A bicycle made for seven
Words Catherine Cooper
How many people do you think you can you fit on a bike? One? Two at a push? In Kleve, Germany (fly to Weeze), you can hire a circular bike that will take up to seven people at a time. And yes, it is as bizarre as it sounds. Here’s how the GeccoMobil works: the “driver” faces forwards, controlling the steering wheel and brakes, while the other six sit in a circle facing inwards, holding onto a bar. All seven riders pedal frantically while passers-by stare open-mouthed!
I made the very stupid mistake of taking a seat at the back, which meant that even though I was pedalling forwards I was travelling backwards, which was rather disorientating. It took a long time to get used to it, and even longer to suppress the giggles.
The ride began in Kleve’s beautiful Botanical Gardens, but as I was speeding backwards towards a stream on a strange contraption steered by someone I had only just met, I was too busy shouting: “Turn! Brake! Slow down!” to enjoy the view properly.
We all swapped seats after a few minutes though and by now everyone had got a bit more accustomed to the bike’s strangeness. Gecco Tours’ owner Karl Reinéry accompanied us in his van for the first kilometre or so through quiet, residential streets, where everyone from school children to lorry drivers smiled and waved. After that we were given a laminated map, which detailed a 5km route through fields to a tea house near the Rhine.
Driving the bike requires little effort – the roads and cycle paths around Kleve are very flat and with seven people peddling, you don’t have to work very hard. It’s best not to sit at the back, however. You either have to twist round to see where you are going or put total trust in your driver and not care that you are travelling backwards. That said, the seats at the extreme edges are no picnic either.
The strange shape of the bike makes it quite wide and at one point a woman sitting closest to the edge leapt up with a cry as the bike veered a little too close to some barbed wire.
Karl has eight Gecco bikes, which allows for a bit of healthy competition between the riders – we got to the tea house first – but then we did cheat slightly by using a GPS to check we were going the right way. During the week the bikes are popular with large companies as a bonding exercise. “Everyone faces each other and has to work together so the bikes really get people talking,” Karl explains, while at the weekends his customers tend to be families and groups of friends. Karl also offers a more conventional four-seater, sit-down push bike, known as the Flitzer.
So why did Karl, who used to be a carpenter, choose Gecco bikes when he set up his company six years ago? “I wanted to offer something really different,” he says emphatically.
Well, he certainly does that.
Gecco Bike hire is from €14.50 per person for up to half a day. www.geccotours.com / www.coolbreaks.com
