Update: Summer 2010!!

Hi everyone,

We've had an ultra busy 2010!!

Every First Friday for the past few months (except this past Friday 10/1) we've been not pedaling around downtown at night. Sad, yes. Instead, we were posted up with our vintage cab at Telegraph and 23rd Street peddling our organic home-made ice cream. So that's why you haven't seen us out and about on First Fridays. We've also been pushing cold creams at hipster-heavenly forageSF underground markets in SF and Oakland. A couple times a month you will find me zipping thru Alameda's Webster-Posey tube (it's hellish biking on a tiny pathway above cars hurtling toward you at 50-60mph with all the wind, soot, asbestos brake dust, noise and diesel PM2.5-10 exhaust... plus their lights on, sorta crazy) to get to Lucky's over there for dry ice. Oakland has no dry ice. What's up Oakland?! (Oh yeah, we did have some. But the West Grand am/pm is closed now.)

We provided first-class wedding service for a bevvy of lucky couples between May and September. Pedicab weddings are always a blast! So many awesome people who definitely should be getting married. While catering weddings I've lost count of which of my personal friend's weddings I've been to this year (two for sure) since weddings seem to blend together if you go to too many... but I do remember vividly my friends' weddings in Lima, Peru and Berkeley, California during the end of this September. Okay, there was Lizzie & Adam's sweet one too, but I'm not really recalling any before that this year :)

In July we went up to Portland and took a PDX pedicab around the aptly named Pearl District, then biked up the hill to the city of roses' rose garden and japanese garden... theirs gives SF's a run for its money but ours is still better :P The Met is okay but I wouldn't live there. Oakland is much preferable. Lima on the other hand... hm!!

Backseat Driver provided festival service to disabled people, children and plain tired-out adults at this year's Rockridge Out & About Festival last Sunday 9/26/10. Huge thanks to Scott and Sara of Market Hall/Cactus for providing us pulled pork sandwiches. They are "the bomb" times ten! Big thank you to the RRDMA for inviting us! We in turn invited Tom, owner-operator of eMotion Pedicab to join in the fun. It was a bit of an exhausting day for me since I pedaled one of our bikes all the way up from downtown Oakland. Great workout though!

You'll be pleased to find tech specs, photos and details about our electric-assist pedicab in ZEVTech's old website, now archived at Archive.org. You can also get the lowdown on True Blue's microcontroller.

I've been spending a lot of time hunting down spare tires to replace the seemingly 50-year-old tires on our beautiful vintage pedicab. The tire size is "26 inches by 1 and 3/8 inches" which is super generic and thus like a shoe or pant size these days. What I really need is a tire 582mm from bead to bead. Thanks for Tom Pisillo, Clay "Cash" Wagers and the dudes at VeloSport Berkeley for advising me on tire sizing and sourcing. If you have any 1950s era American or Chinese "26x1 3/8" tires loafing about please get in touch.

You have probably seen advertisements on our cabs this season in preparation for the upcoming local November election. These are for Robert Raburn (BART Board D4) and Rebecca Kaplan (Oakland mayor). Robert has given a lifetime of work into pushing for bicycling as a normal everyday transportation option in the urban East Bay. We heartily applaud Robert for his work. Rebecca has pushed for downtown Oakland's overhaul in various ways including the new "B" Shuttle on Broadway (aka freebie) and making it easier to open a nightlife establishment downtown.

We're working with the rough and ready crew over at California Covers to custom build a tight new awning for our 1952 Taiwanese Victory pedicab. No, we're not going all out with the LV leather this time! This cab is slightly awesome. I'm looking forward to seeing a new roof on this badboy after spending many late night hours patching up the old pvc canvas one with needle and thread...

I saw RadioGuy last night on his pedicab... it's now painted ALL PURPLE (instead of red with white stripes) and looks tres cool. Awesome! He'll give you a ride with plenty of bass pumping out of the surround speaker system. Radio Guy has been in downtown O. for the past 15 years.

Last but not least, we're gearing up for a huge event in Richmond this month with FOUR pedicabs out starting the party over at Green Drive Expo!

Thanks for reading and let us know where you'd like to see us next!