Monday, March 21, 2011

Birthday Pinata and Blake Hicks

Dropout Birthday Weekend was a blast and went off better than be planned.

dropout birthday pinata from deadbuny on Vimeo.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

It's our 6th Birthday Weekend!!!

Come celebrate Dropout Bike Club's 6th Birthday, with a weekend of riding bikes and having fun.

Word is Chops is coming up from his Teepee in Southern Oregon for this! Expect the same fun lovin club with focus on freak bikes, outdoors, and beer.

Friday: ...We will have our normal monthly club ride starting at Col. Summers Park, meet at 9pm and ride at 10pm. We will have a game stop and The Sprockettes will be performing.

Saturday: Meet at Col. Summers at 2pm for fun bike events til 5pm. -Freakbike tractor pull(Dropout making trophy) -Jousting(Dropout making trophy) -Best mount/dismount(win booze) -beverage chug relay(win more booze).

at 6pm 1st wave can either ride with DOBC for bar-BQ at party spot or go do your own thing.

Saturday Night: 2nd Wave, Meet back up at Col. Summers at 7:30pm, we ride out from park at 8pm for a night with more bike fun at party location and performances by:

Karl & The Jerks(Garage Soul) Crank My Chain(rock'n'roll) Blake Hicks(Flatland) Nostalgia DMLH(Hip Hop, Tall Tour street team) Ivizia and special guest Jesus The Sexbots(sexy electro) DJ Sysfail playing dance music inbetween and after.

Sunday: Sunday of Slack Bar-BQ, come hangout with Dropouts and grill. Location: meetup at Col. Summers at 1:30pm, we ride at 2pm

Will have more info ASAP but mark your calendars.

Friday, March 4, 2011

Thunder Twins review of FM transmitters on bike rides.

Thunder Twins has been bring sound systems on bike fun rides for about 5 years now in Portland and we have tried A LOT of different things and learned much. Pre-amps, amp/speaker configurations, splitters, and FM transmitter.
A lot of people have asked me about using FM transmitter on bike rides lately and I really have wanted it to work but have to say FM transmitters have a number of downsides that make them sort of lame especially for dance music.

Our Thunder Twins setup(3 or 4 sound systems) have experimented with FM since last year. At this point, we plan on using it for is our upcoming Dropout Bike In Filmfest April 16th but not planning for rides.

Stuff we use: 2 watt transmitter. Sounds systems range from 100 to 400 watts.

Why it sucks for bike rides:
1. Interference, lots of static. Cause everything is moving around. Even when people walk between the transmitter and receiver it will make some static.
2. You can't have sound source(aka magnets) near the transmitter, creates electro magnetic interference....noise.
3. Lack of Bass, even when setup in flat non moving place, there is a noticeable loss of bass response.
4. Noticeable delay, which has a few factors. Most digital music players have a conversion delay in FM receiver. So with a mix of digital and analog receivers it can sound like a racket. Mostly if there is one or two louder system.
5. Battery is Non regulated power, so as your battery get's lower it sounds worse. 6. Typically in a ride you go out of range, buildings, and etc.

In summary it just don't sound good.

-Sysfail