here - Boneshaker Magazine

boneshaker
magazine
issue #1
Cycling
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© Adam Faraday
Since helping to set up and run
a community bike project here
in Bristol, my eyes have been
opened to the breadth of people
and projects around the world
doing great great things with
bicycles. And what impresses
me most about the vast majority
of these is the humanity and
desire to do things for the greater
good that almost always seem to
be an integral part of them.
Boneshaker is an attempt to bring
together some of these people
and projects, both on a local level
starting with my hometown of
Bristol, UK – where there is a
steady-growing, vibrant bicycle
culture – to further afield and
around the globe. It is my hope
that the following pages will
both inspire and entertain, raise
awareness and bring a smile to
your face... and appeal to both
bike-heads and to those who may
not yet even have experienced
the true joy and freedom that can
be found from our two-wheeled
friends. Thanks for reading.
James Lucas
www.thebristolbikeproject.org
Contents
Last Summer I packed a few things into
panniers and rode my bike around the coast
of Britain. I wanted to learn a bit more about
the country where I have lived all my life and
know so little about. I wanted to learn about
people too. So undertook to make some
soundslide films about the people I met on the
way. The amazing people who live and work
on our coast. In all I made about 80 little films.
I sat up in my tent at night and edited them
before finding an internet café the next day
to upload onto my site. They have a rough edge
but (I think) a nice instant quality about them.
Here are extracts from two of the films.
Nick Hand slowcoast.co.uk
er said, you should put your name
ather’s name’s been there long
here, I’m quite happy at that. He’s
, so.
Puncture Kit
My Beautiful Bike
Mini Bike Winter Olympics VII
Jake’s Bikes
Serai
Spoke‘n’chain
‘Tunnel’
Slowcoast Soundslides
Tour of Switzerland 1966
The Bicycle Quick Release: Let ‘em have it
Bicycology
My Beautiful Bike.
The Magician
Crimanimalz
The Bristol Bike Project
Riding Guatemala City
Contents
My bicycle is a speckled white Raleigh Elan. I bought it from the
Bristol Cycle Hub over a year ago and thanks to their great
servicing before my purchase, it has run smoothly ever since.
As time went on I embellished the Elan and treated it to some
needle threaded leather grips and stripped the graphics from
the frame to make space for a new theme. This theme is in the
form of two miniature bubble stickers. The first is Michael
Jackson’s face positioned between the handlebars, and the
second his signature placed on the rear of the frame. With these
sited my bike was complete. On the tragic day that Michael
passed away I noticed that the bubble sticker that had faced me
for many months had become separated from my bicycle and
lay on the floor of my bedroom. The previous days cycling in the
rain could have loosened the glue, dislodging the sticker, but I
like to believe that there is a supernatural bond between my
bicycle and Michael Jackson.
The sticker has since been replaced with a different portrait of Michael
in memory of the great entertainer.
Illustration and words by Robert Hunter
www.rob-hunter.co.uk
contributors
john coe, nick hand, adam faraday, gavin wilshen, ali sparror, robert hunter,
jethro brice, maria baños-smith, sébastien bernaert, nick soucek, todd legler,
bob coe, imogen, hal bergman, stine stensbak & jimmy ell
ing a bike. It was more buying
, whatever. But they would leave
ey went down the town to do their
So they just came here, parked
d anything doing to it, the two
see to it before they came back
t was five o’clock it would be
e, if it was only an hour at the
or two probably. So some of them
uite as straight as they’d come.
well on when I took over. They
nd close at maybe five or six. I’m
and close at four, sometimes now
’m going that way now, same as
here to hide, my wife took early
see you sitting doing a crosse for an hour and a half. If I want
coffee and a crossword for an
it. It’s what I call my bolthole. If I
ust put a notice up saying ‘gone
inconvenience’ with wee letters
damn (laughs)’ But no, I quite
any that comes and goes.”
backpats and handclaps
yael ben-gigi, nick hand, taylor bros, the bristol bike project crew,
howies, richie thomassen & chris carlsson
copyrights & disclaimers
Boneshaker is a quarterly publication. The articles published reflect the opinions of their respective authors
and are not necessarily those of the publishers and editorial team. ©2010 Boneshaker.
Printed with paper from sustainable sources by Taylor Brothers Bristol Ltd.
13-25 Wilder Street, Bristol BS2 8PY / Tel 0117 924 5452
Conceived, compiled & edited by jimmy ell
Designed and published by coecreative / www.coecreative.com
Cover image by adam faraday / www.adamfaraday.com
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48
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words jimmy ell
colour photography alex pettman
b&w photography luis bernardo cano
The first time I saw Puncture Kit was a youtube clip of
him street-busking earlier this year. In it, we see him
cycling around London before setting up his drums on
his upturned bicycle at a busy traffic intersection.
A smartly-dressed gentleman stands to one side and
taps his foot in appreciation, whilst an excitable man in
a Scream mask and cape appears and begins spiraling
around him crazily. A crowd congregates and as the
incredible, percussive rhythms that he pulls from his
drums come to an end, a hearty round of applause is
heard. He packs up his drums into his panniers and
cycles away into the night.
Puncture Kit, aka David Osborne, is an Australian
chap who conjures up a mix of energetic drum‘n’bass
/ jungle / breaks from his drum kit-cum-bicycle that
he also uses daily to ride around on. It takes just 20
minutes to transform his bike into a drum kit with 5
cymbals, 3 snare drums and a foot pedal. He made his
festival debut at Glastonbury Dance Village 2009 last
year and can be seen day and night busking around the
east-end of London. I spoke with him briefly and here’s
what he had to say:
6
www.puncturekit.co.uk
ffi: [email protected]
Hello puncture kit! It says on your website that
‘Puncture Kit was brought to life after sitting in
London’s Green Park with my new bicycle not long
after arriving from Australia in June 2008… no
car, no drums, and a need to create beats’. What
gave you the inspiration to combine two great bits
of gear into one– the bike and the drum kit?
I love doing both and so it was just logical to
me! I moved from Australia to the UK in the
summer of 2008 because I wanted to travel
and pursue music further. I was playing and
recording in some bands when I got here but
still needed a way to earn some money to get
by. I used to be inspired by street performers in
the main mall of my home town, in Adelaide,
and used to watch them in my lunchtimes, but
never thought I’d eventually be doing it myself.
I was originally thinking of carrying around a
small drum kit on the tube and buses but then
one day when I was looking at my bike I just
thought it was the perfect drum frame for
some toy drums!
8
“...one day when I was looking
at my bike I just thought it
was the perfect drum frame for
some toy drums!”
How easy was it to adapt your bike to
accommodate the drums? Did it take long to get it
right and was there a lot of tweaking involved?
It wasn’t that easy to think it all out – it
took a lot of experimenting to get it right
ergonomically and only last week I was
back in the workshop again grinding bits
off and re-welding better brackets on, etc.
It also took quite a while to find and then
modify drums that would be strong, yet small
enough and also sound good. I wanted a lot
of different weird percussion too, as I’m a
huge Aphex Twin fan and love the way beats
can be played just on percussion and make
them sound quirky.
It is funny watching the youtube clips of you
busking and to see the public’s responses to your
performance – is it generally all-round good vibes
when you take to the streets?
Yeah, mostly it’s great vibes and people get right
into it - just the other day a guy came up and
hugged me and was crying after watching my
performance! I am really grateful that people find
it inspiring and like to take videos and pictures
of me performing and I enjoy talking to people
afterwards who want to know all about how
Puncture Kit came about and I particularly enjoy
it when people say it’s inspired them to take up
an instrument. A performance highlight was
definitely playing Glastonbury Dance Village
last year when I was booked to just play busking
style around the village during the day, but then a
stage manager gave me a slot on his stage later that
night and it was loads of fun!
What do you make of the current
bike culture in London?
The bike culture in London is very strong.
There is a big cycling community and it’s very
friendly and as with any big city, many people
in cars (i.e. taxi drivers) find this irritating. I
feel that London does try and promote cycling,
although most of it seems to be done by
independent, not-for-profit organizations and
individuals, which is the way with most good
things hey?!
Have you always enjoyed riding a bicycle?
I’ve either had BMX’s, road bikes or mountain
bikes at some point in my life. I grew up in
Adelaide with beautiful hilly terrain and amazing
scenery and the best way to explore that was
always on two wheels with a bag of bananas...
