Well, to be honest it took two of us to make them but that sounds better as a title. Certainly it has been Jack’s vision and initiative that has realised his dream.
A little over a year ago a young fella called Jack Ladd approached me with an idea. We had become buddies through various cycling connections and he had started getting excited by the reconfiguration of cycles and freak riding in general. Jack started to talk about an epiphany he had -he was going to build a cargo bike, dress it up as a taxi and ride around during the Adelaide Fringe, taking people where they wanted to go, in exchange for money. He had a handful of loosely scrawled drawings, a printed out instructable guide on how to make a cargo bike and a particularly wild look in his eye.
I must admit I was mildly sceptical of the whole thing but I do have a soft spot for constructing strange things with wheels and Jack’s energy was somewhat contagious. So we set about building the beast under the lemon tree of my suburban back yard. Here’s a few shots of us writhing around in the dust and heat, bringing the contraption to life. In hindsight it’s difficult to believe we smashed out the first one in just a few days.
A little over a year ago a young fella called Jack Ladd approached me with an idea. We had become buddies through various cycling connections and he had started getting excited by the reconfiguration of cycles and freak riding in general. Jack started to talk about an epiphany he had -he was going to build a cargo bike, dress it up as a taxi and ride around during the Adelaide Fringe, taking people where they wanted to go, in exchange for money. He had a handful of loosely scrawled drawings, a printed out instructable guide on how to make a cargo bike and a particularly wild look in his eye.
I must admit I was mildly sceptical of the whole thing but I do have a soft spot for constructing strange things with wheels and Jack’s energy was somewhat contagious. So we set about building the beast under the lemon tree of my suburban back yard. Here’s a few shots of us writhing around in the dust and heat, bringing the contraption to life. In hindsight it’s difficult to believe we smashed out the first one in just a few days.
As it turns out Jack’s ‘Legs Express’ was a huge success. And so, after spending the year living on a barge in distant France Jack returned with visions of going bigger and bolder. He decided he would like some assistance to build two more bikes, which would be added to his existing one, forming a kind of fruity fun time human taxi fleet. This time around we had access to the slightly less dusty but equally sweaty workshop of the awesome Adelaide Bike Kitchen. I had a few ideas on how I wanted to tweak the design and Jack came with his usual bucket loads of enthusiasm. After a big fat week of alchemy, brute force and self generated luck we had two more chariots of joy.
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Jack then enlisted the assistance of his lovely creative family and friends to help him decorate some rather fantastic passenger helmets and put the finishing touches on his purple people carriers. The Adelaide Fab Lab helped Jack to realise his great laser cut rider helmet additions.
The Legs Express is currently out and about, cutting laps of Adelaide’s CBD, providing great local service and offering much more than just a simple A to B delivery. The Legs Express is a whole and wonderful experience. Look out for Jack and his team during your Fringe experience- as he says - “If you’ve got somewhere to be - I’ve got the legs!”
The Legs Express is currently out and about, cutting laps of Adelaide’s CBD, providing great local service and offering much more than just a simple A to B delivery. The Legs Express is a whole and wonderful experience. Look out for Jack and his team during your Fringe experience- as he says - “If you’ve got somewhere to be - I’ve got the legs!”
Fantastic way to see the city. Highly recommended.
ReplyDeleteGreat stuff. This is so creative and just when I thought the 'old ways' of making things yourself was about to fade when my Dad goes ... here is the living thing!! Well done Lad(d)s... Robyn
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