Justin Ancheta Band to debut their new CD “Plant” at Cafe Du Nord in San Francisco April 13. RSVP: http://www.facebook.com/events/325251237585774/?ref=ts&fref=ts

2 Bamboo Tripods for elevating precisely arrayed speaker clusters / 16 bikes / Stage lighting / AC power.  

The Festival-grade package is both sonically and visually rich and serves as a prominent landmark at your event. Designed for the largest audiences, with large tripods angling the loudspeakers at distant rows. Beautiful at night.

Crowd Size: 500-2500
Setup Time: 3-4 hours
Crew size: 8
Getting it there: The entire sound system can fit on 6-8 cargo bikes and cargo trailers. Terrain will affect exact choice of roadie gear. Please consult with us!
Generators: We recommend 5 Mundo 500, 1 Boda Boda, 4 RTBGen, 2 Electric Fender Blender Pro, 4 generator wheel and stands.
Event space: We recommend a 12 x 24  stage. Additional space for Pedal Power generators, approx. 8×20.
Storage space: All gear will fit into a 10×15 storage space. Please see our storage recommendations for more info.
Lighting: Includes Stage Lighting panels for night events. Tripods have integrated lighting.
AC Power rating: 1000 W, Pure Sine Wave.

Audio Gear: 2 * Modified JBL PRX 635 mains, 2 * Modified JBL PRX 612 monitors, 2 * Modified JBL PRX 618XLF Subwoofers.

Budget: $49000 +-
Options / Upgrades:
You supply:

After producing over 150 Pedal Powered music events, Rock The Bike has designed and created a dependable, reproducible system for you. Rock The Bike offers four packages of Pedal Powered Stage gear as follows:

One Bike / One Speaker:  Specifically catered to the Live PA performance artist. Cello Joe lives by the words, “Make the world your stage.” Our most popular, simplest, lightest and most affordable Pedal Powered Stage package.

1-Minute Setup, 1 Bike, 1 Speaker, Audiences up to 300

$3,100.00   |   More Info

Band Ready:  Power up a live band. A robust system designed for a live band, complete with AC power, for instruments such as amps, keyboards, and effect pedals.

30-Minute Setup, 4 bikes, 2 speakers, Audiences up to 500

$13,950.00   |   More Info

Live Concert:  Power up a live band. A robust system designed for a live band, complete with AC power, for instruments such as amps, keyboards, and effect pedals.

2-Hour Setup, 10 bikes, 2 speakers, Audiences up to 500

$27,200.00  |   More Info

Festival Grade:  Make history.

4-Hour Setup, 16 bikes, 7 speakers, Crew of 8, Audiences up to 2,500

$54,000.00  |   More Info

Please answer the questions in the following survey to clarify your event needs e.g. target audience size, crew size, etc: https://rockthebike.com/basic-questions-to-consider-when-crafting-your-pedal-powered-stage/

We also recommend you read and see the following posts and videos before diving in to the packages above.

What: Here’s a post that explains the components of a Pedal Powered Stage. Here we describe the basic building blocks of Pedal Power: Generators, Loudspeakers, circuits, etc.

Why: Check out Paul Freedman’s “Fossil Fool TED talk” to get the motivation for Pedal Powering music events. It’s about teamwork, community building, fun, and replacing gas generators.

Where: You can do it anywhere, but outdoor music events are the best settings. Our system uses cargo bikes to carry all the gear to events. Then we convert the cargo bikes into generators. See photos of past events:

Who: Your crew should include strong cyclists, outgoing ‘coaches’, techs, and performers. See pictures of the Rock The Bike crew in action. 

How: Call us to get an estimate going for your gear package. We ship almost anywhere and specialize in building gear you can learn quickly and use dependably. You can also come to a Rock The Bike event and learn from us directly. Typical lead time for a Pedal Powered Stage is 6-8 weeks.

An awesome demonstration, great boom for your buck.

4 Bikes / 2 Speakers / AC Power

Audience: 250-500 people

Cost: ~ $13950

Also known as the SHAKE YOUR PEACE! rig (named for the band for whom we develop it). This is the smallest system we sell that allows you to truly power up a band. This option provides AC power; most bands have at least one performer who needs AC power for their instruments (amps, keyboards, effect pedals).

Setup Time: 1 hour.
Crew size: 4
Getting it there: 2 of the bikes are cargo bikes. 1 tows another.
Event space: Generators will take up about 12 x 8. Recommended stage size 10 x 14 including loudspeakers.
Storage space: All will fit in 5 x 10.
Lighting: Stage lighting panels can be connected directly to a bike or the included Utility Box.
AC Power rating: Comes with a 600 Watt pure sine inverter capable of delivering 1200 Watt surges in power. However, for practical purposes, AC power will have to be less than 200 Watts (continuous) for a successful event.

