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Touring Cellist Kristin Rule Takes to the Road on Solar Bicycle

by Terrence O'Brien on August 31, 2010 at 01:50 PM

The Unconventional Cellist's Touring Bike
When Kristin Rule (a.k.a. The Unconventional Cellist) started planning her 2010 tour to support her latest album, she decided to use it as an opportunity to promote a "green" message. Her appropriately named Slow Ride Album Launch tour will have Rule riding a bicycle across Australia, lugging her cello behind her. Dragging the sizable instrument around the continent via pedal power would be hard enough if the entire nation were flat, but getting up hills would prove nearly impossible if it weren't for her constant companion: the Mechanarchy Watt-Bot, a solar-powered, electric-assist bike trailer. The Watt-Bot will push her two-wheeled transport up difficult stretches without polluting the air, and without requiring quads the size of telephone poles.

The environmentally friendly trailer is built by hand from recycled materials, and its pair of 12-volt batteries can be used as a power source and generator when outlets aren't readily available. This mentality follows Rule off the bike, as well. Her album, 'The Knife That Cuts a Tear' comes packaged in a plastic-free, 100-percent post-consumer cardboard case printed with soy-based inks. For our readers Down Under, the Slow Ride tour kicks off on November 20th in Melbourne. For everyone else, catch Rule's new album here.

Tags: bicycle, cello, kristin rule, KristinRule, the unconventional cellist, theunconventionalcellist, top

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