Pedal Powered Stage
Pedal Powering your next event taps you into the magic of community power, the cleanest and best source of power currently available.
Nearly a thousand packed in to a Mission District street closure to take in a free Pedal Powered show at Bicycle Music Festival. On stage: Quinn Deveaux. The show was powered by 14 fans.
Above: With our new aerial rigging and JBL VRX Line Array drivers, we can entertain a crowd of 2000-3000 in a space several hundred feet deep. This performance was powered by 20 people.
Above: a mother and son bonding in the Pedal Power area at the Oregon Country Fair.
What We Provide:
- World class Audio Gear. We bring a complete audio package including mics, stands, loudspeakers, cables, mixers, outboard gear, monitors, 1000-watt subwoofers, etc. It’s sufficient for audiences up to 3,000 and bands with up to 8 members. *New for 2013* Aerially rigged VRX Line Array speakers! All of our PA speakers have been specially modified to run directly from bike power. 40% more efficient and super inspiring.
- Efficient, comfortable Bicycle Generators. Our generators are stable, safe, and colorful, and fit a wide variety of people, from adult men to 7-year-old kids. We make sure to bring enough generators that pedal power feels moderately challenging–everyday people can contribute. Our roadies become ringer pedalers who can boost power levels as needed.
- Coaching. Our crew includes outgoing pedal coaches who pull in your audience and motivate them to contribute. Our 8′ tall Pedalometers (power indicators ) show pedalers exactly how hard to pedal.
- Sound Guy/Girl. Our crew experienced audio technicians who optimize the available pedal power for the most clean, clear sound.
- Transportation. Our roadies transport all our gear to and from your event on cargo bikes, reducing the impact of cars and trucks. For out of town events we use pickup trucks.
- Education. We display the power generated by the pedalers, and track the consumption of our equipment and update the crowd throughout the event to maximize the educational potential of the activity. If appropriate, we provide a science lesson that satisfies your audience’s curiosity about how our system works.
- Promotion. Our gear-hauling rides are social, and serve to promote your event as we hand out fliers and play the songs of your featured artists en route. We also utilize our e-communication outlets to promote your Pedal Powered event.
We do not provide an elevated stage for your event.
Read a full explanation of Pedal Powered concert dynamics, with answers to the most common questions: How does it work? Who pedals? How do you avoid power outages? Why are you doing this?
Check out our Rider!
Ready to Start? Submit Your Event!
This service goes back to 2007, but we’ve been doing bike-based entertaining since 2002. Here are some of our more prominent event partners:
Maker Faire (see highlights: 1, 2) | Jack London Square
The Gaia Festival | Oregon Country Fair (see highlights)
Life is Living | University of Oregon | Chobani Yogurt
UC Berkeley | UCLA | Sunday Streets (see highlights)
California Academy of Sciences (see highlights) | 350.org
San Francisco Bicycle Music Festival (see highlights) – NOW
Central Park (see highlights) – The Yes Men (see highlights)
Virgin Mobile (see highlights) – The San Francisco Marathon (see highlights)
New Belgium Brewery – Propel Fitness Water – Greenpeace (see highlights)
San Francisco Mayor’s Office – Barcelona Bicycle Music Festival (see highlights)
Global Exchange – the Chabot Observatory – West Fest (see highlights) –
Bluegrass for the Greenbelt – Specialized Bicycles – the Ride to Prevent ALS
Earth Hour (see highlights) – Save the Redwoods
Also, you can read testimonials from our clients.
Want to see photos from our events?
Check out the latest shots from our Pedal Powered Stage events. We update it after almost every event! Also check us out on Facebook.
Want to get a taste of a Pedal Powered Stage event?
Click play below for highlights from Rupa and the April Fishes’ set at the 2012 Bicycle Music Festival.
Rupa & The April Fishes – Bicycle Music Festival 2012 from janel sterbentz on Vimeo.
Please read on as we explain the reasons top event producers love our Pedal Powered Stage:
Pedal Power is Social.
Pedal power is an ice-breaking, fresh social activity that connects strangers in an electrifying way: working shoulder to shoulder, rocking the party as a team. When it’s time for the dancing spirit to bust loose, pedal power’s movement gets people moving. Only a hands-on (and feet-on) experience this cool can transform what might have been a merely excellent event into a soul-moving, year-making event.
