Two fresh ideas:
http://una-love.com/beat-bike.htm
http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/15/switchbike-goes-from-bicycle-to-chopper-in-seconds-flat/
Great footage from Chico’s first ever Bicycle Music Festival.
Tornado Rider performed “I’m a Falcon” at our first ever night venue, Pier 7.
Loyal BMF fan Josh pitching in pedal power for Tornado Rider.
The day began at 7:30 with a huge mobilization of audio and pedal power gear, banners, Fender Blender, and more.
At Golden Gate Park, Tom from Parks and Rec informed us that, although he loved the intention of our event, our use of the park would be illegal without a sound permit. Previous to this year, we had never applied for permits for BMF venues, and had never had an issue. When police did stop by BMF in ’07 and ’08, they smiled and moved on. We also received mixed advice from city hall officials, some telling us “why bother with permits?” and calling our attention to unpermitted but community-approved events like Critical Mass and the Dykes on Bikes parade. We also believed the BMF is a community service and that we shouldn’t have to buy permits to put it on.
In retrospect, the lack of permits for this year’s BMF sapped a lot of our energy on the day of the event, and three awesome bands were unable to perform. We wish we had followed through with the permit process. At the same time, it’s a testiment to the awesome goodwill for our festival that many fans stuck around and enjoyed the bands, listening to Tin Cup Serenade, Stitchcraft, and Ma Muse perform acoustically, as we waited to set up our Pedal Powered Stage.
Above, Ma Muse, performing acoustically in Golden Gate Park. Photo: Xtracycle, Inc.
Four of us went to on a mission with three golden geese to try to get an emergency permit.
Meanwhile, two crew members found a larger event in a nearby meadow and asked them to umbrella us with their event permit. We set up the Biker Bar in time for Antioquia‘s performance.
Our new Pedalometer uses a fan to push a can up and down within 6′ tall tube. Orange, Green, and Red show desired system voltage. Pedalers found the new system quite intuitive. We hardly did any pedal power coaching all day.
Above, pedalers on the Biker Bar.
Our merch flasher offering Stichcraft’s new CD, Beyond the Hoolaboo.
SHAKE YOUR PEACE! leads the LiveOnBike daytime ride with guests Cello Joe and Sonya Cotton (surfing the Radish and singing wirelessly). Above, leaving Golden Gate Park after Antioquia’s performance.
All three bandmembers stood and sang, which made it easy for the huge ride to see them and sing along to originals and an occasional cover, including “Shake It Up Baby!” Scott handled the mixing on the back of the Electric Mundo. The 24V battery was so strained from helping us up the hill, that power to the mixer cut. I used the throttle more lightly after that, straining to pull the 600 lb load up to the altitude of Haight St., where SHAKE YOUR PEACE! rocked out.
The large wooden case is how Ma Muse’s supporters helped them transport their half-size bass to BMF from Chico.
Interior of the Bass Case. Photo:
At Dolores Park, we found permit shelter from the Dolores Park Movie Night, and Oona Garthwaite was able to perform her set.
Pedal powering Oona on the Biker Bar. Photo: busbozo
Jazz Mafia vocalist and Shotgun Wedding Quintet frontman Dublin performed LiveOnBike on the Sunset Cruise. Daniel sat in on Cajon.
Scott worked the knobs for Tornado Rider. Leif’s new Soul Cycle, the Turboboom, provided the platform and party lighting.
Scott focused on getting the best possible sound for our stripped-down 2-bike system. We could have set up the Biker Bar as well, but wanted to conserve space for walkways, since we were sharing the pier with fishermen.
Above: Sammey from Chico arriving in SF the day before BMF.
On Friday afternoon, BMF volunteer Adam met a crew of 8 riders from Chico including performers Ma Muse.
Aaron from Seattle’s Aaron’s Bike Repair trained in for BMF and is currently riding down the coast for pleasure with his friend. We threw the Mothership on his Xtracycle so he could help amplify our mobile performances.
We also had an informative and constructive conversation with a neighbor who was concerned about the noise. We immediately cut the noise on our sound check, but told him we wouldn’t be able to cut the volume next weekend, because our goal is to rock Dolores Park with awesome bands and the best Pedal Powered Stage in the landia. He seemed to have a twinkle in his eye by the end of the talk.
After proving that the Biker Bar is ready for action as a generator, we tested its new role as LiveOnBike rig. Above, Gabe and Heather get their balance.
