The Cycle of Beer

March 4, 2011 1:24 PM

Bend, Oregon is known for cycling. And world class microbreweries. Cycle Pub gives you an opportunity to enjoy these two passions, and create an experience you and your fellow riders will never forget. It's a non-tradtional bike, where you sit and pedal in a non-traditional way, and enjoy non-traditonal features and beverages. For lack of a better description, it's a rolling pub on wheels, that you pedal.
posted by zamboni (41 comments total)

The key thing here is, someone else is steering and braking.
posted by Halloween Jack at 1:32 PM on March 4, 2011

These have sprung up all over the Twin Cities in the posher parts of town.

Neat idea, but I think it would be cooler if it was more like a roving pub/public transport that you could hop on in any location on its route, have a beer, and make it to work in the morning.

What, doesn't everyone want a beer on their morning commute?
posted by Think_Long at 1:32 PM on March 4, 2011

At last, a way to bring together mathowie's love of biking and my love of beer.
posted by cortex at 1:34 PM on March 4, 2011 [4 favorites]

Did you know that a bottle cage for a bicycle is the exact size for a wine bottle, or a common 22 oz beer bottle? I suspect you can thank the French or maybe the Italians for that one.
posted by loquacious at 1:35 PM on March 4, 2011

Yeah, but the Twin Cities version has a much crappier web site.
posted by partylarry at 1:36 PM on March 4, 2011

The key thing here is, someone else is steering and braking.

I couldn't find anything obvious on the page, but how does it work with multiple people pedaling?
posted by kmz at 1:36 PM on March 4, 2011

Oh wait, it's probably just something generalized from tandem bikes. Duh.
posted by kmz at 1:37 PM on March 4, 2011

It's the dream of the 90s.

This would probably be totally illegal where I live. Even the bar bike, which I read about just yesterday, would probably need a fenced-in area, a separate area that sells beer tickets (which one would redeem at the bar), and mandatory police protection. And port-a-potties. Plus you'd probably only get a one-time license to do this, which you would have applied for 12 months ago. I'm a little jealous.
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 1:41 PM on March 4, 2011

Cool. I will have to check this out next time I am visiting the in-laws and free of other duties.
posted by Artw at 1:47 PM on March 4, 2011

Wow. I am actually seriously considering trying to run one of these things. What a great business idea.
posted by asperity at 1:49 PM on March 4, 2011

so very burningman.

The Maltese Fulcrum

Lobster Dragon
posted by mrgrimm at 1:51 PM on March 4, 2011

Looking at The Gallery, I don't know how comfortable those saddles would be while trying to relax and have a drink. I could be wrong.
posted by defenestration at 1:53 PM on March 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'm a little jealous.

Not to mention the [phony] outcry from local tabloid$, annoying churchmongers and public safety "activists" which would come just before the vociferous bitching and moaning from the brick and mortar booze merchants who paid for their licenses and do so much for the community selling tobacco, liquor and lottery tickets that they believe in congressional protection for their tax-evading corner rackets to keep any bicycle-bound outsiders with their new ideas away from their franchises.

Yes, I live in Boston, purveyor of village idiots.
posted by jsavimbi at 1:53 PM on March 4, 2011

Souls in the great machine, without tracks and more beer.
posted by dibblda at 1:53 PM on March 4, 2011

I might possibly travel to MeFi World HQ for such a meetup.
posted by GuyZero at 2:05 PM on March 4, 2011

Oh great, I smell an awesome meetup experience I'm way too far away to enjoy.

I guess this just means I need to come up with something awesome for MeFites in the NJ area to do instead of whining.
posted by mccarty.tim at 2:12 PM on March 4, 2011

Not to mention the [phony] outcry from local tabloid$, annoying churchmongers and public safety "activists" which would come just before the vociferous bitching and moaning from the brick and mortar booze merchants who paid for their licenses and do so much for the community selling tobacco, liquor and lottery tickets that they believe in congressional protection for their tax-evading corner rackets to keep any bicycle-bound outsiders with their new ideas away from their franchises.

Yes, I live in Boston, purveyor of village idiots.jsavimbi

You sure you don't live in Vancouver?
posted by Keith Talent at 2:12 PM on March 4, 2011

I love both of these things, but have often found that they do not compliment each other well.

Better to do the biking part first, and the beer part afterward. Preferably on a shady patio.
posted by Stagger Lee at 2:13 PM on March 4, 2011

I suspect you can thank the French or maybe the Italians for that one.

