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Electric bike startup BudBike to give tourists a new way to enjoy Lafayette

Posted at 1:45 AM, Apr 25, 2018
and last updated 2018-04-25 02:45:20-04

With Festival International de Louisiane kicking off this week, a local entrepreneur is giving festival goers a new way to experience festival by riding electric bikes.

During Festival International you may see people buzzing around Lafayette on these electric bikes.

They’re called BudBikes and they’re designed to reduce car traffic and give riders a chance to enjoy their surroundings.

"People coming into town, you really want to see a city and you don’t want to take an Uber and pay the amount you would pay in the five or six Ubers you would take to see everything you want to see. You can rent a bike and enjoy the weather and be outside,” explained BudBike Social Media Manager Marie Marcante.

Morris Sanford runs BudBike out of his Saint Street home and says he got the idea after riding electric bikes with his family while on vacation in Florida.

"Every time I go riding with friends or family that was the comment. Boy if we had a bunch of these bikes, we could all do something together, and that kinda set the seed and got me thinking,” said Sanford.

But, what exactly is a BudBike?

"The way the bike works is they have a pedal called a cadence center. You pedal a little bit and it senses the speed at which you’re pedaling, and then you can choose the level of assistance. You also have a thumb throttle you can use if you just want to cruise around and take it easy,” explained Sanford.

With an estimated 300,000 people attending Festival International, there will be many tourists looking to enjoy Lafayette with BudBikes.

"I actually took the bikes down for the Freetown tour, and I loved it because I had no pressure of cars coming in and around me and I got to see everything at whatever pace I liked,” said Marcantel.

Riders of BudBikes must be at least 18 years old.

The company will give riders helmets and bike locks to use while they have their bikes.

For more information go to the BudBike.com