Rock The Bike

Bike Blenders, Pedal Powered Concerts and Activities, for Events and Education

smoothie bikeBringing Pedal Power to your event increases the fun and participation while decreasing the use of diesel generators, extension cords, and batteries. This instantly gets your group moving, breathing, and active. People are more likely to loosen up, enjoy themselves, and learn something new when their body is engaged. Our most popular activity — and the most accessible starting point for anyone interested in Pedal Power — is Bike Blending.

We’ve spent the last 8 years developing Pedal Powered activities that help everyday people experience their power to make change. From 1-bike stations like Bike Blenders to 20-bike concert systems where groups have to work together to enjoy a shared result, Pedal Power rocks! We do the hard work of engineering products and systems that are safe, dependable, educational, and fun. You bring in your local community and group and share the gift of human power with people for the first time.

Please read on to see the different Bike Blenders and our full array of Pedal Powered activities!

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Extra Blender Pitcher

The tried and true standard of blender pitchers, compatible with The Fender Blender™ line of bicycle blenders. Plastic base, durable pitcher, lid, rubber gasket, and stainless steel ice crushing blade.

 

Status:
in stock
Rentable: no
Price: $33.00

Highlights from 2010 Earth Hour community party

Thanks to the fans, roadies, bands, Market Bar, and the city’s Neighborhood Empowerment Network.

4 people on El Arbol!

El Arbol had its Pedal Powered Stage debut. My cousins were crawling all over it. Here my 220 pound cousin Jonah and a girl pedal power stereo right while two other girls play on other parts of the tree.

Gear haul mission.

Five of us handled the late afternoon gear haul mission. Jeff and Geoff high fiving on 3rd. It was a pretty easy haul. No real hills.

Hauled the pedalometer on El Arbol.

Hauled the pedalometer on a newly fiberglassed El Arbol.

Just

Roadie and bandleader Justin Ancheta’s helped me with the flberglassing alot over the past week so that the Arbol would be in shape for the gig.

Stopped to pick up the band's gear.

Loading up Guella’s gear at Audio Box studio.

Rock The Bike roadies and Guella's lead singer on the way to the gig.
Rock The Bike roadies Kai, Geoff and Jeff, and Guella’s lead singer Dave on the way to the gig.

Setting up the gig at Market Bar.

Setting up the gig at Market Bar. Photo: Kai.

Guella rocking out.

Guella rocking out under pedal power. Two of our best generators, the Electric Mundo and the Electric Fender Blender Pro (at stage left) powered all of the band’s instruments, the mixer, one JBL PRX, and lighting.

Big Todo puppeteers.

Big ToDo puppeteers treated us to a bike rap!

Late night gear return mission.

Late night gear return mission. Aufdencamp surfs in the distance as Leif tows two Fender Blender Pros behind a Mundo.

Thanks Bicycle Music Festival Fans, Crew, and Bands for a fantastic Road to BMF opener

 

In the true spirit of the Bicycle Music Festival, we pedal powered five bands, went LiveOnBike with a scratch guitarist, fed and quenched sweaty pedalers with tea, kombucha, pies hauled in by bike and a local street chef, and featured a contortionist, a unicyclist, a bootleg beer garden, and a quartet of breakdancers, putting us squarely on the Road to this year’s SF Bicycle Music Festival.

 

 

Mark Wessels serving up a delightful unicycle performance.


The Shotgun Wedding Quintet rocking after midnight.

We rolled these platforms in Donkey Kong style for a captivating Tara Quinn performance on contortion and aerial hoop. Photo: Kai

 

Photo: Kai

Genie Live on Bike on the Road to BMF from Adam Aufdencamp on Vimeo.

The Genie’s LiveOnBike performance. Afterwards I heard lots of great feedback on The Genie’s music, but one repeated request was to create a raised stage for our LiveOnBike performances. People in the back couldn’t see him.

 

Above: School kids rushed to the fence as the Genie sound checked the day before The Road To BMF.

 

Photo: Leif

 

 

After the LiveOnBike ride, we hauled the speakers off the Biker Bar and converted it to Pedal Power mode, sound checked Justin Ancheta, and got the party started. Above: Shotgun Wedding Quintet

 

Our Pedal Powered Stage gear included two Electric Mundos and the Biker Bar. We also brought out the Fender Blender Pro, hooking up the pedalers with smoothies.

 

For my performance I wanted to show both my passions, bike rapping and bicycle customizing, so I debuted my new tall bike, El Arbol. It’s still in progress, but the frame, drivetrain, and roots are complete after a year of hard work in the Complete Fab workshop with welder Jay Broemmel. I rode it into the room, deployed the roots, made rock signs, climbed down, and then pedal powered the lighting, which outlines the shape of the tree.

