The Road to BMF
The event starts with a LiveOnBike performance by The Genie at 6:30, then awesome street food from Sol Cocina and Bike Basket Pies.
Then we’ll feature live performances by awesome local bands on Rock The Bike’s Pedal Powered Stage.
Shotgun Wedding Quintet
Tomato Riper
SHAKE YOUR PEACE!
Fossil Fool
Justin Ancheta
Circus Arts performances by:
Tara Quinn (aerial hoop)
Beer from 21st Amendment Brewery.
Bike Blended Smoothies
Photo gallery, Art bikes by Jay Broemmel, Fossil Fool
This event on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=268770596666&ref=ts
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By the time Bicycle Music Festival hits this year, we want the community with us: bands, fans, roadies, pedal power coaches, cops, neighbors, squirrels, and more. Our goal is to produce the best music festival we possibly can, with no use of fossil fuel-burning generators and vehicles. A lot of things have to go right between now and then. Permits, publicity, amazing bands signing on. So this is our chance to kick the season off right.
We’re hosting a series of events that help us get there.
They include:
Feb 5th at Cell Space
Pedal Powered Stage at Maker Faire in San Mateo
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Thanks Urban School!
We had a blast last night at the Urban School, pedal powering their first dance of 2010. Thanks to Lucy, Lucas, Catherine and all the students and teachers.
As with any Rock The Bike event, we invite people at the event to pedal. The kid in the foreground is pedaling the Choprical Fish, which is powering the lighting at the dance.
Justin’s pedaling the Mundo 1000 during the sound check, one of our two bikes equipped with our Grasshopper generator system.
Despite their abundance of energy for gogo dancing and freaking, the Urban School students were a bit hesitant about joining in the pedal power effort. I felt good that we had shown up with a 6 person crew, including Adam, Masha, Hugh, Justin, and Ally. But we were doing 90% of the pedaling. Normally, the GP (general public) does more like 40-50% of the pedaling. I tried pulling students in and there were a few cool students who kept pitching. But honestly the freaking on the dance floor was so prolific, that it was obvious that’s where their minds were. So after a while, I stopped walking out into the crowd using a Down Low Glow like an airport landing guide, and just pedaled. I thought back to David Butcher and how he holds it down at festivals, pedaling away on the Prime Mover. I found new time trial position I liked on the Fender Blender Pro, and entered a crank, sprint, lactic acid! cycle. Out of saddle sprint! Lactic acid. Two students get on, both girls. I adjust the seat for one of them and the indicator on our inverter already drops into the red.
“Pedal hard! Go for it. ”
I look around for crew and don’t see any one. The LED is floating in the red, occasionally hitting blinking red. I know I’m going to need to save this party. I hate having to be intense with the pedal power coaching, but I was yelling, “Pedal, Pedal, Pedal!” every time I saw that blinking light. I was trying to get in a hamstring stretch, but I kept having to coach the girls on the bikes. And my communication with the DJ wasn’t to the point where I could make eye contact with him. He was killing it anyway, and I liked the fact that we were driving the PRX hard. Screw the stretch. I tap out with one of the girl and go into another sprint on the FB Pro.
Justin’s back! The other girl taps out and we bring the LED back to orange, and green. It was kind of like that all night. Three electrics would have helped, but really we just needed more from the students. I think some type of introduction would have helped. The students probably didn’t know what the function of the pedal power bikes was, other than to climb all over them and have a blast. No, they knew, but the hormones were too strong. Freaking trumped!
Rock The Bike has left the building.
We only brought one of our PRX speakers this time. The other is in the shop on a pedal power integration project.
See more photos from the night on Flickr.
Read MoreBoth Sunday Streets and Maker Faire post their dates for 2010
Last year’s Dolores Park to Maker Faire Social Ride. Photo: dustinj
Maker Faire is back May 22 and 23 at San Mateo Fairground. Rock The Bike is aiming to make the Pedal Powered Stage event more fun this year and once again host the Dolores Park to Maker Faire Social Ride starting at 9AM on Saturday May 22.
Sunday Streets going huge in 2010.
Above: Sunday Streets’ founder Susan King taking us through the route maps for the 2010 season.
This year, all Sunday Streets days will go 10-3 instead of 10-2. The extra hour is key as it will help the Rock The Bike crew sleep in a bit and still bring out the Pedal Powered Stage. Many thanks for this compassionate update to one of our favorite events.
Schedule
- March 14: Embarcadero, starting at Fisherman’s Wharf and PIER 39, south to China Basin and Terry Francois Blvd.
- April 11: Along the Great Highway, coinciding with World Health Day’s “1,000 Cities, 1,000 Lives” international event, as one of thousands of cities hosting simultaneous car-free events worldwide.
- April 18: Bayview, along 3rd Street from King and 4th (Caltrain Station) to Bayview Playground.
- May 23: Bayview, in conjunction with the 3rd Street Corridor Project and Bayview Merchant’s Association’s “3rd Street Festival.”
- June 20: Mission, along Valencia and 24th Streets. The day after Bicycle Music Festival. Epic weekend in SF!
- July 11: Mission.
- August 22: Great Highway/Golden Gate Park.
- September 19: NEW: Western Addition, exact location TBD.
- October 24: NEW Civic Center/Tenderloin, exact location TBD.
New Year’s Eve at Sera Phi
Pedal power one of SF’s best underground sound systems, with a full lineup of dance worthy musicians.
The headliners will be Band Of Mystics, who have played for Rock The Bike at Sunday Streets, West Fest, and other occasions this year.
Event details:
Sera Phi:
1117 Howard between 8th and 9th.
Flyer: Katopop and Leifcycle
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Yuba’s factory team takes first in the two-wheeled division at food-hauling cargo race “Supermarket Street Sweep”
Team Yuba’s Ben Sarrazin hauled 330 pounds of food, mostly rice, to a food bank to win the two-wheeled division of the “Supermarket Street Sweep. Rock The Bike ran support for the race.
The overall race winner, Jeremiah Ducate, hauled 900 pounds on a Reuben Margolin cargo trike. Together the riders in the load-carrying race brought in over 8500 pounds of food to the San Francisco food bank.
The required cargo on the manifest weighed only 30lbs, which is nowhere close to the Mundo’s 440-pound payload. So we stopped in Chinatown to load up 300 pounds of rice. The price went up $4 during our visit. Thanks to Geoff for pitching in.
Yet another good chance to “ride long distances, carry heavy loads.”
We had a crew of eight supporting one rider. A bit overkill, perhaps, but a nice way to spend a Saturday.
As you can see in the video, carrying the rice on the Mundo was, for the most part, quite stable. I was able to surf on top of five sacks of rice, which was a bit more scary than other forms of bike surfing.
The view from the Choprical Fish on 3rd St.
After the race we picked up Adam’s girls and went on a dusky sunset cruise.
