The inspiration for BikeBus struck founders Seema and Eric Brodie as they sat around the dinner table one evening in August 2014, catching up with family from San Francisco. The visiting relatives were lamenting the fact that cycling was not allowed on the Bay Bridge, as they wished they could work out while going over it.
The husband and wife duo, both lawyers at the time, had an idea: what if people could somehow hook their bikes up to a bus that could go places otherwise inaccessible to cyclists? And today, Boston has BikeBus.
In June 2015, funded by personal savings and some family contributions, BikeBus became a reality. The Brodies worked with a team at the Transportation Oversight Division of Massachusetts to design and create something completely unique: a full size bus designed specifically for hosting spin classes while driving around Boston.
“If you think city tour, party bus, and workout, it’s a combination of all three,” Seema said.
The bus is outfitted with nine stationary bikes, neon lights, and speakers both inside and out. BikeBus was the first service of its kind in America, and only the second in the world, save for a company in Brazil that developed a similar vehicle, but lacked the safety features, according to Seema.
On a typical BikeBus ride, up to eight participants climb aboard and burn calories as they’re whisked around Boston. Eric drives, while Seema leads the class on a bike of her own. The hour-long tour normally starts at the Sheraton Hotel near the Prudential Center, goes past the Public Gardens and Boston Common, through Back Bay, and culminates with a trip over the Zakim Bridge.
In the beginning, BikeBus trips were only available for corporate team building and other group charters. Soon, Seema and Eric saw a greater demand rising and opened up their tours to individuals.
"People like to get away from their desks, since they're sitting all day... you get to break away from the office building completely," Seema said.
Today, BikeBus usually runs one tour each weekday, with multiple scheduled for weekends. Seema and Eric are the only two regular employees, and Eric still practices law. Although the company has grown in popularity and prestige since those early days in 2014, Seema and Eric are keeping their eyes set on the future.
One of the pair’s top goals is to make their company greener. They want to find a way to harness the power generated by the cyclists onboard and use it to partially power the bus itself.
“Harnessing the energy of the riders is critical,” Eric said. “You've basically got this wheel that's spinning but not really doing anything, naturally if there's a way to capture that kinetic energy... it would be a great fit.”
Seema, a Northeastern University alumna, said she is hoping to collaborate with engineering students at her former school to develop dynamos that can be attached to BikeBus cycles. It’s not realistic to entirely power the bus this way, Seema said, but enabling it to be partially powered by the BikeBus participants is a distinct possibility.
Almost four years after the dinner conversation that led to BikeBus, Seema and Eric have grown a fanbase, but are still trying to win over skeptics. This, they said, is one of the most rewarding aspects of running the company.
"It's very rewarding to take people that were doubters and turn them into converts." Eric said. "In many ways it enables people to come out of their shell because it's so intimate. Yes, it's a tour, it's a cycling class, but it really is something unique in and of itself"