And educational!
Above: our Wattage Display shows how much energy has been generated (and used) by pedalers.
We are committed to creating experiences where learning about power is fun and social, not guilt-ridden. Our displays and crew are able to help participants reach personal realizations about power consumption. Power is not free. It has to come from somewhere. The Pedal Powered Stage is an uplifting and effective way to make that knowledge spread.
Musicians and Audiences Rise to the Occasion.
We can power many styles of music, including heavy metals bands. Bring us to your event and we can power your DJ/band’s needs.
Bands love playing through Pedal Power because the audience is already moving at the beginning of their set.
Incredible Custom “Soul Cycles”
Our Pedal Powered Stage fleet includes the legendary Bike Tree, El Arbol, seen above, as well as the Blue Whale and the Choprical Fish.
An expecting woman Pedal Powers a rock show at Barcelona Bicycle Music Festival on the Blue Whale.
Our fleet of cargo and custom party bikes are complete with on-board neon lights, bumping sound system, and pedal-power capabilities. It can immediately start cranking out tunes as we set up our stage, which usually takes about an hour.
Biked-in sound = quick deployment and unusual locations.
Above: Nio tows two subs, two VRXs, a 612 Monitor, a mic case, pedalometer, Electric Fender Blender Pro, no battery.
Turn the heads of everybody at your event as we magically arrive on cargo bikes loaded with sound equipment, set those same bikes up to power the sound system, then load the bikes back up and vanish, all without consuming any fossil fuels. The fact that we bike the bike, not just talk the talk, inspires participants at your event.
When you don’t need electrical outlets, the whole world becomes a stage! Want to rock the floor of a trade show or a big concert in a city park without lobbying the powers-that-be for permission to plug into an outlet? Want to have your wedding at the end of that pier? Want to rock a concert at the beach, amidst the redwoods, in a wildflower-speckled meadow, on the school playground, on the steps of city hall, or even in-motion with a “live on-bike” performance? With pedal-power, that power is in your hands (and feet)!
PR Building Blocks.
The Pedal Powered stage amplifies your press coverage! An event with a remarkable sound system gets remarked on by the press, and we’ve proven that pedal power provides that ‘unimpeachably cool-factor’ that catches their ears and turns their gears every time. Stretch your marketing dollar! Let your investment in the sound system work for you twice: onstage and off! Rock the Bike will help your PR effort with multimedia tools: videos, web, photos, tech info, and more.
Pro Audio Sound from Names you Trust.
Our gear selection includes:
– Allen & Heath mixer
– Modified JBL PRX and VRX loudspeakers
– 50′ snake and stage box
– Shure wired and wireless microphones. 10 mics available in total including Shure Beta 58 vocal mic and Beta 91a kick mic.
Even those with the pickiest ears — musicians themselves– rave about the clarity and commanding presence of our system. Each year at the SF Bicycle Music Festival we use the Rock the Bike system to amplify 15 different bands ranging in tone from salsa bands with full horn sections, to whispering singer-songwriters accompanied by a ukulele, and broadcast it to hundreds of sonically-spoiled city dwellers in a challenging outdoor urban setting. And every year, we get the party moving with pedal power.
**Sorry, we do not offer an elevated stage as part of our Pedal Powered Stage gear.**
Compromise on Volume, Not Sound Quality.
The clipping is right. Raw decibels aren’t the only way to measure the effect of the amplified music at your event. Most music fans want the clarity and presence that comes from using professional quality gear, but they can do without the ringing sound in their ears when they’re heading home from an event. With a modular system capable of producing anywhere between 75 – 2000 watts, Rock the Bike makes sure that the volume is exactly what you need: no more, no less.
Lower listening levels can be more social, giving people a chance to hear each other talk while still feeling “in the music.”
Rock the Body: Workout for Your Audience
With 53% of adult Californians and 22% of children considered medically obese, and many more people of all shapes suffering from respiratory disease from polluted air, immersing your audience in the magic of bike-culture with the pedal powered stage couldn’t be a more considerate or timely gesture.
