I survived the Bristol disaster relief trial yesterday on an acoustic cargo bike, including the medical task (bandage up a wound), the mechanical task (simulated puncture), and successfully brought back 2x14kg sandbags to shore up the base, radio equipment and 25l of water collected from the river after some offroading.

I navigated ~30miles over 5 checkpoints spread over Bristol from a paper map (no electricity, mobile or GPS) and was not fast but not last.

I did fail to keep the medical samples (3 bread sticks simulating test tubes) in one piece.

...oh, and at the finish, i carried it all over a 1 m barrier
#cargobike #CarryShitOlympics #disasterrelieftrials

Things I learned along the way:

I dont want to have to deal with a disaster in a real life situation, but cargo bikes are a real solution.

Route finding with paper maps and signposts is something I've not done for a while, and i am rusty at it

Way finding signs for bike routes are patchy, even in Bristol (me and another rider ended up riding off the map at one point after getting lost)

Bristol is flipping hilly, especially when the map you have doesn't show you elevation to routefind around the hills

I needed more of my own water on board

People are great, kind and lovely, and random members of the public are interested in weird bikes and willing to fill your water bottle when you need it. Bike people in particular seem to be self-selecting as generous and lovely.

I probably need to buy another acoustic cargo bike just in case of an emergency

#CargoBike #CarryShitOlympics #DisasterReliefTrials

Huge thanks to Pedal Collective, Velocious Couriers, Really Useful Bikes and their partners/sponsors that made this happen, and everyone that showed up on the day to run the checkpoints and participate

https://www.pedalcollective.co.uk/disaster-relief-trials#scenario

Disaster Relief Trials | Pedal collective

Pedal collective

For anyone that wants to see some more of the field of entries including one guy with a bike and trailer and another on an Urban Arrow Family that had a genius method of getting it (a very heavy awkward bike) over the final challenge, there is more on the event's Instagram stories

https://www.instagram.com/drt_bristol

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@mattdawhit Thanks for letting us join you on that adventure through these posts! An acoustic cargo bike, I assume, is acoustic as in "non motorized" or does it also make funny noises (other than the rider when it gets hilly)? Honest question since I did not hear that term before.
@mattdawhit BTW I find the lift impressive 
@radlfabs
The Bullitt was borrowed for the day from one of the Pedal Collective team. All our cargobikes at Keert are electric, i was amazed at how light it was (but still a challenge for the lift). I don't regret taking the time to unload/reload though
@radlfabs
Yeah acoustic as in non-electric (following acoustic guitar vs electric guitar).
Also referred to as manual or muscle :)
@mattdawhit As an audio engineer who is only used to make lights quiter or louder I love that!
@radlfabs i tend to use acoustic because it feels like a more fun way of describing
@mattdawhit Amazing work Matt! Well done
@mikecox
Thanks Mike! The after party was almost as gruelling