Huntington Beach : Pedaling Across Country on a Bicycle Built for 4

Rick Jorgensen makes his living as an engineer. So it comes as little surprise that the Caltrans bridge designer created a “technologically advanced” four-passenger bicycle and plans to spend his vacation riding it coast to coast.

Jorgensen and three of his friends --Theresa Collins, Mark McGahan and Bruce Raabe--designed and built the “Tango Quad” at a cost of $15,000 and 700 hours of labor over the last three months. The foursome planned to leave from Huntington Beach at 3 a.m. today in hopes of getting across much of the desert by the end of today.

“Everybody’s riding across the country these days,” Jorgensen said. “We wanted to find a harder way of doing it.”

Jorgensen, who lives in Davis, designs and builds bicycles as a hobby and said that building a bike for two people was itself a technical challenge and that one for four is a truly remarkable achievement. He said a major advantage of his bike was that its riders would have each other to talk to, thus alleviating some of the boredom and fatigue encountered on long-distance trips.

“We plan to ride 200 to 250 miles a day,” he said.

If all goes as planned, the Tango Quad will pull into Virginia Beach, Va., on June 29. Unfortunately, said Jorgensen, he won’t be able to ride it back. “I have to work for a living,” he said. “It’s terrible, but riding bikes doesn’t pay very well.”