Wheels for Change: Brompton bike auction to help sidelined tour crews

If you’ve taken up cycling during the pandemic as a way to get some fresh air, check out this auction of music-inspired bikes to benefit touring crews for bands. 

With designs from Foo Fighters, Rise Against, Radiohead, Phoebe Bridgers, LCD Soundsystem, Khruangbin, Nathan East, Dinosaur Jr, Oh Wonder, Underworld, Sub Pop, Enrique Iglesias and Neko Case, the one-of-a-kind Brompton folding bikes will be auctioned off to benefit Crew Nation. 

The bikes will be up for auction between May 28 and June 21 through Greenhouse Auctions, an online platform designed to help empower artists and promote diversity, with all of the proceeds going to Crew Nation, a global relief fund from Live Nation to help support out-of-work touring crews who have been sidelined by the pandemic. 

Bikes influenced and designed by Radiohead, Oh Wonder, Rise Against and Dinosaur Jr can be seen here; the rest will be revealed in the next few weeks over on Brompton’s Instagram and Facebook accounts. 

“I’m ridiculously happy to have been asked to design a Brompton bike that’ll be auctioned to raise money and awareness for Crew Nation,” says Stanley Donwood, who used Radiohead’s late ‘90s bear logo and the In Rainbows album graphic on that band’s bike. Donwood has been designing Radiohead’s album covers for nearly 30 years. 

‘We’re lucky to count a number of musicians and their crews as dear friends and over the years Brompton bikes have found a moving home on tour buses and been ridden by crews while out on the road,” says Tevis Jory, Music Project Lead and North American Sales Manager for Brompton. “While artists, crews and the people who bring music to life have seen their livelihoods disappear, the bike industry has been booming, which led us to ask, ‘how can Brompton help?’” 

More information on the auction can be found here.