I imagine that it must be really great for you to have
the combination of the more formal, live performance
in clubs (collaborating musically and technically with
Axel Castro / Silverhaze) combined with the more
improvised, free, street-busking side of it – is that
balance something that you enjoy?
Yeah, I love doing both and each one helps
the other. I treat the street-busking style just as
importantly as if I were doing a full stage show.
If you put yourself out there in the public, where
you’re basically saying ‘check this out’, then you’ve
got a responsibility to do your best. Nobody wants
to listen to someone ‘practicing’ in the street,
which is what a lot of people think busking is
good for. The collaboration with Axel is great.
We both write electronic music together and
individually. He is an accomplished producer and
most of the ideas I have for the electronica side of
Puncture Kit are in ‘sketch’ form. I usually whip
something up in Logic (basslines, effects etc) and
then work on it with Axel in order to come up
with a finished track. What are your coming plans for 2010?
This year I am putting out the Puncture
Kit album. It’s a mix of bicycle beats and
electronica - it’s all finished but I want to release
it with more live shows. Puncture Kit is what
I do now and I know that things take time to
develop. I would really like to be touring and
doing more live shows and would ideally love
to go on tour where I could busk in the city
during the day and play a live show at night...
it’ll happen soon!!
9
10
My Beautiful Bike.
My bicycle is a speckled white Raleigh Elan. I bought it from the
Bristol Cycle Hub over a year ago and thanks to their great
servicing before my purchase, it has run smoothly ever since.
As time went on I embellished the Elan and treated it to some
needle threaded leather grips and stripped the graphics from
the frame to make space for a new theme. This theme is in the
form of two miniature bubble stickers. The first is Michael
Jackson’s face positioned between the handlebars, and the
second his signature placed on the rear of the frame. With these
sited my bike was complete. On the tragic day that Michael
passed away I noticed that the bubble sticker that had faced me
for many months had become separated from my bicycle and
lay on the floor of my bedroom. The previous days cycling in the
rain could have loosened the glue, dislodging the sticker, but I
like to believe that there is a supernatural bond between my
bicycle and Michael Jackson.
The sticker has since been replaced with a different portrait of Michael
in memory of the great entertainer.
Illustration and words by Robert Hunter
www.rob-hunter.co.uk
11
Ben Hurt Chariot Wars
Mini Bike Winter Olympics VII | 2010
A yearly, 2-day bicycling event full of F.U.N., activities, partying and
biking brought to you by Zoobomb in Portland, Oregon.
Mini Bike Winter is the staple of crazy bicycling entertainment which keeps everyone
warm with laughter and... well, beer. It's an open invite event and free to all.
Shot/Cut by Richie Thomassen zoobomb.net
12
©2010 Hal Bergman Photography
watch here
http://vimeo.com/9715534
“Chariot Wars....
it’s fun to watch”
REVEREND PHIL, PDX
13
Profile:
Jake Voelcker
14
of Jake’s Bikes
words jimmy ell
photography adam faraday
15
I SAW BROKEN OR BADLY MAINTAINED
BIKES EVERYWHERE AND I JUST
WANTED TO FIX THEM AND GET
MORE PEOPLE CYCLING...!
W W W . J AK E S B I K E S.CO .UK
16
If you live in Bristol and ride a bike,
the chances are you will already have
heard of Jake. He is a friendly,
independent cycle mechanic, who
won’t make you feel stupid when
you ask him what that ‘clk-clk-clk’
sound is coming from your bike...
What sort of work do you do?
When did you start Jake’s Bikes?
Two years ago now. I was very naïve. I saw broken
or badly maintained bikes everywhere and I just
wanted to fix them and get more people cycling.
I didn’t really think about the practicalities,
and at the time I was a freelance web designer
and assumed that I could continue to earn my
living from that for a year or two and do bikes
a couple of days a week. I always imagined a
cosy little shed somewhere with a wood stove,
where I could do a lot of barter and trade and
swaps and charge people almost nothing. After
a bit of searching I found a small industrial unit
in Montpelier, Bristol, in which I could rent a
corner. Very quickly it got busy, and within a few
months I was doing it full-time.
And so you then decided to move to this larger
workshop space just around the corner?
Yeah, well it’s a bit more established now. I am in
a larger workshop and so can employ a couple of
other people (workshop assistant Jake & mechanic
Pete). When I started out people told me it takes
three years to get a new business off the ground and
I didn’t believe them, but they were right. I reckon
by the end of our third year in business I should be
able to pay myself a living wage, so it turns out that
it really does take that long.
Mainly maintenance, servicing and repairs. It
helps keep old bikes on the road and helps keep
people cycling. We also sell reconditioned used
bikes and build a few special bikes to order. We
work almost entirely on fairly practical bikes for
commuters and utility users: hybrids, city bikes,
tourers and so on. To be honest, it’s cycling as a
form of transport that I’m really interested in.
Are there many bike workshops similar to yourselves
based in the UK?
As far as I know, there are very few bike recycling
operations in the UK that aren’t charities and/
or externally funded in some way. The Oxford
Cycle Workshop has been going for a number of
years now and as far as I know does pretty similar
work to us on a larger scale and South Coast
Bikes in Brighton also run an appointment-only
workshop but don’t sell used bikes or do any
tuition. I do think that ours is a model that I’d
like to see copied in other cities, and as cycling
becomes more popular I think it will be. People
sometimes talk to me about ‘the competition’
from other bike projects or bike shops but I
don’t really see it that way. We currently help
The Bristol Bike Project where we can, who are
based right next door to us and I was pleased to
see a new independently-run bike shop open just
down the road in St. Werburghs.
17
As well as repairing and selling bikes, I also heard
that you were offering bike maintenance classes
too, is that right?
Yeah, just recently actually we’ve started running
tuition and evening classes. There is a series
of bike maintenance sessions for people who
want to learn how to fix their own brakes or
gears, and also a real beginners class for novices:
how to fix a puncture - that sort of thing. For
those who want to do more in-depth stuff like
a complete bearings service or wheel build, we
do one-to-one tuition. We’ve also just started a
weekly drop-in session on Thursday evenings
for people to come along and fix up their own
bike using our workshop and tools which is
ideal for customers who have some experience
but need a little guidance or want to use the
more specialist tools, and I hope it will make
bike servicing affordable even for those on a
very tight budget.
Your sign says you work by appointment only - why
is that?
Yes, this causes some confusion! Jake’s Bikes is
not a shop – it really is specifically a workshop
and when we’re busy working on customers’
bikes it’s difficult to handle retail sales. We’d have
to employ shop staff for that, and frankly I’m
just not interested in selling the latest widgets
and gizmos to punters on the high street. So we
have an appointments system like a car garage.
Customers book a time slot to drop their bike
off and discuss what work needs doing, and
then we can give a much more accurate estimate
of when the job will be done.
It’s funny that in Britain we see bikes as just
18
another consumer item that you buy from
a high street shop. Cars have proper service
centres and garages that work by good oldfashioned appointments systems. Why not for
bikes as well?
On that note, how do you think we can actually
change the way we look at bikes in Britain and
make them more appealing and acceptable as a
means of valid transportation and therefore get
more bums on seats?
Well, I think it’s all about normalising cycling
really - we have to get society to recognise bikes
as a legitimate, normal form of transport for
the masses instead of just a sporting or leisure
activity for the few and there are a whole lot
of things on many levels that we can slowly
change to bring about this shift. For example,
we need better cycling facilities, a wider range
of sensible, practical city bikes and cycling gear
and properly integrated cycle planning - not
just a few hastily tacked-on cycle lanes. We
also need petrol to be more expensive – which
is lucky because that’s going to happen in any
case and we need social demand for localisation,
eco awareness and healthier and safer cities –
which, again, we are slowly but surely starting
to see. Ultimately we need a shift away from
car culture and towards cycle culture. Then, not
only will drivers and policy makers and town
planners start to see bikes as real road vehicles
which have to be respected and given space, but
also cyclists themselves will become normalised
as responsible road users.
