Lucky rider number 4 - Ad's joins the team!!

What a week! Two riders trained up so far!.

Tonight it was the turn of the lovely and bike mad Ad's. I was the same drill as before (slicker this time as well). Ben talked Ad's through our code of conduct and standard operating proceduresThen it was on to those oh so important pre bike checks, hear Ben is doing a demo of the hand brake, crazy stuff!Then after some basic tests in the proving ground, emergency stops, tight turns and all sorts like that it was out on to the streets to learn the finer points of riding our lovely townAfter all the riding and tips there wasn't anything else to do bt welcome Ad's on board with her very own 'We're in this together' T-shirt.
Great stuff Ad's, welcome on board from all of the Team!

Will, Ben and Luke

You can't always get what you want..

So, next weekend I'm going on a Stag do for a good mate of mine, the plan is to get some mountain biking in on the Friday at AFAN the head down to the Gower for the rest of the weekend. Possibly for some more biking, plenty of beers and stag type antics.

So, i'm going to spend some time getting my stead back up to speed and she need some tender loving care. Just little things, brake pads, new set of flat pedals and for myself a new pair of shoes to ride in. So yesterday I placed the order. Turns out the only thing that'll be ready in time for the Stag will be the brake pads. Which is kind of ironic really as i wasn't planning on doing much slowing down.

Bah. Sometimes things just dont work out! so if any one knows any where I can get a pair of sealed Funn pedals and the new 5:10 low rise riding shoe let me know!

Will

Good news is that we are training another rider tonight, that seems to make me smile!

All Hail Luke!! Rider Number 3!

An awesome day for Pedicabs was had yesterday, we trained up our first rider Luke Mattews who has passed all the tests signed all the paper and ticked all the boxes on the way to being a Pedicab rider for Hereford Pedicabs!
We met at 7pm at the designated training zone for a bit of chit chat on procedures, bike checks and our general operating procedures, a few cup of tea later and we were ready for on the bike training. We are lucky that the great chaps at Bulmers who help us with our strage and security also have a safe area where we can get out and train our riders.

I showed Luke the ropes on the bike, gear ratios, signalling, emergency stops what to do if the bike gets on two wheels, controlling you postion in the road and then we had a game of cat and mouse. In and out of set marks on the ground.After this we had a brief recap and test on some of the points and headed out to show Luke all the things we've learnt that have made our lives easier, gaps we can fit through, short suts to take, awareness of other road users and pedestrians and good old having a bit of fun with the punters. We took both the cabs out to show varioous lines. Luke held his own and was a natural, comfortable and strong on the bike. Ben took it in turns to lead the way or drop behind and watch the action. In fact we took it in turns with whoever was not riding sitting in the back of Luke's cab to give pointers and add some realistic weight! After all the pointers has been pointed and the miles clocked we had a quick debrief and of course pretended not to award Luke with his prized Howies 'Love Me Love My Bike' Uniform T'ShirtOf course we were only kidding and really happy to have Luke on board
So here's to Luke and all that ride with him! Hip Hip Horray, Hip Hip Horray, Hip Hip Horray, for he's a jolly good fel..........

Well Done Luke From Will and Ben

Wedding Pics 2

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Abolish The Import Duty On Bicycles Made Outside the EU

This is an online petition to raise awareness of the above issue to our new Prime Minister have a read:

"Almost all bicycles sold in the UK are manufactured in the Far East. UK manufacturing on any large scale ended some time ago. Bicycles are subject to an import duty of 14% which, when compared to consumer electronics rates of near zero, is bonkers. We have childhood obesity issues, congestion, global warming and an aging population that needs exercise- the bicycle has a role to play in the resolution of all these issues. It seems crazy that the tax regime encourages a kid to sit in front of a bicycle extreme sports computer game rather than go out and ride his bike. My petition is to raise awareness of this anomaly and to encourage politicians at the highest level to start the necessary trade talks to abolish duty on a product that improves the health of the nation, helps lower emissions and is an all round benefit to society."

I added my name here - click for petition

Wedding Pic

As promised, dont we all look smart!

Rainy Monday

Good morning!

In all the weekend was great with Pedicabs managing to avoid much of the rain, I did however get caught right in the rain yesterday on my way home from a few beers to celebrate Rob’s birthday.

Instead of a picture of Rob I’ll stick one in of Sumo (Rob’s mate) who had a tremendous holyoaks shirt on with poppers. Sumo discovered that the more beers he drank the easier it was for him to pop his shirt open..

Rob may well be coming onboard to help with Pedicargo (he’s built for freight). We have a further meeting about Pedicargo in a few weeks, to discuss the best way to launch it and how initial companies will come on board. The great team from the Sustainable Travel department will be helping to make business in Hereford aware of our service. That’s all we’re letting on at the moment, we’ll keep you posted.

