From left to right: Owners, Robert Mayer, Tommy Margaritis and Kai Kaapro.

Tucson’s first pedaling party vehicle hit the streets Saturday with the official launch of the Trolley Pub.

More than 100 people took their turn helping pedal the 14 passenger vehicle down University Boulevard.

The Trolly Pub sports 10 seats for pedaling patrons on the sides and four spots for riders who need a rest in the rear.

Owners, Robert Mayer, Tommy Margaritis and Kai Kaapro, said people can reserve the Trolley Pub online.

“The idea is that people interested in taking it out can pick a route online or call us and kind of arrange a pub crawl,” Kaapro said. “They’ll pedal from place to place and have a lot of fun in between.”

Despite the name Trolley Pub, those pedaling can’t drink alcohol along the way … yet.

“Our attorney is working on it right now and we are in talks with the city and state,” Kaapro said. “Until we have it settled we are just going to run it dry.”

The first official group of riders complete a ride down University Avenue.

But because there will always be a Trolley Pub employee driving the vehicle, which is equipped with lights, turning signals and brakes, riders won’t have to worry about the law when they hop onto the Trolley Pub after a stop at the bar.

Margaritis said they are also working on setting up other events like food crawls, speed dating and sight-seeing rides during the day.

Rates start at $160 per hour, but get cheaper the longer the Trolley Pub is reserved.

Customers can bring their own food and drinks on the trolley, which has a cooler as well as a misting system to keep riders cool during the hotter summer months.

The owners, all University of Arizona graduates, began working on it exactly a year ago.

Kaapro, a law student, said when Margaritis asked him to look into the legal side of the business, he wasn’t sold.

“The more I looked into it the more I thought, ‘hey this is actually a cool little business idea,'” Kaapro said.

Mayer said it was important to them to help other local businesses while running their own.

The Trolley Pub features lights, turn signals and brakes.

“We want to be able to bring more people down to University and Fourth Avenue,” Mayer said.

They will be marketing it to tourists as a way to get people who might not normally head to those areas out and spending money in the local economy.

The 1,600-pound party bike was built by ATEK Customs in Bend, Oregon. According to the ATEK Customs website, a similar party bike starts at $39,000.

Margaritis is proud that the party bike is friendly to the environment.

I just love the idea of something that is green and friendly to the environment that we can be able to ride it up and down the street,” he said. “I always see those big party bus monster trucks that eat up a lot of gas so this is kind of cool. This is something a little more green.”

According to the owners, the average speed on flat land is about 5-7 miles per hour and can slow to 3 miles per hour on a hill, but going down the Fourth Avenue underpass is a different story.”

It is like a roller coaster on the underpass,” Margaritis said. “It probably goes like 15 miles per hour. It doesn’t sound that fast, but when you are on it, everybody is screaming and having a good time. It is a party on wheels.”

 

 

8 thoughts on “Trolley Pub: ‘It’s a party on wheels’”
  1. YES!!!!!!  I have long dreamed of being able to use one of these locally (i.e. not in Denmark or something).  My life may soon be complete…

  2. Can this bike bus thing replace Sun Tran? How about the Suntran Downtown Loop? How about the Modern Streetcar? This is way cooler than that. It has a lot of potential but not as a pub ferry. I can easily see some drunk chick falling off and cracking her head on the ground. $39k is way too much for it tho. I bet Bicas could build one for like $300.

  3. If you are interested in starting a party bike business, visit http://www.PedalCrawler.com. Pedal Crawler is a party bike manufacturing and sales company in the United States that can get you the party bike you need for your business at a lower price and higher quality than the competition.
     
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