Optimized for what types of performances? Bands without many AC Power instruments.
Other notes: With a Medium sized Pedal Powered Stage, you need to be conscientious about what types of bands you work with. Specifically, instrumentation.

We recommend:
Generators
2 Electric Fender Blender Pro
2 Mundo generators (upgradeable to Electric Cargo Bike):
3 Generator wheel + stand (upgrade any bike)

Circuitry: Split-Rail Utility Box with integrated 600 Watt AC inverter.
Pedalometer: 4′ tube, visible across a wide area.

Barebones downgrade:
No Pedalometer tube.

Bass upgrade:
Get a subwoofer.

Required additional gear purchase / sourcing:
2 speaker stands.
Modified JBL PRX 635 Loudspeaker with built-in Dubla and single Ultracapacitor brick.
All cabling included.
$5000

Substitution: Pedal Powered DJ Booth. Add 1-2 subwoofers. Keep only 1 monitor. Now you’ve got a righteous rig for dance music. If you’re working with a great DJ, your audio needs will be different than if you’re planning to Pedal Power bands.

Be at the forefront of the Pedal Power movement. Make history. The large Pedal Powered Stage includes enough loudspeakers, generators, circuitry, and interconnects for you to entertain a 1000-person audience, or larger.  ‘No compromise’ sound for performers, thanks to ample monitors and AC power. The experience of playing on a Large Pedal Powered Stage is about the same as playing on a conventionally powered stage. To the audience it also feels and sounds like a medium-sized festival stage from a major festival.

Crowd Size: 300-1000
Setup Time: 2-4 hours
Crew size: 6
Getting it there: The entire sound system can fit on 4-6 cargo bikes. Use of cargo trailers will help reduce the number of roadies needed! Also, terrain will affect how much each roadie can haul.
Generators: We recommend 3 Mundo 500, 1 Boda Boda, 2 RTBGen, 1 Electric Fender Blender Pro, 3 generator wheel and stand.
Event space: We recommend a 10 x 20  stage. Additional space for Pedal Power generators, approx. 8×20.
Storage space: All gear will fit into a 8×10 storage space. Please see our storage recommendations for more info.
Lighting: For nighttime events, we recommend 3 stage lighting panels, plus additional decorative elements like speaker grill lighting.
AC Power rating: 1000 W, Pure Sine Wave.

Audio Gear: 2 * Modified JBL PRX 635 mains, 2 * Modified JBL PRX 612 monitors, 2 * Modified JBL PRX 618XLF Subwoofers.

Budget: $27200 +-
Options / Upgrades:
You supply: 3 bicycles for the Generator Wheels, mics, mixer, snake, audio cables, speaker stands.

We are just under two months of owning our new Fender Blender Pro + Vitamix, bicycle blender, and I am excited to say it is a hit!  We already knew that bicycle blenders are a great resource to promote fitness and nutrition at our outreach events, and we are very pleased at the quality of your product.

I have personally held several bike rodeos and been able to have a bicycle blender at the events, which was provided by Humboldt State University’s Campus Center for Appropriate Technology.  Unfortunately, the CCAT program only has a couple of bicycle blenders, and they are in great demand in our communities.  Now, by owning our own bicycle blender, we are confident that we will have this resource available for all of our events.

The Fender Blender Pro will be used at 4 annual bicycle rodeos, our annual health fair, and at other appropriate opportunities, such as our pre-natal parenting classes aimed at the Latino population.  We first began with a staff training, and then took our knowledge and Fender Blender Pro out to the communities we serve.  See for yourself how we have already put our Bicycle Blender Pro to use with these photos:

Sincerely,
Brian Olson
St. Joseph Health – Humboldt County

The technical needs of a Pedal Powered event vary greatly depending on audience size, venue, and power needs of musician’s devices. The questions in this post will help you to know what features are most important for you, and how much power you’ll really need. Please answer these questions and email us using the contact form. Also, please check out some of our recommended packages to see systems intended for different crowd sizes: https://rockthebike.com/pedal-powered-stage-packages

Above: Shake Your Peace! performs during the Bay Rising Tour on their Pedal Powered Stage crafted by Rock the Bike.

