The other week I was just riding the bus when a Santa Cruz hippie dressed in earth-tones boarded and sat right next to me. After a few moments, I detected nuances of bicycle lube and brazing flux under the odor of human labor and raw lanolin. I recognized the guy by his smell; I looked over and, sure enough, it’s local bike builder extraordinaire Josh Muir.
![Real life Yehuda Moon](https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3295/2602699987_3c435b26f1.jpg)
I hadn’t seen Josh in a couple of years so we caught up. He teaches an industrial design class at the California College of the Arts, where his students are designing a rickshaw / cargo bike. That’s when Josh asks if I’ve heard of the book Chasing Rickshaws. It sounded fascinating, so I bought a copy.
![Chasing Rickshaws](https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7626/16783875788_30924f42b3.jpg)
In this 1998 book, Tony Wheeler and Richard l’Anson traveled Asia chasing rickshaws, mostly of the pedal variety. He explains rickshaw design is much more varied than the basic bike-in-front-passengers-in-back variety we might see here the USA, with sidecar rickshaws in the Philippines, front-loaded trishaws in Malaysia, and the tricycle rickshaws of Beijing.
![Chasing Rickshaws](https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7636/16971579075_2127e5d469.jpg)
Wheeler even notes details like the coat hanger wire derailleur used on Chinese rickshaws, with an ultra-slack chain instead of a chain tensioner. You’ll enjoy the photos and narrative in this coffee table book detailing the operators and passengers who ride these human-powered conveyances, and the bike-nerd in you will also appreciate the line-drawings and specs for each type of rickshaw encountered in this book.
![Chasing Rickshaws](https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8710/16783880038_ef0bae5fbd.jpg)
“Chasing Rickshaws” is out of print but readily available for pennies from online retailers.
If you’re not familiar with Josh Muir’s work, I invite you to visit Frances Cycles. He’s already booked a spot for the 2016 NAHBS, which takes place in Sacramento.