(gentle music) (gentle music continues) (bike rattling) (gentle music continues) (bike rattling) (bell ringing) - Hey, I am Nate.

Welcome to Grandview Drive, Peoria's most well-known street.

(singers vocalizing) A pedicab really, historically, was bicycle powered, just a way of transporting people.

In my opinion, I tell everyone, this is the Goldilocks pace.

This is the best way to see Grandview.

Grandview is famous, of course, for the mansions, the houses up there, the fantastic houses.

It is just a popular destination for people who wanna see the fall foliage.

The petty cab is perfect.

That bicycle pace is really one of the most ideal ways to really see something.

(bike rattling) This whole thing was really not my idea at all.

This is one of my friend's idea.

But Tim B., he called me up one day and said, "Hey, there's this guy locally selling this petty cab, "and we wanna start a petty cab company.

"We think it would be pretty cool."

I'm like, "Cool, what's a pedicab" And then I'm like, "That's a great idea.

"You guys should do it."

And he's like, "Yeah."

He's like, "Yeah."

He's like, "We don't have money to buy it though."

He's like, "Can we borrow some money to buy the pedicab?

I'm like, "Absolutely.

Go for it.

"I think this is a great idea.

"I think you guys would be good at this."

But I really knew nothing about bikes at all.

I was not really a bicycle guy.

They were the bicycle guys.

And, but for the first, 2019 actually is when we started all this, and at the beginning, I really had nothing to do with riding it.

I wasn't riding the pedicab at all.

And the plan was to launch in 2020, which of course, did not happen.

And 2023, I was looking at this thing gathering dust in the garage, and I started calling some people up like, "Hey, you guys wanna do this thing?

We should do this.

"COVID's over, let's make it happen."

But everyone really had already moved on to other things, and no one was really interested in doing it anymore.

And I'm like, "Okay, I'm just gonna sell it."

So, obviously I sold it.

No, I'm like, "You know what, I'm gonna do this."

My sight was on Grandview.

I wanted to do a Grandview tour that really wasn't necessarily the main focus originally.

They were focused on riding downtown, trying to maybe hustle in the Heights and do more of a traditional petty cab sort of business plan.

But I really thought that Grandview just needed a tour, needed a proper tourist tour.

Not a lot of towns in this area that even have something comparable to this.

The tour is really designed for locals, but it has been quite popular with people who are traveling through and Peoria gets more tourism than you would think.

And I try to really focus the tour on things that people have never heard before, locals who have never heard, people who are interested in Peoria history have never heard before.

You can ride around, riding's one thing, but you gotta do the tour, it's an experience.

It's mostly frivolous entertainment.

It's just goodhearted, clean, fun.

A lot of times I get done with the tour, I kind of turn around and look at people, and I just see their faces are lit up, because it is really fun to do.

And even people who think they're gonna like it, I think they don't even realize how much fun it is.

And so, people absolutely love it.

I really just feel like this tour is just something that should exist, and that's why I'm doing it is because I just, I know that people who come on it really do enjoy it, and it's just really fun.

(bright music continues)