Put the Sea in Cycling: Rally and Ride

Sep 2, 2010Posted by in Blog | Comments Off on Put the Sea in Cycling: Rally and Ride

Put the Sea in Cycling: Rally and Ride
Posted by fossilfool
Time:
09/09/2010 – 05:30

Event poster for cycling/ocean rally

Help us send a wake up call to Shimano, the largest maker of bicycle components. Their other main business arm is fishing, and they consistently fund anti-conservation efforts to block marine parks and sanctuaries. Replacing reefs and fish stocks is about as hard as replacing the innards of a Rapidfire shifter. Our conservation choices now make a difference.

We’ll be bringing out the Pedal Powered Stage and featuring music from DJ Toph One and a performance by the bike dance troupe The Derailleurs. Check out their performance at this year’s San Francisco Bicycle Music Festival:

After the dancing, music, and speeches, join us for an unforgettable LiveOnBike performance up Market St. to Triple Crown for the afterparty.

Please RSVP on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/event.php?eid=132003886840808&ref=ts

 

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Thanks Bicycle Music Festival fans, crew, and bands for an amazing 2010 festival!

Aug 1, 2010Posted by in Blog, Fender Blender Pro, Fender Blender Pro Related | Comments Off on Thanks Bicycle Music Festival fans, crew, and bands for an amazing 2010 festival!

Thanks Bicycle Music Festival fans, crew, and bands for an amazing 2010 festival!


Justin Ancheta performing LiveOnBike at the 2010 San Francisco Bicycle Music Festival, co-produced by Rock The Bike.

Fans pedal powered 7 hours of live local music.

Here you see the three key elements of a Pedal Powered Stage in action:

  • Generators: In this case a Biker Bar (the 3-person rig in the foreground) and two Electric Mundos.
  • Pedalometer: The floating beer can in the tube rises and falls, showing pedalers how hard to pedal.
  • Pedal Power Utility Box: the box on the table. It accepts inputs from up to 7 pedalers, smooths out the peaks and valleys of Pedal Power, and serves up clean pure sine AC power to our audio gear. Protects circuitry behind a plexiglass panel.


As usual with our local events our trusty roadies hauled all of our Pedal Powered Stage gear to and from the venues on cargo bikes, such as the Mundo and the Xtracycle. In the foreground special Roadie guest Aaron from Aaron’s Bike Repair in Seattle carries his girlfriend and tows our Biker Bar. Strong!

Once we set up our Pedal Powered Stage, we wasted no time getting band after local band amplified. Here’s the Tri Tip Trio breaking it down at Golden Gate Park.

El Arbol in effect as a two-person generator.

Locura got the dancing started at Showplace Triangle, our night venue.  photo: Aufdencamp


Obo Martin, LiveOnBike. photo: Aufdencamp

1st time Golden Goose Lindsey rolling with the pack. The Golden Geese are the volunteers who shake the buckets for musicians after each set.

Untitled from TyrellVoightKampff on Vimeo.

 

Karlanga’s Silk Performance from TyrellVoightKampff on Vimeo.

 

Our night venue: Showplace Triangle, the largest of San Francisco’s popular “Pavement to Parks” mini parks.

It was our first time offering monitored bike parking at one of our events. Thanks Sam and the crew from DPW for your help!

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Southbay Cruisers: The Big 80’s Ride IV

Jul 19, 2010Posted by in Blog | Comments Off on Southbay Cruisers: The Big 80’s Ride IV

Posted by Wild Johnny
Time:
07/24/2010 – 07:15 – 11:30

WHAT: Southbay Cruisers: The Big 80’s IV

WHEN: July 24th, 2010

WHERE: Ride starts and ends at Valley Park in Hermosa Beach. (Corner of Gould Ave and Valley Drive in Hermosa Beach, CA 90254) Meet at 7:15/Ride at 7:30PM We will meet at the Kiwani’s Club Parking Lot at the south end of the park as usual.

WHAT: We will go off on a slow cruiser ride (about 8 – 10 miles) dressed in our favorite 80’s attire through the Southbay, barbecue, sing our fav 80’s tunes to bicycle karaoke, and play games! This is one of our funnest rides of the year. We will have the soul cycle, we will be barbecuing. Come join us!

WHAT TO BRING: Your bike, a headlight, your ipod with your favorite 80’s tunes if you have one, anything you want to eat and drink in the park at the barbecue after the ride. (please no alcohol permitted in valley park.) your favorite 80’s attire is strongly suggested but not required. If you have any 80’s games that you want to play bring those too. If you don’t have a light for your bike you can buy one at the ride with batteries for $12.