1. In  your mind’s eye, how many people are taking in the music at your ideal event? Audience size is the most important factor in knowing how many loudspeakers, generators, and circuitry to get.  Are you aiming for school assemblies? Street performing? A festival stage?
2. Who is pedaling to generate power at your events? Is it competitive cyclists? fit adults? the general public? teenagers? kids? How family friendly are your events? Doing events with kids means you’ll need more bikes! The reason: Kids love to pedal but can’t generate much power. Also, they need to use bikes that are sized accordingly. If you want to do these events, you need to plan ahead so kids can participate.
3. What style of music do you want to amplify? Or do you have a specific band your are planning to work with? Are you a bandleader? If so, what is the instrumentation in your band?
4. Indoor vs. Outdoor? In your mind’s eye, where are your Pedal Powered events taking place?
5. Do you want or need to be completely off the grid? Off The Grid means that you are completely independent and not relying on power from any other source. Some people just want to demonstrate Pedal Power, but are doing so in places where there ready access to wall power. Perhaps they don’t mind using some wall power and some bike power. This can be a way to decrease the number of bikes in your system, but still offer people the chance to create power with their bodies. For example, if you want to a Bike Powered Cinema, you could power the loudspeakers with bikes and the projector with wall power. Other people want to make a statement by using NO power from the grid, or they are trying to bring a concert to a natural setting or park where there is no built-in power at all. They’ll need to be completely off the grid. What is right for you?
6. Related. What is your main motivation for doing Pedal Powered events in your community? Examples: Have fun, get involved in music events, raise environmental consciousness/bike excitement, encourage healthy lifestyles, publicize a commercial offering. It helps us to know why our customers interested in Pedal Power, and it may affect our gear recommendations.
7. Are you planning to bike it there?  Biking it there requires more crew, gear, and experience than loading a truck, but can be enormously gratifying. Check out these photos to see if this inspires you: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rockthebike/sets/72157622547485971/
8. Will you be doing nighttime events?
9. Do you already have a crew? Are you interested in leading a crew? Doing larger events with the general public requires a crew, including specific roles like Sound Guy, Roadie, Coach, Tech, MC and more.

VOTING IS CLOSED! Thanks for reading and watching the video!

Friends, customers, and fans: Please support my campaign to speak at the global TED 2013 conference. There is an open voting and comment period happening NOW until the end of August, in which you can watch and review all the amazing auditions that took place in the past 6 months. I auditioned in Vancouver in May. While the TED team make the final decisions, your feedback and ratings are going to help this talk get noticed. Please see bold instructions below for info about how to take action!

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The 6th Annual San Francisco Bicycle Music Festival was our biggest ever and a milestone for our grassroots Human Powered Music Fest. Many thanks to the bands, fans, and our huge volunteer crew. Any one of the 3 phases of the day would have been epic enough. But we had a beautiful, idyllic daytime music festival in the park, an outrageous mobile party, and a post-modern urban block party all in one day. Daytime: 500+ people in a meadow, enjoying live music in the beautiful sunshine… Followed by a fire-truck dodging, freeway underpass screaming, Fossil Fooling LiveOnBike session, with captain Ariel using no electric assist to pull 3 performers and audio gear weighing 250 pounds on our Mobile Stage… Followed by a street party with an elevated stage,  a glowing Bike Tree, and a 3-person pedal powered stage lighting system.

Rupa & The April Fishes perform at Golden Gate Park’s Log Cabin Meadow. Photo: Volker Neumann.

We had 19 pedalers at the peak in Golden Gate Park! Plenty of power for our 10000-Watt sound system to run. In the distance you can see our Pedal Powered Line Array hanging from its bamboo tripod.

Our biggest event of the year is coming up. Hope to see you there! Click the poster image for more details on the world’s largest human powered music festival. Many thanks Hugh D’Andrade for the beautiful poster image.

There’s a suite available next door to our metalshop in our Berkeley workshop community, which also includes the East Bay Bike Coalition. “Unit A” has good light from its large glass doors and skylights, concrete floor, high ceilings in most of the space, lots of built in storage, a sink, gas heater for the winter, and access to a shared bathroom, kitchen, and outdoor shower. Our landlord has expressed a high priority on finding a new tenant within the bicycle field, so that we can continue to develop a thriving business community at Channing Way. There is ample bike parking in the large courtyard space and we are on a well-trafficked bicycle boulevard.

The workshop community has the honor of being the only structure zoned for ‘Light Industrial’ in this otherwise residential neighborhood. This makes it ideal for inventors, frame builders, seamsters and seamstresses, or fabricators. We are close to good food and 3 BART stations.

