About Us
We're bike people. We're inventors and advocates working away in a sweet little workshop in Berkeley, California, pushing the limits of bike culture. Our dream is to help spread the spirit of the bike into the broader culture by organizing, entertaining, inspiring, educating, and inventing new ways to get the message out there. And more importantly, we help our customers spread the message in their communities.
Want to get inspired?
Follow our rad photoblogs on Flickr:
Three of us use Flickr, documenting daily life in Rock The Bike landia. This is often the most up to date feed of our story.
Rock The Bike
Rock The Bike Founder Paul Freedman, a.k.a. Fossil Fool, the Bike Rapper, flickr handle: "Rock The Bike"
Paul went out into the front row at Lincoln High School for this shot of a Youth Speaks slam poetry session, pedal powered by Rock The Bike.
Paul's at all the Rock The Bike events, which he faithfully documents as well as his own custom Soul Cycle creations, including his ongoing tall bike project, El Arbol. His bike rapping alterego Fossil Fool is known for hosting the bomb street parties.
macpaulster
Our photographer / videographer, bicycle customizer, and the only one of us who can reliably man the phones at 9 in the morning, ultradistance turned cargo rider Paul McKenzie, a.k.a. macpaulster
Macpaulster caught this moment of Oona Garthwaite performing at Maker Faire, and documented his build of the Bilenky That Bumps, a custom Soul Cycle.
Leifcycle
Our product designer and engineer, customer service free agent, tubobooming Leif, a.k.a. leifcycle
Leif stopped to take this series of our intern Jeff bending the boom tube of a Fender Blender Pro.
See our best videos on YouTube
Rock The Bike:
These are our polished videos. All of these went through an extensive editing process, so we pick and choose our projects. Enjoy! If you want to see them in their high-def glory, pick up a copy of our "Bike Culture Blowin Up" DVD, published in December 2008, free when you order a Down Low Glow, Fender Blender, Mundo, Xtracycle, Incredibell, you get the idea.
One of the highlight videos from the 2008 San Francisco Bicycle Music Festival.
Fossil Fool
Fossil Fool caught this video of Pete Brandt The Bike Rapper and Rock The Bike's senior bicycle customizer, Fossil Fool's YouTube videos are quick edits of fresh material from the life of Fossil Fool. Most don't even have a title screen.
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The bike is about so much more than transportation or environmentalism or physical fitness. It's about bringing the element of magic into our communities. You can't ride a bike and not be part of a community. We hope that our inventions and outreach efforts help more people experience this magic.
We're developing a new school of bicycle advocacy, working off of the old writer's adage "Show, don't tell." If you want more people in your community to ride bikes, then get out their and show them how fun, cool, and sexy it is. We make the kind of bikes that make died-in-the-wool car people want to ride bikes. We get pulled over by cops when we're riding. Not because we've done anything wrong. They just want to know where we got our bikes.
Too much of bicycle advocacy is about guilt-tripping and negativity. You're too fat. You're stinking up the planet. You're causing traffic. The 'Sex Appeal School of Bike Advocacy' is about accentuating the positive, not guilt-tripping and alienating people. We love it when a driver rolls down and asks for directions. OK, maybe not a Hummer driver. Anyway, it's about shining our light brightly and spreading a positive message in the community. If we happen to kick a little ass while doing so, that's fine too.