Bicycles at Maker Faire

Momentum Magazine. Publisher Amy Walker, Associate Publisher Tania Lo and Marketing/Partnership Director Mia Kohout of Momentum Magazin are in the Maker Faire Expo. You'll find the Momentum booth south of the big HP banner hanging from the ceiling near the center of the Expo building. Drop by, tell them Richard from Cyclelicious sent you and pick up a free copy of the May/June 2008 issue which features an article by me. Oh, and there's a photo of some guy named Lance Armstrong on the cover, too.

Bike Town. Bike Town is an area of bike hackers just west of the Expo building. If you signed a waiver, you can even try riding some of the bikey creations around the Maker Faire grounds. They include Segue Fischlin's Frankentrikes and other interesting creations; Tom Kabat's wooden bikes, including his famous driftwood bike, Peter Vieth's "serial hybrid" electric bicycles and Alison Chaiken's DIY hydration system for bicycles.

Heavy pedal cyclecide bike rodeo. CycleCide is at Maker Faire, over by the other things that go boom, woosh, and bang in the fenced off area by the fire acts, rocket launch pad and power tool drag races.

Human-powered Bike Music Stage. Rock the Bike does human-powered concerts using bicycle-based music systems. Audience members pedal power the audio system for performances by Fossil Fool, the Bike Rapper, and sustainable Rock N' Rollers SHAKE YOUR PEACE!, among others.

The Bus Cycle. Martin Krieg spent all day Saturday driving the Bus Cycle around the Faire grounds while blowing his whistle, with propulsion provided by teams of pedaling volunteers.

Parking. There were 40,000 people at Maker Faire on Saturday. If you read this before going on Sunday, don't drive. I drove -- from the time I exited Highway 92 until I got past the ticket gate was an hour and 45 minutes. Public transportation information is here, or bike to Maker Faire and use the valet bike parking provided by the Silicon Bicycle Coalition. Although the valet bike parking is free, the SVBC does collect donations so please drop a few dollars off for their service.

You'll need to excuse the irony of MAKE staffers wearing "If you can't open it you don't own it" t-shirts as they opened your bags to check for outside drinks and snacks, which are prohibited at Maker Faire.

My old film camera stopped working today, so I don't know if I'll have many photos. I'm also having problems downloading video from Maker Faire to my PC -- wish me luck!