I am dedicated to providing you, the Rickshaw passenger, with the ultimate in fun and cheesiness. To help fulfill the promise, a 4 inch dual mirror ball assembly with 32 LED illumination was acquired for the Rickshaw for $20 shipped. The biggest challenge awaits, which is figuring out how to power this thing. The dual 4″ mirror balls were not designed to be battery operated, and the AC adapter specs were unknown at the time of purchase. No big deal right? Well, we’ll see. Turns out the power adapter is 12V AC, not DC! Hmmm.

Here’s a little video blog I did one night. It is a little on the quiet side, I know:

Here’s a vendor graphic and video for the item:

My friend Riyadth is an Electrical Engineer and will be helping me sort this out from far away in the Seattle area. Should prove to be an interesting project, and hopefully one that will turn out nicely. The mirror balls are amply illuminated for night, and even in the day inside the lights are noticeable.

There’s some mechanical issues as well, specifically the unit is a little loose and doesn’t operate flawlessly upside down. Hopefully, that and the power issue are resolvable. As you can see in the videos, this thing is optimal cheese. It will be a great edition if we can get it in there and working nicely.

Kelly was sweet and got me a Bell 109433 Flex View bicycle rearview mirror for the holidays. It was nice outside today and I decided it was time to mount it the mirror.

I had lost the little threaded metal insert, so I found a bulk nut with the proper thread in the basement and pounded it in with the hammer. Better than new.

The next challenge was the mirror mount to the stem. For most practical purposes, the Rickshaw canopy is perpendicular to bike handlebars. The adjustable arm doesn’t like to twist, which was a problem. Well, only temporarily. I drilled a new hole 90 degrees from the original hold and moved the retaining screw. You can see the result in this closeup:

Here’s a picture from the captain’s seat, and a reasonable representation of what I see:

I haven’t given it a real ride yet, but from a quick trip it looks like the mirror will serve me well and will be an appreciated addition this upcoming season.

I ran across this video on Flickr the other day. It is someone else’s video of the Tour de Fat “Rickroll by Rickshaw” event. Enjoy!:
“Still living the dream!” Rickshaw video

…and of course the story of “Rickroll by Rickshaw” is here at RickshawSeason.com:
Tour de Fat 2008 (Boise, Idaho)

Here in Boise my Rickshaw is a hobby, but in other parts of the world the Rickshaw is an important form of transportation. Something I’ve noticed in my casual looks around the web is that as countries in Asia become more developed, the Rickshaw gets the short end of the stick. The primary concern seems to be traffic flow.

We are fortunate to have bike lanes in Boise. The system is far from complete and still needs work, but I use these “Rickshaw lanes” throughout the Rickshaw Season (and on a bike as well).

Here’s a comment recently received:

Fuel Consumption and Environmental Impact of Rickshaw Bans in Dhaka

Most trips in Dhaka are short in distance, usually one to five kilometers. These trips are perfect of Rickshaws. Rickshaws are cheap and popular mode of transport over short distances. Rickshaws are safe, environmentally friendly and do not rely on fossil fuels. Rickshaws support a significant portion of the population, not only the pullers, but also their families in the villages, the mechanics who fix the rickshaws, as well as street hawkers who sell them food. From the raw materials to the finished product the Rickshaw employs some 38 different professions. Action needs to be taken to support the Rickshaw instead of further banning it in Dhaka. The combined profits of all Rickshaws out earn all other passenger transport modes (bus, rail, boats and airlines) combined. In Dhaka alone, Rickshaw pullers combine to earn 20 million taka a month.

We think that over the coming holiday of Eid du Ajah, new Rickshaw bans will be put into action on roads in Dhaka. Eid was used in the past to place new bans on roads in Dhaka. Last Eid many roads were declared Rickshaw free without public support or approval. By banning Rickshaws roads are clogged with increased private car use as well as increased parking by cars. Banning of Rickshaws on major roads increases the transportation costs for commuters. Not only due to longer trips to avoid roads with bans in effect, but also due to actually having to take more expensive forms of transport such as CNG or Taxi, where in the past a Rickshaw would suffice. The environmental impact of banning Rickshaws is obvious because it exchanges a non-motorized form of transport for a motorized form of transport, thus increasing the pollution and harming the environment. Rickshaw bans harm the most vulnerable in society, mainly the sick, poor, women, children and the elderly; generally those who can not afford or do not feel comfortable on other forms of public transport. To ban Rickshaws also hurts small businesses that rely on them as a cheap and reliable form of transporting their goods. Rickshaws are ideal for urban settings because they can transport a relatively large number of passengers while taking up a small portion of the road. In 1998 the data showed that Rickshaws took up 38% of road space while transporting 54% of passengers in Dhaka . The private cars on the other hand, took up 34% of road space while only transporting 9% of the population (1998 DUTP). This data does not include the parking space on roads that cars take up in Dhaka . If included this would further raise the amount of space taken up by private cars. Every year the Rickshaw saves Bangladesh 100 billion taka in environmental damage.