Photo: Steve Rhodes
Healthy habits gain momentum when friends can move in that direction together. We’re all about getting your audience interested in bikes, and often bring extras that they can try out. Our super-duty Mundo cargo bikes can carry riders weighing up to 400 lbs, and are safe and stable. It might help rekindle their long lost bicycle-love.
Sound Guys with Soul.
With Rock the Bike you get experienced Sound guys and MC’s who are leaders in the green movement. Quit worrying about coordinating the sound guy, the DJ, the band, the iPod and the ‘groovy chill mix.’ Our team includes musicians who enjoy interacting with bands, are comfortable making announcements and MC’ing, as needed. We carry plenty of good music with us to keep the event moving during breaks. Rock the Bike team members have rocked the mic at events such as San Francisco Green Festival, Maker Faire, Bioneers, TED @ Vancouver, and other green/ alt-culture events.
A Crew of Entertainers at Your Service.
We make music, we enjoy music, we dance when we hear music. Rock the Bike crew members are fun-loving, and want your guests to have the best time possible at your event. Whether you want funky hip hop flava, an acrobat, or a full band we’ve got an array of assorted talents in our crew. Check our Music section to listen to some house bands, or ask us for recommendations.
Cruiser ride to your event
Up to 200 cyclists join us for the Annual Dolores Park t0 Maker Faire Social Ride.
We want to help you mobilize your audience. Create excitement before your event begins by inviting your audience to join an exclusive Rock The Bike social cruiser ride out to your event. People will never forget cruising to your event next to their friends through the streets of San Francisco immersed in a cloud of glowing neon soul-cycles, Marvin Gaye bumping over the traffic noise, feeling high from the community spirit as people on the sidewalk clap their hands and cheer.
Want to be part of the Pedal Powered Stage crew?
Please get on our local events list by joining our Constant Contact newsletter. Look for “Email Address here” in the header above. Select “local events” as most of our events do not go out to our national list. Start coming to events and helping out. Thanks!
Overview of Pedal Powered Stage Gear configurations
| Item | Price | Set Up | Space | # of People Pedaling |
Crowd Size* |
| Pedal Powered Stage | TBD | 3-4 hours | TBD | 12-25 | Up to 3,000 |
| El Arbol | $2,400 | 30 min | 12′ x 8′ | 2 | up to 200 |
| + Aerial Performance | + $1,000 | + 30 min | 20′ x 20′ | 300 + | |
| Blue Whale | $1,250 | 30 min | 8′ x 4′ (optimal: 12′ x 8′) |
1 | 50 – 100 |
| One Bike, One Speaker | $1,250 | 15 min | 8′ x 8′ | 1 | Up to 100 |
| DJ Booth | $2,000 | 1 hour | 16′ x 10′ | 2 | Up to 400 |
*For speeches only, such as a conference, these crowd numbers are doubled.
Please Be Advised: How many people that can hear your sound depends on the environment, type of music, amount of bass in music, and the amount of ambient noise.
If you’re ready to begin planning your Pedal Powered Stage with us, please fill out this questionnaire about your event. Also, check out our other Pedal Power Activities you can rent.
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Read MoreInteractive Pedal Powered Lighting Rigs
Let us bring our years of experience with Pedal Powered lighting to craft something special for your event. For fun or education (or both), the possibilities are endless!
The latest example of our interactive lighting: New York Power Authority at the 2019 State Fair:
Read testimonials from our previous clients.
The sLEDgehammer
The sLEDgehammer, an interactive Pedal Powered lighting rig. More LEDs light up when you pedal harder, converting your peak power output on an efficient bicycle generator to beautiful light. Click here to watch the video!
The sLEDgehammer’s display can be customized for your event, like a one-person powered courtyard installation (above), or as a group-powered display, like the Christmas Tree at Boston Winter below!
Powering LEDs with Rock The Bike Generators
The Svelte or Sledgehammer generator wheels or DC Roll Up stand produce variable DC voltage. The faster you pedal the higher the voltage. We try to optimise the gear ratio and electrical activity to be around 24volts when pedaling at a comfortable speed. The Load or wattage of your activity (LEDs) will determine the difficulty.
