We are in a referral based industry. We want to make sure you have a GREAT experience and want to do it again.  From driving so many tours we have acquired a wealth of knowledge to pass on to our groups to make sure you have the best possible time. We realize that as the organizer of your group that you have the hardest job so we are here to try and make it as easy as possible on you. Here are some great pro tips to ensure an amazing tour. We have perfected how to have a perfect tour down to a science
Before Your Tour
The organizer of your tour is sent a confirmation email that explains what we provide, where to go, when to show up, where to park and many other important things. A great idea is to forward, screenshot, copy/paste this email because everything everyone needs to know is in this and you will not have to say everything over and over. Also no one can say you did not tell me this or that, its just that they did not read what you sent them. On the day of the tour they can check against what you sent out instead of having to text/call you. 

We will call you a few days before your tour to walk you through how the day of your tour will play out. It is a 10 minute phone call and the only thing we need from you is the guest count for your tour if you know and where you want to go.
What we tell you during the phone call the week before your tour
Tours begin and end at 100 Wilkinson Street which is right next to Middle Ages Brewing. Our guests have free parking in the front and side of the building. We need everyone to come early because we have pre tour stuff we have to do with your group. Your group will need to sign a waiver before we begin our pre tour spiel (they are printable on our FAQ section and also attached to your confirmation email) so print them out ahead of time and have your group sign it as they arrive. By completing this ahead of time it speeds up the boarding process, hopefully we are able to get everything done before your tour start time and we leave a littler earlier which is free bonus time out on the bike. We cant have groups pregaming in our parking lot or on the Middle Ages picnic benches (they will come yell at you and kick you out). We do not want to get off on the wrong note because we have a great partnership with our landlord who owns the property where both our tours start.
If you are celebrating a birthday/bachelorette
Don’t forget the decorations and our social media has some great ideas to piggy back off of. While signs on posterboard for the back of the bike are the best thing to do we also encourage you to decorate yourselves. Whether it be matching shirts, drink sleeves or sunglasses. Or maybe colorful wigs, grannies gone wild or 80s workout gear.

 You are able to bring your own food, snacks, appetizers and candy on the bike to celebrate. Just don’t forget the plates, napkins, knives that go along with it.   When decorating don’t forget to bring painters tape to use (no packaging tape or clear tape because we dont want the finish to get taken off the bike and cleaned up for the next tour) for ballons bring just a few and make sure they are on strings we cannot have tens of ballons blocking our view and when hanging things keep in mind you don’t want them to be in someone’s face. Signs on the back of the bike are a BIG Deal when groups make signs all the cars and people on the streets go wild,  they cannot be wider than a door tho (so they don’t cover our turn signals). Put holes in the corners and bring string/zip ties to hang them. Your driver will help you decorate, when the tour is done help them clean it up
What to wear –
We have plenty of storage space on the bike for you to put your purses, jackets, gloves, food, etc. The driver stays with the bike while you go into the bar to keep your belongings safe. I always tell groups to overdress and be warm.  In the summer the biggest thing is proper footwear, NO flip flops or sandals while they may have a back on them and not be in danger of falling off exposed toes are dangerous. When the bike is moving the pedals keep moving so when your feet inevitably slip off the pedals we don’t want the pedal to come around and hit your foot. Don’t wear sundresses or skirts either as you can imagine you are sitting on a bike seat you will not be comfortable. Many women have told us we should let others know to wear a sports bra. Please bring a wristlet versus a large purse because all you need is your ID, cash and your credit card during the tour. Someone should bring a bag so that when everyone empties there pocket before pedaling they can be stored in a central place
What to bring with you?
You do not need to bring a speaker we provide a speaker with bluetooth so you can play it off someones phone. You can play whatever you want but sometimes we will go by festivals at clinton square or groups of people and we will warn the dj to play something clean then

You can bring whatever food, snacks, appetizers and candy that you want. While some food you will be able to eat on the bike while you pedal and others while you are stopped. Wolfls Beergarden is one bar where you can bring your own food into which is perfect for harder to eat foods like cake, chicken wing dip, salsa and dips etc. Some groups bring huge quantities of food, sometimes everyone brings only chips so coordinate what everyone is bringing. Cheese and crackers and vegetable trays tend to not be eaten.

