Our Berkeley Workshop

photo: Paul McKenzie

Welcome to Rock the Bike, where we average 2.5 laptops per employee. Yes, we are thrilled to reach untold levels of productivity in our airy new office! This room had always adjoined our workshop but only now did we have a chance to use it, after 2 years in Unit B and 7 years on Channing way. Leif, Ben, and I put in the bamboo floor and built the desk. Took us two days.

The Original Suicide Shift

Originally uploaded by Rock The Bike

This bike is just one of the antique racing bikes hanging on the wall of my neighbor Gian Bongiorno's shop. It's one of Campagnolo's earliest shifting mechanisms. Apparently Fausto Coppi won the Tour on it. To operate it, you pull one lever to undo the axel quick release. At this point, the axel is imobilized in the dropouts only by notches in the dropout! Then you pedal backwards, using the other lever to change gears. Once the chain has moved to the new gear, you redo the QR for the axle, then pedal forward. Apparently these were popular because they were light weight, but they caused many accidents.

When the BBC came to our workshop a few years ago, we weren't allowed to post the video for copyright reasons, even though I wanted to share it.

Now one of Rock The Bike's dealers, www.Ridelow.co.uk, has posted it. Enjoy! The show was called "Only in America," and it aired on BBC1 and CBBC in 2005.

We bid adieu... on Flickr
Originally uploaded by Rock The Bike

Mike's been a member of our West Berkeley workshop community since 2001. His devotion to bicycle advocacy and mechanics, and high quality worksmanship has been a great example to the rest of us.

Innovate or Die.
Originally uploaded by Rock The Bike

Dante is on the cutting edge of research into human powered amplification. We set him up with a bench in our workshop, and he's putting the finishing touches on the Ginger Ninja's touring rig as I write these words. Dante helped Rock The Bike develop an offering for an Xtracycle-based DC motor mount for human powered music systems. Now he's working day and night on a 4-bike human power setup for the Ninjas. No one's had a chance to hear it in action yet, but it'll probably be 5 times louder than the setup we used for the Bicycle Music Festival.

It's amazing how the project just totally flows through our community. First Blender man Nate got the bug, then me, then Kipchoge and Dante. With each handoff, we get more experience. Dante is now the most knowledgable guy in our community when it comes to human power. It's a rad collaborative atmosphere, knowing that we're producing powerful tools for sending out the bike vibe, the peace vibe, and the party vibe, through bikes and music.

Test riding an Xtracycle is a great way to convince yourself that it feels fun, sporty, nimble, and solid, even with the extra frame weight and wheelbase. On any given day in our Berkeley workshop, there might be 3-4 Xtracycle SUB's parked in our parking area. So come by and test one out!