Rock the Bike

Social biking with Fossil Fool and the Juice Pedaler. By Paul Spinrad

cruiser ride before, here’s what happens. You and your party gather someplace in town and maybe have some beers and/or dinner. Then you ride. The city and the night are yours. If you’re lucky, one of you is on a Soul Cycle, supplying the soundtrack. The audio is thrillingly crisp, far better than any car stereo, thanks to no engine and less tire noise. You pedal, steer, and move to the beat, and some of your friends sing along, but others chat and laugh, steering in and out of different conversations. As the sky darkens, Down Low Glow tubes spill rolling pools of vivid, colored light onto the pavement below. Every pedestrian that your group passes smiles, waves, sways to the beat, or shouts “Right on!” and throws you a thumbs up. (But interestingly, people who are shut inside of cars tend not to acknowledge you.) “Bikes are better social tools than cars,” notes Paul “Fossil Fool” Freedman, the San Francisco-based inventor, alpha rider, and merchant of the Soul Cycle in its many incarnations. “You can stop anywhere, talk, interact. If you ask a driver whether they want more cars on the road, they’ll say no, but ask a cyclist if they want more bikes, and they’ll say yes.”

IF YOU’VE NEVER BEEN ON A BICYCLE

Freedman’s Soul Cycles are ultimate party bikes, low-slung cruisers with slick lighting and detailing, seating for two, and gut-thumping sound systems. Freedman’s original inspiration came from a manager at the bike shop where he worked during high school, Buddy Bob, who lit up local night biking events with a recumbent that towed a stereo and a beer keg.

Photograph by Paul Spinrad

A few years later, after he graduated from Harvard, Freedman moved to San Francisco and started working for Xtracycle, a company that makes “sport utility bicycle” frame extensions.

Using car stereo components, the Xtracycle gang put together their Salsa Cycle for a promotional tour of Utah and Colorado, and on a warm summer’s night riding along to James Brown’s “Same Beat,” Freedman was hooked.

Before the Soul Cycle, bike audio meant either tinny

little systems that clip onto handlebars, or clunky assemblages clamped to racks. Freedman started refining the form, putting controls in front to make them reachable while riding. The latest ones transmit the music signal wirelessly from bike to bike, to enable mob surround sound. Soul Cycle backrests, which house the amp, mixer, and battery, have evolved from wood boxes to rounded bamboo shapes to sculpted fiberglass with colored lights.

Freedman’s new Chopper model dispenses with the Xtracycle base completely, substituting a custom frame he co-designed with Curtis Inglis. The Chopper also has a curved, laminated, carbon-fiber and bamboo seat post that you can swing and lock into different positions while riding, to switch between hill-climbing, commuting, and low-rider cruising mode.

Freedman’s custom Soul Cycles are priced for high rollers, but for the rest of us he sells products that let you turn your own ordinary bike into a cruise-compliant party machine. The Down Low Glow is a ground-effects kit that splashes colored light down

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