Heather from Stitchcraft performs LiveOnBike at the Vancouver Bicycle Music Festival. Photo: Momentum
See all the highlight photos on the Momentum blog.
Read MoreOne of our favorite local bands, Tornado Rider, performed their hit “I’m a Falcon” on the Pedal Powered Stage we hosted at the August 6th edition of Sunday Streets.
As lead singer Rushad Eggleston sings and plays his wireless electric cello, 5 pedalers supply the pedal power on the Biker Bar and two electric Mundos, while checking the status of the pedal power system with our 6′ pedalometer.
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Morning ride: Crew pumping up the District for Sunday Streets.
Set up our Pedal Powered Stage on the Great Highway, with dancing on the beach. Photo: Steve Rhodes
First we loaded the Biker Bar with hundreds of pounds of audio gear.
The custom V1 Mundo trailer hitch flexed a bit under this extreme load, but basically it was a very controllable ride.
Adam entertained in Golden Gate Park on the way to the beach.
We set up a 5-bike Pedal Powered Stage on the Great Highway — two electric Mundos and the Biker Bar.
Cousin Ken pitching in on the Biker Bar, with Arie along for the ride.
Fossil Fool, the Bike Rapper, with guests Mafiosa Felice, Terry, and Jared May.
The scene from a nearby dune. Photo: Steve Rhodes
Cops threatened to shut down Tornado Rider.
So we moved.
And they shredded the venue.
Hoop Jam with Movement Maker Mei.
All photo montages: Steve Rhodes
This is the 36V 18Ah Sealed Lead Acid rechargeable battery that helps us get up and over the hill from the Mission to the beach.
Rolling the ‘Long Things’ bundle.
Fully loaded Biker Bar, probably 275 pounds of gear, including bass drum, two JBL PRX535’s, and the Fossil Fool tent.
We made $52 in tips. Thanks to all the fans who pitched in for Tornado Rider and the Rock The Bike crew. This is what we did with the money.
Late night gear return mission.
Below we debut our entry in the 2009 Bicycle Film Festival: “Janaysa LiveOnBike”. New footage. New smoothcam effect. Enjoy… …And then come to the San Francisco Bicycle Music Festival, June 20, so you can directly experience this year’s innovations in LiveOnBike performing
Read MoreThanks to the Maker Faire community, bands, pedalers, and crew! Maker Faire was a blast this past weekend. See you next year at the Pedal Powered Stage.
Oona Garthwaite performing on Saturday at the Pedal Powered Stage.
The Maker Faire community provided all the power used to amplify the bands.
Cello Joe performs under pedal power at Maker Faire.
The Biker Bar was mostly in effect on its West Coast debut. When it worked, it worked very well, and the noise level coming from the gearbox was acceptable, especially mounted as it was on grass.
But there were several mechanical issues, all of which stemmed from spec’ing hardware that was too wimpy for the task of securing the gear box to the frame. The wood screws we chose pulled out of the 3/4″ plywood on Saturday afternoon.
Since we had added between the gear box and the plywood, a shockproofing layer to reduce noise, there was room for the screws to flex and work loose.
We switched to our 2-bike system shown above.
On Sunday, reinforcements arrived. Leif and Idran brought tools and better hardware from Berkeley.
5 Cent Coffee’s Smitty Delacroix taking a Ukelele solo whilst pedaling the Electric Mundo.
Kids pitching in some Human Power on the Biker Bar.
It was the first event where we used a proper pro-sound setup, with the mixer located out in the audience, where Gabe, our sound guy, could make eye contact with the bands and make adjustments as needed. Bands enjoyed better sound quality than any previous Rock The Bike event. We had two JBL PRX535 main speakers, and one JBL EON 10″ monitor, all digitally powered.
At the end of the second day, we challenged two pedalers to produce as much power as possible for a 10 minute dance session. It felt like the entire Faire collected at the Pedal Powered Stage to jump and shake one last time before the event closed.