This is a pubcycle, one of a few human powered bars that make their way around downtown Asheville.
You’ll find similar contraptions in other cities.
I first saw these in Fort Lauderdale and St. Pete, where the roads are flat.
There, even a drunk wedding party consisting of non athletes can get it moving—even if
half of them are only pretending to pedal.
But mountain towns like Asheville rely on electric motors to operate their pubcycles
safely.
According to Lela, no group of any size has ever summited Biltmore avenue on pedal power
alone.
I took that as a challenge.
We had the minimum group size of six peddlers.
There was Alex and myself, who are reasonably adept at peddling, plus Barret, who is a professional
mountain bike guide.
Next to him were Rob and Corinne, from the DIY Youtube channel, Threadbanger.
I was sure they could pub, but could they pedal?
Finally we had Johnny from Crafted Workshop, who—wait, where’s Johnny?
Okay, so we were down to 5.
This would be interesting.
The ride started off with a short downhill and a u-turn back up Biltmore avenue.
This is where the pain would begin.
Lela was amused, but ready to flip the electric motor switch to keep us from going backwards
on Biltmore avenue.
But we weren’t having that.
And
with that, we
enjoyed the simple pleasure of a rewarding downhill.
Like all downhills, it didn’t last.
By the second climb, Lela realized we were actually serious.
Understandably, she was surprised a group would pay to be tortured.
But not Barret, as a guide he gets paid to torture people all week.
As for Rob and Corinne, they didn’t actually know what they had signed up for.
After a punishing loop around the city, we had finally made it to Patton Avenue, our
final climb of the day.
Upon reaching that summit, we’d hook a right on to Biltmore for a sweet quarter mile downhill
back to the starting point.
But everyone was gassed.
We did it.
If you split the weight of that pubcycle between 5 people, it would probably be like each of
us riding a 250 pound bike.
Pubcycles like Rhino are made of steel and aluminum, with other goodies like batteries
and generators on board.
I had always wondered what was possible to do with one of these things, and that ride
satisfied my curiosity.
So if you ever find yourself in Asheville, I challenge you to climb Biltmore avenue on
pedal power alone.
I know this video was a little different, but I hope you had fun watching us suffer.
It might be fun to do this again with 10 enduro racers.
I’d be interested to see if we could outclimb a group of civilians using electric assist.
If you want to explore Pisgah forest by mountain bike, you can book Barret using the link below.
Also check out our friends at Threadbanger for very interesting DIY challenges every
week.
Finally, thanks to Lela for keeping that electric assist switch in the down position.
Thanks for riding with us today and I’ll see
you next time.