We're Creating a Cruising-with-Music Platform for '08 and beyond


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Let's say you're inspired to create a music system for your bike that has the ability to rock a social ride with 10, 20, 50, or more people.

Unfortunately, there are no products on the market that allow you to do this. The only bicycle audio products on the market are ones that include speakers 3" or smaller. There's no way a three-inch speaker can generate the amount of bass that makes you or the people around you feel like they're 'in the music'. To do it properly you have to build your own. And while that may be appealing to some people, others, you perhaps, may not have the time or workshop space to make it happen. But you still want to have the awesome experience of leading social rides with a righteous music system, with beautiful integrated lighting, great bass, crisp vocals, controls on the handlebars, you know, the works.

To answer this need, Rock the Bike is creating a proper Cruising platform for bicycles. It will include the Soul Cycle Head Unit, which we've had on the market for two years, and a new beautiful, streamlined fiberglass bicycle-specific speaker box, which will be available in early '08. The new fiberglass cabinet will initially be compatible with the Xtracycle platform, but we will be releasing other versions (for the Mundo Utility Bicycle and potentially for standard rear racks.

Check out our Flickr photoset we're creating that shows the process of creating the Soul Cycle Mothership, as we call the new music cabinet. When you see the care and attention to detail that is going into the new music system, you'll get psyched about it's debut this year.

 

 

 

Bring on the Mothership

Love the idea-I usually throw my speakers in the bags on my xtracycle which is less than desireable as far as producing good sound but also visually doesn't look so great either. I'm guessing that the new speaker cabinet is designed to fit on an xtracycle, correct? For those of us whose party bike is also their work/commute bike, does this speaker cabinet easily come on and off of an xtracycle or would it have to remain on your xtracycle all the time?

First will be the Xtracycle.

Thanks for your questions John.

Yes, the first bike to be compatible with the Mothership will be the Xtracycle. But others will be compatible soon after, including the Mundo, and possibly folding bikes and Jandd bike racks.

The Mothership will absolutely have an on/off time that's as quick or quicker than what you're doing right now with placing speakers in the Xtracycle FreeLoaders. It's really important for our style of bike advocacy that party bikes can also be used to carry things and get places. I love art bikes like the Dragon Bike and dedicated party bikes like the Choprical Fish, but in terms of what is needed to spread our message, the bikes we use for social rides have to be ready for commuting and errand-doing.

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Fossil Fool, the Bike Rapper

Another Question

If you already have a soul cycle head unit, i'm assuming you can buy the speaker cabinet separately, correct? Also, any idea what the speaker cabinet will cost?

No idea on cost yet. Will be compatible with existing head units

Good questions. Cost is a big one. We simply don't know how much the Mothership cabinet will cost at this point. It depends on the materials cost and the time required to lay the fiberglass up, pop it out of the mold, and do the very finicky finish work. We're trying to systematize this as much as possible to bring the cost per unit down.

The mothership will be compatible with existing head units.

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Fossil Fool, the Bike Rapper

How's the mothership(new cabinet) coming along?

Looks pretty cool in the pics. Any idea when it will be done?

Trying to fulfill an order for Clif Bar for early March

The first customer for the Mothership is Clif Bar, who'll be using it on their 2 Mile Challenge (bike advocacy tour) and at events like marathons to stoke the crowd. They want to use it for an event in early March and I'm racing to complete it for them.

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Fossil Fool, the Bike Rapper

New Soul Cycle Head Unit

So i see in one of the photos, what looks to be a new bigger Soul Cycle head unit? I imagine you have this somewhere else on your site, but I couldn't find it. What are the key new features to the new improved Soul cycle Head Unit? How does it compare to the original soul cycle head unit?

Thanks for the nudge

Hi John, I've been meaning to write up the new head unit. The main difference between it and the one you own is that it's more of a platform for bicycle audio customizers, and less of a ready to go solution. It's something that will people like Julio, who want to make their own cruising setup, but wouldn't mind a little help with the hard parts like making a front-mounted quick-release console. We'll probably sell a lot of these in kit form, giving people guidance on how to use it to complete a party bike build. I imagine we'll also use the new head unit ourselves for custom work.

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Fossil Fool, the Bike Rapper

cool

can't wait to see the finished product!