Unit A also has access to our metal shop seen below. Depending on the nature of your skills, needs, and experience, you can make an arrangement with us and the landlord to use the tools in the metal shop. Perhaps you can share your skills!

The highlights are:

Asking price is $1200/month for Unit A. Please contact landlord Nick Bertoni, 510-517-9991 or Rock The Bike, 510-548-2453, for a tour.

We want to feel the love at all of our events in 2012 and are willing to let some event opportunities go if they are shaping up to be foofy. 

Foofy: Excessively frilly or frou-frou, typically in a manner calculated to attract attention to an otherwise unremarkable person or event. Source: Wiktionary

In the context of Pedal Powered events, foofy is synonymous with greenwashing, needless burning of Fossil Fuels to get there, or huge expense of resources to amplify a vague message.

For 2012, we vow: No More Foofy or Unattended Gigs! 

We’re grateful to everyone who has reached out to us about event opportunities. And we don’t want to point fingers. But those on the crew who’ve been there week after week know we’ve had  some foofy gigs in the mix this past year. We took almost all the events that came our way in the past year, turning down only an employee event for a major oil company. In 2012 we want to apply a stricter standard to avoid taking gigs that waste our time or use our Pedal Power to further a lame cause. This will hopefully save our team’s energy and resources to give our all to the products and events we believe in.

If several of the questions below raise a flag , that’s a clear sign this gig is likely to be foofy. Avoid it!

1. Would we be proud to announce it in our newsletter?
2. Are we comfortable doing it? In order to get the gig, do we need to promise something we’ve never done at an event before?
3. Does this event producer / client have a message? And is it a message we can get behind?
   The message doesn’t need to be the focus of the event. For example, our music events don’t always have a strong message, and they’re still worth doing.
4. Do we respect the planners / organizers and their work in the community?
5. Do we need to burn fossil fuels to get there? This is a big one. We did a lot of truck and airplane gigs in 2011. Using Fossil Fuels to get to a gig raises the bar on everything else. We need to reach a good number of people in a real way to make up for burning
6. Do we get to work with kids? Major trump card! Working with kids makes almost everything else passable.
7. Does the client care about the event enough to want to be there in  person? Enough to pedal? At many of our events, we are left to hold it down and the event contact / client is busy doing something else. Not a deal braker on its own but if 2-3 other flags are up, then this might make the gig unworkable.

 No more unattended gigs. We will work to get our people there! 

OK, so we  are only going to do events we believe in. Now we want to avoid another pitfall: unattended gigs. There were too many events in 2011 that had awesome music, a great message, and not enough people! We will use every tool in our bag to get our friends and people out. If you want to make sure you hear about these events, join our Facebook page, and our newsletter using the icons above.

Bike Fair at Sproul Plaza. Awesome event, great music and dancing, but only 5-10 people from our community showed up beyond our crew who were working the event. Let’s grow that number next year so that we can have more great dance moments like these at our Pedal Powered events.

Pedal Power Generators

Two Mundo 500 generators in use at the Eugene Bicycle Music Festival. The rear wheel is elevated off the ground so that you can pedal in place and generate power.

How many?
You will need enough bicycle generators that the pedaling effort per person is approx. 50-75 Watts. Based on our experience at events, 50-75 Watts is the amount that an average audience member can continuously provide. You should also have ‘ringer pedalers’ in your crew. Ringer pedalers are strong racer or everyday commuting cyclists who can contribute up to 4 times more than an average pedaler. Whether you’re relying on ringers or the GP (General Public), you’ll need to provide enough bikes that the effort can be shared.

In order to make Pedal Power fun and inspiring, your goal should be to have the lowest ‘overhead’ possible. Overhead is how much Wattage your system draws when no music is playing. Using energy intensive devices like rack-mount audio gear, subwoofers, large guitar and bass amps, laptops, and lights can add significant Wattage to your system’s overhead.  If you already know what devices you want to run, start by measuring their Wattage with a Kill-A-Watt. Having a lower overhead means that more of your pedalers’ energy goes into music, not keeping devices on.

If you are planning to use our Modified JBL PRX Loudspeakers, you can follow this table to estimate the crowd size possible for a given number of pedalers. These numbers are for danceable levels of music and assume a favorable overhead.

Pedal Powering your next event taps you into the magic of community power, the cleanest and best source of power currently available.

Nearly a thousand packed in to a Mission District street closure to take in a free Pedal Powered show at Bicycle Music Festival. On stage: Quinn Deveaux. The show was powered by 14 fans.

Above: With our new aerial rigging and JBL VRX Line Array drivers, we can entertain a crowd of 2000-3000 in a space several hundred feet deep. This performance was powered by 20 people.