The variable DC voltage of these generators is a good match for custom interactive LED activities and is fun and beautiful when done artfully.
Strips of 12V LEDs can be put in 24V series, 36V series, or 48V series or a combination of these. When used in combination, the lower voltage lights turn on first, and then the higher voltage LEDs. Brightness of the LEDs will increase with voltage. To prevent overvoltage from damaging the lights, you have to use enough that pedalers are sufficiently tired out by trying to keep them on. Keep in mind the age and ability of your pedalers. Rolls of flexible LEDs often consume about 1W per foot. Pedalers may be able to create up to 200-400W of power. If you want to challenge them and keep your LEDs cool, you may have to use that many feet of LED. If you choose 36 or 48V series wiring, this is less of a concern. Measure with a voltmeter and try to keep the LEDs under 150% of their rated voltage, especially for extended periods of time (more than a few seconds). You can also reduce the voltage spikes by pairing them with a capacitor.
The “Off The Wall” generator wheel and Roll Up stand produce a higher variable voltage, closer to that of wall power. LEDs will need a switching power supply, usually with an input of 100 to 240volts, an output that matches the voltage of the LEDs (12v), and sufficient current for the number of LEDs. The interactivity of the LEDs is slightly less because they simply turn on and will not change in brightness, but will stay on over a wide range of pedal speed. Incandescent bulbs can be directly plugged into the Off The Wall and used as a comparison to the LEDs. They require much more energy and are usually less bright, but will glow brighter the faster you pedal. Make sure to match the wattage of the bulbs to your pedalers ability… bulbs can burn out!
Warning: Power supplies and other equipment can be over-voltaged and damaged when load / resistance is not enough and a pedaler is able to pedal really fast, producing a high voltage for an extended amount of time. We are developing a safety circuit that reduces the voltage if it gets over 240volts, which may help in some situations.
More Light Displays
Above: Illuminated sign for Tourism Vancouver. Powered by a Generator Pro and the What Watt?! system, which tells you exactly how much energy you are creating as you pedal. (If you are interested in ordering a What Watt?! or finding out more about it, call us!)
Above: Lines of light come from the generator bike, extending further (up to 300 feet) the harder you pedal.
Above: More lines of light on our 18′ tall Bamboo Tripod.
Above: Pedal Powered Stage LED lighting: 1 pedaler per panel.
Above: The large light-up Wattage Display shows the instantaneous power use of our Pedal Powered Stage. It averages readings to show you the power use over the last 5 seconds.
Above: the pedaler gets illuminated in this “Dance With Lance” challenge, in which riders go head to head with a powerful sound system. Each rider takes a turn pouring their all into the sound system while a DJ keeps great music going. The crowd roots on the pedalers, who last as long as they can.
The Light Bike
Above: Sir Richard Branson pedaling the Light Bike comparison station at the Virgin Mobile Festival in Baltimore, 2008.
Switching back and forth allows the pedaler to feel the energy savings of CCFL bulbs over traditional incandescent bulbs.
Soul Cycles
We have integrated Pedal Powered Lighting into several of our custom Soul Cycle rigs, including El Arbol, the Bike Tree:
The Blue Whale:
If you’re looking for applications to use Pedal Power, there are two main types: Mechanical and Electrical.
Mechanical applications generally have the advantage of being simpler, cheaper, and with simpler maintenance. They include Bike Blending and Spin Art.
Electrical applications are more limitless. The options include, but are not limited to, audio amplifiers, AC Power, and light.
Read MoreRock The Bike at your school
Nobody rocks Pedal Power like Rock The Bike.
We love getting involved with high schools and universities in the Bay Area. Working directly with kids is such an awesome way to make an impact on our future.
Here are some examples of ways we can make an impact in a school:
– Bringing a Pedal Power demonstration to a school, such as a bike blender, the ice cream bike, or pedal powered spin art. This can happen on its own or in conjunction with a schoolwide event such as Earth Day.
– Pedal powering a school assembly on Pedal Power Science.
– Pedal Powering a school dance or host a performance.
Above: Students K-12 attend a Pedal Power Assembly with Rock the Bike and Shake Your Peace!
