Pedal Hopping.

Last night I went out with some teachers from the first school I worked at.  The counselor in the group hooked us up on this thing called the Pedal Hopper.

It’s kind of like a San Francisco streetcar, but powered by people.  You have to have at least 10 guests to power it, we had exactly 10 though it holds up to 16.  We decided that 10 was perfect since there are only 10 seats with pedals and any extras would just be extra weight to pedal around.

For $180 you get a 2 hour trip, stopping at 3 pubs.  You even get to pick the places to stop, keeping in mind you only have 2 hours and you have to pedal wherever you choose to go.  Which isn’t easy even though there are 10 of you, my legs are still mad at me.  At our first stop we decided to change our route, cutting out 4 blocks out of our trip.

There is, of course, no alcohol allowed on the Hopper itself, but you do get the driver, music (your choice or their party mix) and it even has a disco ball.

The driver had a bell that he would ring twice for “pedal”, and continuously for “pedal your butts off or we’re gonna get killed” when we turned left through intersections.   Since we drove right in traffic, we got a lot of stares, waves and horns honking, most of which were not the “move out of my way you morons going 5MPH in traffic” kind of honk.   Pedaling it, even up hill, wasn’t really hard work, it’s geared well, just tiring.  My legs would give out just about the time we got to the next stop.  Except for the last leg, which was all level or slightly downhill.  It was a blast.

At the beginning of the trip.

In the middle of the trip.

After dark, close to the end of the adventure.

Sorry about the video quality, all I had with me was my phone.