Saturday, July 3, 2010

Selling Art by Bike.

Cargo bikes really are kind of miraculous. I just took a trip to Palm Coast, Florida to relax with some friends who were renting a house there. We took a boat trip to neighboring St. Augustine, the oldest city in the United States, I'm told.

There I saw this artist selling his paintings in the town square. His many paintings were propped up against his awesome cargo bike! When I asked him about his bike, he told me it was the glue that held his business together. The city started charging for parking and it became too expensive for him to drive his car so he got this bike. (Okay I know it's actually a trike but in the interest of simplicity I'll just call it a bike.)

Sweet cargo bike.

The paintings.

The artist.

Look at all the stuff he fits on that bike!

Eager customers.

The artist was actually quite busy helping a bunch of customers so I didn't want to take up any more of his time with my bike questions, though I had lots. I think he's a wonderful example of someone who found a creative solution to a problem and makes his bike work for him. And he has a rockin' bike!

Eagle-eyed readers may have noticed that the bike is by Worksman Cycles. They are the original creators of the Good Humor Ice Cream Tricycle, and the oldest existing bicycle manufacturer in America! I think his model is at the top of this page. Unlike a Dutch Bakfiets bike where the cargo box is built in, this bike simply give you a platform on which to put your own box or other cargo. Its payload capacity is a whopping quarter ton! Worksman Cycles are made in the USA. I'm not aware of any other cargo bikes that are. (If you know of any please leave a comment.) Take a moment to read the company's essay on why they continue to build their bikes in New York.

4 comments:

  1. CETMA builds in the USA, there are a couple of others that come to mind... Bilenky out of Philly is another strong contender.

    There are a few others but I don't recall the names at the moment. Worksman is definitely the oldest and builds some seriously heavy duty (with the emphasis on HEAVY) bikes.

    Aaron

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  2. Very cool, Aaron. Thanks for the links. The Bilenky bikes are especially gorgeous!

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  3. Practical and ingenius. A very good plan B to the parking fee problem. Even where drivers don't have to pay to park, parking itself is never free. Someone is always paying for it somehow and it is always expensive - at least if you are parking someone people actually want to go.

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  4. Worksman Cycles have not strayed from their mission started over 100 years ago, and that is to make human powered transportation for a more efficient society.

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