Thanks to the Maker Faire community, bands, pedalers, and crew! Maker Faire was a blast this past weekend. See you next year at the Pedal Powered Stage.
Oona Garthwaite performing on Saturday at the Pedal Powered Stage.
The Maker Faire community provided all the power used to amplify the bands.
Cello Joe performs under pedal power at Maker Faire.

Justin Anchetta performing on the Pedal Powered Stage, framed by the Biker Bar and the Rock The Bike tent.
The Biker Bar was mostly in effect on its West Coast debut. When it worked, it worked very well, and the noise level coming from the gearbox was acceptable, especially mounted as it was on grass.
But there were several mechanical issues, all of which stemmed from spec’ing hardware that was too wimpy for the task of securing the gear box to the frame. The wood screws we chose pulled out of the 3/4″ plywood on Saturday afternoon.
Since we had added between the gear box and the plywood, a shockproofing layer to reduce noise, there was room for the screws to flex and work loose.
We switched to our 2-bike system shown above.
On Sunday, reinforcements arrived. Leif and Idran brought tools and better hardware from Berkeley.
5 Cent Coffee’s Smitty Delacroix taking a Ukelele solo whilst pedaling the Electric Mundo.
Kids pitching in some Human Power on the Biker Bar.

It was the first event where we used a proper pro-sound setup, with the mixer located out in the audience, where Gabe, our sound guy, could make eye contact with the bands and make adjustments as needed. Bands enjoyed better sound quality than any previous Rock The Bike event. We had two JBL PRX535 main speakers, and one JBL EON 10″ monitor, all digitally powered.

At the end of the second day, we challenged two pedalers to produce as much power as possible for a 10 minute dance session. It felt like the entire Faire collected at the Pedal Powered Stage to jump and shake one last time before the event closed.






The Biker Bar was carrying the speakers and several instruments for the bands. The old SLA battery for the Electric Mundo only lasted the first quarter of the ride. After that we had to push up the hills and at intersections to get it started.



