Rock ’n’ roll is Here to Chainstay

There seems to be a growing number of musical performers touring by bicycle these days, which is pretty cool.

One of the first cycling troubadours I recall hearing about was Canadian Jeremy Fisher, who crossed the continent in 2002 on his “One Less Tourbus” show. Then, in the summer of 2006, we at Adventure Cycling helped the Ditty Bops--aka Amanda Barrett and Abby DeWald--find their way across America by bicycle. (The most spot-on description of this duo’s music I’ve seen was this from Newsweek: “Sounds like what Betty Boop might have had on her iPod.”)

More recently, the folk/pop group Blind Pilot, whose primary members are singer-guitarist Israel Nebeker and drummer Ryan Dobrowski, were seen cycling and singing up and down the West Coast. And then we have the upcoming-in-May Utahpia! Bike Music Tour, whose organizers aim to “cultivate sustainable culture in the desert.” The San Francisco-based band Shake Your Peace will perform with power provided by audience members spinning on an electricity-generating stationary bicycle. They’ll also pedal from venue to venue in Utah, eschewing a tour bus.

Finally, the Ginger Ninjas, who pedaled and performed from northern California to southern Mexico in 2007, plan to take their Pleasant Revolution tour to Europe this summer. If you know of any other bands or solo acts who are touring from gig to gig via bicycle, please fill us in--maybe we can craft a feature article in Adventure Cyclist magazine about the movement, and help turn it into a trend.


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Biking Without Borders is written by Michael ‘Mac’ McCoy, Adventure Cycling’s field editor. It appears weekly, highlighting a little bit of this or a little bit of that--just about anything, as long as it’s related to traveling by bicycle.