It's almost race season!

The latest addition to the fleet.

After months of ordering parts, the new rig is finally rolling, with only two weeks until the first race of the season. I spent this weekend roughly tuning the suspension, trying different tire pressures and putting the bike through it's paces. And it's fast. It's ridiculously fast. But in a more controlled manor. In three days of riding it, I've gotten 6 King of the Mountain's and 5 other personal records on Strava, despite crashing once, sliding out in some corners, and awkwardly coming off of a jump. I don't really know how to ride this thing yet. Previously, I was lucky to crack the top ten on Strava segments.

Leading up to this, I've been training on my single speed and really pushing the limits of what that bike is capable of: cornering hard enough to make it flex like a wet noodle, rolling/burping tires, two-wheeled drifting, etc. One could argue that my technique can't keep up with how fast I want to ride, but after almost four years on that bike, I'm going to say it's the bike. 

Before building my new bike, I had a total of maybe five hours of ride time with rear suspension, so I wasn't sure just how much of a difference it would make. I assumed it would be faster downhill, but it's faster in the corners and even faster uphill. I can apply full power to the pedals without worrying about the rear wheel spinning out, losing traction, or bouncing off course. Today I was actually 14% faster on an uphill sprint compared to my old personal record; consequently claiming that KOM from a semi-professional roadie who was on a cross bike at the time.

So, now that I have almost four functional bikes, I've come to the conclusion that the ideal number of bikes is five - coincidentally one more than I currently own (n+1). There's the racing mountain bike, the club-ride/racing road bike, a back-up mountain bike/dog-hauler (rigid, single speed), a commuter (something lightweight, minimal maintenance, cheap - fixed gear), and a wet-weather commuter/training bike/grocery getter with rack and fenders. Maintenance on more than two bikes can start to be a hassle, so the commuters/back-ups need to be simple, reliable, and somewhat cheap. Let the race bikes be the high maintenance, performance machines. Of course, depending on location and interests, you could add in fat bikes, bmx, touring, cargo, downhill, enduro, vintage, track, tandem, recumbent, trials,....

Rickshaw Part 2

In the rickshaw business, we often use fishing analogies to describe our work. You can troll, or you can cast in one spot and wait. When I first started, I wasn't given much direction. I was set free to work how and where I wished. At first I took note of other drivers to learn their methods. For the most part their techniques were random, and a lot was left to chance, like a fisherman drifting down river, casting at whatever looked good. Being the primary driver this season, I've decided to take a more systematic approach.

For instance, trolling is a great way to get exposure and attract customers, but it's very inefficient and should be reserved for certain situations. Like when there's a lot of activity, but all the other cabs are parked. With a high supply of taxis, I need to put in extra effort to get customers. The opposite of this is football game days when there are no other taxis in sight and customers are competing with each other to get a ride.

I much prefer the sit and wait method to conserve my energy. But, there are a lot of factors to consider when choosing a location. For the beginning of a smaller sporting event (like baseball), you can't be too close, because a ride isn't worth the cost. And you can't be too far; you'll get too few customers. So, I'm working on identifying the converging points for foot traffic, while avoiding parking at the bottom of a hill.

Pricing is another issue. In general we charge $5 per person, but for short trips, I usually leave it up to the customer. Most people tip well, and some pay two or three times what I tell them. Still, a few think $5 is too much, and in a way, I agree. It's strange asking people to pay for something that I would never pay for myself. But then, I'm almost always on my bike.

The other issue I have is that we really don't drive outside of walking distance, so I often feel like I'm depriving people of (much needed) exercise and capitalizing on others' laziness. I suppose plenty of other industries do that too and usually charge more. Not that it makes it right, but it could be worse.

Recently, while out working one evening, I got an unsolicited job offer from a "real" taxi service with the promise of making more money. It was tempting from the thought of being in a warm, enclosed vehicle, and of course more money is usually a good thing too. But, I decided not to take it. Working for that company would mean taking orders from a dispatch system and/or taking calls along with stricter, longer hours and the stress of driving a monstrous vehicle in crowded areas and sometimes grid-locked traffic. No thanks. Sadly, several coworkers have succumbed to the allure of bigger profits. 

The freedom of the rickshaw isn't something I'll readily give up. It's a low stress job with semi-flexible hours, and it's just generally enjoyable. Also the customers often think it's fun, whereas an SUV/van taxi is just an expensive form of transportation. Another factor in turning down the "real" taxi job was that earlier that same day, I accepted an offer to take over the maintenance of the rickshaws starting in the fall, along with some other supervisory duties.