 

 

The night after, a few of us went for a 10 mile ride to the Richmond and back, deploying the roots numerous times as we wiggled through the Haight, and enjoying ample 360 visibility from the pedal powered lighting.

 

I wasn’t the only bicycle customizer showing off two-wheelers at the Road To BMF. Above: Jay Broemmel tightening the Dragon Bike’s clutch.

 

Many thanks to those who came out to enjoy this night of music, food, circus, and bike culture. Although we weren’t able to secure a liquor license because BMF’s non-profit status is still in progress with the San Francisco Parks Trust, we were able to raise hundreds for BMF.

 

Many thanks to Honest Tea, Bike Basket Pies, Sol Cocina, 21st Amendment Brewery, Cell Space, Big Top Cooperative, and all the performers.

 

Got photos, and video from the Road To BMF? Send us a link!

Update from Austin’s first Pedal Powered spin class

Rock The Bike is helping Pure Austin Fitness pedal power their spin class. Pure already owns two of our Fender Blender Pros, and the goal of the current project is to convert these bike blenders to pedal power generators using our latest technology, then use them to pedal power the audio in their spin class. Here are some shots from the work I did in Austin over the past five days.

 

On Friday I met up with Pure Austin’s Beto Boggiano at his workshop. We chopped off the dropouts on the Fender Blender Pro frames, in order to respace them for the new generator hubs.

 

We used the generator hub itself to position the dropouts at the correct width, rather than, say, measuring the distance with a caliper and then holding the dropouts with a pair of vice grips.  The gym mats and wood are to lift the hub and hold it at the correct position for tacking.

 

 

Here’s a shot of the inside of our generator hub. The copper coils move past rare earth magnets that are bonded to the inside of the aluminum hub shell, creating an electric charge that makes current flow through a cross-bridge rectifier. From the Wikipedia page on generators:

 

A generator forces electric charges to move through an external electrical circuit, but it does not create electricity or charge, which is already present in the wire of its windings. It is somewhat analogous to a water pump, which creates a flow of water but does not create the water inside. The source of mechanical energy may be a reciprocating or turbine steam engine, water falling through a turbine or waterwheel, an internal combustion engine, a wind turbine, a handcrankcompressed air or any other source of mechanical energy.

 

Above: Beto tacking the dropouts back on in their new position.

 

After welding the dropouts back to the frame at the correct width, it was time to rebuild wheels around the new hubs. The rim and tire add mass that creates a flywheel, smoothing out the pedal power. Plus, with a tire back on, the tire-rubbing bike blender interface will still completely functional (though optional). Pure Austin will be able to rotate the blender’s roller away from the tire during the spin class (to minimize noise and power loss), and then move it back to crank out smoothies for the cyclists after the class.

 

Before the trip, Rock The Bike’s engineer Leif had encouraged me to build the wheels ahead of time so that I could devote my time to installing the system once in Austin. Unfortunately I ran out of time preparing for Austin and instead brought rims and spokes with me. I ran into a number of issues. In the photo above, note the spoke nipples poking way out of the rim. I’d built up the wheel as a one cross when the spokes were spec’ed for a two-cross pattern.

 

Fortunately, these missteps and delays gave me a chance to bike around Austin on a bright blue Mundo and meet several cool salesmen and mechanics at Bicycle Sport Shop, Austin Bikes, and Mellow Jonny’s. I was impressed how much people in Austin already knew about the Mundo and its development, considering there are only a few Mundo riders there. I got stopped in front of bars for test rides and one rider even flagged me down… “Is that a Mundo?” It’s amazing how well educated and networked bike people can be about the products they buy.

 

The Monday 6PM spin class came and went without Pedal Power. I did get to see Beto, the gym’s owner and most experienced spin coach in action, which was great. The big black box on the floor between the palm tree and the instructor’s podium is a digitally powered JBL PRX subwoofer. The main speakers are mounted to the ceiling. You can see one of them at the top of this image just right of center. The mains are powered by two rack-mounted amplifiers, out of view. Hopefully we’ll be able to Pedal Power both the amps and sub. But we won’t know until we try.

 

Above: Bob Farr, an old-school Austin Xtracycle rider, and pedicabber, showed up Monday for the Pedal Power Workshop at Pure Austin. The technical delays described above limited our ability to fill the sweaty gym air with solder fumes at the workshop, but I was able to show Bob lots of good data and parts on paper and  on Pure’s public iMac. The next day Bob showed up to help me bust out the last few details of installing the generator wheels. Here Bob is pedal powering 80 watts of LED lighting, a successful test of the Electric FB Pro.