The trouble is that these things take time and
it’s easy to get despondent or burnt-out when
plugging away at cycle campaigning. Here and
now, one of the most effective actions is simply
to directly get more people cycling. The CTC’s
Safety in Numbers campaign (www.ctc.org.uk/
safetyinnumbers/) shows that the more people
cycle, the safer it is for each individual cyclist,
and the more political and social will exists to
improve cycling conditions. Then all the rest will
follow. The more people cycle, the more cycling
will be seen as being normal, so it becomes
self-perpetuating.
This really is the ethos behind Jake’s Bikes one by one, we work on getting more ‘normal’
people cycling; and it seems that if certain
individuals become customers, they can act as a
gateway to other members of their peer groups.
For example, we’ve built up a few nice touring
bikes in the past, and customers have headed off
to France and Spain and had the time of their
life. They then become something of a cycling
evangelist and before you know it a couple of
their friends turn up here in search of secondhand bikes.
Most are enthusiastic young male students, but
we have had several older ladies, each of whom
referred the next one to us, rediscovering the
joys of cycling just as soon as we had supplied
ULTIMATELY WE NEED A SHIFT
AWAY FROM CAR CULTURE AND
TOWARDS CYCLE CULTURE
19
them with suitably high handlebars or low gear
ratios or a step-through frame. Even with girls
in their late teens or early twenties, amongst
whom cycling rates are notoriously low, as soon
as one in their social group gets a stylish bike the
barriers start to break down and cycling begins
to become acceptable or even normal. You can
really see it when a customer, who six months
ago was a complete novice, turns up on a wellused bike talking knowledgeably about the best
cycle route to work!
I guess it’s also about showing people who rely on
having a car as a means of transporting stuff that it
can also be done within reason on a bike, right?
Yeah, absolutely – it’s about leading by example.
When we use a bike trailer to collect and pick
up bikes, it always attracts a lot of looks and
comments, mostly positive, and in a small
way it helps to show that it’s possible to carry
cargo without a car or van and makes people
think “maybe I could do that”. And lastly, it’s
also about being positive, that’s so important.
I’ve learnt that negative messages almost always
don’t work. Making someone feel bad about
their carbon footprint or lack of exercise doesn’t
help; supplying them with a bike and enabling
and empowering them to use it does.
20
It seems obvious from reading on your website
about your environmental policies that the ethics
of Jake’s Bikes is extremely important to you – how
difficult is it running a business whilst still staying
true to these ideals – do you have to make a lot of
compromises?
Yes and no. It’s not as if I was already running
a bike shop which I decided to try and make a
bit ‘greener’, so in a way it’s not difficult at all.
The whole point of Jake’s Bikes is the social and
the environmental. I used to work at CAT, the
eco-centre in Wales (www.cat.org.uk), and then
for a couple of other environment and climatechange related organisations, so by now I guess
it’s pretty ingrained in me, but I’d become a
bit jaded and cynical about environmental
campaigning, and working on bikes is a great
way of doing something positive and tangible
both environmentally and socially, instead of just
banging on about how screwed the planet is.
The really gratifying thing is that the ethical stance
of Jake’s Bikes is paying off, so I feel that kind of
justifies my idealism. Customers definitely like
the ethical stance, and some became customers as a
result of reading our policies on the website. I really
think that in an age when everything is disposable
and fast-paced and technology-heavy, it’s really
important to show that repair and reuse of old stuff
is still possible and socially acceptable. The very
existence of Jake’s Bikes in itself demonstrates
the viability of running a recycling-based,
environmentally-friendly business; but I’m not
pretending it’s all easy. Buying stock ethically is
difficult. Unfortunately there’s just no such thing
as local, organic, fair-trade bike components.
All we can do is re-use or recycle as much as
possible and buy all of our new parts from a
family-run supplier. New components which
wear out quickly are also tricky.
a bike which wears out quickly is still a whole lot
better than driving a car!
Lastly, what does 2010 hold in store for Jake’s Bikes?
Well a whole bunch of things I hope! I would
ideally like to be running more in-depth
bike repair classes; having courtesy bikes for
customers to borrow whilst their own is being
serviced; having a fleet of affordable long-term
hire bikes so that people can try cycling for a few
weeks or months without committing to
THE REALLY GRATIFYING THING IS THAT
THE ETHICAL STANCE IS PAYING OFF...
Wherever possible I try and persuade people to go
for the long-lived option rather than the lightest or
the cheapest, and there are plenty of things which
I simply refuse to stock on the grounds that they’re
just not designed to last. But the truth is that
modern bikes simply don’t last as long as thirtyor forty-year-old ones, and it pains me to have to
sell stuff which I know will end up in landfill in
five years time, but what else can we do? I comfort
myself with the thought that it’s for the greater
good: at least it’s helping people to cycle, and even
anything; hiring out cargo bikes, work bikes
and bike trailers of the sort that people wouldn’t
want to own themselves but would want to use
from time to time; having a community pool of
quality kids bikes that could simply be traded
in for the next size up as your child grows...
the list of possibilities is endless, and I would
be delighted if other businesses or organisations
joined in. What’s important is not that Jake’s
Bikes grows to do all these things, but just that
it all happens somehow.
21
words jimmy ell
photography adam faraday
www.spokenchain.blogspot.com
www.bikebeard.blogspot.com
spoke‘n’chain
Sylvie, Kev & Hinch are collectively known as Spoke‘n’Chain. They’re a wild bunch,
making even wilder-looking pedal-powered machines and are some of Bristol’s best bicycle
advocates. They took some time out from warping and welding their way through redundant
bicycle frames to have a chat with us. Here goes...
And so who exactly are you guys and
what are you up to?!
K: We are Kevin and Sylvie, Viva la velorution,
fun with bikes, it’s a carnival, a fairground, it’s
the future. We’re moving constantly and are
currently planning, thinking and involved in:
Cap’n Bikebeard, Les Velobici, Mokostumblies
and Two Loose Les Pegs (stilts), womens’ bicycle
maintenance/skill-sharing
group,
bicyclecostuming workshops, Bristol’s first Bicycle
Carnival, collaborations with the Magnificent
Revolution, World Naked Bike Ride, Bicycle
Basket Markets, The Polar Bee I-Cycle Cream
Company Carousel, The Ten Tallbikes Tour,
Running of the Bulls, The Quest, Sprockets and
Dust, Mini Bike Maypole, Equinox Rides, oh and
learning to weld!
What are you making at the moment?
We’ve just been finishing off 4 social tandems
for Cycling City’s Schools project and now we’ll
start on The Polar Bee Icycle Cream Company
Carousel (thanks to the support of Arts Council
England, Bristol City Council and Kambe Events).
What first got you interested in tinkering with
bikes and playing around with the notion of what
is regarded as cycling in a traditional sense?
K: I was part of Friends of the Earth and
involved in all sorts of environmental activism
back in the day – Cyclebag, the M32 cycling
club, the Bristol to Bath and Pill cyclepaths and
then moved into circus (including riding a stilt
tandem from Bristol to Maastricht) and now
carnival and fairground stuff.
Enter Sylvie who cycled backwards when she was 3
years old, was a cycle courier and moved house by
bicycle from Germany to England seven years ago.
S: Well, we began making stuff out of rubbish
for carnival, for stiltwalkers and for poubelle
dancers, to form a trash band alternative
carnival section. Then we started with the idea
of playing with broken bicycles and created
Dr. Scrap and then coincidentally,
Neighbourhood Arts asked us to put together
a cycling section for St. Pauls Carnival
2009 in Bristol and so Spoke‘n’Chain came
into being.
25
You always seem to be having so much fun with what
you are working on! Is this an important part of your
approach and outcome of what you do?
K: Fun is important that’s why we’re doing it
– we want people to have fun with their bikes
and everything, I completed a playworker
course last year and so of course!!! Spontaneous,
imaginative activities lead to happier, healthier
children and adults – fun is for everybody! It’s
free and active. It’s not passive consumerist or
spectator – come and participate and share and
join in... if joy goes, then freedom is in danger!
How is Bristol & its relationship with cycling at
the moment?
K: There’s definitely something in the air, but
it is not a great place to cycle. I haven’t had
a bike for the last 10 years, as on my return
from Germany I found cycling here more
unpleasant than 20-25 years ago but there
is something going on - Cycling City has
provoked a resurgence and I am back on wheels.
26
S: I wish I could cycle more here in Bristol.
