From Kraftwerk member Ralf Hütter's Wikipeidia page:  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralf_Hütter)

Cycling Interests

Ralf Hütter is an enthusiastic cycling fan. This is shown in some of the band's work and an urban myth claimed that when the band would tour, the bus would drop Hütter off 100 miles before the venue, and he would cycle the rest of the way. The band members took up cycling when recording the album The Man-Machine in the late 1970s. Ralf Hütter had been looking for a new form of exercise. The single Tour de France included sounds that followed this theme including bicycle chains, gear mechanisms and the breathing of the cyclist. At the time of the single's release Ralf Hütter tried to persuade the rest of the band that they should record a whole album based around cycling. At the time this did not happen, but the project eventually was released as Tour de France Soundtracks in 2003.

Hütter was involved in a serious cycling accident in 1983, during the initial period of recording of the since-abandoned album Techno Pop.^[2] Only the single "Tour de France" and demos of "Techno Pop" and "Sex Object", would find their way into bootleg releases after this accident. He was put in a coma as a result of the accident. Karl Bartos stated the first thing he said when he awoke from his coma was "Where is my bicycle?" a story Hütter later disputed in a June 2009 interview in The Guardian.^[2]

NME - September 1975^[3]