Manpower Over a Moving Truck: Group Uses Bikes to Move Apartments

Jeremy Meme was strapping a mattress to a trailer hooked up to his bike when NBC10 Boston caught up with him on Wednesday.

That's how he planned to move three miles from Cambridge to Somerville.

"Right now it can be a nightmare. It’s September 1. Everybody’s moving. I hear horror stories about them canceling. You show up and they say you’ve got four hours."

Instead of going through the hassle, he contacted fellow bikers.

“We figured we have bicycles, trailers, human power, let’s give it a try.”

A group showed up to help him out.

“We have bodies and we can use them for stuff like moving ourselves. We don’t have to get a truck. And on August 31, it’s a difficult time to rent a Uhaul," one rider said.

For riders, the independence is rewarding.

“Something goes wrong with this bike, I have the tools to take it apart, re-greasing it, I’m putting it together. I really own my transportation. So same with the move, ya know" We’re not tied to Uhaul schedule. Does Uhaul have trucks, did it decide to cancel on us this morning? It’s like…nope. We’re just going to go for a fun ride.”

To lighten the load, Meme did sell some stuff, including a washing machine.

“If we can do it without that, without a whole lot of equipment and use our own power and not any fuels…look at that bus over there being held up. If a bus comes, we just get out of the way," he said.

The group said it only took two trips to move everything over.