Feats Per Minute @dezeenspace

What if you would be able to generate music by the simple act of riding your bike? This project started with that question. We have build the first prototype and thanks to Jeffry Sol and Vincent Beijersbergen we were able to do so in a month. And yes it was pretty difficult, but loads of fun.... the idea is pretty simple; basicly, a wheel and dynamo work the same way as a record player. But it was not as easy as it looks. First, we had to come up with a solution for the wheels; how can we change the records? The forfork was blocking the wheel. That's why we changed a 30 year old bike into a lefty bike; and build a construction that would still support the weight and would be strong enough for people to ride on it. The biggest challenge of all was to make sure that the needles would stick to the record and follow the grooves, without skipping too much. Therefor we bought two vertical record players and took them apart, to see how they worked. Also; we wanted our bike to be as low tech as possible; that's why the only "extra" energy we used was a 9 volt battery to support the amplifier. In order for the records to run smoothly, we also had to change the crank of the bike and the chain. After that, we build our own horn, to have some extra volume, and we sprayed the whole bike black. We had some sponsors like bikestores, handy people and DJ's and that's how our dream in progress turned out to be real... Here's to the crazy ones; thank you guys, you rock. - Merel, Pieter and Liat

www.featsperminute.com

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• bike
• bicycle
• plays
• vinyl
• records
• dezeen
• artspace

[kinkyleightonBRSS]

would be quality to see this on a fixed wheel setup, could play the record backwards then,

maybe also add one to the front and you could attempt mixing two records (of same tempo that is)

great project!!!!!!

[pieterstreepjefrank]

@kinkyleightonBRSS it IS a fixed wheel setup !!! and thank you for the compliment :)

[akikoorito]

Hello, I'm a Japanese art school student.

Last year, I came up with a similar idea and made my prototype

If you have some interest, please take a look at my work exhibited on January 2011.

Please search by the Title “Singing Bicycle” on Youtube.

You can ride the bike playing a record.

This “Singing Bicycle” plays all the background sound.

Technically, the most difficult part was needle jumping, just like yours.

[pieterstreepjefrank]

@akikoorito cool we will do so! thanx for the feedback!

[tomcat6423]

please ship this to Portland OR. There are plenty of records here......and how do you account for different RPM records? 78/45/33?

[pieterstreepjefrank]

@tomcat6423 We would love to ship feats to portland, help us get there ;) On the RPM thing, we're working to make our own records designed just for feats, also, the higher the RPM the better it works!

[Jakalvar]

1. Buy Hipster Record Bike.

2. Make a record of Nyan Cat.

3. Put record on bike.

4. ???

5. Profit!

[pieterstreepjefrank]

The record stays stable because we used the mechanics of two vertical record players. The Record gets "screwed" on with a little cap. The needle has a spring in it so it stays stable on the record. This is our furst prototype, and there is still a lot of ground to cover, so any input or extra thought on how to make it work better is more than welcome!

[MouseGr8House]

te gek dit , echt geniaal

[jeanely14]

What's the name of this song?

[thekynan]

Now lets see someone scratch on it!