It’s pretty rubbish compared to what I’m used
to and I still don’t understand the vandalism
against bicycles that goes on in this city.
There seems to have been quite a resurgence in the
popularity of bicycling over the last few years –
both on a practical level, e.g. commuting and less
reliance on private/public transport and also in
terms of cool, lifestyle-led, e.g. single-speed/fixedgear. Is that something that you have noticed?
K: We have found this particularly so in the
USA - there is something definitely new and
different going on there culturally. Public
transport is still terrible here – over-priced and
not much help at all, so no wonder fewer people
are relying on it and turning to their bikes and
it’s good to see renewed interest in the original
stripped-down single-speed/fixed gear bike –
talking of which, we recently met a 77 year old
chap who had a fixed wheel when he was a lad
and used to cycle to Weston-Super-Mare from
Bristol in 20mins!! It’s great to see connections
being made with older generations! I still really
wish kids had simpler bikes and didn’t get sold
inappropriate copies of specialist bikes. But we
think that the real change that is happening is
a pedal-powered cultural shift – emancipation
all over again from capitalism – an opportunity
to regain freedom and autonomy for ourselves.
A revolution is taking place... just check out
Budapest and its critical mass to see that cycling
there is spearheading a green eco-movement
which is about much more than just bikes.
I have recently finished reading Chris Carlsson’s
excellent book, ‘Nowtopia’ and there is a great
chapter in it called ‘Outlaw Bicycling’. He quotes
Ted White, a long-time bike activist,
“people who are into bikes tend almost always
to be in some way independent thinking
and self-sufficient... bikes are cheap, simple
and democratic and sexy in a very different
way than riding around in a car. Bike
transportation is about individuality but not
about excess. Bikes are congenial and social.
Bikes force us to be in our bodies and help us to
know and love our bodies as they are”.
Whatcha reckon to this?
K: Yes! FREE, simple and so easy to use, to
make, to fix, to play with and to re-invent...
and you know that joy as a child and teenager,
freedom, you feel that freedom when you
ride... man and machine, the fixed gear bike is
almost complete unity with the machine but
not dominated by the machine – it is an extension
of the human body just like stilts are... but this
isn’t new - the bicycle, first time around in Paris
in 1897 with Sarah Bernhardt was fashionable
and outrageous – they saw the bicycle then as a
liberator, a machine to extend the potentialities
of the human being. Alfred Jarry described it
as an ‘external skeleton’ which allows mankind
to outstrip the process of biological evolution.
Fernand Léger, a Paris artist, saw the act of
cycling as an aesthetic fusion of body and
machine: “A bicycle operates in the realm of
light. It takes control of legs, arms and body,
which move on it, by it and under it (Fernand
Léger, The Circus)”.
There is also a great part in Nowtopia where Chris
Carlsson talks about kids and bikes and then
learning to drive. He says:
“In the U.S., the prevailing cultural norm still
sees the bicycle as a toy. As children we are given
a bicycle when we are deemed ‘ready’ and it is
often our first experience of self-emancipation
from the narrow confines of home, of our
street and of parental supervision. On bikes,
kids quickly expand their territories... our
first liberation is eventually forgotten as the
promise of “true freedom” behind the wheel of
a car is pumped into us before we can even
walk, shaping the imaginations of children
from an early age. The bicycle is usually seen
as a mere stepping stone to the real thing, one’s
first car. And few people eschew that path and
refuse to drive – the bicycle is left behind as a
child’s plaything, or maybe in our overweening
athletic culture it retains some use as a device
for exercise’’.
Is this something you guys experienced?
K: This isn’t my story. I have never driven,
although I agree that it is the prevailing
culture. I still don’t understand the people
who express concern for their environment
and still drive private cars - it is the single most
polluting act a human can undertake. It really
is the car drivers who are still in nappies and
who aren’t experiencing ‘true freedom’ and
27
28
who are controlled and conditioned by the
marketing men and still playing with toys.
S: Think we’re coming back again to the idea that
cyclists are more often than not, independentthinking and self sufficient people, who won’t
believe the dream about the car that advertising
is trying to tattoo into our brains. I certainly
still feel that I have more freedom on my bike
even after I passed my driving test. There are no
constraints as to where a bicycle can carry you,
as you can carry it through the dessert if you
hit one or put it on a train if your legs get tired.
I think it is the one way to really experience selfemancipation and to experience who you are and
how far your legs are going to take you. You don’t
get that sense of self when you drive in a car.
How do you think we can change the way we look
at bikes in our society? Do you think this is already
changing slowly?
K: Yes, but there is still this absurd addiction
to cars. And to criticise the car is taboo – we
mustn’t upset the motorist!! On the positive side
though, we need to encourage more and more
people to ride bikes, to act bravely – this is one
revolution that actually can make a difference,
so do it, be brave, be bold and if you really want
to be ethical, revolutionary and to do something
about the environment, our society and the
awful corporate capitalist corruption, quit your
addiction to the car. Make this world a better
place and turn parking lots into paradise. Let’s
have critical mass every day. I believe the bicycle
can achieve all of this.
S: To change the way our society looks at bikes,
hmmm... but how do you change society? We
need to take bicycles away from the marketing
big wigs and let each individual experience
riding for themselves. Ride more tallbikes, ride
any old bike, be a child again, have fun and
enjoy the wind in your face, ban advertising,
create a 21 hour working week, de-pave and dig
up the carparks and turn them into gardens, ban
cars from city centres, make pedestrians king of
the road and banish the rich to a tax haven in
the middle of the atlantic, e voila: A wonderful
view on cycling!
Tell us a little bit about your current location as it
sounds and looks pretty exciting.
S: Well, we are now back at Pro-Cathedral (an
old, empty cathedral awaiting development into,
yep you guessed it, more student appartments),
but we’re not sure for how long – there is an
exchange of favour and the developers are happy
for us to be here as long as it suits them. Before
being here, we were at the old police station in
the centre of the city, run by ArtspaceLifespace,
who have been really supportive of our project.
There seems to have been quite a growth of
autonomous, volunteer-led spaces in Bristol over
the last couple of years (Magpie, Emporium &
The Free Shop to name a few) and also the official
use of derelict buildings awaiting development
for creative endeavours (Pro-Cathedral, The Old
Bridewell Police Station and the disused motorcycle
shop in Stokes Croft) – this is pretty exciting for
everyone? How do you feel about this?
K: Autonomous spaces like this have been around
Bristol as long as I can remember. They come and
go. There is a little bit of a trend for them at the
moment with the whole ‘regenerate empty shops’
grants. And yes it is exciting and one can only
hope that more and more spaces will grow and
stay and take over. Talking of which, The Cube (a
famous volunteer-run cinema and arts microplex
– www.cubecinema.com) is over ten years old
now and I was involved in helping to start that
29
up. It’s not a squat or a temporary space, cos
it actually has a bona fide 15 year lease, but
when it was started, it felt like we were making
a last stand. Maybe it was the beginning of
something.
There are currently over 3,000 or so empty
commercial properties in Bristol, which are a
potential resource for all of us here in Bristol and
yet they are allowed to fall into decay and ruin in
pursuit of profits. Last year we were relying on
the council to come up with some space for us
to build the bicycles for St. Paul’s carnival – for
quite some time this was leading nowhere and
if it hadn’t been for ArtspaceLifespace, we may
have had to abandon the project altogether.
What are you looking forward to this coming year
and where can we see you doing your thing?
K: We’ll be cycling to Shambala Festival and
Weymouth Carnival on tallbikes, building our
first fairground ride – the Polar Bee I-Cycle Cream
Company Carousel – and then coming up soon, a
midnight Dekochari Hausu bike ride and movie
on May 30th.
Can people volunteer and get involved with
Spoke‘n’chain?
S: Yes. Sharpen the tide of oil, dip in the sea of
bikes and free the city from the car! Come join
us! La Bici e Libera!
S: We could be homeless in a month or two
and in the worst case we’d have to wrap up and
go into hibernation. Sure we’ll wiggle our way
through to somewhere, we might even start
thinking about renting. But whatever happens,
the plan is to always be like a bicycle - flexible,
freewheeling, moving... not holding on to
things too hard and just being able to turn this
way or that. Always reinvent the wheel.
