About

We’re bike people. We’re inventors and advocates working away in a sweet little workshop in Berkeley, California, pushing the limits of bike culture. Our dream is to help spread the spirit of the bike into the broader culture by organizing, entertaining, inspiring, educating, and inventing new ways to get the message out there. And more importantly, we help our customers spread the message in their communities.

Check out this 6-minute video to learn about the Philosophy of Rock The Bike. This interview and performance footage of Rock The Bike’s founder Paul Freedman, a.k.a. Fossil Fool, was taken during the 2010 Barcelona Bicycle Music Festival. Many thanks to Jonathan Grevsen, the videographer and editor. Thanks also to the Pleasant Revolution, a bike-touring music group sponsored by Rock The Bike. The Pleasant Revolution toured Europe for 6 months in 2010 without vans or trucks. Fossil Fool joined for the Spanish leg of the tour, and contributed to the Barcelona Bicycle Music Festival. Also shown performing: Jared May, bass, the Genie, guitar.

Paul Freedman – The Pleasant Revolution from Jonathan Grevsen on Vimeo.

Paul was also recently in Vancouver, BC for the 2013 Ted Talent Search. Below you can watch the video, and if you go to this page you can comment on his talk.

Contact Details:

Email & Gchat: RockTheBike@gmail.com

Local and (International) Calls: (+01) 510 548 2453
11am – 7pm PST

Toll Free: 1 888 354 2453

Snail Mail/Shop Address:

Question about Payment or Shipping? Click here to read our store policies.

Want to get inspired? Follow our rad photoblogs on Flickr

We use Flickr to document the daily life in Rock The Bike-landia. This is often the most up to date feed of our story.

Rock The Bike

Rock The Bike Founder Paul Freedman, a.k.a. Fossil Fool, the Bike Rapper, flickr handle: “Rock The Bike“

Paul went out into the front row at Lincoln High School for this shot of a Youth Speaks slam poetry session, pedal powered by Rock The Bike.

Paul stopped by The Place for Sustainable Living on Bike To Work Day and offered up a Bike Blended Smoothie.

Paul’s at all the Rock The Bike events, which he faithfully documents as well as his own custom Soul Cycle creations, including his famous tall bike, El Arbol (the Bike Tree). His bike rapping alterego Fossil Fool is known for hosting bomb street parties.

Leifcycle

Our product designer and engineer, customer service free agent, tubobooming Leif, a.k.a. leifcycle

Always capturing the shop builds. Check out this series of our intern Jeff bending the boom tube of a Fender Blender Pro.

RTBWilson

Wilson always brings the bike party enthusiasm to Rock the Bike, and captures our custom FBP’s before they head out the door: RTBWilson

See our best videos on YouTube

Rock The Bike

These are our polished videos. All of these went through an extensive editing process, so we pick and choose our projects. Enjoy! If you want to see them in their high-def glory, pick up a copy of our “Bike Culture Blowin Up” DVD, published in December 2008, free when you order a Down Low Glow, Fender Blender, Mundo, Xtracycle, Incredibell, you get the idea. Left: One of the highlight videos from the 2008 San Francisco Bicycle Music Festival.

Fossil Fool

Fossil Fool caught this video of Pete Brandt The Bike Rapper and Rock The Bike’s senior bicycle customizer, Fossil Fool‘s YouTube videos are quick edits of fresh material from the life of Fossil Fool. Most don’t even have a title screen.

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The bike is about so much more than transportation or environmentalism or physical fitness. It’s about bringing the element of magic into our communities. You can’t ride a bike and not be part of a community. We hope that our inventions and outreach efforts help more people experience this magic.

We’re developing a new school of bicycle advocacy, working off of the old writer’s adage “Show, don’t tell.” If you want more people in your community to ride bikes, then get out their and show them how fun, cool, and sexy it is. We make the kind of bikes that make died-in-the-wool car people want to ride bikes. We get pulled over by cops when we’re riding. Not because we’ve done anything wrong. They just want to know where we got our bikes.

Too much of bicycle advocacy is about guilt-tripping and negativity. You’re too fat. You’re stinking up the planet. You’re causing traffic. The ‘Sex Appeal School of Bike Advocacy’ is about accentuating the positive, not guilt-tripping and alienating people. We love it when a driver rolls down and asks for directions. OK, maybe not a Hummer driver. Anyway, it’s all about shining our light brightly and spreading a positive message in the community. Rock The Bike!