We’re stoked to kick off our 2011 Pedal Powered Stage season with a performance by two Balkan-influenced San Francisco bands, formidable danceable groups with musical flavors from French, Spanish, and Balkan traditions. Check out the video above to see an example of this style of music. Come Pedal Power them at the March 20 season opener of Sunday Streets!

Live music will start around 12PM with a performance of Fanfare Zambaleta. The performance will be at East Park, a beautiful plaza along the Sunday Streets route with a view of the Bay, shown near the top of the map image at the bottom of this post.  Assuming we all get out of bed on time, we plan to arrive and warm up the spot with Pedal Powered DJ music a little as early as 11 AM. Look for Rock The Bike cruising the Sunday Streets route towards East Park on our amazing Soul Cycle party bikes, including the newly completed El Arbol, around 11! After the show, ride back to the Mission District with Rock The Bike after the event ends at 3PM.

Last year at East Park, Rock The Bike was ensconced in Pedal Powered hot-wire foam sculpting of an in progress El Arbol (below). Now that El Arbol is complete and twice as tall, we’re stoked to return to the same spot and Pedal Power amazing Live Music for the assembled rollerbladers, tourists, bicyclists, families, and pigeons.

The performance is FREE, but we will be be busking for the band AND cranking out delicious Bike Blended Smoothies (with farmer’s market fruit) to benefit the Bicycle Music Festival, coming June 18 this year. So please, bring a reusable cup and some bills for the band!

This year we’re planning to host the 3rd Annual Dolores Park -> Maker Faire Social Ride, put on the Pedal Powered Stage at Maker Faire, and do a debut of an Aerial dance performance from El Arbol (above).

Meet at Dolores Park’s 19th St. steps at 9:00AM. There will be Bike Blended Smoothies at the start. Bring a cup!

Ride 21 miles to Maker Faire. Mellow route, social pace.

Download the print the route map on Google maps: http://tinyurl.com/3ryad79

RSVP on Facebook to help build momentum for the ride: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=186605664707350#!/event.php?eid=163941343661961

Oona Garthwaite performing on the Pedal Powered at Maker Faire 2009

12:00    The Genie

1:00    Charlemagnet

2:00    Sour Mash Hug Band

3:00    Shovelman

4:00    Cradle Duende

5:00    Justin Ancheta

6:30    Fossil Fool with Zori and Nicco

7:30    Tara Quinn: Aerial Contortion

Sunday, 5/22

11:00    School of Rock

12:00    School of Rock

1:00    Zen Finger Painting

2:00    Dgiin

3:30    Mongoloid

4:30    Valerie Orth

5:20    Izzy Wise

El Arbol:

photo: Aufdencamp

This year at Maker Faire we’re psyched to be featuring the evolution of El Arbol, our flagship music bike, and inviting Maker Faire goers to help complete it by adding leaves to its Canopy. Over the course of the 2-day Maker Faire, the Canopy will fill up with drawings of projects and inventions, Pedal Powered Spin Art, scrap paper decorations, and other lightweight scraps from around the Faire.

In the works since 2008, El Arbol is a 15′ tall rolling tree with several unique features including the first-ever deployable ‘roots’, shown deployed above. These 6′ wide stabilizers (please don’t call them training wheels) swing out on command, allowing the tree to remain upright at low speeds and stop signs, and to be used as a Pedal Power generator.

El Arbol also features a state of the art 2-person Pedal Powered Stage with amazing audio clarity, thanks to the vertically stacked speakers in its trunk. Two people pedaling can provide plenty of energy to amplify a band’s performance to an audience of hundreds.

Process:

We’ll display a series of poster-sized photos from the making of El Arbol on the sides of our 10×10 tent, engaging Faire goers in the creative process that goes into a multi-year project like El Arbol. We hope to inspire Faire goers to think big and get inspired for their own projects in the coming year.

Over the last four years, Faire goers have seen Rock The Bike progress from making party bikes like the Choprical Fish to creating a 6-bike Pedal Powered Stage. Now we are setting our sights on creating a Pedal Powered circus using El Arbol as the equivalent of the circus tent.

photo: Aufdencamp

Above, testing out the rear branch of El Arbol as an aerial rig. We plan to feature some of the aerial artists in our crew at this year’s Maker Faire.

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