Posted By Sam Ollinger on February 8, 2010

Shortly after Bike San Diego was launched we did a profile of one of the co-founders of San Diego’s only bicycle delivery service. Since the profile was run when our site was still in its infancy, we thought we’d run an update on Manivela Food Delivery to introduce some of our newer readers to Manivela.

Trevor Fray is the other half of Manivela Food Delivery. A resident of San Diego for the past fifteen years he has grown to love this city by traversing it in the best possible way: a bicycle.

Fray belongs to one of those rare but growing breed of individuals who chose to live in San Diego without an automobile. He has learned how to get around San Diego solely by bicycle and has based all his employment around his bike.

In addition to overseeing the day to day operations of Manivela Food Delivery, Trevor also works as a bicycle courier in downtown San Diego and at Pedal Pushing Bike Shop

For the past seven years, Fray has been a bicycle commuter getting more familiar with his city in a manner a growing number of San Diegans are beginning to.

When Matthew Reate initially approached Fray with the idea of opening a bicycle powered business in San Diego, they jointly decided to create the business that would promote certain core values that were important to the both of them. They wanted to open San Diegan’s minds to the possibility of using a bicycle for transportation and raise awareness toward bicyclists. They wanted to stimulate local businesses by delivering for small family owned businesses. Most importantly, they wanted to contribute to the growing San Diego bicycle culture.

In addition to delivering restaurant prepared meals, Manivela also fulfills the occasional grocery order. However, Manivela wants to be more than just a bicycle powered delivery service for restaurants. To that end, part of Fray’s focus has been to cater to the disabled and low income population in San Diego. This focus ties into his desire where he envisions that Manivela will eventually operate as a non-profit that not only performs delivery services by bicycle, but also teach people to reconnect with their community. Fray wants to be a source for delivering food , necessities and entertainment needs to the segment of our population that is often forgotten about or ignored.

When I asked why he wanted Manivela to operate as a non-profit, Fray responded that he didn’t want profit or finances to dictate the goals of Manivela. He instead wanted to focus on the service component and be a source of help in the local community.

Using knowledge gained from working at Pedal Pushing, Fray envisions using the bicycle to empower San Diegans so that the bicycle can be used effectively as a means of transport and grow as a community.

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Both Fray and Reate are doing wonderful things for the San Diego bicycle community and we wish them much success in their future endeavours. They eventually hope to expand to the San Ysidro area within the next year and show other parts of metro San Diego that a bicycle powered business is not only possible but also the way of the future.

Category: Advocacy, Profiles
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