The other day while riding along the Minneapolis Grand Rounds bike path, we stumbled across Blaine Mogren. He loves bikes. He looooooooves bikes. Among the bikes in his collection is this fine (pictured left) Surly Pugsley. He has six of them. This particular one he calls Fire Engine Pugsley. We can see why. For starters, its BRIGHT RED. It also has loud horns, flashing lights, and a fire-fighter rubber duck. And crosses, white ones (like on the Swiss flag). After a minute of chit-chat with Blaine this thought emerges: let’s make a Red Cross Pugsley!
After all, the Pugsley is (via Wikipedia) revolutionary: In 2005, Surly began selling the Pugsley, the first mass-produced mountain bike with extremely large volume tires, up to 4 inches wide, for deep snow and sand riding. The front and rear wheels share a common hub size and can be interchanged, allowing for additional gearing combinations. Noted bicycle technical authority Sheldon Brown said, “Pugsley is, in its way, as revolutionary as the original mountain bikes were in the early 1980s.” Bicycling Magazine wrote, “It’s not ideal for everyday use, but it can handle a wide variety of demands and conditions well.” Let’s repeat that last bit: a “wide variety of demands and conditions.” Sooooooooo, that could include disaster response in your hometown (or ours where it snows for months except last winter).
Tell us, what do you think? What would your Red Cross Pugsley look like? Would it be red with white? Or white with red? Would you have side bags for water and snacks that you would distribute to people affected by disasters or those responding to them? …..
Story and photos by Lynette Nyman/American Red Cross
American Red Cross 