Kev
Sylvie
30
Hinch
31
miscomp.wordpress.com
32
Ronnie
Bowie
RS Bowie
bike shop,
Stranraer
“When I took over mother said, you should put your name
up there. But I said, no, father’s name’s been there long
enough so he can stay there, I’m quite happy at that. He’s
the one who started it all, so.
It wasn’t so much as buying a bike. It was more buying
bits and pieces, batteries, whatever. But they would leave
their bikes here while they went down the town to do their
shopping and such like. So they just came here, parked
their bikes up. If it needed anything doing to it, the two
lads out the back would see to it before they came back
for their bike. As I say, if it was five o’clock it would be
at the top of the passage, if it was only an hour at the
bottom end. And a beer or two probably. So some of them
went home maybe not quite as straight as they’d come.
Mother and father were well on when I took over. They
used to open at eleven and close at maybe five or six. I’m
very good I open at nine and close at four, sometimes
now quarter to five (laughs). I’m going that way now,
same as they did. Ach, it’s somewhere to hide, my wife
took early retirement. Women can’t see you sitting doing
a crossword and a cup of coffee for an hour and a half. If I
want to sit here with a cup of coffee and a crossword for
an hour and a half, I can do it. It’s what I call my bolthole. If
I want to go on holiday, I just put a notice up saying ‘gone
on holiday, sorry for any inconvenience’ with wee letters
underneath ‘don’t give a damn’ (laughs). But no, I quite
enjoy it, enjoy the company that comes and goes.”
34
Last Summer, I packed a few things into
panniers and rode my bike around the coast
of Britain. I wanted to learn more about the
country where I have lived all my life, but
know so little about. I also wanted to learn
about people, so made a collection of short
soundslide films about the amazing people
who live and work on our coast. In total,
I made 80 little films – I sat up in my tent
at night and edited them before finding an
internet café the next day to upload them onto
my site. They are rough around the edges, but
I think, there is a nice instant quality about
them. Here are extracts from two of the films.
Nick Hand slowcoast.co.uk
Keira
Rathbone
Typewriter
artist,
Poole,
Dorset
“I’m Keira Rathbone, and I’m an artist, specialising in
typewriter art. I was studying for a fine art degree, and I
went home to pick up my typewriter, thinking I would use
it for writing my sketch book, but when it came down to
it, I didn’t have anything to write.
So still wanting to use my typewriter I just thought I would
see if I could draw with it. And that triggered a whole
lot of different experiments. I started by trying to make
portraits out of different characters, brackets and forward
slashes. I started using it as a mark making technique.
The performance element crept in when I decided to
take it out of my bedroom and studio and into fields
and on the suspension bridge and up the Cabot Tower in
Bristol. I started to notice people’s reactions and decided
to develop that into a performance element. And over
the six years, I’ve started dressing the part as well,
according to the age of my typewriters.
Actually I’ve always liked collecting vintage things. And
have got about fifteen typewriters now. I’ve got a friend
who works at a recycling depot in Wimborne and he calls
me when a nice one comes in. He sends me a text and
picture saying ‘you might want to come and have a look
at this one’. I will have them all in with my next exhibition.
As I was growing up, I lived with my mum and her mum
most of my life. My mum would be typing a letter or
something or my Gran would be typing an airmail letter
36
to someone back in South Africa. So there would always
be this tapping, which was a bit annoying at the time. But
typewriters were always there and I would play with them.
Never had anything to write though, except maybe ‘hello’.
There was a big gap, then taking up drawing with it
seemed a more natural thing for me. Although I paint and
draw, this has become my main art form now and I do
love it. And the people I meet are amazing, all walks of life,
children through to elderly people, everyone seems to
have some sort of connection with typewriters, so I get to
meet lots of interesting people.” Tap, tap, tap, tap, ping!
37
TOUR OF SWITZERLAND 1966
BY BOB COE
In 1966 I was 20. Being a keen cyclist and
having in previous years toured the UK, Ireland
and Holland, I and fellow members of the
Upton Manor Cycling Club, decided to ‘do’
Switzerland in July that year. On the way round
we would also venture into Italy and Austria.
The Upton Manor club was founded in 1924
by J J Cooper, who had a cycle shop and made
cycle frames in Upton Park, in East London
– not far from West Ham’s football ground.
Although sadly no longer in existence the
club was thriving in the mid-sixties with both
time-trial racing and touring members. I think
you could say that all of us going on the trip
were fairly fit, but as even the least experienced
cyclists will know, cycling uphill is hard. So
riding over Alpine mountain passes each day
was not going to be easy.
We departed by train from London, then
by boat across the Channel, before boarding
the train once more to Lucerne. The schedule
had all been worked out and booked by the
38
more senior of the club members. We were
to tackle just one mountain pass and cover
about 50 to 60 miles each day. I, and the
other younger members of the group, having
been used to riding much longer distances
each day in the UK, thought this was going
to be a bit of a doddle. My opinion was,
however, changed half way up the very first
mountain that we tackled! Showing off and
racing ahead of the others, thinking I must
be near the top, I hit the wall. Getting
“hunger knock” is no fun at the best of times,
but half-way up a mountain with falling
temperatures, it’s awful. With only a packet
of polo mints to revive me, I had to stop,
munch the lot, and then slowly peddle up to
the summit, another forty minutes or so of
10% gradients. Needless to say I had learned
my lesson the hard way and after that I made
sure I ate well, paced myself – the passes are
a lot steeper and longer than I thought – and
carried plenty of food with me.
On the way round we were to tackle some
of the highest of the Alpine passes, including
the Grimsel at 2,163m (7,103ft), the Furka
at 2,436m (7,999ft) and the giant Stelvio at
2,757m (9,045ft), that’s over 1.7 miles high!
The weather was mixed, as it often is in the
Alps. One moment it would be tipping it down
(rain lower down, but sleet or snow near the
top), and the next we’d be in brilliant sunshine.
The mountain air was wonderful, the scenery
fantastic and the mellow sound of the cow bells
echoing across the valleys was just magical.
Staying in small hotels or guesthouses
along the way our favourite evening meal was
Vienna Schnitzel and chips! You could get it
everywhere and it was just the job for storing up
enough energy for the day to come, especially
when it is washed down with a glass or two of
German beer.
Everything went well for me until we got to
St. Moritz. This was our only overnight stop of
the tour at altitude (over a mile high) and I was
sick several times in the night. I blamed it on
the altitude, but for some reason everyone else
seemed to think that it was due to one too many
strong beers the night before. Whatever the
reason, despite being unable to eat breakfast,
I had to get on the bike and cycle over yet
another mountain pass! Rather than shoot off
ahead with the younger riders I could only just
about turn the pedals and stay with the more
senior guys. It was the longest, hardest day I can
remember, but I did make it and was absolutely
fine the next day after a good night’s sleep.
We were now crossing the border into Italy
and ahead of us was the big one, the one we’d all
been dreading. The Stelvio is the second highest
Alpine road pass, being just 13m lower than
the Col de L’Iseran in France. Now for those of
you who follow the Tour de France, when you
watch the pros going up the Tourmalet or Alpe
d’Huez, remember that they are mere tiddlers
compared to some of the Swiss/Italian passes.
Alpe d’Huez, for example is only 1,860m high
– the Stelvio is 2,757m, nearly half as high
again! I will never forget the morning we woke
in Bormio and saw ahead of us the Stelvio in
the distance – which is reached via 34 hairpin
bends at some 22km distance. It was awesome
and when, after much effort, we finally got to
the top, we really began to think that it was all
going to be down hill from here.
From there on it was a relatively flat run
across the border into Austria and on to
Bregenz on Lake Constance. We arrived in
Bregenz on Friday 29 July 1966 and the next
day on our schedule was a rest day. Now you
may be wondering why I remember this date
specifically, but it was, in fact, the eve of a very
important day. We awoke on the Saturday
morning with one overriding concern. How
were we going to see the World Cup final
between England and West Germany. Now,
right from the start, and every four years since,
we had never thought that England would win
the World Cup, so we had no plans in place.
In fact, without the communications marvels
of today, it was perhaps surprising that we even
knew that England had got to the final.