Enjoy the rain.

Will

Some photos as promised

So on Wednesday and Friday this week we had a bike out a the Taste For Adventure for the meals for the elderly they have there. It was a great chance to show them the bikes and the service that the bikes can provide to them. They loved it!

So today we had a wedding as I mentioned, I decked the cab out with ribbon, whacked a bit of nice kit on and here is the result-
There will be a few of the actual wedding coming when the wedding photographer forwards them to us. It was a great day though!

Busy Days

We're getting busier you know. Friday nights used to be quieter than Saturday but last night we were seriously busy. This afternoon we also have a wedding to do and then from the wedding we'll be heading out again. Brilliant. il try to upload some photo's a bit later to show you what we've been up to a bit this week.

Will

Great Meeting

Really great meeting with the Council Modern Records department yesterday, they are dead keen on using Pedicargo to get records all over Hereford. In fact the scheme they will be able to run with us will allow other units on the council to buy in to using cargo as a trial.

Great stuff.

Just thought I'd let you know. So within two months hopefully any stuff the council need to send 'same day' they will be able to. What's more they'll be able to do it with a lovely green sustainable company. It'll also give scope for any available space to be booked and used by regular business as the council offices are all over town. So a big well done to Anthony from the Modern Records Department for being so forward thinking!

Really really exciting stuff.

Will

The Next Step

The next step is almost ready, we've kept quiet about it for the moment as we have some things to think about staffing wise.

It's almost here though, we have things to concentrate on but this is the next one...

I have a meeting tomorrow afternoon with the archives department of Hereford Council, they want a green cargo service and it looks like we might be the answer. Great eh!

I'll keep you posted. In the mean time i'm very excited.

Will

A good weekend

We had a great weekend to end our incredible week, lots of folk cheering and making siren noises and loads of back patting. the weather also held out for us although we were a little late starting on Friday whilst the last of the tropical storms blew over! No worries though, we just whacked the kettle on and had another brew. We drink a lot of tea.

Little more to add than we had a rip roaring couple of nights, great fun lots of banter and lovely tips from the public, we wouldn't want it any other way... we maybe a few more cabs!

I've been meaning to post this photo on for a while so thought i'd get around to it, it's a convoy of bikes we got involved with, that was on a lovely sunny day, we could do with more of them!
That's about all from us at the moment, it's bike week in Hereford this week so if you've got a bike get on it!

Will

It's the WEEKEND!!

So now the media fury has died down who knows what this weekend will bring? Mainly we are hoping for sun! Although our weather sources (who tend to be more speculative than accurate) predict intermittent rain. Lovely stuff!

In other news the new riders are only awaiting their CRB checks (a check run by the police on their criminal records so we know their as good as they say they have been) to come back, a process which can take between 2 and 6 weeks. The checks will be back anytime now, so expect to begin seeing some different faces soon! We are also looking for more riders, people keen on being part of our cargo scheme and riding cargo bikes and Pedicabs. For cargo work, riders wont need a full taxi licence, that is reserved purely for pedicabbing.

For me it’s my first weekend back on the cabs after last weekends break which was good, for both my legs and my spirit. Is nice to get out on the mountain bike a bit!

Ben has had a bit of a shock as he has been away in the mountains for the past 6 days, he has come back to see the media frenzy, and to find that we are now a crime fighting duo!
A little more to add on that is that the news has now spread globally, a search on google news revealed about a 100 stories worldwide- google news link crazy, crazy stuff! Hits on our website and blog have gone through the roof! So has been a great awareness booster for Hereford Pedicabs and sustainable travel in general.

Time for me to crack on with some other things now, but before I go here is an answer to a question we have been asked a lot in the last few days. The t-shirts that we wear – can be found here howies tshirt So if you want to pick one up get in touch with the great folk at Howies.

Play Safe

Will

The Final Run Down

This has been an amazing couple of days for Hereford Pedicabs! Here is the final list of the press we got, great considering we didn't ask for it! My personal favourite is the BBC World Service, where I got to speak on their 12 mid day news. I just can't believe all of this. How many people must now know about what we do, the amount of emails we've had saying well done, the amount of people we've seen patting us on the back. It's as if Hereford are really proud of us! Incredible.

i guess we'll have to stop blowing our trumpet soon, but at the moment it sounds so good, so here is the final run down..

BBC Radio H+W (last week)
Radio Wyvern (on most of the news items today)
BBC Radio Scotland
BBC World Service
Western Daily Press (today page 3, us the police, Prince Harry and Victoria Beckham) click here and here
The Hereford Journal (front page indeed)
Hereford Times
Midlands today - our video
BBC news on line click here
The Times (page 5!!)
Times Online click here
The Daily Express
The Daily Star
The Daily Mirror
The Daily Mirror Online - click here
Earth Times – click here
And last but not least the Metro, we hear it’s big in London!