What We Provide:

• World class Audio Gear. We bring a complete audio package including mics, stands, loudspeakers, cables, mixers, outboard gear, monitors, 1000-watt subwoofers, etc. It’s sufficient for audiences up to 3,000 and bands with up to 8 members. *New for 2013* Aerially rigged VRX Line Array speakers!  All of our PA speakers have been specially modified to run directly from bike power. 40% more efficient and super inspiring.
• Efficient, comfortable Bicycle Generators. Our generators are stable, safe, and colorful, and fit a wide variety of people, from adult men to 7-year-old kids.  We make sure to bring enough generators that pedal power feels moderately challenging–everyday people can contribute. Our roadies become ringer pedalers who can boost power levels as needed.
• Coaching. Our crew includes outgoing pedal coaches who pull in your audience and motivate them to contribute. Our 8′ tall Pedalometers (power indicators ) show pedalers exactly how hard to pedal.
• Sound Guy/Girl. Our crew experienced audio technicians who optimize the available pedal power for the most clean, clear sound.
• Transportation. Our roadies transport all our gear to and from your event on cargo bikes, reducing the impact of cars and trucks. For out of town events we use pickup trucks.
• Education. We display the power generated by the pedalers, and track the consumption of our equipment and update the crowd throughout the event to maximize the educational potential of the activity. If appropriate, we provide a science lesson that satisfies your audience’s curiosity about how our system works.
• Promotion. Our gear-hauling rides are social, and serve to promote your event as we hand out fliers and play the songs of your featured artists en route. We also utilize our e-communication outlets to promote your Pedal Powered event.

We do not provide an elevated stage for your event.

Read a full explanation of Pedal Powered concert dynamics, with answers to the most common questions: How does it work? Who pedals? How do you avoid power outages? Why are you doing this?

Check out our Rider!

Ready to Start? Submit Your Event!

This service goes back to 2007, but we’ve been doing bike-based entertaining since 2002. Here are some of our more prominent event partners:

Maker Faire (see highlights: 1, 2)  |  Jack London Square
The Gaia Festival | Oregon Country Fair (see highlights)
Life is Living | University of Oregon | Chobani Yogurt

UC Berkeley | UCLA | Sunday Streets (see highlights)

 California Academy of Sciences (see highlights) | 350.org

San Francisco Bicycle Music Festival (see highlights)   –  NOW

Central Park (see highlights)    –    The Yes Men (see highlights)
Virgin Mobile (see highlights)    –    The San Francisco Marathon (see highlights)
New Belgium Brewery    –    Propel Fitness Water    –    Greenpeace (see highlights)
San Francisco Mayor’s Office    –    Barcelona Bicycle Music Festival (see highlights)

Global Exchange   –  the Chabot Observatory   –   West Fest (see highlights)   –
Bluegrass for the Greenbelt    –   Specialized Bicycles    –    the Ride to Prevent ALS
Earth Hour (see highlights)   –    Save the Redwoods  

Also, you can read testimonials from our clients.

Want to see photos from our events?

Check out the latest shots from our Pedal Powered Stage events.  We update it after almost every event! Also check us out on Facebook.

Want to get a taste of a Pedal Powered Stage event?

Click play below for highlights from Rupa and the April Fishes’ set at the 2012 Bicycle Music Festival.

Rupa & The April Fishes – Bicycle Music Festival 2012 from janel sterbentz on Vimeo.

Please read on as we explain the reasons top event producers love our Pedal Powered Stage:

Pedal Power is Social.

Please note the Pedal Powered Stage is using 2008 technology in this video.

Pedal power is an ice-breaking, fresh social activity that connects strangers in an electrifying way: working shoulder to shoulder, rocking the party as a team. When it’s time for the dancing spirit to bust loose, pedal power’s movement gets people moving. Only a hands-on (and feet-on) experience this cool can transform what might have been a merely excellent event into a soul-moving, year-making event.

And educational!

Above: our Wattage Display shows how much energy has been generated (and used) by pedalers.

We are committed to creating experiences where learning about power is fun and social, not guilt-ridden. Our displays and crew are able to help participants reach personal realizations about power consumption. Power is not free. It has to come from somewhere. The Pedal Powered Stage is an uplifting and effective way to make that knowledge spread.

Musicians and Audiences Rise to the Occasion.

We can power many styles of music, including heavy metals bands. Bring us to your event and we can power your DJ/band’s needs.

Bands love playing through Pedal Power because the audience is already moving at the beginning of their set.

