I moved to Boulder, Colorado in 2012. Malcolm Daly, a SushiFest veteran, gave me a tour of the town and I instantly fell in love with it. He mentioned that on Thursday nights there’s a cruiser ride and that it would be a great way to meet people. He also suggested I build a bike cart into a SushiCart and make sushi on the ride. So I set out to build the worlds first SushiCart built for a Cruiser Ride.
The original cart was built on a $100 bike cart using 2″ PVC pipes for the bar top frame. SushiCart v1.0.42 was born!
On its maiden voyage not far down the Boulder bike paths the cart self destructed and scattered all over the path. I picked up the pieces and went home with a cooler still full of sushi. I hadn’t glued the PVC together so it all just loosened and exploded on the bike path. Off to McGuckin’s for PVC glue!
That fixed that problem but the evolution of building a sound SushiCart would continue. Getting lights and music to work flawlessly was alway a task. With work it evolved and I got better at making rolls and having them ready for the ride.
My bike would also evolve. I originally started riding on a Marin hard tail mountain bike. It was a bit of work to pull the cart so the ride was always a good workout as I’d often do 10-15 miles with the cart.
Then Dave Vaughn sold me his Electra Hellbilly cruiser bike. He retired. Sad. That. It was the prefect ride except it needed some help. With a 3-speed Shimano rear hub it needed electric assist. I bought a 24v Hilltopper Electric front hub conversion kit and now the bike is set.
But after three years of solid service SushiCart v1.3.42 was STOLEN! That ended sushi on the ride at least for awhile.
A few months after disappearing, as a gift, SushiCart v2.0.42 was built (with the help of Georgeous) and sushi was back on the ride! It was a major upgrade. The cart frame is a Burly aluminum children’s cart stripped down to just the base frame. The bar frame is 1″ square steal with the top for the bar on hinges so it pops up and folds down. There’s a ton of room inside for the sushi supplies.
Over the years I’ve had to deal with the batteries as this was a DIY job. For the last set I got really lucky. On a drone users group i picked up two LiPo 6s, 24v, 30 amp hour batteries which originally cost $800 each. That was a major score as they are still in great shape and hold a charge forever. The guy just didn’t trust them to fly so they were free to me.
SushiCart v2.4.42 was road on Thursday nights up until 2021 when I moved out of Boulder.
It’s currently getting a full rebuild and being integrated with SushiTrailer v4.1.42.
SushiCart v2.5.42 will return.