Then on my way home from droping off a friend, I was playing bluegrass on Valencia, at the very end of a beautiful Sunday evening — warming trend sticking around til BMF, I hope. A plaid-shirt, tight-jeans wearing guy rode up next to me just to say he was really looking forward to BMF. Yeah! Festival time!
Below we debut our entry in the 2009 Bicycle Film Festival: “Janaysa LiveOnBike”. New footage. New smoothcam effect. Enjoy… …And then come to the San Francisco Bicycle Music Festival, June 20, so you can directly experience this year’s innovations in LiveOnBike performing
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.
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.
Borrowed Jay’s tux for Mission High’s Green Prom. We’ll be pedal powering 4 hours of dance music for one of San Francisco’s largest high schools.
Park-to-park Ice Cream Ride
June 5th
Meet at 8:00 PM
Central Park- C and 4th St, Davis, CA
We will meet and Central Park and cruise to a few parks in town with musical accompaniment to finish up at Village Park for an ice cream social.
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WHAT: We will cruise about 10 miles at a slow to moderate pace through the streets and neighborhoods of the Southbay. We will host a post ride barbecue, bonfire, and music performance celebration. See (Southbay Bicycle Music Festival for a list of acts.)
WHERE: Ride starts and ends at Valley Park(corner of Gould Ave/Valley Drive in Hermosa Beach, CA)
WHEN: Cruiser Ride meets at 11:45 AM/Rides at 12:00PM
Post Ride barbecue and performances scheduled to start
at 2PM.
With 9 post ride musical acts, a bonfire, and barbecue this event is scheduled to run until 9:30PM.
LINK TO A YOU TUBE VIDEO WITH A LIST OF ARTISTS PERFORMING:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFu_GOyR4ZE
$6 DONATION PLEASE: For those staying for the post ride activities – $6 to cover expenses(Firewood, city fire permits etc)would be appreciated. The ride as always, is free. You welcome to come if you can’t afford the $6 fee. But if you can donate it would be much appreciated.
AS ALWAYS, IF YOU WANT TO EAT IT YOU NEED TO BRING IT! We supply firewood and charcoal. You will need to bring anything you want to eat, and anything you need to cook it/eat it with(ie-forks and knives.)
DONATION TO A WINDOW BETWEEN WORLDS ENCOURAGED
Art supplies-crayons, paints, brushes, drawing pads or cash. This is a non profit group so donations are tax deductible.
NO ALCOHOL OR ILLEGAL BEHAVIOR – We obey local laws.
See www.southbaycruisers.com for details or email us at info@southbaycruisers.com
Big thanks to Lincoln High School and ESLI for inviting Rock The Bike to two days of environmental assemblies and education.
Urban trials rider Danny MacAskill shows his incredible skill and creativity in this inspiring 5 minute video. Great music, too, from Band of Horses. Set in Edinburgh, Scotland. Thanks for the link, Chris Tom!
Awesome array of cargo biking options in this back of the envelope sketches from one of our Flickr friends.
Metrofiets cargo bike scores pottery wheel! Imagine the possibilities — a mobile pottery session / performance ride.
Amazing to see other art bike creators and customers thinking on similar lines at the same time. I love the concave downtube on this medium-tall tandem.
Very similar ideas here to El Arbol, my own tandem tall bike.
Dear Bike Blog Readers,
After a long winter of being busy and not able to make the cold weather rides, I finally returned to the wonderful world of San Jose Bike Party. My first ride back of the season was actually the March “Psychadelic Robot Ride.” Although I enjoyed this ride, I didn’t have much time to prepare for it so I just kind of rolled with the route up to as far as I could. I had another commitment that night so I won’t write a review of it. At any rate, back to the point of this blog entry; “THE BATTLE OF THE HELMETS” 17 April 2009 Friday.
