Several bands that I've been in over the last few years (including the current one: http://www.myspace.com/shanghaipartyboss ...shameless promotion, come see us November 18th!) have talked about "touring" via bicycle...but this is a whole new level of committment (see article below).
I'm not sure I can pedal for power and play drums at the same time though
unless someone figured out how to hook the bass drum up to the bike...
-Dar
jessica wineberg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
From: "jessica wineberg" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Thu, 1 Nov 2007 16:14:35 -0600
Subject: [milbtw] bike power
From the Journal Sentinel:
If these guys can light up a concert with their feet, more power to them
Posted: Nov. 1, 2007
Laurel Walker
E-MAIL
This is my problem, not his. When Dan Aukofer starts talking excitedly about
the concert he's planning for Saturday night, I can't help but think about our
kids' long-gone pet hamster running endlessly on its exercise wheel.
Who knew I could have lowered my electrical bills with little Buddy?
Aukofer's got this crazy idea - he might prefer an adjective like visionary -
for a barn concert where the entire sound and light system will be run on the
pedal power of up to eight riders on stationary bicycles.
"Four, if we have real good riders," said his confident partner in this
venture, sound engineer Dan O'Brien of New Berlin.
I know it works, because Aukofer produced bright stage lights and clear, loud
sound from a demonstration CD player with just a single bike.
'Human-Powered' Concert
Photo/Karen Sherlock
Chuck Smith (left) and Dan Aukofer (right) test bicycle-powered equipment on
Wednesday, in preparation for Saturday's "human-powered" concert. In the
background, Jim Royce, (left to right) Rick Mortimer and Dan O'Brien construct
a voltage stabilizer.
e
I know it's work, too, after I pedaled just enough to realize it would be a
short set and long intermission if the cycling power were left to me.
Aukofer and O'Brien go way back - to New Berlin Eisenhower High School where
their environmental consciousness was raised at the age of 15 with the first
Earth Day. Joining them as a concert co-sponsor is Chuck Smith, president of
Current Electric Co. in Brookfield, a company experienced in solar power
projects.
The concert will be held in a barn - the Brown Swiss cows are long gone - on
the Aukofers' 6 acres at N6-W27539 Northview Road in the City of Pewaukee.
He said the music will be "a soulful mix of funk-a-fide rock with a
spiritually positive message" provided by Aukofer, his wife, Debbie, and other
members of a band called "Soul Purpose." The concert will run from 8 to 10
p.m., provided volunteer bicyclists keep on pedaling that long. Doors open at 6
p.m. with other activities, including a drum circle and information about the
planned energy-saving evening.
He's suggesting a $10 donation by anyone who shows up.
In a perfect world, the bicycle gadgetry would be rigged up so that energy
produced by the cyclists Saturday night would not only power the stage show but
would return energy to the community power grid. But in a perfect world, I
suppose, no one would have to exert themselves to hear the music.
Smith said the long-term goal is to create excess energy and sell it to the
utility company. Saturday night, these organizers will settle for a
demonstration of self-sustaining energy.
Aukofer said he's got volunteer cyclists lined up already, but more are
welcome. On each stationary bike, the flywheel connects to a roller blade
wheel, which connects to an alternator which produces the energy, which travels
by cable to a stabilizer that combines the power from all the bikes and
distributes it to lights, amps and other equipment.
O'Brien said that at some point in the concert, energy-inefficient light
bulbs will be screwed in and it'll be apparent how much more energy they suck
up because the bicyclists will have a harder time pedaling.
"The process is powered by the people," Smith said, which explains why
they're calling this happening a "Power to the People" concert. "There's a
synergy, a centrifugal force that's generated from the people providing the
power to make the music and the music providing the spirit to the people."
Aukofer, 52, seems like a man of big ideas and bigger ambitions.
He's a cafe owner (and principal barista there, at It's a Beautiful Day Cafe
in the Village of Pewaukee). A musician. An audio engineer. A self-described
master of all the construction trades. A sound engineer. A fitness instructor.
An environmentalist. A promoter.
Most of all, a dreamer.
Some day he hopes to turn his patch of farmland and nearby land into the
"Towering Pines Research and Development Center," where he can combine his
passions in an environmentally friendly place for health and wellness, fitness
and music.
He imagines solar panels covering the roof and wall of his barn and a wind
tower for generating power. Next door, he'd like to build a subdivision with
individual homes that are self-sustaining in energy use.
Downstairs, in the barn's former milking parlor, he envisions seminars and a
place for community meetings about health and wellness and music, his passions.
The granary will become an audio-visual control room, and out front, the hay
barn will house places for other fitness programs.
He can see "spinning" classes like the cycling sessions he now leads at Bally
Total Fitness Center in Brookfield - and maybe more pedal-powered concerts.
"People are sweating their brains out and it drips on the floor and
evaporates," he said. Imagine if he could harness it.
Smith reminded Aukofer that whoever wants to try and power Saturday night's
concert by jumping on the bikes and pedaling for a while needs to sign a waiver
statement.
Waiver? I guess I can see his point.
Did I mention that Buddy, our beloved hamster, bought a ticket to Hamster
Heaven while running on his exercise wheel?
Jessica Wineberg
Education and Planning
Bicycle Federation of WI
1845 N Farwell, Suite 100
Milwaukee, WI 53202
414-431-1761
www.BFW.org
---------------------------------
Jessica Wineberg
Education and Planning
Bicycle Federation of WI
1845 N Farwell, Suite 100
Milwaukee, WI 53202
414-431-1761
www.BFW.org
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