The government makes many efforts to reduce traffic congestion in Dhaka but with no success. Blaming Rickshaws for traffic congestion and subsequently banning them from major roads has not had the desired affect. Traffic is still as bad now as it was before the Rickshaws were banned on major roads. Rickshaws thus can not be seen as the major cause of traffic congestion. Instead one should look towards private cars and private car parking on roads as the major cause of traffic congestion. The space gained by banning Rickshaws is often used for private car parking. The current trend in transport planning reduces the mobility of the majority for the convenience of the minority. The next time a ban on Rickshaws on another road is discussed please take into consideration who is being hurt and who is being helped. For a better transport system in Dhaka we need to create a city wide network of Rickshaw lanes. If this is done Dhaka can reduce its fuel usage dramatically as well its pollution. We ask your help in our fight to keep Dhaka a Rickshaw city. Any information or help is very much appreciated and sought after. I write you this letter to describe the difficulties we are facing and some solutions but they are by no means exhaustive and we look forward to your help and input.

Syed Saiful Alam
Volunteer of Save Environment Movement

Well, with the ride last Wednesday, I thought I’d take this chance to reflect back on this season as I have with the prior two (2006 and 2007). So, here we go.

There were lots of great Rickshaw moments this year. This blog doesn’t capture everything. There’s lots of rides that aren’t mentioned. I usually like to have a picture to go with an event. Here’s some of the more memorable events (in no particular order):

1. Mike came and visited from California and we spent some time and notable mileage on the Rickshaw. Fun.
2. Joe and Steph ride towards town, and on the way to pick them up, I climb the bench. I took the most gentle way up, which is the old rail bridge from the Greenbelt and emptying out on Orchard. It was not a climb I’d have pulled off in the prior seasons.
3. Kelly and Faye on the back to start off the season.
4. Tour de Fat. “Never Gonna Give! Never Gonna Give!”
5. With Bob, with car fire!
6. There was a wedding. I understand why professionals do such events. I don’t see myself doing one again, but you never know. It was entertaining once.
7. Mom and Faye on the back, both Eagle Fun Days Parade and Boise Bike Week.
8. Bob and Bryce on the back returning from the Kristin Armstrong parade. I also had a bike on the back for that event.
9. Doug and I had a couple outings, including with his wife along once. Good times. I mention this last because Doug took more video this year:

This year, Bob was the #1 rider, whereas Joe had that honor the prior two years before he lost 100 lbs (I’m not joking).

Lots of Rickshaw changes this year, including a great new canopy, rebuilt seat, added headbadge, a cycle computer and the “This Driver Shares the Road with Cyclists” bumper sticker. The 3 speed didn’t get dropped in, but maybe it’ll get added before next season. I bent the chainguard up in October, so hey, what better time to convert the front to a 3 (which would involve getting rid of the chainguard anyway)?

Outside of the canopy this year, the biggest change this year was that the Rickshaw Engine(tm) became for more capable. Indeed, my legs have very noticeably bulked up. The increased capabilities in distance and climbing allowed me to take journeys that wouldn’t have been possible in earlier years. I also logged far more miles… …almost certainly more this year than in the prior two years combined. The Odometer reads 130.92, which is most of the miles for the 2008 season. Other changes this year were the additions of this web site and also a Rickshaw Season YouTube channel.

For my passengers this year, thanks for coming along and I’ll likely see you in the 4th Annual Rickshaw Season. Many thanks to my wonderful wife Kelly for the work on the Canopy and help with the seat as well. The new canopy really makes the rig.

My MBA student lifestyle and full time job pretty well put the clamps down on Rickshaw riding for a while. I did ride the Rickshaw out to school in late October where I damaged the chainguard, but other than that there was little to no action after the Tour de Fat. Well, last Wednesday was a nice night for November in Boise, Idaho. It was still and the clouds were overhead. It was warm enough that no hat or gloves were necessary. Time for the final ride of the season.

Brother Bob and I headed over to the Terrapin Station, a Dead Head bar in the ‘Rhino District’ to see Audra Connolly, a local singer-songwriter. Apparently she normally performs alone but she had a backing band that night. The Rickshaw was making a ticking noise and the headlight was dim, the canopy lights had one half very dim and the other half was completely dead. It was a short trip so we turned on as much lights as would work with us (the tail lights were functioning very nicely) and headed out.

Audra was singing and playing acoustic guitar all night (think “singer-songwriter”) and Bob and I got to meet the Bartender, also named “Brock”. That doesn’t happen often. I didn’t replay the pinball machine (which is more uncommon than not). We finally headed home. All in all a nice way to end the 2008 Rickshaw Season.

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.