Incredible Custom “Soul Cycles”

Our Pedal Powered Stage fleet includes the legendary Bike Tree, El Arbol, seen above, as well as the Blue Whale and the Choprical Fish.

An expecting woman Pedal Powers a rock show at Barcelona Bicycle Music Festival on the Blue Whale.

Our fleet of cargo and custom party bikes are complete with on-board neon lights, bumping sound system, and pedal-power capabilities. It can immediately start cranking out tunes as we set up our stage, which usually takes about an hour.

Biked-in sound = quick deployment and unusual locations.

Above: Nio tows two subs, two VRXs, a 612 Monitor, a mic case, pedalometer, Electric Fender Blender Pro, no battery.

Turn the heads of everybody at your event as we magically arrive on cargo bikes loaded with sound equipment, set those same bikes up to power the sound system, then load the bikes back up and vanish, all without consuming any fossil fuels. The fact that we bike the bike, not just talk the talk, inspires participants at your event.

When you don’t need electrical outlets, the whole world becomes a stage! Want to rock the floor of a trade show or a big concert in a city park without lobbying the powers-that-be for permission to plug into an outlet? Want to have your wedding at the end of that pier? Want to rock a concert at the beach, amidst the redwoods, in a wildflower-speckled meadow, on the school playground, on the steps of city hall, or even in-motion with a “live on-bike” performance? With pedal-power, that power is in your hands (and feet)!

PR Building Blocks.

The pedal powered stage amplifies your press coverage! An event with a remarkable sound system gets remarked on by the press, and we’ve proven that pedal power provides that ‘unimpeachably cool-factor’ that catches their ears and turns their gears every time. Stretch your marketing dollar! Let your investment in the sound system work for you twice: onstage and off! Rock the Bike will help your PR effort with multimedia tools: videos, web, photos, tech info, and more.

Note the improved coverage of Pedalfest in the KTVU video:

http://www.ktvu.com/videos/news/cyclists-enjoy-pedalfest-at-oaklands-jack-london/v67Mt/

In KTVU’s Pedalfest Slideshow they confirm, “The two attractions that got a ton of attention at the event were the Whiskeydrome and the Pedal Powered Stage.”

Pro Audio Sound from Names you Trust.

Our gear selection includes:

– Allen & Heath mixer
– Modified JBL PRX and VRX loudspeakers
– 50′ snake and stage box
– Shure wired and wireless microphones. 10 mics available in total including Shure Beta 58 vocal mic and Beta 91a kick mic.

Even those with the pickiest ears — musicians themselves– rave about the clarity and commanding presence of our system. Each year at the SF Bicycle Music Festival we use the Rock the Bike system to amplify 15 different bands ranging in tone from salsa bands with full horn sections, to whispering singer-songwriters accompanied by a ukulele, and broadcast it to hundreds of sonically-spoiled city dwellers in a challenging outdoor urban setting. And every year, we get the party moving with pedal power.

**Sorry, we do not offer an elevated stage as part of our Pedal Powered Stage gear.**

Compromise on Volume, Not Sound Quality.

The clipping is right. Raw decibels aren’t the only way to measure the effect of the amplified music at your event. Most music fans want the clarity and presence that comes from using professional quality gear, but they can do without the ringing sound in their ears when they’re heading home from an event. With a modular system capable of producing anywhere between 75 – 2000 watts, Rock the Bike makes sure that the volume is exactly what you need: no more, no less.

Lower listening levels can be more social, giving people a chance to hear each other talk while still feeling “in the music.”

Rock the Body: Workout for Your Audience

With 53% of adult Californians and 22% of children considered medically obese, and many more people of all shapes suffering from respiratory disease from polluted air, immersing your audience in the magic of bike-culture with the pedal powered stage couldn’t be a more considerate or timely gesture.

Photo: Steve Rhodes

Healthy habits gain momentum when friends can move in that direction together. We’re all about getting your audience interested in bikes, and often bring extras that they can try out. Our super-duty Mundo cargo bikes can carry riders weighing up to 400 lbs, and are safe and stable. It might help rekindle their long lost bicycle-love.

Sound Guys with Soul.

With Rock the Bike you get experienced Sound guys and MC’s who are leaders in the green movement. Quit worrying about coordinating the sound guy, the DJ, the band, the iPod and the ‘groovy chill mix.’ Our team includes musicians who enjoy interacting with bands, are comfortable making announcements and MC’ing, as needed. We carry plenty of good music with us to keep the event moving during breaks.  Rock the Bike team members have rocked the mic at events such as San Francisco Green Festival, Maker Faire, Bioneers, TED @ Vancouver, and other green/ alt-culture events.

