Bike Blog

bike taxi at City Hall

Where do I begin?

At the DMV, at 7:30 AM, where I got in line before the DMV opened. I had unsuccessfully tried to obtain a license plate for my trailer the day before. Today I decided to get an early start at the only remaining DMV open in my county (Erie County legislators and the county executive have really messed things up here, but that’s a whole other blog). The doors to the DMV opened at 9:05, and I was the fourth person in line. At about 9:10, a clerk called me forward for my turn, briefly looked at the pile of papers I had with me, and told me I couldn’t register the trailer. She went to find her supervisor, and another five minutes later (apparently the supervisor was on break already), she came back and said no way could I get the trailer registered, because the company from which I bought the trailer did not properly sign over the title to it or provide me with a bill of sale.

Determined to have my grand opening today, I called a friend who has a trailer, but his trailer is too big for my car, so I decided to ride my bike taxi downtown instead. Yes, that meant that I was going to ride an extra 12 or so miles today, but I was determined.

About half-way to downtown, I stopped at a red light, where a man standing there asked what I was doing. I told him, and he asked if he could have a ride, so I let him climb in the bike taxi, and off we went. He said he was having fun, and I was finding out just how much work goes into pedaling a loaded bike taxi uphill. There’s really only one significant uphill climb on my way downtown, and that’s where the road I use goes over a bridge that crosses railroad tracks. I used the lowest gears the bike taxi has, and I was really struggling to keep the bike taxi moving in a forward direction. But I did it, and the ride down the other side of the hill was great.

My passenger got off at Main Place Mall downtown, and he paid me $1. That’s the trouble with working for tips only, you get paid what the passenger wants to pay. I was hopeful, at the time, that later that night I would make up for that $1 tip by earning plenty of other tips later.

I rode around downtown asking people if they would like a ride. Everyone said no, in polite terms.

I rode up to the bike shop on Elmwood that is advertising on the back of the bike taxi, and Seaghan and Ethan were glad to see the bike taxi. Ethan gave me a water bottle, since I told him my water bottle fell of the bike taxi on my way downtown.

Then I rode back downtown, and Jeanine and the kids met me there to take some pictures. They’re online over at The Buffalo Bike Taxi Co. web site. They went home and I rode around for a few more hours.

I rode around for a little more than 8 hours, and I had one passenger.

I am not discouraged, but I think it is going to take some time before I have some good nights that really start to make this worthwhile. And in the meantime, I am going to be the most physically fit I have ever been in my entire life. Good thing I don’t have asthma anymore!

ride distance: 34 miles (that’s right, 34 miles!)
weather data from wunderground.com:
weather at start of ride:
temperature: 51.1 °F / 10.6 °C
dewpoint: 30.9 °F / -0.6 °C
humidyty: 46%
pressure: 29.94 in / 1013.8 hPa
visibility: 10.0 miles / 16.1 kilometers
wind: calm
sky: mostly cloudy
weather at end of ride:
temperature: 50.0 °F / 10.0 °C
dewpoint: 39.0 °F / 3.9 °C
humidity: 66%
pressure: 29.92 in / 1013.1 hPa
visibility: 10.0 miles / 16.1 kilometers
wind: ENE 6.9 mph / 11.1 km/h
sky: overcast