(This entry backdated to August 23rd. Actual date: October 11, 2008)

The Rickshaw, much to my disappointment, never came with a headbadge. A headbadge is the marker plaque that is typically on the front of the frame of a bicycle. The Schwinn oval is a classic headbadge.

I bought a Schwinn cycle computer earlier in the year and moved the sticker from the packaging to the Rickshaw as a temporary headbadge, but I really wanted something more substantial. Bob and I headed out to Jalopy Jungle in Nampa in search of car badges that might make nice headbadges. There was some neat stuff out there. I had hoped for a Fiero badge but their Fiero had none left. The best looking of the group of badges acquired was a Saturn fender badge, but it was metal and plastic, and was not going to bend readily. The Buick 90th Anniversary fender badge was flexible, had the look, and was reasonably sized. That’s what I went with:

The assortment of badges we left with was $10 total and entry was $1, so my cost to return on the one used wasn’t so good, but Bob and I got to crawl around the junk yard for a while. The badge was a nice choice for Chinese Rickshaw use. China loves Buick.

Attachment was pretty simple. I dabbed a tiny amount of Gorilla Glue to the back of the badge. The badge needed to be held on to the frame for a while (24 hours at least) as the glue dried. Three zip ties solved that problem:

The zip ties were on there for the majority of the week and cut the night before Tour de Fat 2008 in Boise. It worked. The badge was bent and was staying on fine.

All in all a successful project. I’d saved some money if I’d come home with just the one badge, but I wanted to have multiple of them to stare at with the Rickshaw present. As I write over a month later, the badge is still holding nicely.

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.

Boise has an interesting set of elevations in town called ‘benches’. Here’s a Wikipedia description:

The bench is named such because the sudden rise in elevation gives the prominent appearance of a step, or bench. The Bench (or Benches, there are 3 actual benches throughout the Boise Valley) was created as an ancient shoreline to the old river channel.

The edge of each bench is like climbing a plateau, but instead of coming down the other side, you are greeted with another climb to another bench after the one you’re on. The area on top of each bench is fairly flat, so once you’re there it is all good. The battle is getting there.

The Rickshaw had never been up the bench for obvious reasons, but I figured I’d give it a shot. I called my friend Joe (who is the all time leader in Rickshaw miles as a passenger) and said I’d try to get him and his girlfriend down the bench and we’d hang out for some Karaoke. They were going to have to take a cab back though, because I was not going back up. Sounded like fun, so it was a go, or at least a try.

Water is power, so I took in a lot of water and Gatorade before I left the house. I decided the easiest way up was going to be the old rail bridge route that goes from the Boise Greenbelt, across the river, and ends up in the Orchard/Emerald area on the near bench. This route is smooth and about as gradual as it gets. Could I do it? Could the Rickshaw make it without snapping the chain or something else?

I took it easy on the way there. I wanted to be fresh for the climb. I hit the climb for the rail bridge and it wasn’t easy but I made it. I crossed the river and then kept going. I tried to keep my speed up so I had the crank turning at an optimal speed. There’s only one speed on the Rickshaw so I don’t have an easier gear to kick down to. A quick glance down revealed that I was going 7.9 MPH, which is a hair slower than normal cruising speed. I dig in a smidgen more and get it in the 8 MPH range. That’s cruising speed while climbing the bench.

There’s a point where the path up the bench actually starts to go down a bit before going back up more. I stop at the top of that point, not because I had to, but I wanted to assess myself and the Rickshaw. Both were doing well. I consumed 16oz of water, and then rode on to the top. Victory!

From there, I rode over to Joe’s place. I lost a bolt on the way (thankfully not a problem), which Joe replaced with some cool looking carriage bolts which looked much nicer than the regular bolts they replaced:

Once the bolts were replaced, it was time to load up and head out.

Because of my concerns about downhill braking, which had never received a real test, I wanted the safest route down which I guessed was Ustick Road:

• It has a bike lane.
• It has a lot of road texture, so it is a slower roll than the path I took up the bench.
• Though it is steeper than the route taken up, it also goes back up hill part way before the next intersection so even if the brakes went bad, gravity would stop the Rickshaw long before reaching the next intersection.

I went slow and the brakes took it. No noticeable brake fade. No noticeable smells coming from the brake. All was good.

We made it down the bench, on to karaoke, and then I hauled myself on home to finish the night. All in all, I’m thinking about 18 miles of traveling that day. The odometer is now sitting at 80.75 miles. That was the most demanding trip to date, but I took it much better than many other trips in the 2006 and 2007 seasons.

I’ve wanted to clear the 100 mile point in a season and it appears that will happen this season. I’m still fat but my cardiovascular and leg strength have improved significantly this year, and I have lost some fat. These days, hopping on a bike almost seems like taking a car, which is odd. More odd, the Rickshaw is increasingly starting to seem like riding a bike. If you’d have told me last year that I’d get the Rickshaw up the bench with a single speed I would have been surprised.