A Crew of Entertainers at Your Service.

We make music, we enjoy music, we dance when we hear music. Rock the Bike crew members are fun-loving, and want your guests to have the best time possible at your event. Whether you want funky hip hop flava, an acrobat, or a full band we’ve got an array of assorted talents in our crew. Check our Music section to listen to some house bands, or ask us for recommendations.

Cruiser ride to your event

Up to 200 cyclists join us for the Annual Dolores Park t0 Maker Faire Social Ride.

We want to help you mobilize your audience. Create excitement before your event begins by inviting your audience to join an exclusive Rock The Bike social cruiser ride out to your event. People will never forget cruising to your event next to their friends through the streets of San Francisco immersed in a cloud of glowing neon soul-cycles, Marvin Gaye bumping over the traffic noise, feeling high from the community spirit as people on the sidewalk clap their hands and cheer.

Want to be part of the Pedal Powered Stage crew?

Please get on our local events list by joining our Constant Contact newsletter. Look for “Email Address here” in the header above. Select “local events” as most of our events do not go out to our national list. Start coming to events and helping out. Thanks!

Overview of Pedal Powered Stage Gear configurations

*For speeches only, such as a conference, these crowd numbers are doubled.

Please Be Advised: How many people that can hear your sound depends on the environment, type of music, amount of bass in music, and the amount of ambient noise.

If you’re ready to begin planning your Pedal Powered Stage with us, please fill out this questionnaire about your event. Also, check out our other Pedal Power Activities you can rent.

Inquire About This Service

Let us bring our years of experience with Pedal Powered lighting to craft something special for your event. For fun or education (or both), the possibilities are endless!

The latest example of our interactive lighting for New York Power Authority at the 2019 State Fair:

Custom interactive lighting for Chobani Yogurt Olympic Experience:

Read testimonials from our previous clients.

The sLEDgehammer

The sLEDgehammer, an interactive Pedal Powered lighting rig. More LEDs light up when you pedal harder, converting your peak power output on an efficient bicycle generator to beautiful light. Click here to watch the video!

The sLEDgehammer’s display can be customized for your event, like a courtyard installation (above).

More Light Displays

Above: Illuminated sign for Tourism Vancouver. Powered by a Generator Pro and the What Watt?! system, which tells you exactly how much energy you are creating as you pedal. (If you are interested in ordering a What Watt?! or finding out more about it, call us!)

Above: Lines of light come from the generator bike, extending further (up to 300 feet) the harder you pedal.

Above: More lines of light on our 18′ tall Bamboo Tripod.

Above: Pedal Powered Stage LED lighting: 1 pedaler per panel.

Above: The large light-up Wattage Display shows the instantaneous power use of our Pedal Powered Stage. It averages readings to show you the power use over the last 5 seconds.

Above: the pedaler gets illuminated in this “Dance With Lance” challenge, in which riders go head to head with a powerful sound system. Each rider takes a turn pouring their all into the sound system while a DJ keeps great music going. The crowd roots on the pedalers, who last as long as they can.

The Light Bike

Above: Sir Richard Branson pedaling the Light Bike comparison station at the Virgin Mobile Festival in Baltimore, 2008.
Switching back and forth allows the pedaler to feel the energy savings of CCFL bulbs over traditional incandescent bulbs.

Soul Cycles

We have integrated Pedal Powered Lighting into several of our custom Soul Cycle rigs, including El Arbol, the Bike Tree:

The Blue Whale:

If you’re looking for applications to use Pedal Power, there are two main types: Mechanical and Electrical.

Mechanical applications generally have the advantage of being simpler, cheaper, and with simpler maintenance. They include Bike Blending and Spin Art.

Electrical applications are more limitless. The options include, but are not limited to, audio amplifiers, AC Power, and light.

This custom art bike, made and based in San Francisco, rides through the city at 12 feet tall, then sprouts roots, branches, and leaves at events, where it becomes a 2500-Watt double-stack main speaker at our Pedal Powered Stage. Integrated LEDs look stunning at night. The Tree has two seats and creates all of its own power using an integrated One Bike / One Speaker circuit.

Above, El Arbol in action as a Aerial Dance rig at Gaia Fest in 2012.

Aerialist Shredder performs on hoop from El Arbol’s trusty rear branch. 

Tara performs on El Arbol at the start of the SF Marathon

El Arbol without its Canopy of Leaves.

