Big wheels keep on turnin'

October 28, 2007 5:10 AM

Suddenly, a man in a vintage hat rides up, hip-hop blaring from a glowing Plexiglas container shaped like a tropical fish set above the back wheel of his bicycle, control lights flashing. Fossil Fool, a rolling rapper from San Francisco who rides the college circuit preaching the benefits of peddling, grabs his microphone, cranks up the volume and starts to rap. Paul Freedman, aka Fossil Fool, is one of the founders of Rock the Bike, which makes Soul Cycles -- bicycle-based, often human-powered hi-fi and PA systems -- for "playing clean, powerful, uplifting music at street festivals and off-grid parties." RTB recently made a mobile DJ booth for Austin's DJ Manny; here's how. Attention, party-throwers: In 2008, you may well be able to rent or borrow a Soul Cycle for your own shindig.
posted by GrammarMoses (8 comments total)

preaching the benefits of peddling

I agree wholeheartedly. The small entrepreneurial retailer is an important factor in any healthy economy.
posted by Faint of Butt at 5:56 AM on October 28, 2007

[sic] humor, FoB.
posted by GrammarMoses at 5:59 AM on October 28, 2007

I cast level 3 WTF.
posted by danb at 6:42 AM on October 28, 2007 [2 favorites]

Bicycle activism has officially jumped the glowing plexiglas fish...
posted by wfrgms at 7:03 AM on October 28, 2007

Heh.. I took a bicycle audio system along on The Ride for Heart (in Toronto) a couple of times.

I'm not quite so into it anymore, but I wanted to play with a tripath amplifier, so I started building something up - a Class D amplifier and a sonotube subwoofer (lots of sonotube subwoofers online) should keep everything very light and portable, without sacrificing too much performance. It will cost a lot less than $3,000 :P
posted by Chuckles at 9:00 AM on October 28, 2007

Ridiculous as his schtick may sound, Paul is one of the nicest, least selfish people I've ever met.
posted by aGreatNotion at 3:20 PM on October 28, 2007

there was a guy at the Chicago Peace March yesterday with a bike/pa system (ran off an ipod duct taped to his handlebars...heh)..

Thought it was a pain, too loud... he pulled in right next to me... 'til he pumped up "War, What is it good for" and about a thousand people started singing and moving along with the beat... neat stuff!
posted by HuronBob at 3:25 PM on October 28, 2007

There's some hate going down in the comments on the first link.
posted by DenOfSizer at 6:49 PM on October 28, 2007