When we get to a school, we try to connect with students as soon as we roll up (often on our cargo bikes.) Our funky bikes and impressive load-hauling skills are a great way to break the ice with students. We try to get kids involved, even if it’s just holding a door open. As we move our bikes through the hallways to the auditorium or classroom where we’re working, we answer questions about bikes and play a couple good songs (at moderate levels). This is our chance to get out of our workshop and meet some young people in the community, so we enjoy the challenge of breaking through to individual students, even those we pass in the hallway.
Above: Students at UCLA Pedal Powered the sound system for Ecochella.
A Rock The Bike Pedal Powered assembly or workshop can include a science lesson on the fundamentals of Pedal Power:
- Body position and efficient pedaling
- DC – AC power conversion
- Efficient devices (large speakers versus small)
- Increased power consumption of bass heavy music versus public speaking
- Wiring and design of Pedal Powered Stage systems
- Power Consumption: Compact Fluorescent vs. Incandescent light bulbs (the Light Bike)
Here are some of the schools we’ve worked with.
- Urban School (school dance)
- ISA academy (guest speaker, song writing class)
- Lincoln High School, through the ESLI program (create Pedal Powered Assembly, Fossil Fool, the Bike Rapper)
- 5 Keys Charter School (Guest speaker, Environmental education class)
- Mission High (Pedal Powered their Green Prom through the ESLI program)
- International High School of San Francisco (Pedal Powered Global Warming assembly)
- Berkeley High School (Fender Blender demonstration and physics session)
- CCA (Fender Blender demo and Pedal Power talk)
- University of Oregon (Willamette Valley Music Festival)
- Richmond College Prep
- Black Pine Circle School (Pedal Power Assembly with bike blending and sorbet)
- UCLA’s Ecochella (Pedal Powered Concert)
Above: Students from The Urban School at a winter dance pedal powered by Rock The Bike.
Above: Mission High School student pedal powering their Green Prom.
Above: Students take turns Pedal Powering an assembly at Head-Royce School.
Above: Two high school students power loudspeakers and a subwoofer.
Above: Free Food, a student band, performs at UCLA’s Ecochella
Also, please note that most of our products are perfect for schools, most notably the Fender Blender Universale.
To begin planning Rock the Bike at your school, please answer these questions and email us your responses. Also, check out more Pedal Powered Activities that you can rent for your event.
Read MorePedal Power Spin Class
Do you ever walk past the big glass windows of your local gym and ask yourself, “What if?” What if those people on their cardio machines could be doing something useful with their power?
The moment is now for Pedal Power spin classes. Although some big challenges will keep the trend from sweeping the nation’s gyms — mostly the costs of replacing traditional spin bikes with power generating ones — the excitement for spin classes that create energy is giving way to real results.
Rock The Bike aren’t the only ones working on this project, but we’re the most dynamic. We combine beautiful lighting displays, great sounding DJ rigs, and an intuitive Pedal Power system that responds to the instructor of the class. Pedaling actually feels harder when the instructor calls for an interval, and easier during a rest. The classes are as theatrical as they are physically challenging. Participants really feel they’ve accomplished something together, and they have. The amount of power generated by a participant in a Spin Class may be twice what we expect from a pedaler at one of our concerts, over nearly 80 Watts a piece of continuous usable output power.
There’s a critical difference between a regular spin bike and the kind that Rock The Bike uses. Spin bikes generate heat by squeezing the wheel with what are essential large, smooth brake pads. Participants make it feel harder or easier by adjusting a knob on their handlebars. In a Pedal Power Spin Class, you can use any of our bicycle generators to allow participants to crank out usable DC power from the bikes. What makes it feel harder or easier is varying the amount of output load that is connected to the system. This can be as simple as flipping a switch and adding more wattage to the load at key moments. You can either turn on additional lighting or dump increasing amounts of power back into the grid to vary the load. The latter is the way to allow pedalers to directly offset the energy consumption of the gym. As soon as you flip on that additional load, the Pedalometer will drop. Pedalers have to work harder to keep it in the green. Simple as that.