We arrived at Dick’s Center on Bascom Ave. SJ at about 7:40 P.M. which gave us plenty of time to eat our brown bag dinners, and prepare our bikes for the ride. There were already about 10-12 people in the lot already waiting for the meet up to begin. After enjoying two burritos from Juan More Taco in Fremont, Ca we prepared out bikes, checked our gear for the evening and donned our helmets! My friends Harry and Tim were on their way down to ride so this time we had more than the usual 2-3 riders in our group. Surprisingly we had more people come out and ride than planned but when it comes to bike rides THE MORE THE MERRIER!! We had 3 first timers and 5 veteran SJBP riders. There was a contest for best decorated helmet at the beginning of the traditional ride start announcements but I missed out on it because I was helping some people with tires. Harry found his tube was flat up arriving, so thanks to first time rider Tim that followed the “Cruiser Ride Checklist” Harry had a spare tube! First victory of the evening! The ride began heading south onto Bascom Ave headed for Campbell’s Rock Bottom restaurant parking lot. We got a little confused as to where to ride and ended up in the lot getting jammed with bikes going left, right and stopping in the middle of a moving bike lane. After getting back on course, we kept following the mass of bicycles headed through the city streets. MOST of the bikes were very peaceful, cool people being friendly to people on the streets, drivers and passers by. I felt sorry for this 4 door civic that got caught smack dab in the middle of the bike ride. Some riders were passing the car up on the driver side boxing it in the middle of the lane! I was calling out to the riders near me to keep right and let the car leave, but only one voice in a sea of hundreds is quickly drowned out. The route was well planned out with some long stretches of straight paths along city streets through down town strips, and SOME wide streets to accommodate cars AND bikes. This plan was GREAT, the RIDE went smoothly for most of us at least, A couple good and bad things about the “Battle of the Helmets Ride.”
GOOD =)
1. Well planned out route. Give gratitude to the SJBP planning committee. They work hard to plan rides!
2. The loop that leads back to the origin. Usually we end up @ SJSU and have to make a long haul back to Campbell in the cold after riding, tired, hungry and kinda quiet and lonely if you’re a soloist. It was great to unwind back at the lot with friend to talk about the ride!
3. Good vibes from some of the “guides” helping keep riders in line.
4. A BIG THANKS to the helpful Los Gatos Police!! They helped block traffic to keep the SJBP rolling together, AND helped a few riders that went down by giving first aid!!!
5. A BIG THANKS to the positive riders that would help others, show courtesy, respect and a love for SJBP and bike culture by just being cool!
6. A friendly hello and a wave to all the fun people in cars that would talk to SJBP riders friendly and to the party people on the sidewalks smiling and waving to us as we rolled by! You make the ride better!!
7. SUPER SAVAGE POINTS to the Unicycle riders and the hand cycle guy, you guys rock!!
8. To all the Bike Party positive people that help others, share a smile, a friendly conversation, cheer, and bring good energy to the ride, KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!! Without you, the ride would become a disaster! Thanks for Rocking the Bike!!
BAD = (
1. First of all SJ Bike Party has more than once stated who is welcome and who is not. I’m not going to go over this again.
2. The South Bay Police agencies have BEEN very supportive of our ride simply by NOT SHUTTING US DOWN!!!! They could easily roll on SJBP at the first block and road block us in which would be a huge mess and literally destroy all that we have come to enjoy as our monthly pastime!
3. My point for #2. Don’t F it up by cussing out cops, littering & throwing things at motorists (they are just commuters, not bike rider killing terrorists).
4. Be respectful. If you want to talk trash to police and I quote “$!#@%ING PIG! GO GET A REAL JOB!!” Hey rider with the black beanie, SHUT UP!! Man up and say that to the officer’s face. Coward!
5. To the guys that got pulled over, I don’t know why you were sitting on the sidewalk by the police car, but whatever you did, don’t show up next time and do it again!!
6. To the crazy riders, don’t ruin the SJBP by riding against traffic on a 2 lane downtown respect drivers right to share the road with us! Don’t cross into a red light left turning intersection when cars are carefully trying to cross!! You’re asking for a trip to the hospital or funeral home!!
7. To all the people I saw and didn’t see crash, fall over, wreck or get hurt. This ride was themed “BATTLE OF THE HELMETS”. A fun way to encourage helmet use, and save some injuries and casualties!! USE THEM!!!
Peace and chain grease.
Folks who were on our cruiser rides back in 2002-2005 will appreciate this new mix: “Old School Minidisc SF Cruiser Music”
I left a lot of this music behind when I changed from using good ol’ Minidiscs to an iPod. My sister recently lent me her Minidisc player so I could listen anew. I threw all the good songs into Ableton Live and created an hourlong mix from them. Hope you like it!
This past weekend, Habana Outpost celebrated its season opening with an Earth Day Expo, featuring kids’ activities, outdoor film screenings, an eco fashion show, workshops, local vendor booths and live music. We arrived promptly at noon on Saturday, hoping to beat the crowd (which on this first warm day of the year could be nothing but insane). We did, and were the first to make use of the smoothie “bike blender”, a stationary bike with a blender attached to it — pedal and receive $1 off your smoothie, seems like a deal too good to pass up. Even though it may not be the most efficient eco-feature, because of its crowd appeal it is probably the one that gets the most attention.