The sound quality is incredible. By using the audio elements from 2 Modified JBL PRX loudspeakers, it has the ability to get music out at festival levels with very low distortion. We use El Arbol as half of our Pedal Powered Stage at the San Francisco Bicycle Music Festival. The height of the upper loudspeaker (9′ up!)  helps the sound spread out easily out above a crowd, without requiring deafening volume levels for those in the front.

It’s fun and expands the notion of ‘Stage’ to include the pedalers.

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Factors like crowd size, nature of the music you want to present, and whether you envision lots of kids participating all affect the cost of bringing the Pedal Powered Stage to your event. Please take a moment to respond to the questions below. You can copy and paste into an email to us. Once we receive your survey we’ll contact you within 1 day.

1. Date, time, and duration. If this is a nighttime performance, do you need us to provide stage lighting?
2. Location
   Specifics about the venue:
   • Indoor or Outdoor?
   • If outdoor, is there a rain plan?
   • Got a photo you can share? Photos of past events in this space are extremely helpful.
   • Seating plan?
   • Does this location have easy access to water and bathroom facilities?
   • Do you have an overall security plan that would cover us?
   • If this is a public space, have you secured the necessary permits for your event such as venue, sound, etc.?
3. Audience size
   • What is the largest number of people listening at one time?
4. Staging. Do you have an elevated stage? (Rock The Bike doesn’t provide one but we can help you pick the size.)
5. Audio. Do you already have any of the following technical requirements covered?
   • PA system (we generally prefer to provide a complete PA system because we know exactly how much power it will use for a given crowd size)
   • Sound technician
   • Backline drums and amplifiers (if applicable)
6. Power. Do you anticipate needing pedal power for devices beyond our audio equipment? Examples: cell phones, projector, lighting, recording gear.
7. Performers & Emcee. Who are the featured acts at your event? Do you want to work with performers in the Rock The Bike community? Do you have a stage manager, or would you like us to serve as stage management for this event? Would you like Rock The Bike to speak at your event? A quality emcee helps create a cohesive vibe and ensures smooth transitions, and we have several crew members who can play this role at no additional charge. Let us know ahead of time so our team is prepared to support you in this capacity. Your audience will likely be curious about some of the following topics that spur from pedaling at your event. Let us present them with compelling facts and humor:
   • Presenting How It Works: The science and design of Pedal Power systems
   • Planting Seeds for Audience Transformation: Why ride bikes? And other personal choices that can have a collective impact. Where does Pedal Power fit into the bigger environmental picture?
8. What is the purpose of this event? (Why are you bringing people together? What is your end goal? etc.)
9. Do you want to have a ‘kids section’ where children can pedal? If so, we will recommend bringing more kid-friendly bikes and dedicated crew members to ensure safety and adequate power. Are you interested in kid-specific activities such as Pedal Powered Spin Art?
10. Bike Smoothies. The questions above are focused on your sound needs. Depending on the nature of your event, it may be appropriate for us to set up a bike smoothie booth. We generally charge for smoothies, but we give them away to pedalers who are powering the music. There is nothing like being thanked for your good, clean Pedal Power with a thick, tangy, sweet bike-blended smoothie!    
11. Do you have a budget for our services?

    Fees range from approximately $800 to 6000 per day depending on audience size. We do a certain number of discounted and pro-bono appearances each year and make decisions on which of these to take based on the event needs and beneficiaries. If you think your event falls in this category, please take extra care to address the following:

    • Is your event a fundraiser? If so, who are the beneficiaries?
    • Is your organization a 501c3 nonprofit?
    • Does your event have a corporate sponsor or sponsors? If so, who?
    • Does your event have a major funder? If so, who?
    • What is the overall budget of your event?

A mom and her son Pedal Powering a music performance on a Mundo 500 generator at the Oregon Country Fair. Rock The Bike built the Pedal Powered Stage used at the Fair.

We help our event partners engage their communities to provide the greenest source of power possible. Read on to see how we do it!

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Oona is one of Rock The Bike’s premiere dance pop bands, a perfect match for pedal power to the next level of excitement.

The Examiner in San Francisco put it this way… “Oona Garthwaite is a force to be reckoned with. Her talent level is through the roof, on a level reserved for those musicians who stop you in your tracks and suck the breath out of you with awe—and her stage energy is unique, energetic and equally mesmerizing. And that’s just Oona—the rest of her band is just as talented. One phrase the band uses to describe themselves is “the dance-pop of your dreams,” (Amber Gregory, Examiner), and that is a pretty perfect description.

For booking information, please contact Dave at oonamusic@gmail.com