The Toronto Fringe Fest has been an Annex neighbourhood institution since 1989 and has always turned Barbara Barret Laneway – just a block north of Pedaal – into a car-free festival HQ, complete with beer tent. But, not all plays and performances happen in this area. Instead, the radius of the Fringe fest expands out over five kilometres, including one location in Toronto’s East End, on the other side of the Bloor Street Viaduct. Each play and performance required some Fringe Staff presence to answer questions and sell merchandise, and in any other year, that would have meant transit or driving a car. But this year, things changed!
The question was: how to get to events fast and on the cheap with a bonus being pollution free. One day, while discussing the Fringe Fest organization at our little coffee shop, the organizers eyes wandered over to our cargo bikes and the idea sprung. This is the kind of aha-moment that many people get when they see a cargo bike. It’s like: could this thing safely transit my kids without beings tuck in gridlock? Or: could this let me drive less and be more active. And especially: could this thing create the most amazing memories for my children and I? Answer: yes!!!
Fringe Benefits
And, as companies like FedEx know, using a cargo bike in Toronto is simply more effective, more efficient, and certainly much cheaper than driving a van. Plus, it’s good for your health, the cities health, and you get a lot of great attention in the process. There’s nothing to lose, for real! You can read all about cargo bikes and why they make sense here (it’s a good read!).
As for the Fringe, they needed a cargo bike that could not only crack the issue of cost and efficiency, they also needed something that could store merchandise and display merchandise. If you displayed merchandise on the hood of a car, that just looks sketchy. But, if you display it on the deck of a cargo bike, you look pretty awesome. And that’s exactly what they did! But, that required a special bike with a special box. The same bike we lent out to Mac Cosmetics at the Pride Parade, seen below.
The bike you’re looking at here is the new Extra Long Bullitt X. This is an e-assist bike that takes you from place to place at 32km/hr (if you wish) with a whole lotta trunk space. It might be the perfect bike for urban delivery, finding a sweet spot between newer models of cargo bikes that get stuck in traffic just like vans (see an example here) and the smaller Bullitt cargo bike, which are smaller in volume but easily glide through traffic. Whereas the original Bullitt bike, used by FedEx (read more here) has a massive 315L of volume, the new stretched Bullitt X features 400L of volume. That’s a 30% increase! Fringe benefit? More like massive benefit!
Need a Bike for your Event?
For the Toronto Fringe, that meant that a ton of stuff could be transported from performance to performance. But, the best thing was that the top of the box made for great retail. Smart, right?
Maybe the best moment for us at Pedaal is when we see someone’s eyes wander to our bikes (over a coffee) and suddenly realize, my goodness, this could be the answer. Oh yes, that’s true! Bikes have come a long ways since your Mom or Dad bought you that Canadian Tire special. Our bikes are serious answers to serious transportation problems, and they come from mature cycling ecosystems like Denmark, Holland and Germany, where the regulative safety environment produces far more advanced objects than anything we see on this continent. The nice thing is, it’s always free to try. A hunch always needs some empirical confirmation! That’s why we happily lend out or rent our cargo bikes to any person or organization curious enough to save themselves a ton of money and stress while looking good doing it.
So, if you’re interested, just drop on by or book an appointment! Our appointments are in-person, by phone or Zoom. We’d love to help you or your organization out!