Anyway, we wandered aimlessly around this
beautiful Austrian town with only one thing
in mind, until at last we came across an Italian
bar that had a television. No big screen and
black and white of course, but nonetheless if
we peered closely enough we could just about
make out which side was which. With half the
bar (mainly Italians) supporting England and
the rest (Austrians) vying for West Germany,
the atmosphere was great. None of us will, of
course, forget that day. As West Ham provided
the captain and all the goal scorers in the
4-2 win we really felt that Upton Manor
and Upton Park had won the World Cup for
England. When we went out that evening
(for celebratory Vienna Schnitzel and chips of
course), we were shown great hospitality from
the Austrians and it seemed that everyone came
up and congratulated us on England’s win – it
was brilliant!
After that it was a fairly gentle ride across
country from Austria, back to Switzerland,
retracing our steps back to the UK from
Lucerne. It was a brilliant tour and one I will
never forget!
39
the bicycle quick release
let ‘em have it!
For the fifteen or so years I’ve been involved
in cycling, the ‘quick release’ wheel and seat
mechanism never made any sense to me as
a standard feature on bicycles. Many friends
have had wheels and seatposts stolen in
seconds – in the middle of the day – from
busy public places.
It got me thinking.. what is practical about
having your bike disassemble so easily that
when locking your bike up outside, you then
need to carry your two wheels and seatpost
around with you all day? Or, what is practical
about carrying enough U-locks or cable to
bind your frame, front wheel, rear wheel
and seatpost to a secure street object? Why
would bicycle design integrate a feature that
made your bike so vulnerable and such a
pain in the ass?
The quick release (QR), an Italian invention
from the 1920s, became popular among
cyclists in race situations for speed of wheel
removal to deal with punctures. In the 1980s
the consumer bike market adopted it as
the standard with hollow axle wheels – not
for necessary speed but for everyday ease.
Ironically enough, the most quoted reason
for the ‘consumer advantages of QR’ is that
you can ‘easily put your bike in your car’!
While today you may still not find them on
cheaper bicycles most bikes are sold off the
peg with QR mechanisms. Don’t get me
wrong; If you decide to fit them that’s fine.
But for me, fitting them as standard makes
the industry complicit in the constant theft
40
of bikes and bike parts that happens in any
city. The industry cash in on wheels being
nicked – as people keep purchasing new
wheels to replace stolen ones.
When I was a teenager I got into mountain
biking and lapped up the scene like a thirsty
alsatian – y’know like kids do – reading
the mags cover to cover and reciting bike
components with friends like top trumps. I
got a job so that I could buy more bike parts.
I spent all my money on bikes! By the time I
had my second bike stolen however – which
I couldn’t afford to replace – I was bike-less
for two years. When I finally got a bike again
I bought two good locks, ripped out the
quick releases for allen key skewers and still
have it 8 years later.
I am no longer interested in the bike
industry. Despite the humble bicycle being
part of the love-in greenwash economic
sector it is not an inherently ecological,
society changing tool. The bike industry
is big business and operates under the
same profit motives as the car industry.
Last week I got chatting to a guy in a
bike shop who was telling me how the
bike companies are starting to build their
bikes with proprietary componentry - i.e.
you would need a set of ‘Trek’ allen keys
to maintain a Trek bike that would not
undo the allen key bolts on a ‘Raleigh’
bike. I laughed. This is great capitalism!
Proprietary Digital Bicycle Diagnostics
anyone? MOT, Road Tax... is the bicycle
exempt from any of this?
by Ali Sparror | www.participatoryspectacle.info
Cars (I’ve never owned one, or fixed one)
were a one-time tinkerers playground.
OK, I’m being romantic, they were a
relatively open access technology that
anyone could work on if they desired.
Design innovation, psychological profiling
and planned obsolescense have made cars
into the brilliantly marketable commodity
of a robot friend who understands not
only what you mean when you press the
brake pedal, but who you are and what
your career and lifestyle motivations
are – the mass production of KITT, David
Hasselhoff’s intelligent and highly advanced
car. The problem with proprietary design
is that the technology is encoded and the
interface unique to each model; it isn’t
accessible to the general public. And the
history of industrial design teaches us that
great innovation is always followed by
a subsequent regression of its liberatory
potential to keep consumers and technological
progress teasingly at arms length. The next
thing is always better, and the last thing is
just about to break.
Until I’m tooling my own bike components
(I don’t think it’s gonna happen) I will be
at the whims of an industry that on the
whole exists to propagate itself through
economic profit.
Remembering that (all property is theft) if
someone wants something enough they
will steal it, ditching your quick release
mechanisms is a simple action to better
secure your bike. Hacking your existing
quick release is a good non-consumption
and free way to do this. The wheel is
still easy to loosen and tighten, but
opportunists won’t be able to nick it. The
financial alternative is purchasing a set of
allen key skewers (around 12 pounds for
a set of three).
41
Okay, so here’s the get yrrr hands dirrrrty, technical part... It is pretty straight forward and
doesn’t require technical skill… but... EXTREME WARNING... people slide screwdrivers into
their hands when they do this. Shield hands with towels or rags.
Other than a keen eye, this will require:
* a very small flathead/slotted screwdriver (like a 1.2mm)
* a vice (or some clamp system to secure the rod)
* a steel washer with serrations approx. 2cm in diameter
(hunt around your garage or go scrounge at a bike shop)
let ‘em
have it...!
01
Open your quick release (QR) to remove your wheel. Unscrew
the QR all the way – removing it from the wheel axle, so that you
are left with the separate pieces of the skewer rod, springs, and
nut. We are going to remove the cam mechanism that the lever
operates. We will dissect the lever component so that we can
remove the QR ‘head’ – leaving just the skull of the skewer rod.
02
Lock the skewer rod or
the QR head into a vice
so that the lever faces
down to the ground.
03
The QR lever may have a nut. If it does remove this first using a spanner or
pliers. The main task is removing the split washer – also known as a lock ring;
sometimes there are two. This is both brute strength and a careful teasing –
wriggling operation. Try to lever the screwdriver between the washer and the
QR head – flipping the washer off the lever. Also try to lever the screwdriver
into the split part of the washer, twisting the washer apart.
skull
end of
skewer
rod
04
lever
head
split washer
Once you’ve removed the washers the QR lever should slide out.
You can then remove the head leaving you with one long skewer
– threaded at one end, with the QR skull at the other end. Slide your
new serrated washer up the skewer rod to the jaw of the skull. The
washer should be wider than the skull, with serrations facing the
frame – replicating the function of the now discarded head.
05
Slide the skewer rod back through your wheel axle. With
the wheel back on your bike, screw the bolt onto the
skewer rod. Insert the rod of a screwdriver, kitchen fork, etc
into the mouth of the QR skull to tighten the mechanism,
securing wheel to forks or frame.
42
WORDS & ILLUSTRATION BY
[email protected]
In 2005, the G8 Bike Ride, a sprawling mass of cyclists, sweated its way from London to Gleneagles
during one of the hottest summers on record, on a mission to spread the word about the protests that
were to take place against the G8 Summit, and highlight the inequality of eight world leaders making
decisions on behalf of all of us. We were a group of about fifty or so cyclists of all ages and abilities,
with a custom-built, tandem-pulled sound-system in tow. Our travels by bike were in sharp contrast
to the world leaders, off to chin-wag about Climate Change, who were being flown by private jet and
helicoptered into the venue...
The G8 Bike Ride quickly
became a community on wheels
and friendships formed. Riders
came from different towns
and places along the route and
many joined or left along the
way. Many had previously been
involved in activism – on the
Road-protests in the 1990s,
involved in direct action against
the fossil fuel extraction, animal
rights abuses, or GM crops and
others who were peace and human
rights campaigners. We also had many
people on the ride who had never
cycled long distances before, some
who were not even regular cyclists, a
pregnant mum and an eight month
old cyclist-to-be. We began to swap
ideas and discuss the potential for
future rides. We knew the mass of cyclists
and a bike-pulled soundsystem was a great
way to attract attention, and that the bicycle
allowed you the freedom and intimacy to talk
to the people you passed along the way. But
on the G8 Bike Ride there was little time to
stop and chat about why we were riding and
the issues we were passionate about - we were
always in a hurry to just get there.