The work in LA this January was the second iteration of our Pedal Power Spin Class. The first was was a 2-bike system done in collaboration with Pure Austin Fitness in Austin, TX. The two generators kept the sound system pumping a live mix by DJ Manny. The second was the 30-bike system shown above, handling power peaks of over 3500 Watts.
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Live On Bike: Bicycle Mobile Performance
Loud, clear, and bicycle-mobile.
Mobile Sound comes naturally for Rock The Bike — we’ve been hosting musically-enhanced bike rides since 2002. Each year we improve our gear and take on new ways of bringing music to the streets.
Above: The Ginger Ninjas perform ‘Live On Bike‘ on Rock The Bike’s Mobile Stage at the 2011 San Francisco Bicycle Music Festival
Above: Rock The Bike’s Live On Bike Stage hoists Opera singers Bill O’Neil and Brooke Munoz during the Bicycle Music Festival‘s move from Golden Gate Park to the Mission District.
Here are some of the key features of our mobile sound set up:
- We use Shure wireless stage monitors to transmit a music signal to multiple receivers. This avoids having one loud source that can hurt the ears of marchers/riders. Multiple sound sources can distribute the message through the crowd
- We carry our large, efficient loudspeakers on our cargo bikes. Our Mundo cargo bikes are stable at low speeds
- We create amazing Soul Cycles — art bikes with integrated music systems. Examples: El Arbol, the Blue Whale, and the Choprical Fish
Above: Justin Ancheta performs Live On Bike at the Bicycle Music Festival.
Our fees for the Mobile Sound service range in price depending on the travel involved, size of the crowd, nature of the event, etc.
Got a special event you’re celebrating? You can decorate the mobile stage with your logo, brand, or other symbolic imagery.
To request our help with your event, please contact us as soon as possible so that we can check our schedule and get your event in our calendar. It’s best that you have these questions answered before you contact us.
Watch a LiveOnBike performance by the Fossil Fool to get an idea of how we rock and roll:
Groups:
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Read MoreFender Blender Pro
Fender Blender Pro bike blenders make great smoothies!
We built the Fender Blender Pro from the ground up as the ultimate expression of human power. Designed for day-in, day-out use, the Fender Blender can hold its own at schools, festivals, trade shows, fundraisers, and events of all types. The Fender Blender Pro brings together fun, fitness, health, nourishment, and sustainability.
Like all Pedal Powered activities, this one really benefits from having a good coach on hand to help pedalers on and off, adjust the bike for each rider, and get the crowd cheering.
Designed and built in the Bay Area. Good for thousands of smoothies with minimal hassle and maximum fun.
Features:
Click the image below to see the FBPro Top 10 Features & Benefits!
⋅ Blends in front: makes bike blending more fun and social. Ensures the best results.
⋅ Very friendly to adults and kids as young as 5. Widely adjustable seat height and handlebars offer a comfortable and easy grip position. As it is lowered the seat gets closer to the handlebars.
⋅ Many good surfaces and options for your branding on the wheel cover and frame. Please read more about wheel and frame branding options.
⋅ Efficient blending mechanism assures less wasted effort.
⋅ Available in green, orange, blue, red, or your custom color. Please read more about custom frame colors.
⋅ Comes with fully illustrated instructions for setup and use. View and download them here.
⋅ Assembled dimensions: 56″ long, 39″ tall, 31″ wide; shipping carton dimensions: 38″ L x 34″ H x 11″ W.
⋅ Weight: 55 pounds assembled, 60 pounds boxed.
See an example of branding and costs below:
*UPGRADE OPTION* Commercial grade High Performance blender – 2x the volume and 2x bigger blades, giving better circulation of ingredients for faster, more consistent and gratifying blending.
This 6-minute video shows in depth the benefits of the High-Performance Upgrade:
Buying the High-Performance Upgrade at time of Fender Blender purchase will save you money! The upgrade fee is $250/$300 at time of order for a Blendtec/Vitamix pitcher, or $469/$519 if you purchase the upgrade later.
If you want to power sound, lighting, or other electrical activities with your Fender Blender Pro, we recommend the Electric Fender Blender Pro. You can always upgrade your Fender Blender Pro to an Electric Fender Blender Pro by purchasing a Generator Wheel.
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