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Pub crawl by pedal power
By Alex Stephens, Evening Standard 03.10.07
Booze cruise: the Pub Crawler can hold 10 drinkers
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For the time-poor Londoner, it is the ultimate way to combine fresh air and exercise with a relaxing drink after work.
The Pub Crawler, a mobile bar propelled by the pedal power of its customers, is being hired out for up to £1,500 a time for tours between the capital's pubs.
It can accommodate 12 people - 10 guests who sit on bar stools with pedals so they can drink as they travel from venue to venue and, for safety's sake, a professional two-man crew who steer.
The Pub Crawler was introduced to London by 35-year-old Luke Robertson after he saw a similar contraption while holidaying in the Baltics.
He said: "I commissioned a friend, who's an engineer, to design and build it from some photographs I had taken. It took around four months to perfect."
The Pub Crawler is legally classified as a quad cycle, so it can be used on public roads. It does not need a drinks licence because customers are not sold any alcohol while they are on board.
Instead, the cost of the drinks bought at pubs en route is included in the hire price, which ranges from £450 to £1,500.
Mr Robertson said: "The funniest reactions are from people on the street who've had too much to drink. They think they're hallucinating. It's quite a surreal sight. One guy we passed on the King's Road stood there dumbfounded for about five minutes."
Recent clients have included a group of executives from insurance company General Re. They began their trip at the Drayton Arms in South Kensington and during the evening pedalled as far as the Pig's Ear in Chelsea, stopping off at pubs along the way.
PA Claire Belcher, 28, who organised the trip, found it was an excellent team-bonding exercise.
"Everyone really enjoyed it, although there was a hairy moment when we were about three inches from taking off the side of someone's very smart car," she said. "I think it was a Bentley. The people inside gave us a very worrying look.
"We generated a lot of interest - a few drivers wound down their windows and asked us for a beer and people stopped to take pictures of us on their mobiles."
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