Wrong. Belgians.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 2:13 PM on March 4, 2011 [3 favorites]

Speaking as someone who loves biking and then drinking and then biking some more (repeat, repeat, repeat), this just doesn't sound like a lot of fun to me. Marginally safer than the way I usually do it, though.
posted by gurple at 2:17 PM on March 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

I, too, would like jump onto the "I like beer, and I like riding, but I do not necessarily like beer while riding" uh, cyclepub. Nifty, though.
posted by everichon at 2:18 PM on March 4, 2011

As someone who lives in a town where omnipresent craft brew culture and ubiquitous bike culture are just two sides of the same handlebar-moustachioed coin (Fort Collins, home of Odells and New Belgium)...I kind of think this is awesome, but I'm also preemptively shaking my fist at the new ways it creates for people to vomit on my front stoop and for me to get caught in traffic.
posted by peachfuzz at 2:22 PM on March 4, 2011

cortex: At last, a way to bring together mathowie's love of biking and my love of beer.

Do I sense an idea for another meetup roadtrip?
posted by nickthetourist at 2:23 PM on March 4, 2011

Haha, bend!
posted by dougrayrankin at 2:27 PM on March 4, 2011

Oh wait, there is a couch on there, for those of us who are happy to imbibe without unnecessary perspiration.

Yeah, I'd give it a shot, then.
posted by paisley henosis at 2:29 PM on March 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

this reminds me of ConferenceBike only more drunken
posted by kakarott999 at 2:48 PM on March 4, 2011

There's one in Nashville, but they're not allowed to drink on it, so it's really just a slow and expensive pub crawl.
posted by ghharr at 2:57 PM on March 4, 2011

Beer Bike outfits are reasonably common in Germany, Holland, etc., but they still run into legal issues, especially after bad crashes, and that'd get worse in the U.S. of course. I'd imagine you'd work out purchasing the bike itself by contacting bierbike.de, but you'd need it shipped form Germany.
posted by jeffburdges at 2:58 PM on March 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

Bend: Please come here and spend your money.

Please?
posted by mrzarquon at 2:58 PM on March 4, 2011

I prefer a beer from the comfort of the couch. Now I need the guy ahead of me in the paceline to switch over to the game on his TV bike.
posted by cmfletcher at 3:15 PM on March 4, 2011

Previously?
posted by advicepig at 4:21 PM on March 4, 2011

Yeah, but the Twin Cities version has a much crappier web site.

oh, that's because the twin cities are much crappier.
posted by rainperimeter at 4:22 PM on March 4, 2011

cmfletcher: I prefer a beer from the comfort of the couch. Now I need the guy ahead of me in the paceline to switch over to the game on his TV bike

How could anybody not want one of these?!

Maybe I'll build one of these and move to a big city and be a bicycle rickshaw of ultimate comfort and somehow become rich.
posted by paisley henosis at 4:33 PM on March 4, 2011

Having fallen off many bar stools and chairs in my time I sure hope that thing has seatbelts.
posted by Joe Chip at 5:38 PM on March 4, 2011

As a Bend resident who did some research on this thingamajig last week, let me just add that they don't serve the beer. You have to bring your own and designate one of your party members to serve the beer. And it's $5 a person. Still awesome, but it's probably easier to just ride single bikes and drink in a big posse. BUII's are far more common in Oregon than you would imagine.
posted by evilbeck at 6:32 PM on March 4, 2011

This is legendary. But I think I'd be kicked off for singing "Daisy" over and over in the HAL-9000-losing-its-mind slow motion voice.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:00 PM on March 4, 2011

BUII's are far more common in Oregon than you would imagine.

Yeah, biking while drinking in the eyes of the State of Oregon is still drinking and driving.
posted by fiercekitten at 10:24 AM on March 5, 2011

Yeah, biking while drinking in the eyes of the State of Oregon is still drinking and driving.

My instinctive reaction was, well, isn't that the case everywhere? As it turns out (at least in my own state), not so much.
posted by Halloween Jack at 1:18 PM on March 5, 2011

This would probably be totally illegal where I live.
From MN state law:

This section does not prohibit the possession or
consumption of alcoholic beverages by passengers in:
...
(2) a vehicle that is operated for commercial purposes in a manner similar to a
bicycle as defined in section 169.01, subdivision 51, with three or more passengers who
provide pedal power to the drive train of the vehicle;

For some reason I think this is hilarious.
posted by miyabo at 7:02 PM on March 5, 2011

Austinites, this is coming soon to our fair city.
posted by lunalaguna at 8:29 PM on March 5, 2011

I rode one of these at Sierra Nevada's brewery in California last year, and there are no seatbelts! It's actually a marvel of engineering that employs a clutch for shifting gears (everyone has to stop pedaling for a moment during the shift). You really had to pump hard to get it moving and we never got it going more than 5-6 mph.

Not sure who gets the credit for inventing it, but the Germans would seem the most likely, what with their penchant for engineering and beer drinking. I've seen these contraptions in Munich during Oktoberfest.
posted by sixpack at 7:39 AM on March 6, 2011