Pedalling for a living!

[Broadbeans]

Evening, battery boys and gals!

A couple of years ago I almost bought an eastern-looking pedal rickshaw from a junkshop for £250. I'm pretty sure it was a genuine imported one. It was rather crudely manufactured, gearless - and quite hellish to pedal, which is why I didn't take the plunge. But with a front hub-motor and the tyres pumped up well, I think it would have been a different story. I read about a chap in North America somewhere who runs a rickshaw business for tourists, and the interesting point is that he gives rides for free: the tips he gets from delighted voyageurs exceeds the money he formerly made with a structured fare system! And, as he doesn't charge, he doesn't have any red tape or licensing problems.

Pedalling around and getting paid...have I hit on the perfect recession-proof business? Swanage, here I come! Or would Norfolk be flatter!?

:- ) Johnny

 

[flecc]

Swanage definitely a bit too hilly Johnny, best somewhere much flatter.

We've got about 350 pedicabs (rickshaws) in London, and there are some elsewhere in the country. In London they are much hated by taxicab drivers but very popular with the tourists, and flat Cambridge has banned them from some areas because of the congestion they cause.

I think there are three makes on the UK market, Cycles Maximus probably the main one. They also do two electric versions, one with a Heinzmann motor in the front wheel, the other with a hugely powerful Lynch motor combined into the back axle and differential. That last one is nominally legal but can hit 5 kilowatts at very low speeds so can climb just about anything, slowly. In general progress is mainly at 6 to 8 mph on it. They also do a van body as well, payload 5 cwt.

One group of young men "up north" picked up one up a couple of years ago and took it to a French tourist area for the summer to earn some money. They came up against French bureaucracy with the need for various permissions, but eventually got going and ended up enjoying the experience. They didn't intend to repeat it though!

So it's possible, but it's a well trodden path. Here's a map showing where that make is in Britain:

Cycles Maximus in use
.

 

[Broadbeans]

Blimey, Flecc, didn't realise you had hundreds of rickshaws in London! Another plan bites the dust! I'll have a look at Maximus now. Have heard about Lynch motors before - were they once known as printed-circuit motors? Johnny

 

[flecc]

Have heard about Lynch motors before - were they once known as printed-circuit motors? Johnny

I'm not sure if Lynch were behind those printed circuit motors, but I don't think this is one of them on the trike.
.

 

[Broadbeans]

Crumbs, Flecc, the Maximus trikes are magic! Ta for the info. Johnny