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"Faces of Austin: Cyclist in tandem with students"

http://www.dailytexanonline.com/life-ar … -1.1914387

Faces of Austin: Cyclist in tandem with students

By Robert Rich
Daily Texan Staff

Published: Friday, September 25, 2009
Updated: Friday, September 25, 2009

Every morning, Spencer Scorcelletti wakes up at the "House of Guys," a self-described "fauxternity" that sits at the corner of MLK and Rio Grande Street. He gets out of the lofted bed he built and exits via a pole stretching from floor to ceiling — also built by him. He gets ready, exits the house and takes a deep breath before mounting the tandem bike he rides to school. He's the "free rides" guy, energetically riding around campus day and night offering rides to needy students.

When he talks, it's clear he's capable of hitting it big, discovering the next important philanthropic project that changes the world. And like all great initiatives, you have to start with a little freedom.

I was the only person in the house, and I was just so bored. One of my roommate's brothers had a tandem bicycle, and he left it at the house. I got to thinking about how bored I was and how fun it would be to fix up the bicycle — because it was broken — and just ride around town and ask people if they wanted a ride home, because it's funny for one person to be on a tandem bicycle.

After I fixed it, it just hit me: free rides. I got on there and rang that bell and said, "Free rides," and the whole sort of philosophy was made known to me.

It's totally pointless; it's stupid, I know. I've given about 120 or so rides. That's less than, like, a thousandth of a percent of campus. But everybody sees it — half of campus at least. I can't tell you how many people have come up to me and said, "You just made my day."

The philosophy is to spread this idea of freedom and break people out of their shells.

I feel like everyone around us is always on their cell phone or always texting, and it bothers me. We're surrounded by beautiful, attractive, funny people. We're at the right age, and we're sitting here, and we're not enjoying each other.

No tips accepted. No sexual favors; that's disgusting. I've been offered both. I think if I ever did accept them it would be, for example, to buy a helmet — but someone already donated one. All my passengers have to wear the helmet. I care a lot about my passengers.

I give slightly more rides to girls, but guys usually go further. Guys see it very pragmatically, but to girls it's just like a novelty. It's really nice to take someone who really needs a ride, but for the most part it's taking someone from, like, the West Mall to the UTC. I really do like it when I get the opportunity to take someone further, like one time I took someone from Jester to 33rd and Guadalupe.

I give rides at night because I'm really concerned about people walking home at night by themselves. One dude ran up to me; he was dripping with sweat. And he said, "Oh, my God. I was literally just praying that you would show up, and I know you don't give rides at night, and I just heard your bell…"

I said, "What's the problem?" and he said, "This girl just called me, she needs help on her calculus homework." I was like, "This is an emergency, hop on." I took him really far and the whole way I was giving him the pep talk.

I once built a bike and had it for, like, a week, and I took it to a restaurant, and then I left to go buy some tickets and came back, and the bike was gone. The week that followed was the worst week of my life. One day I was walking, and this guy was on the bike. I walked over to him — wasn't even mad — and just said, "I think we understand each other," and he got off and walked away.

If you want a ride, whistle. Actually, that wouldn't be loud enough, don't do that. Just say, "Hey, 'free rides' guy." Or Facebook me. I do appointments. I love appointments because people always expect you not to show up.