 

Above: tracing a round object to mark a cut in the wheel covers, making room for the larger hub.

 

We succeeded in electrifying both of Pure’s Fender Blender Pros. The next step on the project is to build them a Pedal Power Utility Box. I would have liked to have the triumph of a pedal powered spin class, but at least we finished the primary goal of converting the two FB Pros they had, and I won’t have to fly back to Austin to complete the project.

 

Pure will have time to thoroughly test the system before using it at their fitness expo, March 6.

Pastana Surfs Valencia as Rock The Bike crew roll from Bike Expo to nighttime gig at Baobab.

Of the three in our crew that can surf Mundos only Adam Pastana has the sense of foundation that allows him to dance while surfing. We were on our way from the SF Bike Expo to power the Genie and yours truly at Baobab Village last night.

My parents have told me to take this off our homepage and focus on selling the Down Low Glow.

I think it’s rolling street theater and an absolutely stunning breakthrough in rocking the bike (lowercase). It’s inspiring to me, so I hope that, despite the obvious safety considerations, it’s inspiring on some level, to you too.

Besides that, this brief video shows three of our most important products in action: firstly the Mundo, which we already knew was stiff as a tree trunk and danceably strong, is apparently a great handling surfing bike too. A bike this rigid and predictable is going to be reassuringly stable when you carrying a passenger or a serious load.

Adam’s not only surfing the Mundo, he’s also carrying 30 pounds on one side of the bike in a GoGetter bag while towing a 75 pound Electric Fender Blender Pro from one event to another. Two other bikers pass on the right, with the Down Low Glow providing excellent Side Visibility; one is towing a racing bike on a Mundo.

So you see, it’s not just a video, it’s how we put our gear to the test, week in, week out. If you want to buy your bike products from some place where they all drive to work and click the mouse all day, go right ahead. But if you’re looking for people who ride, who push the envelope, who break and fix things, people you can trust with gear recommendations, you’ve found the right place.

Welcome to Rock The Bike.

Thanks, Life is Living! Rock The Bike pedal powers epic 4 hour BBoy Battle in West Oakland.

BGirl Slant. by you.

Battle!  by you.

A huge shout out to YouthSpeaks and the crew behind Life Is Living, where we pedal powered our first BBoy Battle yesterday!

Early morning Ferry Mission. by you.After the usual morning rustiness and coffee, we rolled to the Ferry Building to catch the Alameda-Oakland Ferry and biked to Defremery Park.

We set up a 4-bike Pedal Powered Stage.

The Biker Bar and the Mundo 1000 powered our JBL PRX-535 mains and Mackie SRM150 Monitor. We had 3-5 power cuts over the course the day, but they were all positively received, in the sense of being a welcome reminder that the sound was, indeed, pedal powered. The listening levels were loud but still on human scale; the crowd was able clap along and shout, and their cheers could cut through the mix.

We ran the DJ booth (two turntables, DJ mixer, laptop, audio interface, external hard drive) off an extension cord from a park facility shed 100 yards away.

Post battle. by you.

The spirit of the BBoy battle was strong and positive. Above, two breakdancers share a quick shoulder bump after a bout.

Preppin' the first smoothie. by you.

At one point I dispatched Tara to tell the organizer we were ready to blend smoothies. She came back with a box of pears and reported “you were supposed to bring smoothie supplies for 50 people.” Check that, text Leif: “We have pears. Need ice, juice, cups for 50.”

Leif rogered that, and showed up a half hour later with the juice, soy, walnuts, a lemon, ginger, bananas, frozen blueberries, and 12″ long chef’s knife and cutting board, and we proceeded to go to town on the smoothies, dropping refreshment on the pedalers all afternoon.

Emcee cranks out a pitcher. by you.

Pop by you.

Both Tara and I entered the breakdance competition. And both of us were gonged within about 20 seconds, despite busting our best moves. The music was up loud enough that neither of us could hear the gong. So the MC had to get on the mic and say “You just got gonged!” Pretty fun though.

Unlike at our live music events, the beat never stopped. Between bouts in the battle, the emcee would call for freestyle dance.  by you.

Unlike at our live music events, the beat never stopped at the BBoy battle. There were a few power cuts, but the beat would be back within 20-30 seconds. Between bouts in the battle, the emcee would call for freestyle dance, great stuff.

Smirk stares. by you.

A proper battle ensued.

Biker Bar and one electric Mundo powered the Battle for 4.5 hours. by you.

The MC called for crowd to sit so the pedalers could see.

Pedalers on the Biker Bar getting involved in the action. by you.

