These photos were taken by a number of super talented photographers. Click on the photos to view credit info on Flickr.

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The two-bike pedal power system shown above was our trusty backup system at Maker Faire this past weekend. Both bikes use powerful hub generators rated at far higher wattages than a human can generate. This means that we’re using them in a range at which they run cool, calm, and collected. They feel very smooth because there’s no friction involved. Just magnets and ball bearings.

Not shown this photo is the Biker Bar, Rock The Bike’s newest pedal power system. It’s got tremendous potential, but has had mechanicals at its first two outings. The plan is to fix the mechanical issues in the next 3 days, test it out at the Youth Unity Summit this Saturday, our last outing before BMF.

photo: Adam Aufdencamp

Cruising from Precita Park to Dolores Park at the first annual BMF in 2007

The largest crowds at Dolores Park showed similar growth.

BMF falls on the longest day of the year, and it’s going to be one of the hottest. Bring squirt guns!

Soul singer Janaysa will be going mobile, performing at the nighttime cruiser ride (beginning at Dolores Park). She’ll be playing piano and singing. The piano will be rigidly mounted to the back of a Mundo Utility Bicycle, using a custom bamboo piano mount. The red tractor seat is another recent mod designed to turn this bike into a serious mobile performance venue.

Other mobile performers in the nighttime cruise will include Mafiosa Felice and Joel Elrod. Joel (shown below street performing at KFOG Kaboom) will be backing me up on the Roland 808, and Mafi will be playing cuatro and singing.

My favorite part of performing at last year’s BMF was leading the call and response section of the Boda Boda rap as we cruised down Valencia. At the time, I thought I was just doing the ride to lead people to the biker beer bar, but once we arrived at the bar, the energy fell. I now realize that my art form is rocking the mic as I rock the bike. There aren’t too many other bike rappers out there who would even really try it. So this year, I’m just going to celebrate it. I hope you’ll be part of my performance, which will begin after Pete Brandt’s BMX performance.

Fortunately I won’t be alone. We just finished this new aTractor seat for the Mundo, so I can have Joel and Mafi play percussion for me.

The Ginger Ninjas, just back from an epic 5000 mile bicycle tour to Mexico, got yet another chance to test out their sound system and rock festival-goers at this weekend’s Harmony Festival in Santa Rosa. With 4 pedal-power generating bicycles, there was enough clean, clear audio power to get over 100 people dancing. Musical highlights included Cipes and the People, and Los Ginger Ninjas.

The weekend was a good chance to work out any last kinks in the human power system before the Bicycle Music Festival. While there was a little troubleshooting to do on Sunday morning after Saturday night’s jam session, the system didn’t let fans down and was loud enough to have 8-piece bands rock out with a full drum set. You really don’t want to have to ask a drummer to play softly because the mains don’t have enough power to bring other instruments and vocals up to their level. It’s much better when a drummer can play out, and you can adjust the other instruments accordingly.

Fortunately the Ginger Ninjas’ sound system has that much power and more! We are psyched and grateful that they’ll be setting up the Human Power at this year’s BMF!

We had 11 bands over two days at last weekend’s Maker Faire. We had three pedal power bikes powering two 400-watt JBL powered speakers. Unlike the ones the Ginger Ninjas took to Mexico, these speakers were powered by traditional amplifiers, not digital amps. So the three pedal power bikes were barely enough. We couldn’t really have kids pedal one of the three, because they just didn’t put out enough power. And you really can’t kick a kid off a bicycle and feel good about yourself at the end of the night. So we said “adults only.” Fortunately for this year’s BMF, it’s looking like we’ll have the Ginger Ninjas in effect, with their Pleasant Revolution sound system, road-tested after 5 months through Mexico.

Anyway, there are some great shots from the Faire on Flickr. Hope you dig it.