You are allowed to bring 2 12 oz cans of beer, wine, cider, seltzers, hard lemonade and iced teas and canned cocktails like High Noons.  NO glass and NO liquor which includes jello shots and mystery water bottles and NO boxed wine that you plan on drinking out of solo cups because with all the bumps it will spill all over. Let your groups know all of this because we strictly enforce these rules and you will have to return them to your car across the street.  Have everyone bring cash, it will make it easier for everyone to pay you back and when you go into the bar you will be on a time limit and when people open tabs it is a time consuming process to close them and we don’t want for you to be late. When you are late from one bar it eats into your time at the following bars. We don’t want you to have to dash in and have to rush at the last bar.

Dont forget to tip your driver you will see how hard they work making sure you and your friends have a great experience, they do alot more than just drive you from point A to point B. People always wonder what to tip the driver and $5 a person is pretty standard unless people are rowdy and then throw them extra. The organizer usually collects the tip money ahead of time when everyone pays them back from the tour and  gives it to the driver at some point before the end of the tour because at the end it is very chaotic. 
When you show up?
Everyone has to sign the waiver themselves, no filling out any of the information for anyone else. It can be found to print on the homepage of our website and attached to the confirmation email. You just print it out once and the organizer sings the front and the group fills out the columns on the back.  Please listen when the driver is going over the information about the tour ahead of time. We understand you are here to have fun and are super excited but we need to make sure we let everyone know the safety rules and what they can/cannot do. As the organizer of your group we will take all the photos on your phone so you can chose what photos you want to send out to everyone else. 

Tour Dont’s

Arrive Late or lie that you are almost there when you are not. It holds up the group when they could just meet you at first bar.
Try and steal glasses from bars, we make you bring it back inside
Try to get your driver to drink with your group (they should not drink, if they do. call us)
Forget the plates, napkins, cake knife, candles that go along with your food.</li>
Do Not Bring noise makers, confetti guns, silly spray
Drive Drunk.  Don’t be stupid and drive drunk. With Uber and Lyft no one has an excuse to drive drunk

Pro Tips

Slice limes for cans of Bud Light Lime and Corona
Don’t forget the water
Bring munchies to eat on the bike and food to eat in the bar on your route that allows you to bring in food
Give your group a 5 minute warning in the bar. Finish your drink, dont get another drink, use the bathroom, close out your tab etc.
For late night tours don’t try and over decorate because certain things will not be seen when it is dark out
Decide ahead of time what you want to do after your tour ends. Trying to get 13 people to agree on anything is hard, it is even harder after they have been drinking for 2 hours.
Call your uber ahead of time so they are waiting for you when you get back (we will let you know what time your group will be back at) Your tour ends 2 hours from your starting time so know to send your pick up for then
If someone cannot arrive on time they can meet us at the first bar and sign the waiver and join your group there

Thank you for taking the time to read this, now when you book a tour you will now how to party and have an amazing experience&lt

Bachelorette parties and birthdays account for the majority of pedal tours. We have gotten very good at showing them all an amazing experience while making the organizers job as easy and stress free as we can. Just follow our tips and your group will have just as much fun, if not more! 

Groups have always made signs and brought decorations but this past year we had some new awesome ideas we wanted to share with you. The first is putting the brides Venmo or Cash App on the sign so all her friends who could not come can send her money to buy a drink. It is Lucrative but the thing is you need to post it on social media because those are the people most likely to send money. 

Besides decorating the bike we encourage you to decorate yourselves whether you do a themes such as colorful wigs,  grannies gone wild or 80s workout gear themes.  The other thing is matching shirts, drink sleeves and sunglasses that they customize with photos and sayings. There is a ton of websites that do this but make sure you do them ahead of time.

Dont pregame too hard, while this is a safe activity if someone is sloppy then we need to have them sit on the back bench and have a “guardian angle” which could mean your group does not have pedal seats full and it makes it harder to pedal. You are welcome to bring food and snacks to get some food in your stomach for a big day of drinking. 

Having your driver also be your photographer is something that groups love as well. We do so many tours that we know all the good places and poses to take great photos. We take them on your phone so please airdrop them to everyone so we do not have to take photos on multiple phones.  We also want to take a second to note we cannot have giant penises on the bike (straws are common and fine) and if you are playing some type of bachelorette game you need to run by your driver in the pre tour phone call what types of challenges are on it. No kissing cops or random people, dancing on bars or anything else that is going to get bars/people calling us up to complain about what you are doing.