Amazing stuff!

Thanks for reading and for all those new folk, check out the older blogs, they take you right back to the start of our venture and tune in to our website herefordpedicabs.com it'll tell you all about what we do and how you can use our service, advertise with us and generally have as much fun as we do!

Thanks to everyone involved in the last few weeks

Will

Almost Done

Looks like we also made the 'Metro' , the Daily Star, the Express and we just had an interview for BBC Scotland. With just one more to go for 5 live our scrap book of stuff we've done is bulging!

World Service

This is crazy, I just spoke on the BBC world service news about our police chase. Hereford Pedicabs go global!

Midlands Today Video

Can be found here- our video

It's been a really amazing thing this you know, so many people have got in touch with us to say well done. We had someone get in touch from London who had seen us in the metro as well. It's all been in the spirit of how we set this up - Fun, Green and Honest. We havent pushed anything about this story and it's just been the good nature of what's happened taking us forward. Incredible.

In other news we've got three new riders starting very very soon - Luke, Darren and Ad's which will be great for Hereford Pedicabs, new faces and fresh legs! It will give Ben and I the chance to grow the rest of Pedicabs and Pedicargo, work on advertsing sales and getting out next few cabs.

It's been a great first few months for us and with well over 2000 customers already (just from for Friday and Saturday nights) it looks like we are going from strength to strength, so thank you to all of you who have ridden with us, supported us, read about us, watched us and enjoyed being part of Hereford Pedicabs.

Will

Has the snowball stopped rolling?

'The Times' page 5 - that's right, pedicabs went national! Who would have thought!

What an amazing couple of days!

When this whole Police chase thing happened we didn't really think much of it, in fact we told our friends had a laugh over a couple of beers and thought no more of it.

We were surprised when BBC Hereford and Worcester got hold of us for a chat and happily obliged, then all went quite for a couple of days, that was until Tuesday when everything went crazy! I think the term they use is a Snowball, the running total so far is-

BBC H+W (last week)
Radio Wyvern (on most of the news items today)
Western Daily Press (today page 3, us the police, Prince Harry and Victoria Beckham) click here and here
The Hereford Journal (front page indeed)
Hereford Times -tomorrow
Midlands today - tonight or tomorrow
BBC news on line click here
Times Online click here

All in all pretty amazing stuff, which seems to be the story of Hereford Pedicabs we've always just done what we felt to be right and it always seems to work out alright.

Keep your eyes peeled for us fighting crime on the streets!

Midlands Today

Maybe tonight maybe tommorrow!

Western Daily Press

Sorry folks, Western Daily Press not Western Mail.

Great story!

also

we're on the BBC england front web page - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hereford/worcs/6745977.stm
also listen in to Radio Wyvern news tommorrow.

amazing stuff

Fame at last!

Well what a day, press crazy! All about the police chase.

So- get the Western Mail tommorrow were on page 3
Also- get the Hereford Times on thursday
And- if you can't get your hand on those just check us out on the BBC website!!!- click here!!

Amazing stuff eh!

The single speed arrives

It's here and damn it's quick, no brakes, no gears, just a fixed 48-16. It's about as smooth as it gets.

Pedicab Commandeered for Police Chase!

Pedicabs goes from strength to strength, now 8 weekends in were not far off the 2000 customers mark which is awesome considering the few nights we haven’t been able to field both cabs and the bad, bad weather we’ve been having. This is a bit of an unusual post but I couldn’t wait to let you guys know. Last night Ben and I were involved in a High Speed Police Chase, yes you read that right – High Speed Police Chase!

It was about 8 o’clock and Ben and I had just done a multiple drop off at Castle Green for some chaps, I has vowed to get them right to the top of the hill so powered off to do so, Ben dropped his lot where he was an we agreed to meet in a few minutes.

Imagine my surprise when as I came down the hill I saw two Police officers in the back of Ben’s cab with Ben going like the clappers whilst they pointed to a distant figure. Not holding back I rounded the corner at full speed with a motorbike sidecar lean so as not to tip the bike. Soon Ben and I were closing the gap on the bad guys, I took the lead with Ben pulling the officers. We’re fairly new to crime fighting but like to imagine ourselves as cowboys riding down the bad guys.

The next few minutes were a blur of fluro jackets, sweaty riders and panicking criminals but as I’m sure you can guess we got our man. Unbelievable.

Hereford Pedicabs are looking forward to serving the public trust, protecting the innocent and upholding the law..

See you soon - Will