Bike Culture // Current

Get $1 off your coffee, November in Peet's - Ferry bldg. SF

For the month of November, the Peet's Coffee & Tea /location at the Ferry building - San Francisco is offering $1 off... more

meligrosa
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Get your blinky on! SF - December 2nd

Let your friends and neighbors know!! - Light up the Night Tuesday Dec. 2 | 5-7pm The SFBC is teaming up with the SF Municipal... more

meligrosa
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Momentum Magazine- The San Francisco Issue

The first issue I collected of Momentum was the issue that included the opening of Lance's Mellow Johnnys in the awesome city... more

meligrosa
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The No Gasoline Tour 2008

Musician Peter Mulvey takes his band on the road, for the second year in a row, to ride 500 miles on a grueling (minus the... more

meligrosa
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San Francisco Gama-Go sale!

SAT. November 8th 12-5PM It is at the Rickshaw stop, if you haven't been there yet, they have gorgeous display bikes (that... more

meligrosa
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Amsterdam Bicycles

During a 73 minute period on 9/12/06 at one corner of Nieuw Markt (a nice open square in Amsterdam), I took the following 82... more

CarolynGillis
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Bicyclists Show Off Their Two-Wheeling Tattoos

ink show. -click link for more images-

meligrosa
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Caltrain will look at removing seats for bikes

--full article/click link-- Caltrain officials will consider removing some seats to accommodate the growing throng of bicyclists... more

meligrosa
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San Francisco Gets First Bicycle Traffic Signal

The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition celebrated the installation of San Francisco's first ever bicycle traffic signal at the... more

meligrosa
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Memorial Ride, San Francisco 9/30/08

There will be a memorial ride for Jordan next Tuesday evening (9/30) at 7:00 pm; gather at the east end of the Panhandle (McKinley... more

meligrosa
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Scrap Your Car for a Bike at the Tour de Fat

Forget about trading in your SUV for a Prius, how about scrapping it altogether in place of a bike? Gas, as we know, is... more

Greenpointer
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Why Not in America?

The recent surge in gas prices and growing concern over carbon emissions have goosed efforts to increase bicycle ridership in... more

khsing
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Bike Commuting Incentives

It's no surprise that many estimates show more people around the country using their bicycles to get around, and now some... more

antmarshall
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The End of Chains?

Bikes with chains may be becoming an endangered species. Belt-driven bikes, which were introduced by boutique bike makers a couple... more

benjaminV
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Rock band travels on bicycles and uses bikes to generate electricity for all performances

Cycling rockers launch world tour: in 2007, the Ginger Ninjas became the first band in the history of rock and roll to tour by bicycle unsupported by automobile. On a 5000 mile odyssey to the pyramids of southern Mexico, they promoted transportation cycling while also exploring the frontiers of pedal-generated electricity, using their own bikes to power a hyper-efficient sound system. The audience took turns getting on stage to pedal the bikes to make the sound, taking crowd participation to a new level. Originally conceived as a one-time adventure/statement/experiment, the band became addicted, and now has its sights set on a world tour.

"Before the Mexico tour, I honestly didn't know if what we were setting out to do was even physically possible," says frontman Kipchoge Spencer. "A couple of months in, we realized that it wasn't just possible, but there was something easy about the rhythm of it (despite the grueling uphills with 200 pound bikes), and the next logical thought was, 'let's tour the world this way.'"

Bicycle powered electricity: the Ginger Ninjas' mobile human-power stage is the first of its kind in history. Coupling super efficient digital amplifiers, lightweight components, and generators attached to working bicycles (as opposed to purpose-built stationary bikes), the system allows a band to play off-grid anywhere, wall outlet or no, and to also carry the system to a gig on the same bicycles (Xtracycle sport utility bicycles, a company started by Spencer). This enables a new kind of completely self-sufficient bicycle touring, sans automobile support. On the band's most recent tour, the system and touring style enabled them to avoid generating close to 60,000 pounds of CO2, or 95% of what a similar sized band creates in a similar tour.

They call their style "mind shaking love groove folk funk roots rock explosive international pedal powered mountain music for a pleasant revolution."

Tour schedule: the Ginger Ninjas and supporting act, Crystal Stafford (indie-electro-folk), will be launching their world tour in August, hitting the Democratic and Republican Conventions before cycling around the East Coast and Florida through September and October, and then leaving the country for Mexico, Central America, South America, and Europe.

Catch the film: a feature film of the first tour is expected in 2009 from the award-winning Argentine director Sergio Morkin, and his crew will film the current tour as well.

“One of the best concerts of my life.” - Arturo Garcia, Meretrices Literary Review

“With each number the crowd got louder, larger and more appreciative. Between songs, a man wearing riding chaps and a Stetson came up and said that he never liked American rock music—until now. For the rest of the set people were practically fighting each other for the opportunity to pedal-power the band.” – Stanford Magazine article about the Mexican tour.Cycling rockers launch world tour: in 2007, the Ginger Ninjas became the first band in the history of rock and roll to tour by... more