Sean Meenan opened NoLita’s Cafe Habana and Habana To Go in 1998, with a mission to serve home-style Latin food with unique Cuban and Central Mexican accents. Habana Outpost, located in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn, is the third member of this culinary family. Besides being a fun place to spend a sunny day, Habana Outpost is NYC’s first eco-eatery, aiming to reduce wasteful consumption and promote sustainable solutions by using earth-friendly practices in the design, construction, and day-to-day operations.
One love!
Rainbow
530.574.2652
Maker Faire is welcoming bike people in a major way this year. They’re aiming to have bike parking that can handle up to 2000 bikes (up from 300 last year). They’re offering $15 adult tickets to folks who ride to the event. [Read on.]
You don’t need to be part of our Cruiser Ride to take advantage of this offer. You can ride from any location. Cash makes it easy. Go to the V.I.P. bike entrance at the West Lot.
Read our online proposal to Maker Faire from earlier this year.
Saturday:
12:30 — SHAKE YOUR PEACE! Bike touring band with great foot-stomping numbers. They’ll be joining us on the ride.
1:30 — Antioquia Afro-Columbian Progress Rock. They’ll be on the ride!
2:30 — McPuzo & Trotsky Whimsical duo with witty tunes.
3:00 — Justin Ancheta Reggae and Rock. Beloved San Francisco street performing band. Bike touring musician.
4:00 — Guella — SF-based, world/funk band.
5:00 — Cello Joe , Bike Touring, beatboxing Cellist. Will be joining us on the ride.
6:00 — Oona Garthwaite — A knockout voice, an electrifying performer, powerhouse songwriting. Not to be missed.
7:00 — Fossil Fool, The Bike Rapper
Sunday:
12:00 — Quinn Deveaux Classic front porch blues sound.
1:30 — Five Cent Coffee
2:30 — Street Beats
3:30 —Gomer Hendrix Experience
4:30 — Open Mike
5:00 — Fossil Fool
Meeting at 8:30AM and departing at 9:00, the ride is about 19 miles over mostly flat terrain, and we will take a leisurely pace, cruising with great music on our party bikes.
We’ll arrive at Maker Faire at approximately 11AM, plenty of time to set up our Pedal Powered Stage for the first band of the day.
Let us know you’re coming! RSVP by writing a comment on this page.
The route from San Francisco: We’ll be closely following the San Mateo County North South Bicycle Route. This is a flat route, which closely follows the Caltrain route. This route starts on Tunnel Avenue, then uses Bayshore Boulevard through Brisbane and then a series of different streets through South San Francisco to get the Delaware Street in San Mateo. It takes about 1.5 hours to ride this route at an easy pace.
Get a map of the route at: http://bikesiliconvalley.org/files/nsroute/nsroutemap.pdf
Note this is a schematic map to define the route, use with a good local street map if you are not familiar with this area.
Our multi-person pedal power rig, the Biker Bar, will be supplying the bands with clean power to amplify their music.
El Arbol will not be completed in time for this year’s Maker Fair, but the frame and kickstand are in progress, and you can check them out. If you’ve been designing a Soul Cycle (music bike) or Human Power application, bring your sketches down and get advice from Rock The Bike’s designers and engineers.
By train and bike. Use Caltrain or BART to cover most of the distance, and then bike the final leg. Bikes are allowed on Caltrain. Take your bike on board Caltrain and get off at the Hillsdale Station. BART allows bikes on board, however, not in the first car. Get off at the final Millbrae station. About a 30-40 minute ride to the Expo Center or board Caltrain for a connecting ride to the Hillsdale station. Exit on the west side of the station, the street directly in front of the west side of the station is California Avenue.
To ride go south on California, which becomes San Mateo Drive in San Mateo. At Tilton turn left, ride about 3 blocks on Tilton and the turn right on Delaware Street. Continue on Delaware for about 2 miles to the Expo Center. For information on using your bike on Caltrain and BART go to: http://www.bikesmc.org/id47.htm
Caltrain to the Hillsdale Station. Caltrain information at: www.caltrain.com
At the Hillsdale station, cross the platform and go down the steps to the parking lot (on the east side, you will see debris from the old Bay Meadows racetrack). Walk left (north) from the station along the fenced off bike/ped path north to the Expo Center. It is about a 10 minute walk.
