Rentable Pedal Powered Activities
You can green your event by renting our Pedal Power gear, reducing your carbon footprint and inspiring people at your event. Pedal Power gives your event attendees a unique experience that they will never forget. Check out all our great Pedal Powered activities for rent, and let’s start talking about your upcoming event.
Read MoreCombining RTB activities to engage crowds at conventions and other large events
This latest video, shot by our friend and partner, Natan Lawson of Wheely Good Smoothies in Baltimore, shows how eight of our rental activities created a large cohesive space with a large exhibit at the recent Democratic National Convention in Philly.
Producers of large events are used to working in large spaces. Spaces that are typically empty and in need of shape, definition and life when they arrive. Just as it is the job of the wedding producer to remember the flowers, it is the job of our customers and rental clients to plan for both the visual impact and the function of everything in their spaces.
Read MoreYork Catholic School Board remixes Toaster Challenge at energy awareness assembly
Sitting on the stool on the right side of this photo is an unassuming white form, but push the lever on it and you have a beast of a challenge — match the energy needs of an electric toaster by pedaling your hardest on an efficient bicycle generator.
Read MoreActivist rapper Boots Riley’s spoken word at the People’s Climate Rally Oakland, Rock The Bike’s biggest event ever.
Thanks to the 350.org Bay Area and System Change Not Climate Change organizers, volunteers, and attendeeds, and Rock The Bike crewmembers who came together for the People’s Climate Rally this past September 21 on the shores of Lake Merritt in Oakland. A major highlight of the event was Boots Riley’s spoken word and song during the peak of the event when at least 2500 people were in attendance. Skip ahead to 5:15 to hear the poem (warning, language!) Check out the awesome dance moves of the pedaler on the Tree during the song Ghetto Blaster (at 3:12). It’s inspiring to hear an activist talk about people power while using a people-powered PA system.
In this second video, Rock The Bike’s Fossil Fool induces an outage in order to reenforce the message of people power:
It was our largest audience size to date by more than double, the previous being the 2013 San Francisco Bicycle Music Festival in Golden Gate Park at about 1000.
The crowd size meant lots of new information to take in about live sound.
Read MoreHow many people will it take to power my laptop and projector, or pedalboard (or any device)?
Pamela Parker’s pedal board at the Peace Day SF rally. Photo: Nio.
Okay, so you have a device or set of devices in mind (like a laptop and projector), and you want to know whether it’s possible to power them with people on bike generators. Here are the steps to figure it out:
First, you need to measure the power consumption of the device you want to power. There are two ways to do this. You can read the writing on the product or you can actually measure it using a device like the Kill a Watt. The second way is better for two reasons: It’s more educational and fun, and more precise; some product ratings (written on the product) are just approximate. Some products use different amounts of power at different settings. For example, a loudspeaker will use way less power than it’s rated for if you’re listening to music at moderate levels. So get yourself a Kill a Watt and get scientific!
Above: A Kill a Watt in use.
Connect the Kill a Watt to the wall, then connect your device(s) to it, and read the wattage number. (Be sure you’re in watt mode; the device may default to showing volts. If the reading is very close to 110, USA AC power voltage, then you are probably reading volts.) If you look carefully you’ll see that the watt mode will have the unit “watt” next to the reading.
Next, visualize what types of pedalers you are expecting at your event. The wattage you can expect per person will change depending on who is pedaling. This is common sense: A competitive cyclist can generate more power than a 3rd grader.
Read MoreWhen a bike gets stolen, activate your networks to get lots of eyes looking for you. And then get that bike back.
After a recent Bicycle Music Festival volunteer meeting one of our best cargo bikes, a Mundo 500, was stolen. It was locked to itself. This electric cargo bike was heavy, immobilized and impossible to push. The thieves must have had to lift it into a truck. I realized it the next morning and felt dejected and ashamed.
I gathered some resolve to ask around for my bike. I remembered my friend Kipchoge’s story of recovering his stolen laptop by spending 3 days lurking in the underworld of San Francisco’s seediest Tenderloin and Mission neighborhoods. When he finally found himself face to face with the man who’d stolen it, in the hallway of a dingy hotel, the man admitted he hadn’t yet wiped the hard drive or sold it yet because he liked a video on the desktop. The video showed Kipchoge and his friends riding into the woods on Xtracycles carrying chainsaws, in order to do trail maintenance.
I printed out the photo below and headed out to talk to people in the nooks and crannies under highway overpasses and in the Plaza at Civic Center.
I also reached out to crewmembers and friends on facebook for help. I posted it everywhere, in all the group pages for which I was a member. RTB’s Nio connected me with Jenny Oh, who has built a bike theft recovery network that is remarkably effective at getting stolen bikes back to their owners. She reposted my photo and shared her tips for getting bikes back. Following the advice I filed an online Police Report.
I found that friends and even the people on the street were overwhelmingly sympathetic with my cause. Alas, they weren’t giving me any leads.
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