By Marcy Miranda

Josh Carnes is a firm believer that there are very few things people can’t do on a bicycle. On Saturday, he proved that buying a house and moving into it using bicycle power alone is entirely possible.

Carnes also used a seven-person bicycle to tow his Toyota 4Runner and an attached trailer filled with boxes.

“I’m a firm believer that you can do anything by bike,” the 31-year-old firefighter said.

His house-buying-by-bicycle journey began about two months ago when Carnes started looking for a new home. He knew he wanted to do everything related to the new house — including moving in — by bicycle to prove a point, he said.

He and his real estate agent, Mike Carnes, who is not related to Josh, viewed about 15 houses around Old Town before settling on one, Josh Carnes said.

For Mike Carnes, using bicycles for house-hunting was nothing new.

“All the houses I’ve sold in town were by bike,” he said. He said it helps that he specializes in selling homes around Old Town.

“Riding in and sitting on a patio in Old Town, that’s what this town is about,” he said.

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by Gary Koenig, Denver Cycling Examiner

If you’re like me, you’ve invested more than a few idle minutes thinking about being a professional cyclist. What could be better than getting paid to ride all day long? Daydreams are fun, but sober reflection on the shrinking nature of the pro pelotons, both worldwide and domestic, would lead most of us to conclude that cycling for a living is not realistically in our future.

So what if I told you that I could get you a paying cycling job tomorrow? That you would enjoy the consummate cosmopolitan benefits just as other top cycling pros do. And to top it off, even though you’ll be riding 6-8 hours per day, you’ll never have to tackle a hill and headwinds will be as rare as a 12 ounce Ruth’s Chris ribeye. Furthermore, you’ll never have to answer to a surly directeur sportif who doesn’t even speak your language, never have to sacrifice your legs for an ungrateful prima donna team leader and never suffer the ignominy of watching an Italian gregario who has been latched onto your wheel for untold kilometers suddenly bolt by you to win a Grand Tour stage that so rightfully belonged to you.

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Ice cream cones and X-ray machines were popularized at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis. Will “pedicabs” – those passenger carts pulled by bicycle riders – be mainstreamed by the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver?

Big events like conventions and fairs offer entrepreneurs a big opportunity to get their new inventions exposure to lots of people in a short period of time. Entrepreneurs can very quickly see whether there’s demand for their goods and get real-time feedback. (Giving away free product can also be a good way to generate buzz at big events, as I wrote last week.)

Today, my colleague Stephanie Simon highlights how Denver pedicab companies hope the Democratic National Convention will be their chance to show consumers the wonders of being driven by a bicycle rickshaw rather than a gas-guzzling taxi cab on short trips.

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