Sam Trans (Bus)
Route 390 from Palo Alto. 40-minute ride from Palo Alto, Schedule at:http://www.samtrans.com/pdf/Schedules/Route_390_02-01-09.pdf
Santa Clara VTA Bus Service
Route 22 Runs from San Jose to Palo Alto where you could transfer to Samtrans. Route 22 schedule at:http://www.vta.org/schedules/SC_22.html
In San Mateo get off the bus as close to 25th Avenue as possible. Walk to 25th Avenue and walk east (toward the bay) and walk about 2 blocks to the Expo Center.
Note: We recommend using Caltrain for a faster, easier trip.
By Train and Bike
Ride to nearest Caltrain station (www.caltrain.com), take your bike on board. Get off at the Hillsdale Caltrain station and ride north to the Expo Center.
By Bike – To Ride to the Expo Center
For all San Mateo County cities south of San Mateo, we suggest the San Mateo County North South Road.Get a map of this route at:
http://bikesiliconvalley.org/files/nsroute/nsroutemap.pdf
Note this is a schematic map to define the route, use with a good local street map if you are not familiar with this area.
From Mountain View and Palo Alto
Starting in Mountain View (Castro Street) Go south on California Street
When California Street ends at Medio Avenue, turn left on Medio Ave.
Turn right on Miller Avenue. Follow Miller to a Bicycle/Pedestrian Bridge, which connects to Wilkie Way. Continue south on Wilkie Way to West Meadow Drive.
Turn right on West Meadow Drive.
Turn left on Bryant Street. Follow Bryant Street through Palo Alto.
If starting in Palo Alto start using Bryant Street. Bryant Street is an official bicycle boulevard and is a great street for bicycles.
When Bryant Street ends at Palo Alto Avenue, turn left. In about 1 block turn left on to the bicycle/pedestrian bridge to Willow Place. Turn right off Willow Place to Willow Road.
Then turn left onto Middlefield Road.
At this point you are on the San Mateo County North South Route. Use the map referenced above.
From Sawyer Camp Trail
At the south end of the trail, take Crystal Spring Road east (this road is directly opposite the gate at the south end of the trail). Turn left at the first stop sign on Crystal Springs Road. After a few miles, turn right at the stop sign at the four way intersection of Stonehedge on the left, and West Third Ave on the right. Turn right onto West Third Avenue. Follow West Third Ave through downtown San Mateo.
Turn right on Delaware Street and follow Delaware Street to the Expo Center
For a lower traffic route, turn right on Claremont Street (1 block before Delaware Street), then when Claremont ends at 16th Avenue turn left and to get back to Delaware Street.
From the East Bay
BART: Use Bart to the Millbrae station. At Millbrae transfer to Caltrain, ride Caltrain to the Hillsdale Station. Or take your bike on BART and ride from Millbrae station to the Expo Center. Or take BART to the Hayward Bart Station and take the AC transit M line bus. See AC Transit below.
AC Transit (Bus) runs their M line across both the San Mateo Bridge and the Dumbarton Bridges. These buses leave from Union City to cross the Dumbarton Bridge and Castro Valley and cross the San Mateo Bridge. Get off at the Hillsdale stop. The bus stops on El Camino Real at Hillsdale. Directly across El Camino Real is the Hillsdale Caltrain Station.
Walk to the station and then cross the tracks to get to the bike/pedestrian path on the east side of the tracks. Turn left (go north) for a short walk to the Expo Center. The bus connects to the Hayward BART station. Schedule at: http://www2.actransit.org/maps/schedule_results.php?version_id=7&quick_line=m&maps_line=m¤t_schedule=ALL
By Bike:
The AC transit M lines buses can carry up to six bikes, you could ride to catch this bus. Take this bus across the bay and get off at the Hillsdale stop. See directions above to get from the bus stop to the Expo Center.
The Dumbarton Bridge has a bike/pedestrian path on the south side of the bridge. After crossing the Dumbarton Bridge, follow the bike path to Willow, cross Bayfront Expressway to the bike trail on the east side (toward the Bay) which parallels Bayfront Expressway. Follow this bike trail (which is a section of the Bay Trail) north to Marsh Road. Turn left on Marsh Road and go west on Marsh over 101. Marsh Road ends on Middlefield. Turn right (north) on Middlefield. This is now the San Mateo County North South bicycle route, use the route referenced above to ride to the Expo Center.
511.org is a good source of Bay Area Transportation information.
There you can find links to all Bay Area transit providers.
BART: www.bart.gov
Samtrans: www.samtrans.com
Caltrain: www.caltrain.com
AC Transit: www.actransit.org
VTA (Santa Clara) www.vta,org
Information Provided by Bike San Mateo County www.bikesmc.org