The Pedalometer was in effect, helping the group of pedalers keep system voltage in the sweet spot. (The green).

Rolling back to the city on the 5:30 ferry. Captain gave us shit. Sea gull shat on me. Had to unload and reload Biker Bar. Otherwise no sweat.  by you.

Rolling back to the city on the 5:30 ferry. Captain gave us shit. Sea gull shat on me. Had to unload and reload Biker Bar. Otherwise no sweat.

Thanks SF Marathon runners and pedalers

Viv crew hamming it up between awards categories by you.
Rock The Bike brought our Pedal Powered Stage to the finish line of the San Francisco Marathon, where fans, runners, volunteers, and the crew pedal powered the awards ceremony. Above, Viv team volunteers helped us get a groove going between the different award classes.

Medaler Pedaler (with son). by you.

Even marathoners who’d podiumed — note the ribbon around this pedaler’s neck — summoned the energy to power the sound system for the award ceremony. One described it as “Good Recovery”. The two Electric Mundos shown above offer amazing stability, with their Lunar Lander kickstands, and an excellent size range for pedalers of all ages. The runner above was able to get his son pedaling along side him.

Biker Bar loaded after the SF Marathon. by you.

 

Above, arriving at the venue with our gear strapped to the Biker Bar. The wooden cover that protects the pedal power equipment mounted to the aluminum chassis also stiffens the overall structure, making it predictable and safe to ride with hundreds of pounds of gear. Depending on the distances and terrain where you’ll be riding, we recommend using the Mundo 1000, our electric cargo bike. The Mundo 1000 has plenty of pickup to get you up the hills, and its long wheelbase helps you get a stable ride when towing the Biker Bar.

First time dropping a tandem on the Biker Bar by you.

Although few people biked to the event, we were able to get the Biker Bar involved in the Pedal Power effort. This was the first time we had dropped a tandem on the Biker Bar, which couples the output of three bikes mechanically in a cromoly tube. It’s cool to think that the biker bar could actually harness six pedalers’ power!

 

Checking out the Pedalometer by you.

Our six-foot Pedalometer shows fans and pedalers the health of the pedal power system as measured by voltage.

A steady stream of marathoners, including the first place women's finisher, wanted to pedal their own smoothies. by you.

Better than mystery powders, what could be better than a fruit smoothie after a hard run? Luckily the Fender Blender Pro was in effect.

Rolling to the marathon as runners grab water. by you.

Above, our early morning gear run to the event brought us unexpectedly onto the route itself.

Towing FB Pro no handed in FreeLoader bag. by you.

Rolling back from the Marathon. Leif cruising no-handed on the Xtracycle with unclaimed flowers, pulling the Fender Blender Pro in trailer mode.

 

Thanks, Grind for the Green!

Rock The Bike pedal powered the Grind For The Green hip hop conference this past Saturday in San Francisco.

 

JMellion and another rapper.

 



Two bikes held it down. The Choprical Fish and...

 

A Mundo 1000

Smoothie break at Lunch.



Speakers included M1 of Dead Prez. 

 

 

 

One the way back we hit the Bicycle Film Festival Street Party.

Thanks Central Park! Rock The Bike NYC is alive and kicking.

Rock The Bike NYC

 

Rock The Bike says a huge thank you to Central Park Conservancy for getting us involved in Earth Day 2009, and helping us get Rock The Bike NYC off the ground. Here are some of the highlights from our visit to New York over the past 11 days.

 

Kids Love Spin Art

 

We had a blast meeting the public at Earth Day. Above, Pedal Powered Spin art.

 

 

The Biker Bar

 

We debuted our new multi-person pedal power system, the Biker Bar. Three bikes share a common drive shaft, that turns a powerful generator on the fourth bike, an Electric Mundo (blue bike on the left)

 

The Biker Bar -- Multi-person Pedal Power farm.

 

Unfortunately, in its first outing, the Biker Bar was no match for the power-hungry PA equipment that event organizers supplied. The power consumption of the audio system was approximately 300-400 watts with one person speaking on a microphone, not even any music playing.

 

Ever since we started doing Pedal Powered Stage events, clients and organizers have been asking “Why can’t we use the speakers we already have?” Good question. We commonly answer “Because we use the new generation of digitally powered speakers, and their higher efficiency makes pedal power possible.” But in the process of working with Central Park and other clients, they kept asking… So with Central Park, we accepted the challenge. We put our efforts into making the Biker Bar powerful, simple, and efficient. We told them “Sure, you can.”