So in the Winter of 2005 some of the G8 Bike
Riders decided to form Bicycology: a cycle
activist collective, with its initial aim being to
do another cycle tour, with the opportunity
to put on events along the way. Our name
Bicycology (pronounced: bye-sigh-koll-o-gee)
is an amalgamation of the words bicycle: our
chosen and well-loved form of transportation;
psychology: how our brain works, and how
we work socially; and ecology: the planet and
ecosystem we exist in.
Bicycology’s first tour took place in August
2006, beginning in the (now sadly extinct)
RampArt squatted social centre in London, and
ending in Lancaster. We had devised a number
of activities to attract and engage with people as
we stopped off along the route. These included
Dr.. Bike – a free bike check and repair, and
various pedal-powered machines such as a
game-boy. We compiled a booklet
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Bicycle: our chosen and well-loved
form of transportation, Psychology:
how our brain works, and how we
work socially, AND Ecology: the planet
and ecosystem we exist in.
‘The Bicycology Guide’ which encompassed
different environmental and social issues, and formed
the basis of our topical leaflets – all of which are
currently available to read and download from the
Bicycology website. To enhance the spectacle we
borrowed a giraffe-like tall-bike (two bikes welded
on top of each other) and a reverse steering BMX.
We pride ourselves in being able to carry everything
we need on our bikes, actively demonstrating that
bicycles are not only a practical but hugely enjoyable
way to get about.
We have since done another summer cycle tour but
this time in the South West, improving our range
of activities and resources, to put on events such
as pedal-powered film nights and talks. In 2008
we worked hard to produce a week long event in
Lancaster celebrating cycling and sustainability,
called ‘Routes to Solutions’.
For this event, we created a series of educational
workshops such as ‘Food for Thought’ where we
cooked and ate a vegan meal with locals, and
discussed food and environment-related issues, as
well as showing a pedal-powered film about
vegan organic farming. ‘Cycling question time’
was inspired by political panel shows, and gave
locals a chance to air their cycling grievances
as well as to explore what can be done to make
Lancaster a more cycling-friendly place. We
also created events for young people; ‘Planet
Bike’ took place in a local children’s library and
was a storytelling bike adventure and bike craft
activities, whilst ‘Bike fixing for Kids’ gave young
people a chance to learn and use some simple
mechanic skills.
In recent years we have been improving our skills
and resources, through bike mechanic training,
and development of leaflets and
literature, as well as bike electricity generators
and a smaller, more easily transportable soundsystem. We have been supporting larger events
such as The Camp For Climate Action and The
Climate Caravan, as well as attending various
other actions and demonstrations to lend our
support, and putting on some smaller events of
our own such as film nights.
Our group operates on a non-hierarchical basis;
we make decisions through consensus, rotate
roles, and try to share skills as much as possible.
This means we all get to have a say in where our
group is headed, and that we get to learn from
friends in a supportive environment, skills we
might not otherwise pick up – all of this helps to
make our group stronger. Although we are
geographically disparate, we try and meet
several times a year in order to organise
events and to share skills and information
and to keep Bicycology on the road.
At our most recent meet-up we had the
pleasure of using The Bristol Bike Project’s
extensive workshop space and resources to
fix up nine bikes for us to
donate to the No Borders ‘Bike Library’
Camp in Calais, France. No Borders is an
activist group which demands the end to
border regime for everyone and are
currently working to support refugees
in Calais, most of whom are from war-torn
Afghanistan. They are currently camped at
Calais with the hope of making it to the UK in
order to seek asylum and are currently living in
makeshift shelters and face severe repression by the
french police and by people-smugglers. It is hoped
that these bikes will allow activists supporting the
refugees to travel between groups of refugees more
quickly and effectively. This is very typical of the kind
of activity bicycology will continue to engage in,
using the skills we have developed to support a cause
that we feel is important.
In the future Bicycology hopes to continue with
its cycle activism. We are currently supporting the
Merthyr to Mayo Solidarity Bike Ride in support of
communities resisting fossil fuel extraction. We’ll be
cycling from Merthyr Tydfil in Wales, where locals
are suffering from huge open-cast coal mining
operations on their doorsteps, to Rossport in County
Mayo, Ireland, where Shell propose to bring a
dangerous high-pressure gas-pipeline onshore.
We’ll also be attending the World Car Free Network
conference that is happening in York at the end of June,
and popping up at smaller events around the country.
To find out more about BICYCOLOGY or the
No Borders Camp in Calais visit:
www.bicycology.org.uk
www.calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com
The Magician
From the floods in London, to an autonomous squat
at the foot of the Pyrenees, passing through the naked
bike ride in Paris, and snow storms near Toulouse, the
bike seems to follow me everywhere I go. As a means
of transportation no matter the weather, an ornamental
object, or a way to celebrate as a critical mass, it
takes on so many different forms to adapt to its new
environment. It’s like a magician of sorts. One moment
it’s hanging from a tree, the next it’s between the legs
of a sexy half-naked cyclist before gliding through deep
water and overtaking cars stuck in traffic. I am a secret
admirer of the bike kind and those who saddle them.
Todd Legler
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Todd Legler
In a city made for cars, why are bicycles
getting places faster?
Beginning in April 2008, as commuters were mired in the typical Friday rush-hour
traffic logjam, members of an organization calling itself CRIMANIMALZ have taken
to two of Los Angeles’ busiest freeways on bicycles in a flash-mob type protest
aimed at raising questions about transportation. Weaving in and out of choked
traffic, cyclists surprised frustrated motorists with a spirited sprint on the region’s
most clogged and polluted arteries.
While the ride’s political stance
and agenda was neutral, many
participants invoked the group’s
collective motto: “If you rode
a bicycle, you’d be home by
now!” – a statement against
oil dependency, in support of
sustainable living and a collective
critique of the L.A. transportation
infrastructure. The riders are
pointing out that in a city like
Los Angeles made for cars,
bicycle riders are reaching their
destinations faster.
CRIMANIMALZ was initially
created out of rider reaction
to the police crackdown of
Santa Monica Critical Mass, a
bicycle ride with as many as 300
participants that meet on the
first Friday of the month. Ignored
in large for over two years, Santa
Monica Police officers issued 32
citations, many erroneously, at
the Santa Monica Critical Mass
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ride on November 2nd, 2007.
Critical Mass participants voiced
their outrage at the City of Santa
Monica Council Meeting a few
weeks later and some participants
convened as ‘Council of N’,
a secret group that privately
discussed the police harassment.
‘Council of N’ talked with city
officials and the police, but talks
led nowhere. Several of the
‘Council of N’ members voted
on creating a secondary ride in
Santa Monica, this time calling
it Criminal Mass, naming it so
because they felt they were
being criminalized for their
legal behaviors. This name was
changed to CRIMANIMALZ,
a portmanteau of the words
Critical, Criminal and Animals. The
name CRIMANIMALZ invokes
the animal spirit of the Westside
bicycling community which is
host to large group rides with
names like Los Angelopes, a large
antelope with ape hanger handles
for antlers for a mascot and
Pier Pressure, in which a giraffe
and pigeon with a handlebar
moustache wearing a cycling cap
is a recurring theme.
Members of the CRIMANIMALZ
are looking for city officials to
make bicycle safety a priority,
not only through the creation of
safe and easy places to ride, but
also as a means of transportation
on the city’s increasingly busy
thoroughfares. With rising gas
prices and a government bent
on pushing sustainable practices,
more people are expected to
turn to bikes as an alternative
means of transportation.
We caught up with Richtotheie,
one of the three guys that
started Crimanimalz, and put a
few questions his way....
For more info: www.crimanimalz.com
www.vimeo.com/crimanimalz
L.A. has a real reputation for
being a totally car-centric city. Is
there much of a bicycle presence
in L.A. right now? Los Angeles
is a “Car City”, no doubt. A few
years ago, bicyclists were this
“pesky P.O.S. that’s blocking
my way”. Aggression was the
norm out there and sadly still
is today. However, bicycling
has skyrocketed since then
and now it’s something people
are just ‘getting used to’. We’re
slowly becoming an accepted
obstacle of the environment!
What do I mean by that? Well,
Portland, Oregon has tons of
bikers comparatively speaking
and you can expect to see them
everywhere, day or night, rain
or shine; hopefully within the
next decade, bicyclists will be
expected on the streets here too
in that way.
