Urban Smoothie Bikes

My daughter Becky making a pedal powered smoothie

Everyone knows how healthy smoothies are for us.  Everyone knows cycling is an equally healthy way of going from A to B.  Put them together and you get a fresh and really good pedal powered smoothie.  Here we see the Urban Smoothie Bikes at the local Family Cycling Festival last Sunday.

What is it?

You need an adapted bicycle with a Fender Blender.  This is a special gizmo with a little roller that is driven by the bicycle tyre and in turn causes the blender to whiz around and make your smoothie.

These gizmos are called Fender Blenders (and must be North American!?) and available more locally from http://www.urbansmoothiebikes.co.uk .

It seems a well made piece of equipment that was certainly being put through its paces.

It reminded me of our Kenwood bomb-proof mixer which has an attachment which looks very similar.

There's a glass jug with a built in blade - you simply put your chosen pieces of fruit in, plus a little fruit juice and then pedal like crazy for a few minutes.

What kinds of smoothies can you make?
I guess the answer is the same for this as any other smoothie maker.  On the stand at the Cycle Festival, there was a choice of smoothie you could have.  In practice it was boring grown-ups like me saying "yeah may I have a mango smoothie please" quickly followed by the ingredients being put in, all free of charge.  You will typically get some mango pieces, banana pieces and apple or mango juice as the base.  Then you need your teenage daughter for some high speed pedalling.

Urban Smoothie Bikes

I chatted to the proprietor, Murat Basaron, who's a really nice guy.  He clearly loves what he's doing and the whole thing brings a smile to everyone who stops to watch.

Are smoothies good for you?
Yes of course they are!  You knew that all along, didn't you?

You might be wondering why they are good for you.  I'll tell you.  Fruits such as bananas, mango, oranges and so on are all good for you with vitamins, phytochemicals and fibre.  Worth bearing in mind that some smoothies you can buy in the shops have rather a lot of fruit juice in them.  This isn't bad but the 'bits' in the fruit are also quite good for us, not just the fleshy juice.

A glass of smoothie will normally count as two portions of fruit.  That is really important and a crucial part of maintain excellent health.  I like having a glass of smoothie with my breakfast; always better if it's at room temperature.

Smoothie are also quite easy to digest, top up hydration levels and, most importantly, add to the variety of fruits we consume.

So I hope you like smoothies.  They're good for you.  I hope also you can have a smoothie if you are at some event and Urban Smoothie Bikes are there!