Appropriately enough, Rhett Reynolds arrived at his idea for an uber-tech beercycle while drinking a draft with a friend as they watched the World Cup at Brit's Pub in Minneapolis last summer.
Pining to return to the Tampa-St. Petersburg area, where he had gone to college, Reynolds told Matt Frakes he wanted to buy a PedalPub franchise and give it a go in Florida. Instead, Frakes suggested that his employer, Caztek Engineering, could come with a faster, sleeker, cooler version.
The result, the 14-passenger City Cycle (www.thecitycycle.com), has been plying the streets of downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul this summer at around 7 miles per hour.
It looks a drinking man's Trek, with an amalgam of off-the-shelf hot-rod parts complementing a mixture of metals and high- concept design. Add in a high-end audio system, handrails and lots of cupholders and you have a complete human-powered party mobile.
Twin Cities-based PedalPub distributes pub-cycles built in Amsterdam that have a wooden design reminiscent of old streetcars. City Cycle has 12 bike seats, 10 of which have pedals beneath them for locomotion, two for sitting only. A back seat holds two more riders. Reynolds or one of his (always sober) staff handles the driving.
Reynolds' company, City Cycle Tours, charges $160 per hour Monday through Thursday and $195 Friday through Sunday.
Inspired by PedalPub's success -- it has eight vehicles in Minnesota and clients in half a dozen American cities -- Reynolds, 25, is franchising City Cycle and has several potential clients. Caztek hopes to start a manufacturing facility if the City Cycle takes off.
"I want to keep this vehicle manufactured in the United States because I'm extremely proud of it," he said. "It's an American- designed product, and it's the best designed of its class in the world."
