The Human Powered Move

PICTURE	DESCRIPTION
Medium (600 x 800) Large (1704 x 2202)	Today was moving day for Jody McIntyre. Being an unusual person, and having unusual friends, means that Jody would try pulling a stunt like doing a Human Powered Move. Three of us showed up to help: Juergen Weichert, Masoud Sharbiani, and myself (Vic Gedris). The move was from Cathcart St. in Lowertown, to Conservation Coop on Mann Ave. in Sandy Hill, about 5 km away. These first few pictures are at Jody's old apartment, to give you an idea of all the stuff we had to move! A lamp, home-made shelves, etc... [For more of our interesting antics, check out the Human Powered Vehicle Operators of Ottawa web site.]
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	More shelves, lots of plants, chairs, etc.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	Many boxes full of computer components, stereo bits, more shelves, etc...etc...
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	Bedroom stuff: Bed (box spring, mattress and frame), dresser, large back pack, computers, and more...
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	Jody, standing behind a pile of boxes in the kitchen.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	Masoud and Jody start packing one of the large boxes onto the cargo frame on the trike.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	Juergen arrives on his home-built recumbent bike, towing not one but TWO kids' trailers.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	Juergen and his trailers.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	Juergen and Masoud. Here we've packed a speaker into one of the kids trailers that Masoud was going to tow.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	Masoud and Juergen look on as the trike gets loaded. Now we have one the the tall shelf-units, a heavy box, tools, and more on the trike.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	Just about ready to go: More shelves on the trike, extra skis and tires in the kids trailers (in case of blown tire or weather emergency?? ;-).
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	The neighbours must have though we're nuts......they were right.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	The trike and trailer all loaded up and ready to go.
Medium (600 x 800) Large (1704 x 2202)	The start of a new moving company: We Haul. Getting the word out about HPVOoO.
Medium (600 x 800) Large (1704 x 2202)	Masoud ready to haul a speaker and some other stuff in a trailer.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	Vic's mountain bike and trailer: Ready to haul a speaker, skies, tires, and some weights.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	Jody is ready to roll.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	A good view of the complete trike and trailer rig, just before we leave,
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	Jody rounding the corner from Cathcart onto Cumberland St.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	Masoud follows the trike and trailer towing a speaker an other stuff.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	Stopped at the Murray St. and King Edward St. intersection.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	Masoud gives Jody a bit of a push.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	With low enough gears on the trike, Jody was able to get up most of the hills in Sandy Hill without too much difficulty.
Medium (600 x 800) Large (1704 x 2202)	Almost there! Our arrival point is just a couple of blocks away. We made it to Mann Ave. without any incidents. I guess this idea wasn't really that crazy afterall! On the way back after dropping off he first load, we stopped for some pizza and drinks, and ended up talking to some other cyclists who were very happy to see us pulling this off!
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	Canadian Gothic. Masoud poses with a shovel and super-soaker, Jody's got a pitchfork, and Juergen's just being a hoser. We're back on Cathcart St. preparing to load up for the second trip.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	Looking down from the balcony as Jody and Juergen dicuss how to pack up this next load.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	A dresser, a boxed bike, and some milk crates full of stuff packed on the trailer. My green trailer has boxes, planks of wood from some shelves, and a computer.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	Some plants fit nicely into my panniers!
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	Aha! The couch is up on the roof rack!
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	Masoud posing by the couch.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	Don't mess with the HPV'ers!
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	Second load almost ready to go.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	Somewhere underneath all of this is a Greenspeed trike.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	Jody hauling the Greenspeed + trailer, Masoud pulling the small trailer and lending a bit of pushing power.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	Jody and Masoud again.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	Juergen hauling a loaded up kids trailer with his recumbent, following Jody with the Greenspeed.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	Juergen and Masoud give Jody a hand getting up the hill.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	Arrival!
