The Electric Pedals team are artists, physicists, educationalists, eco-warriers and all round tea lovers, and there are only two of them!
Colin Tonks and Tim Siddall are adventuring in the world of pedal-power, producing a variety of installations to illustrate how much electricity is required to power even the smallest household goods. But better than that, they’re having fun and entertaining crowds at the same time.
History
Electric Pedals began when Tim Siddall built a bicycle-powered guitar amp to play at a gig in November 2006.
Colin Tonks and Tim Siddall
A heavy tea-drinker, Tim began experiencing a sense of wonder each time he turned on a kettle, and decided that in future, he would only drink tea if he pedalled to boil the water. This short lived resolution eventually resulted in the slightly more practical “Pedal-Powered Tea Stall” which debuted at Kingston Green Fair in May 2007. Tim is also a musician who performs regularly on the London circuit.
Having witnessed the pedal-powered lanterns designed by Tim Siddall and the great David Butcher at the Big Chill festival in 2007, Colin was inspired to get involved in pedal-power. A few months later and a few bizarre coincidences down the line, he found out that Tim lived on the same street! Colin joined electric pedals in 2008. It’s not unusual to find him personally charging up a 500 farad ultra-capacitor in order to test a new idea and explaining to interested passers-by the implications for pedal-powered systems of pulse width modulation and Reverse Bias effect.
Electric Pedals are based in Nunhead, London SE15.
