This weekend, i was lucky enough to get to ride the Haulin' Colin built People Powered Parade Float again. And, if this is possible, it was even more fun this time!
We collected the wonderful machine from up on Beacon Hill at Walker's house where we left it last time. This machine has 7 pedaling stations installed upon an old Toyota Pickup chassis. The drivers' seat, transmission, clutch driveshaft, differential, brakes, wheels, tires, steering wheel, suspension and even the speedometer from the Toyota are still intact and are in use in this vehicle..
We pedaled across Beacon Hill. The ride up the slight rise at the top of the ridge of was hard work,
but then we got to Colombian Way which would take us way down hill and all the way to Columbia City. We went very fast!
Near the bottom of the hill, the duct taped tire came apart, slapping the body and making a hell of a racket.
It wasn't serious but it did give us a bit of a scare. We limped the rest of the way to Bike Works. We parked the Octobike by the warehouse and went into the Thursday night work party at Bike Works for refreshments and circle time..
First thing on Saturday, before the parade, Ryan, the amazing lead mechanic at Bike Works went and got us a new tire. And he got it using a bike trailer; i love it!
The purpose of this trip was to move the vehicle down to Bike Works so it could be in the Rainier Heritage Parade on Saturday. We made costumes, decorated the machine and tried to name it. Megan and i tried to come up with a name based on cycle jalopy, but it didn't sound great. I think Chris hit on it a few days later it with Octobike.
Johnathon brought his banjo and Davey his Uke, so we had music on board too! It was a very hot day, and i'm not good in the heat. We tried to stay in the shade while we were waiting.
Davey asked who was going to 'drive', that is, steer and shift. The previous times i had 'ridden' the Octobike i had been pedaling. Since i can drive a standard transmission i volunteered, i figured i'd let everyone else have a turn at pedaling. I actually had fun shifting!! It was just like my old Toyota back in the 1980s.
So i drove in the parade. We had more people pedaling than needed so Juliett decided to show off her AMAZING hula hoop skills. She walked next to the Octobike part of the time, but she got up on the platform and performed while we moved along. It was great -- the crowd LOVED it.
Perhaps the highlight started off as a danger, loomed towards possible disaster and then turned out spectacular, when a little kid started to run in front of us to grab the candy we were throwing. I jammed on the brakes, forgetting that there was person standing hula-hooping on board. She was knocked off, but she managed to gracefully leap over Emily pedaling in one of the front recumbent positions and she, Juliett, landed on her feet while still hula hooping!!! The crowd went wild! They thought it was part of the act. I apologized to her after the parade.
When the parade was over the people walking were directed to the left into the parking lot next to Bike Works. That would've been ideal for us. But instead, the cops directed us down the steep hill on Alaska St and then even further, and tried go get us to go down Genesee.
So now we had to get up the hill again, and somehow avoid the Parade route. We moved past the football fields on Oregon St and waited for an 18 wheeler to turn around. Then we went up the hill on Rainier Blvd and on Alaska, with traffic. The cop at the intersection we wanted to turn left on was pretty snarky but we were polite to him. We were all pretty happy to pull up in front of Bike Works and find some shade.
We enjoyed the Summer Streets Ciclovita closure of Rainier and talked up Bike Works at the Bike Works booth. Here i am explaining the Octobike to Elizabeth and her family.
Summer streets was over at three and we were going to have to move the Octobike back UP Beacon Hill. Just before 3 good friend Joe showed up. We had been kind of expecting him earlier, he's a strong cyclist and we needed him. He showed up with his friend Chris which was good, but also with a cane and a slipped disc, which was bad. He could barely move.
Once he sat in the Octobike it was clear that he wished he could ride. I convinced him to be our driver while we all did the hard work. He came along!
In this photo you can see that the Octobike still has the brakes, transmission and everything from the truck!
Davey was quite worried that we would not have enough people to power the vehicle up the big hill, but when it came time to leave we had about 22 people volunteering. About 12 of us went. We pedaled out to MLK Blvd and then down the busy street. Davey yelled to people at bus stops that due to budget cuts, we were the bus. I thought it was funny.
We waited a while in the shade at the bottom of the hill while Davey & Danny & Adonia scored us some much needed food.
The we started to crank up the hill. It was very hot, and we were were all suffering but we decided to go up the gorgeous Olmsted parkway Cheasty Blvd which is heavily shaded.
photo by Chris Zömbory
We had enough people that a couple could push and one or two could rest while the rest pedaled. We switched out frequently.
I took a turn in one of the front, recumbent spots. It's HARD work. I used muscles i don't normally use. I didn't last long.
She didn't know her visit to Seattle would be this much fun!
We celebrated once we got to the top and coasted down to Walker's house again. We were all happy to get some food and cold drinks -- it was hard work and took a couple of hours, but it was great fun. I'd do it again.
Here's our route.
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