Whether your tour is a birthday bachelorette or corporate outing, decorating the bike will make your pedal tour more fun. Not only does it make your photos better but when the cars and people in the streets see you are celebrating an occasion they react by saying happy birthday or things like that. The new big thing is to put your venmo/cash app on the sign and people send you money! We also encourage groups to do a theme colorful wig parties are the rage in 2021.

Groups decorate to varying levels, some groups print special shirts and coozies, others go all out decorating the bike, others just put a sign on the back. The only bad decorating is not decorating because it only takes a few minutes and the decorations are super cheap
What To Do- Make a sign for the back of the bike, have the artist in the group make a sign on posterboard like the type you would for a school project back in the day. Now remember it can’t be wider then a doorway so that it doesn’t block our turn signals.  Also put holes in the corners and bring string or zip ties to fasten the sign to the back of the bike. Things like beep for the birthday boy or girl, you beep we drink or anything witty like that makes for a great sign that the cars will react to.  When bringing streamers only bring one color, some groups buy 3 colors and the cluster makes it look uglier then just 1.  Get the group to buy into a theme, whether it be tropical, 80s workout gear or everyone wearing different sports jerseys a theme birthday party will make for a funner tour.
What not to do- Dont try to hang things across the bike or by peoples knees, when we begin pedaling and the breeze blows them into peoples faces and interferes with their pedaling they will get annoyed and take them down. Don’t waste your money or time on decorations like this. Make sure any ballons you bring are on strings, if you try and tape them to the bike they will just blow away and since we do not litter we cannot have that happen. Remember we cannot have our vision compromised by too many ballons, 6 normal ballons is the perfect number.
Do not bring packaging tape</strong>! It will take the finish off the bike and is not allowed for decorating, bring painters tape so when we are cleaning off the bike at the end of your tour for the next group we can make sure we get everything off. Between tours the driver has to take group photos of your group, clean up the bike, get everyone’s belongings down and un decorate while also preparing the next group for their tour to start and helping them decorate, put everything away, get hooked up to the music etc. They can definitely use an extra hand getting everything cleaned up.
Since decorating goes hand in hand with birthdays here would be a good time to talk about birthday cakes. Wolfs Biergarden will allow you to bring your cake, food, plates, napkins, candles inside to sing Happy Birthday as long as you are buying drinks. We recommend bringing cupcakes versus a cake so you do not have to worry about all the serving utensils.

What is the best type of tour?  When the boss pays for it! There is no better team building or corporate outing in the Syracuse area then going out on a pedal tour with your co workers. We have all different types of options depending on your offices alcohol policy. For offices that are fine with their employees drinking responsibly we offer our super popular bar tours. Bring your own beer, wine, sparkling seltzers, ciders, mikes hard lemonade type drinks and food and we are your tour guide and DD for the tour. If your office has a no drinking policy never fear we also offer architecture and history tours and food tours.
The architecture and history tours take you all around downtown showing off everything from Syracuse’s past in addition to telling you about what is going to be happening in the future. It makes 2 stops for breaks so you will have time to grab some food at a restaurant or to pack a picnic to eat on the bike. The driver who is also your historian will take tons of awesome group photos with Syracuse landmarks as your back drop
Our food tours take groups to 2 different restaurants where you will pre order food based off what time your tour will arrive so that as you arrive your food is coming out and you will skip the waiting. Your driver lets you know what time you will arrive and then you call it in a few days ahead of time. This is perfect for taking out of town bosses around and retirement parties.
We do a ton of corporate outings and they all have a blast! A great team building idea to do on the bike is for everyone to pick out one song and have it put on a mix on spotify, the group then guesses who picked out the song. So whether it is a group of fellow nurses or teachers or a sales team you and your group is in great hands with Syracuse Pedal Tours. No one will do more to make sure your group has a fun, safe and memorable experience then our team

Ladies in the summer you do not want to wear a skirt or sundress, remember you are sitting on a bike seat and it will be very uncomfortable. Bring a wristlet or fanny pack instead of a large purse because you only need your ID and cash during the tour. Many women have told us to add to wear a sports bra to this section so we have. Please wear sneakers, it does not matter if your sandals have backs to them because when the bike is moving your pedals are moving and when your feet inevitably slip off we do not want the pedal to hit your foot when you try to catch the pedals again.
Men- In the summer wear tank tops/sleeveless shirts on hot days. Wear pants/shorts that have pockets that button or zip to safely secure your valueables.
Footwear- make sure you wear sneakers and not flip flops or sandals. It does not matter if they have backs to them because when the bike is moving the pedals are moving so when your feet inevitably slip off the pedals and you have to catch the pedals we do not want for them to come around and hit anyone on their toes. We also do not want sandals falling off while we are moving because jumping off to get them is very dangerous.
Now that we go year round I wanted to give some suggestions about how to dress properly for all the seasons.For winter tours wear gloves because once your hands get cold your body will get cold and something to cover your ears because that is where your heat escapes. Between the pedaling and drinking you will be more than warm enough. In fact after a few bars most people leave their jackets draped on their seats while they go into the bar.

