Services

Learn how to assemble your Fender Blender Pro with crewmember Maisha from the Rock The Bike events team.

For best results have your owner’s manual in addition to this video.

Packaging: 0:13

Crossbeam: 0:53

Rear Legs: 1:45

Pedals: 2:48

Wheel & Chain: 3:27

Seat Post: 5:11

Stem & Handlebars: 5:58

Blender Base: 7:03

Transportation: 7:50

Blending: 8:03

Anyone can do it! Get ready to blend by following our best tips.

Still having trouble? Contact us for more help. 888-354-2453

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. (more…)

A Recharge Bar is a combination of a Recharge Station and a DJ Rig. It’s more than just a place to recharge phones; it’s downright groovy! It’s a place to relax, pedal, get your heart going, meet others, and send great music out to a larger space.

Conferences are all about the sharing of knowledge and connections between people. Lately, both of those things involve mobile technology. People share knowledge and connect to each other with the devices they hold in their hands, and those devices require power. At the Pedal Powered Recharge Bar, each bike has its 8 USB ports capable of charging up to 8 or more phones at once.
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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.

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.

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.

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:

• SF Cruisers
• Austin Cruiser Ride

Inquire About This Service