By Corinne Cordasco
What do you do when you want to spend a few hours exploring Richmond’s burgeoning food and beer scene without taking a car? Hop on a 14-seat, music-blasting, eco-friendly party bike and pedal your way through the city.
Seating 14 passengers, Groovin’ Gears uses up to 10 pedaling passengers as its primary source of power, but the bike also has an electric-assist engine to help move things along when needed. Passengers can buy an individual seat and join a two-hour mixer tour or groups can also rent the whole bike for a private tour.
Although only open since spring, Groovin’ Gears has already made quite an impression in town, according to friends-turned-business partners Layne Summerfield and Brianna Spotts. “People really, truly think the mother ship has landed,” laughs Summerfield. Spotts adds that motorists often will stop their cars to snap a picture of a tour in progress.
Meeting in a fitness class, the new friends were inspired to introduce pedal tours in Richmond because the city’s attractions tend to be too far apart to walk from one to the other, but not so far that biking is a hassle. The pair splits business duties, trusting each other to make small choices according to their strengths, but makes more critical decisions collectively. Since the business is still so new, it’s not uncommon to find one of the co-owners answering phone inquiries while they lead a tour. However, the Groovin’ Gears team has recently grown to include five newly hired drivers.
Based in a warehouse in Scott’s Addition, the new business is in direct proximity to one of the bike’s most popular uses: brewery hopping. April’s brewery list included Ardent Craft Ales, Isley Brewing Company, and Hardywood Park Craft Brewery. Groovin’ Gears also offers tours of a series of bars in areas like Carytown or the Fan.
The bike is also available for private rentals, which are limited only by passengers’ imaginations. So far, the bike has been engaged for birthdays, corporate events, and Cinco de Mayo festivities, but the founders are open to even more creative uses, like progressive dinners, weddings, and house-hunting. Seasonally, the bike could also provide transportation through Historic Garden Week sites or Christmas Tacky Lights tours.
The 2015 World Road Cycling Championships, happening this fall in Richmond, also provides a great opportunity to get the word out about Groovin’ Gears. “We’d love to take that week as a marketing week and have corporate groups out at the race,” says Spotts.
One of the most frequent questions that the company receives is if passengers can drink on the bike. Current ABC laws in Virginia prohibit it, but that hasn’t seemed to hurt Groovin’ Gears or the local businesses that passengers visit. “If people are going to bring a six-pack of beer on the bike, then they’re not going to get out and pay for a beer at the brewery, which is what a brewery tour is,” explains Summerfield.
Although the company is open to new opportunities, including adding new destinations, expanding with a second bike, and serving alcohol en route, for now, the experience of pedaling to Richmond’s hottest spots on a music-blasting, 14-seat party bike seems to be enough of a draw.
According to Summerfield, “You cannot not have fun!”