 

But on the day of the event their equipment’s power draw was just too much. Suddenly Pedal Power felt really hard. When a chain snapped, we talked with the Central Park team and decided to focus on our other offerings and let their music stage run on wall power. Luckily they had that backup option at the ready. In future events, we definitely plan to have a 30-45 minute battery backup, which will allow us to fix mechanicals or other issues without letting the performers down.

 

Spin Art

Luckily, the Spin Art station and the Bike Blenders were a huge hit.

Paul spinning up the Spin Art as kids look on enthralled.

Kids of all ages were able to make Spin Art and pedal for other kids.

Above, the Tropicalia team making bike blended smoothies.

Sarah on the Mundo

We had bright bikes and big smiles to share with the crowds.

 

Galen ollying.

 

And tricks to share… Above, Sara floating on a Mundo. Galen ollies.

 

 

Travis hauling the Biker Bar

We biked everything back to Brooklyn on a hot afternoon.

Travis piloted the Biker Bar, which becomes a cargo trailer to get gear home from an event. Just add the wheels!

The Electric Mundo helps haul the 250 pound load up and over the Williamsburg Bridge.

 

 

Cruiser ride in Manhattan

 

Rolling down 5th Avenue

 

Above: Rolling back from Central Park with our crew, friends, cousins, and the Choprical Fish.

 

Eden in the pack

 

Getting ready for Central Park was a huge task. We arrived a week ahead of time and only set our tools town to pack for the park at 2AM the night before. Check out the preparations below:

 

Sunset cruise in Brooklyn.

 

 

First things first! How about a social ride to get to know each other.

 

Carrying gear

Leif keeps the beat as Galen and Lopi haul gear across Brooklyn with Mundos and the trailer.

Riding gear through Brooklyn.

We set up a little workshop at Brooklyn’s 3rd Ward.

Below, hand stretching the frame of the Mundo to fit the electric rear wheel.

Leif and Emily stretching the Mundo frame to fit electric rear wheel.

We generated many sparks and generally looked bad ass with our protective eye wear.

Lopi cleaning up the spin art station.

Removing screw heads with grinder.

Olivia cutting frame to get seat tube.

We solved engineering riddles. Above trying to anticipate issues with the drive train of the Spin Art station.

Choprical Fish as getter.

We used the Choprical Fish as transportation bike and ‘getter’.

Above, 75 pounds of Sealed Lead Acid batteries.

Hip hop cipher in SoHo.

Of course having the Fish in New York meant there were a few impromptu street parties and even a cypher around town over the past week.

Above, freestyle session in front of a school in Soho. A teacher came out and said “How about a song about getting back to class?!”

Fossil Fool rapping at 3rd Ward party

Fossil Foolin’ at a 3rd Ward party.

Brooklyn Bike and Board

In our last couple days in town, we picked up a couple cool new Mundo dealers. Above, Brooklyn Bike and Board

 

are your Mundo people in Brooklyn. Map.

Leif delivering a Mundo

Leif delivering Mundos. The same bikes we used to get work done in New York are now for sale and ready to ride at two locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

George Bliss picks up the Mundo

And in Manhattan, cargo bike innovator George Bliss picked up the Mundo for The Hub Station in Soho

Many thanks to the Rock The Bike NYC crew for their hard work and excellent hosting.

Thanks Earth Hour Pedalers and Bands, for rocking it at the 2009 Debut of the Pedal Powered Stage!

Pedal Powered Stage 2009 Debut at Earth Hour SF
Pedal Powered Stage 2009 Debut at Earth Hour SF. Photo: Steve Rhodes

Thanks to everyone who came down to the Earth Hour celebration at Market Bar in downtown San Francisco, where Rock The Bike had the 2009 debut of our Pedal Powered Stage. We biked in all the gear and pedal powered all the lighting and sound equipment and smoothies, making Saturday’s event Carbon Negative. A Carbon Negative event is one that has such an inspiring effect on participants that it causes individuals to reduce their carbon impact in the coming months and years.

Big thanks to Guella and Justin Ancheta, and Fossil Fool for their performances, to Raul and the Market Bar crew for their hospitality, and to Mayor Newsom and the Neighborhood Empowerment Network for sponsoring the event. Check the  Video from CBS news.

We debuted two new Mundo-based Pedal Power bikes: the Electric Mundo and the Lunar Lander. More photos and info to come on both those projects.

The Rock The Bike community came out strong for the event. Here’s a shot of art bike creator Jay Broemmel cruising on his Schwinn Broom:

 

Happy Earth Day!

Just in time for the busy Earth Day and bike-to-work advocacy season, we set up our Fender Blender to be easily towed to events behind another bike. Now clients won’t have to throw it in an SUV if they’d rather bike it to their event.