St. Louis BarCycle

In theory this is a great idea — rented this for a birthday party and Dan was great to deal with prior to the rental. He was helpful, answered questions, and really sold us on the idea. One of our questions was about pedaling — some (like, 3) of the people we had in our group weren’t the most athletic and we were concerned about the pedaling — understanding that of course, some pedaling would take place but our specific question was about the motor that was advertised and used as a selling point by Dan. Dan told us that if we got tired, the motor was there to help. Drink too much and don’t want to pedal anymore? The motor will do the work for us. Perfect! The night of the event came and everyone was pretty excited to give this a whirl — what’s not to like — BYOB, no driving and a little bit of a workout, but fully expecting to use the motor by the end of the night, of course! We all hopped on the barcycle, with fresh legs, ready to go and jokingly someone said to the driver: «just go ahead and turn on the motor now, buddy — we’re all pretty lazy» at which point we were all informed that the driver (not Dan) WOULD NOT, under any circumstances use the motor unless we were going up a hill, and even then, serious pedaling would be necessary. 3 people said half-​jokingly, I think, that they wanted a refund. So, we get going — no uphill uphill — things went pretty smoothly and there wasn’t a lot of complaining. We went to the first bar, easy enough, radio going, good times. Then we hopped on to go to the 2^nd bar — which involved some uphill and that’s when it became pretty obvious that the motor was not going to help much — it was either low on battery power or something because at that point, between the 1^st and 2^nd bar, we also lost radio power. So, we went for the rest of the night with a sputtering motor, uphill only of course and no radio (and no solution for even the radio by the driver). We saw the barcycle whiz by us on several occasions prior to being picked up that night and to be honest, no one was really pedaling — which leads me to believe that whatever battery or power source used for the motor was really low — and virtually nonexistant on some pretty steep hills toward the end of the night. People were so frustrated about the lack of power to help going up hills toward the end that they asked the driver to park the barcycle and we’d just sit on it and drink for the rest of the time. From my understanding the person who organized the whole thing emailed Dan after we were done explaining the situation to him, not wanting any type of concession for the experience, but just to make him aware that using the motor as a selling point and then to have the experience we did was not the greatest. To my knowledge (as of last night) she has never heard back from Dan regarding this — no explanation, nothing. So, while I think this is a unique idea and it was fun to have all 16 of us together motoring around Soulard, and I was thinking about renting it this fall with my parents, but it seems like perhaps the popularity of the barcycle may be overwhelming these guys and they’re not paying attention to details. Would I do it again? Of course, but I’d definitely clarify the particulars about the service, motor, radio, etc.

Booked the barcycle for a birthday celebration and I am pretty sure this was the best money I spent all year… beating out the money spent on my wedding and honeymoon earlier this year;)
If you are ever looking for an out-​of-​the-​box group outing, this is it. It fits up to 16 people and you can bring your own alcohol (no glass) on board. Someone sits in the middle to play bartender while everyone pedals. It is a riot! I admit, we got sweaty and were sore the next morning but it was totally worth it. They also have a music hook up so you can play your iPod/​iPhone while cruising around Soulard. Phil, our driver, was SUPER nice and great to chat with.
If you want to ride around Soulard in style and get noticed, leave your Lamborghini at home and rent the Barcycle instead!

We all know drinking and driving is illegal, so why not drink while cycling around the streets of Soulard for an evening with a Designated Driver? The BarCycle is a great addition to the Soulard neighborhood. I’m sure you are wondering what this «BarCycle» is; well, let me tell you a little about it.
Imagine you and your friends sitting on bike seats pedaling around the neighborhood bar-​hopping all while a driver is directing the barcycle and the bartender is serving you drinks… can you imagine it? They provide music, great conversation, and many different routes to get you and your friends from one bar to the next all in a safe atmosphere. You and your friends can reserve the barcycle for a few hours and provide the beer/​alcohol to be served and Dan and Phil will do the rest.
Just beware-​if you are a bit on the shorter side you may need to sit on the bench in the back since you might not be able to reach the pedals! Seriously-​I was useless at my 4 feet 11 inches. Oh well, the others did a great job at pedaling and I’ll keep them around for the next time.