7) Are There Other Bike-Touring Bands?

History:
It's a sure thing that for as long as bicycles have been around, musicians have been riding them with their instrument in tow. There's also been numbers of modern bands (some of whom are mentioned toward the bottom of this FAQ) who've toured on bicycles with the support of a sag-wagon/ support vehicle hauling all of their gear for them.

However, there's a new movement in music-bike-touring, based in N. California, that is defined by bands hauling all of their own gear, merchandise, and everything else, on their bicycles without the aid of a support van, and powering their PA systems with bicycle-based human-power. The advent of the Xtracycle longbike, combined with the ultra-light pedal-power technology developed by Rock The Bike and friends, have been a huge part of what's made this movement possible.

Other Bands:
Our good friends The Ginger Ninjas have really inspired SHAKE YOUR PEACE! in the last year, having toured from their hometown of North San Juan, CA, 5000 miles down to the bottom of Mexico in 2007-' 08 during their Pleasant Revolution Tour (the longest unsupported bike music tour, by far, that we know of). SHAKE YOUR PEACE! was honored to join them playing shows from the tour kick-off on Halloween 2007 as far south as San Diego, CA. It's appropriate to note that Kipchoge Spencer, the Ninjas lead guitarist, is the co-founder of Xtracycle.

The Bicycle Music Festival, an annual event held every summer in San Francisco now in its second year, is the largest celebration of bike-touring bands in the world. Bands such as The Sonya Cotton Band have been introduced to the bike-touring paradigm through the festival, and are now regularly touring on bikes.

North Carolina band: Dead Things (we love the Dead Things! www.slavemagazine.com/deadthings) did an entire punk rock tour of N. Carolina on bicycles without a support van. As far as we know they were the first to really make a serious tour happen without a support van.

Our good friend Fossil Fool the Bike Rapper tours locally on his bike: The Choprical Fish. Fossil Fool owns Berkeley-based Rock the Bike, one of the primary creative forces behind the development of lightweight bicycle audio, and a hub for bicycle-lifestylists.

Musician Jeremy Fisher has toured numerous times on his Xtracycle, including a tour across Canada. I'm told that he doesn't regularly tour on his bike these days.

Some of the musicians who are affiliated with www.Riotfolk.org have toured and continue to tour (?) on bicycles.

The Ditty-Bops did a biodiesel van-supported bike tour from their hometown of Santa Monica to New York City in 2006.

bicycle, the band (yes, it's with a lower case b) was the original bike touring band, and my understanding is that they tour with a support vehicle. I also hear they might be getting back together...

Do you know of other bicycle-touring bands? Tell us about them cause we want to play shows with them!