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	The second load of stuff safely arrives and we begin to bring it all inside.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	It got dark pretty quickly after the second trip. Here's Juergen helping lash down a mattress on top of a shelf, on the Greenspeed's roof rack.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	We also had to put up with a flurry of wet snow, rain, and ice pellets between our second and third trip. Everything was starting to get wet and icy.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	A view of the trike from behind the trees.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	....again.
VIDEO: 3.8MB AVI, 28s.	A video clip of Masoud, Jody, and Juergen towing their trailers up towards Rideau St.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	Juergen hauling another trailer load, Jody towing the Greenspeed (with more shelves, a mattress, boxes, table, etc.), and Masoud pulling a trailer with another large speaker. I was following along pulling another trailer with a speaker and some other stuff.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	Juergen and Masoud offer Jody some help getting up this hill again.
VIDEO: 3.4MB AVI, 26s.	A video clip of Juergen and Masoud helping Jody pull the trailer up a hill.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	Jody is still powering up these hills towing a couple of hundreds of pounds with him.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	Masoud and Juergen following along.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	Masoud tries to keep warm after unloading his trailer.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	Back at Jody's old place for the fourth load! By this time Juergen had to leave so we were down to three people. Here's a balcony view of Jody and Masoud. We've got the Greenspeed loaded with several boxes, a box spring, shelf, and chair. The trailer has even more boxes, various sticks, poles, and pipes, etc.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	Jody works on securely lashing down all the cargo to the Greenspeed trike.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	More snow, and it's getting colder. But we still have stuff to move! Jody finishes off some more lashing.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	We used various plastic tarps, shower curtains, etc. to keep the snow, rain, and road spray off of the important items.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	Masoud is ready to go, and I've got my trailer loaded up with boards, boxes, and several plants. I hope they survived the snow and cold weather...
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	The fourth load is now on its way as Jody pulls out onto Cathcart St.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	On Cumberland Street, we pass by some people people moving the lazy, wimpy way! Masoud toughs it out and keeps pedalling through the blowing snow.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	Fourth load arrives! It's dark, cold, and a little later than we expected at this point, but there's only one load left and it's been a big success so far.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	Masoud had to leave, so we were down to just myself and Jody. No worries though, we weren't worried about fitting the remainder of the stuff into this last trip. We stopped at Tim Horton's for a some Hot Chocolate and donuts and to rest for a few minutes (strange side-note: the person ahead of us ordered a coffee with 11 sweeteners and took some extra sweetener packets??). Back at Jody's old place for the fifth and final load. I loaded up my trailer with a very large bag of oats, two lamps, vacuum cleaner, broom, a full large backpack, and a foot stool.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	Jody leaves the old place for the last time, pulling the cargo trailer loaded with several boxes, buckets, the rest of the vacuum cleaner, a dresser, and a chair. The trike itself is carrying a few chairs, a bike, another desktop shelp, and ironing board, and more.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	Last load in transit!
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	Still snowing and much colder than earlier in the day. But pulling large loads on a bike kept up pretty warm! The fifth load was the only one that really gave us any serious difficulty, but nothing that we couldn't overcome! Because of the rain/ice-pellets/snow earlier, and the very cold temperatures by this point, the roads got quite icy. This made it pretty difficult to get up some of the hills. However, I was impressed when Jody pulled the loaded Greenspeed and trailer up a hill faster than a mini-van that was sipping its tires! We also had a bit of a cargo dump at one point, and had to re-secure some of the items ion the trailer. Just around the corner from the destination, my trailer came off of my bike too! Nothing too major...
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	Arrival! The fifth and final load of stuff arrives at the new apartment, and Jody relaxes by sitting down in his chair and putting his feet up on the dresser.
Medium (800 x 600) Large (2272 x 1704)	All moved in! A picture of some of the stuff we moved today. I leave quickly before Jody makes me help him put it all away. :-)
All photographs ©2002 Victor Gedris

[Go To Simple Index] [Return to Main Index]