Here’s a video of us doing bicycle karaoke in the park at our last October Halloween/Creepy cruise ride…

For more information see www.southbaycruisers.com or send us an email to info@southbaycruisers.com

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Bicycle Music Festival 2010

Jun 1, 2010Posted by in Blog | Comments Off on Bicycle Music Festival 2010

Bicycle Music Festival 2010
Posted by fossilfool
Time:
07/31/2010 – 11:00 – 22:00

 

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Roll with Rock The Bike to Maker Faire: Lots of great talent on the Pedal Powered Stage this weekend

May 18, 2010Posted by in Blog | Comments Off on Roll with Rock The Bike to Maker Faire: Lots of great talent on the Pedal Powered Stage this weekend

Roll with Rock The Bike to Maker Faire: Lots of great talent on the Pedal Powered Stage this weekend

Quick links:

Full event info: Maker Faire

Info and RSVP for the Ride to Maker Faire from Dolores Park with the Rock The Bike crew: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=530605644#!/event.php?eid=316015644330&ref=ts

$5 discount for anyone who rides to Maker Faire at any time.

Our proposal for Maker Faire 2010:


Pedal Powered Stage Music Lineup
Saturday:

1pm Annie Bacon (singer songwriter)

2   Shovel Man (plays a shovel remarkably well. Great entertainer.)

3   DJ Concerned (awesome song selection, keeps the vibe)

4   Gomer Hendrix (Hendrix cover band)

5   Get Back Crew (East Bay Hip Hop, Thanks Kato! Possible BMF band)

6   Zahira and Band Of Mystics (Jared May, Travis, and Kevin back up 2 vocalists. Possible BMF band)

7   Fossil Fool’s sunset dance party!

Music Lineup

Sunday

1pm  5 Cent Coffee (americana)

2   The SHE’S (Punk!)

3  Tyler Smith. (singer songwriter)

4  The Mama’s Boys (bluegrass)

Justin Ancheta



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Thanks to the Outdoor Program Crew and Willamette Valley Music Festival for an amazing week in Eugene!

May 11, 2010Posted by in Blog | Comments Off on Thanks to the Outdoor Program Crew and Willamette Valley Music Festival for an amazing week in Eugene!

Thanks to the Outdoor Program Crew and Willamette Valley Music Festival for an amazing week in Eugene!

 

Hundreds left the festival grounds and joined our LiveOnBike ride.
photo: Hansen

Huge thanks to the crew from the University of Oregon Outdoor Program, where Rock The Bike built a Biker Bar and related Pedal Powered Stage gear last week. Our work culminated in the all-day Willamette Valley Music Festival.

In many ways this was an ideal project for us, working hand in hand with local bike people, transferring knowledge of producing bike music events, and enjoying many fun rides throughout the week.

To get our gear to Oregon, we rented a full-size truck. Rolling past the refinery in Richmond on our way out of the Bay was a sober reminder of the carbon footprint of out-of-town gigs.

Pedal Power intern Jeff Hansen (hereforth “Hansen”) met us in Eugene, ready to work! Looks like he’s been taking care of himself since last summer.

Here is the project space we used, the Outdoor Program’s huge ‘barn.’ It’s under renovation right now and the crew will be pedal powering the opening party, June 4.

There was a very open community vibe throughout the week with many supporters and bike people coming through to pitch in here and there.
A reporter from the Eugene Register-Guard snapped this rad photo of Pastana, Hansen, OP’s Dave Villalobos, and yours truly, on El Arbol.

El Arbol served as a pedal powered shop radio at various points in the week.

El Arbol as Shop Box

Our daily commute to the Barn was 3 miles from our vacation rental house.

Alex truing up El Arbol’s rebuild wheel — 10 gauge spokes!

Jared May joined on Thursday night, adding his bass stylings to several short ‘tweener’ sets

El Arbol served as a two person generator and a functioning speaker that helped the pedalers feel ‘in the music.’

Functioning two-person generator and 650-watt speaker.
photo: Hansen.

Hansen pedaling a tall bike.

Northwest Community Credit Union turned out hundreds of smoothies with their first generation Fender Blender Pro.

 

At 4PM the festival audience got on their bikes and joined for a LiveOnBike performance by yours truly, Fossil Fool, the Bike Rapper, with Jared May on bass.

The LiveOnBike ride was a highlight of the week.
photo: Hansen

Jared picked a few effects pedals to strap to the footrest area, and we cruised without incident on my new rear wheel — Thanks Alex! The ride the night before had taught us an important lesson about how the weight of the passenger affects the deployment of El Arbol’s roots. Through trial and error the night before Jared found out that the rear facing passenger needs to stand on the footrest, taking weight off the roots at the moment of deployment and retraction.

 

Jared May on bass.
photo: Hansen

Just two months ago, I was copying a tractor seat from IKEA to create the rear facing seat in a block of pink foam.

At the end of the ride, we set up in a plaza near the festival for El Arbol’s first street party!

For the headliners, CunninLynguists, we powered DJ Flip Flop’s turntables and monitors. It was a fairly easy load, only 80 watts, and we never let him down.

What follows are dimly lit photos that show the scale of the event, one of Rock The Bike’s largest in terms of crowd size.

In the shot below, the two dancers above the crowd are on the backs of OP’s Mundo 500’s. The bikes themselves are completely hidden.

Here are the two Mundo 500’s earlier in the evening when the crowd was much smaller.

Alex returning event promo the day after the festival.

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