SAN JOSE — Beer lovers and fitness nuts! Come together!
By Daniel M. Jimenez
No matter what you’re looking for, there’s a good reason for you to take a ride on the San Jose Brew Bike, the passenger-powered 15-seat bicycle tour that promises to take you around the city’s burgeoning beer scene. Passengers pedal; your tour guide handles the steering. It’s a workout, but you’ll find an ice-cold reward at every break.
Tours can be booked in 2-, 2.5- and 3-hour increments for up to 14 people, stopping at locations such as the Original Gravity Public House, O’Flaherty’s and other downtown San Jose hop houses. The bike’s built for a leisurely cruise, but depending on how many people are along for the ride — and how willing they are to contribute to the momentum — you may find yourself working up a sweat.
Brew Bike, which began in Sacramento two and a half years ago, arrived in San Jose this summer. We took a ride about a month after they launched, when there were still some kinks to be worked out in the tour system. On this particular Saturday afternoon excursion, our guide asked our group where we wanted to go, a question none of the non-San Jose residents on the ride were ready to answer. The San Jose Summer Jazz Festival, with its many street closures, also appeared to be a surprise to our guide, limiting our choice of destinations. A wristband that was supposed to get us a discount on drinks at the San Pedro Square Market Bar was met with quizzical looks from the bar staff.
Of course, if you’re with a group of friends, or as in our case, sharing a bike with a group of friendly strangers, you may not mind too much, especially after a beer or three. (Hopefully those wrinkles will be worked out soon.)
Bring along your phone pre-loaded with a playlist and your guide will put it on the bike’s speaker system. You can’t drink beer on the bike (yet), but there’s a cooler stocked with cold bottles of water if you need some regular hydration.
Read the full article at The Mercury News
