat. Yes, the Tour de Fat was still enjoyable, but the Rickshaw, already damaged from hitting a speed bump in a parking lot too fast, hit a section of tree roots under the asphalt on the Greenbelt during the tour, vibrating the carriage to the rear right wheel, and ending that year’s ride very early.

All in all a great year. I got in way better shape, and had fun. The Rickshaw suffered some damage it wouldn’t receive the next year as I learned how to baby it. For example, don’t pedal on notably uneven surfaces because the frame lacks rigidity and you’ll bend on the front sprocket with the chain in the process.

(I’m backdating this entry, actual date is April 15, 2008)