The bike has plenty of storage space for hoodies, jackets, purses, food, etc so that is why it is important that ladies bring wristlets so that we have room for all of those other things vs large purses taking up a lot of space

Thank you for taking the time to read our blog entries, we put the time into writing these blogs because we want to make sure your group has as much fun as possible. My name is Philip and I am the owner. After doing this for 7 years I know what works and what does not.

It all starts with the organizers communication with the group because we convey everything to them in the confirmation email and pre tour phone call. Please forward the confirmation email or take a screenshot and put it into the group chat for all to see because it says where to park, at what time, what type of alcohol is allowed and what to expect.  The week leading up to your tour we call the organizer to walk you through the day of your tour from where to park, what to pack, what route you want to do, decorating, what to wear and much much more. After this phone call you will know everything you need to, the only way to mess it up is not listening to our instructions. If you have a question just text or call your driver and they will answer it. https://www.syracusepedaltours.com/2017/06/07/routes/

Pro Tips:

Get everyone there on time. You already know who will be late so tell those people to show up even earlier because if they are late they are wasting the time you paid for!

Print out the waiver and as your group arrives have them sign it. It has to be completed correctly so if someone does not fill out a box, scratches a line where it asks for signature. Please have them do it correctly since your driver will look it over and make sure it was done correctly
Bring a wristlet versus a large purse. You only need your license, credit cards and cash during the tour.
Bring warm clothes to put on later in case you get cold, we have room for storage
Make sure you bring some type of food, snacks, appetizers or candy to munch on during the We provide a speaker and it has bluetooth capabilities so no need to bring a speaker or aux cord
We will take all the photos on the organizers phone, we like to begin taking the photos after everyone has had a few drinks in them. We will take a ton of photos so be sure to send them out to everyone.
While we encourage everyone to make a sign on a piece of poster board for the back of the bike, we encourage groups to decorate themselves. Matching shirts, sunglasses, drink sleeves are very easy to customize and order online.  E. Decorating Ideas 
Collect the tip when you charge everyone for the tour, alcohol, snacks, decorations, etc. 

Dont Be That Person

who tries to pee in public after we tell everyone to pay at the last bar. You the organizer will be fined because of them
who brings glass, everything comes in cans now
who holds up the group from starting on time by lying saying they are 2 minutes away (when they arent)
says something smart to people we pass walking, biking or driving by. people are crazy
steal glasses from the bar. we will make you return them
who brags about not pedaling the whole tour (without a medical condition)
who asks “we have to pedal this? it doesnt shock when someone asks but that people laugh thinking its funny ?
does not listen to us about stuff falling out of your pants pockets and has something fall out
interrupts the driver during the pre tour speech, they are cutting into your groups time out on the bike so help the driver keep them in line
who calls someone riding past us on the bike a show off
on the way back at the end cracks a beer when you can see we are almost back. when we get back it is chug or dump time. better to just have the drink later

Starting a new business and moving across the state to a new place required much back work to find out if Syracuse was ready for a second pedal tour business and the answer is YES! I spent 2 days walking all around downtown to map out the best routes to minimize hills and to make sure groups will get their “pedals worth on the bike” I came away super impressed by the architecture and have been reading up on the history of downtown Syracuse as well as the  buildings which our tour will pass. Thank god for Google and the Syracuse Public Library!  Being able to tell our bar tours about the architecture and history of the buildings we pass is one of my favorite things about doing the bar tours in Buffalo and Rochester.  All of the bar owners have been super receptive to becoming partner bars which offer our riders specials on food and drinks. With that being said groups get to pick where they want to go.  At the moment the photos on the website are from Rochester because I want groups to see some awesome decorating and all the smiles on peoples faces. As soon as tours start in Syracuse they will be replaced THAT DAY! I always tell people smiles don’t lie and when you look at the photos under the gallery you will see what a fun time groups have.  I look forward to taking you, your family/friends/co workers out this year!