HOW IT ALL STARTED
Slowride Pedal Tours was conceived by its owners Steve and Kathy Bloomstrand on a family vacation to Nashville, a town known for its entertainment. The Nashville pedal pubs instantly caught Steve and Kathy’s eye. They envisioned that this would be a great entertainment business to add to the continued growth of downtown Champaign and Campus Town. Steve approached the City Manager’s office with this idea and was met with a receptive ear. After numerous conversations and several City Council meetings, the City Council approved the business. A pedal bus license was issued, as well as, a BYOB-3 liquor license allowing Slowride to serve, not sell, customer supplied alcohol on the bike.
Steve sourced out a pedal bar that was engineered and manufactured by professional engineers in the United States. It had features and benefits not found on other bars. Features such as a full length platform, seat backs, full DOT lighting, automotive steering and brakes and an optional electric motor, important to maneuver those grades we didn’t know we had in Champaign. It also had such available amenities as a 6-speaker stereo system, a water misting system, purse hooks, overhead storage, USB charging stations and a 17” color monitor for business presentations and karaoke. Steve knew the community would appreciate these options and he loaded it up. The colors for Slowride were the easy decision. They had to be Fighting Illini, Orange and Blue!
Slowride Pedal Tours was the FIRST pedal bar in the State of Illinois. Slowride welcomes everyone to book a tour and see how much fun pedaling a bar with friends and family can really be. So if you have a birthday or anniversary coming up, a bachelor/bachelorette party to plan, a sorority or fraternity event to host, a fitness class to take out on the road or a business meeting that you would like to make a memorable experience, consider Slowride Pedal Tours. Once you try it, we think you’ll be hooked. Hope to see you soon!
SEE WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
We had so much fun on our tour! Great experience! Aaron was awesome!
Non-stop fun!!! Can’t thank Slowride enough.
SO. MUCH. FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!! We ALL had a blast and didn’t want it to end!
Steve was a joy to work with. His staff was professional and lots of fun. The bus was decorated for the holiday season which added to the experience. I got loads of positive comments from The Urbana Park District Staff who would all highly recommend Slowride. Such a unique way to see downtown Champaign.
Who knew you could have a BLAST on a Thursday afternoon?! Everyone must try this out. I did the pedal tavern in Nashville (which is wonderful), so Slowride had big shoes to fill and that they did! What a wonderful addition to CU! The Slowride crew was fun & friendly! I’ll be booking again! #TeachersLoveSlowride #thanksforthememories
We had a blast and can’t wait to do it again! Lon and Jen were so much fun and so easy to work with.
Amazing time! Lon was great to work with booking and leading the pedal tour and Jen was a fantastic server. We can’t wait to participate in our next ride.
We had a great time! Both our hosts were very helpful and flexible to work with our schedule and needs. Would definitely do again.
So. Much. Fun. You get to see the town and hang out with friends in a new way. They serve your drinks for you and can play music right from your phone’s playlist! Plus, we also caught 53 Pokemon during our adventure! We picked up a coworker along the way too. Great way to bond with new coworkers, catch Pokemon and work them legs! It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be.