When was your last Freeway
Ride? Undetermined. There’s a
fat blurry line between riding
on the freeway for F.U.N. and
for demonstration purposes.
Although the total of illegally
being on the freeway is
somewhere just under 10.
I noticed that on one of the
freeway-riding videos, some
car-drivers actually open their
words: jimmy ell
stills captured from ‘Crimanimalz Freeway Ride II’
doors on purpose to stop you
from passing - do you get a lot of
aggro from motorists? We usually
don’t get ANY aggression from
motorists on the freeway...
They’re too busy reading books
or talking on their cellphones
in traffic. When they DO notice
us, especially when on the
tallbike, it’s usually a sea of honks
and cheers! We spice up the
commute home and hopefully
make them wish they were riding
with us instead of being stuck in
that metal heap.
There definitely seems to be
an ever-growing cycling culture
in many US cities, the obvious
ones being Portland, Davis and
San Francisco – do you think L.A.
could ever follow suit? L.A.’s bike
culture has grown like a wonder
weed through the cracks of this
watered desert, but even though
our numbers have probably overtripled in the last 2-3 years, there
are just SO many vehicles in L.A.!
The city is putting in train lines
to connect more areas, but it
still doesn’t quite get you places
that your car could. You have to
remember that L.A. is the second
biggest city in the USA and spans
out at almost 500 square miles
– biking 20 miles or more to and
from work is just too much for
the average person and most
people are also afraid of riding
in the street. Obviously this
doesn’t excuse the people who
are driving less than 5 miles to
their workplace - imagine if they
rode a bike instead of driving –
that would be thousands of cars
staying home and not clogging
up the streets nor polluting our
air. The real trick though is that
biking has to become COOL in
order for the masses to really get
involved.
Have you had many run-ins with
the police whilst freeway-riding?
We’ve had one run-in which
you can see at the end of the
2nd freeway ride: http://vimeo.
com/1050311 - that’s me with
the PARTY TIME cape and the
tallbike. After a long lecture
and several questions, they
asked how I made the bike. Very
cool guys. They were mostly
concerned with our safety which
I truly appreciate. I am grateful
even more that I didn’t get a
ticket since we all ran from the
officers and were chased for
about 5 minutes up and down
streets going the wrong way,
sirens blaring... of course they
picked me to follow – the guy
on the tallbike whose head was
bobbing around 10ft in the air...
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The Bristol Bike Project was set up
by two friends in December 2008. It is a volunteer-run, community bike project
based in the heart of Bristol’s Artists’
Quarter, Stokes Croft.
They repair and recycle unwanted
bicycles donated to them by the general
public in order to provide them to
underprivileged and marginalised
groups within Bristol. Womens’ skillsharing workshops, single-speed nights,
‘chopshops’ and bike-trailer building are
also all happening now on a regular basis.
all images ©2010 Stine Stensbak
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www.thebristolbikeproject.org
www.thebristolbikeproject.blogspot.com
The workshop environment is all
about sharing what you know and
learning what you don't. It is an
opportunity to empower yourself
and those around you. Humanity,
equality and respect are paramount.
We move forward together.
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words maria baños-smith
pics sébastien bernaert
RIDING GUATEMALA CITY
On my way to work one morning, I came
up against a police block. It was a usual
occurrence, but this time was different. As I
stopped to see what was going on, a military
policeman shouted “Hey you! You can go
round that block over there to get down to
your office”. How did he know I was headed
that way? Easy, I was on a bicycle so I was
easy to spot – the authorities had noticed me
do the same journey every day – there were
barely any other bikes on the road and so I
was easily singled out and very visible. I used
to give as good as I got to the endless cajoles
from the gunmen guarding every shop front
and government building who’d whistle or
shout at me as I went past simply because
I was a girl and on a bike. But after that
day I stopped answering back. I became a
little more aware of my vulnerability, but
actually had never felt safer; if they’d been
watching me for that long and not bothered
me, they probably never planned to. It was
my bike that gave me precious freedom in
one of the top three most dangerous cities
in Latin America.
This was Guatemala City, 2004, where a
fearful population is a controlled population.
No one goes out after dark in Guatemala
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City. Therefore it’s dangerous to go out after
dark. So, no one goes out, and so on. The
concept of critical mass is often used in a bike
setting, but in Guatemala (like in many other
places) it’s used to limit people’s space to
live. A CIA-backed ‘guerilla war’ ripped this
country apart for 36 years and the shocking
truth is that today more people are murdered
every day in Guatemala than during the
conflict which ‘ended’ in 1996.
I had left my job just over a year earlier.
My dream job advising a Member of the
European Parliament on international
development issues didn’t exactly turn out to
be a nightmare, but certainly an interrupted
night’s sleep with some panicky sweats
thrown in. Like so many others I wanted to
make change happen; I’d studied a Masters
at the best lefty university in the UK and had
lived in Latin America. Now I understood
how the ‘big’ decisions are made, in Europe at
least. However, I was aware of just how little
I really knew and felt like I needed to go back
and live amongst those people whose name
politicians, policy makers and well-meaning
rich kids (often the same thing) want to act
in and hear it from them directly. I knew by
now that it was the people that would make
“the jolted and tragic history of Guatemala doesn’t
allow a newcomer to share a sense of past”
change happen. So Guatemala it was. I lived
there for over 3 years. I say ‘lived’ because
you don’t really stay or visit somewhere for
that amount of time. Living somewhere that’s
not home makes you redefine living. I was
very alive, but I was also never really at home.
Some places will allow you to create a home,
but the jolted and tragic history of Guatemala
that’s swamped in secrecy doesn’t allow a
newcomer to share a sense of past, and the
present is so tenuous that you’re never sure if it
can really be the ‘home’ of anyone.
Monday morning in Guatemala and it was
my first day at work. I remember cringing at
the thought of having to wait for an irregular
bus to take me to the other side of town with
no control over what time I’d get there. The
Population Council offices were in the wealthy
zone 14 – the area where Lonely Planet says
you can get a milkshake and taco without
risking your stomach – or your life on the
street. The first thing that struck me about my
workplace was that the road was cut off from
non-residents, marked by two armed guards
at both ends. The message was clear: in here,
you’re safe. Outside this road, you’re not. And
if you’re not in a car, forget it! This made the
wait for my bus back home at the end of the
day all the more edgy.
Thirty minutes of looking over my shoulder
and finally the bus came in to sight. Safe at
last. At the next stop, a group of 5 or 6 soldiers
got on, all heavily armed, all looking no more
than 18 years old, and so used to swinging
machine guns around their shoulders that
the barrel of one in particular often came up
against me, eventually pressing in to my leg,
as the bus got fuller and fuller of workers
making their way home. I ran the rest of the
way home and a couple of hours later, James
(my brother, who also happened to be out
there as a journalist) arrived back on his bike,
clearly having experienced quite a different
city journey to mine. His rusting black racer
had a thin pannier rack on the back and I
used to sit on it as he whizzed through the
traffic, changing direction every time a bus
belched out a cloud of black smoke. It was
excruciatingly painful, but definitely preferable
to public transport. I soon bought my own
bike and it wasn’t until then that I was able to
really move in the city. And ‘live’ in the city.
From then on I cycled the main artery of
the city every morning past the market stalls
setting up, the grid-locked traffic and armed
guard after armed guard standing on the
entrances to shops, banks and government
buildings. Invariably, some of them would
whistle or shout some obscenity as I went
past and I would respond in kind at them
before whizzing down the road and out of
sight. Bikes give you the safety of a get-away
vehicle. Over time however, the presence
of armed guards became complemented by
military personnel on street corners, not
guarding anything in particular, just the streets
themselves, or rather claiming a stake on
behalf of the army Colonels and the Generals
of the shared space and reminding the city’s
inhabitants that they were in control, and
these were their streets.
The first time I rode past the gates guarding
the entrance to the road my office was on, the
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armed guards greeted me with some surprise
but they smiled at the unusual sight. They’d
get a bit miffed if I just ducked the barrier, so
I’d stand and wait for them to lift it and let
me through – it was their only daily task and I
didn’t want to take it away from them. But it
was clear as day that the streets were designed
for cars, not pedestrians and certainly not
bikes. At my office Cruz, the cleaner, beamed
when I first brought my bike to work – he
created a little space for it inside and I could
swear he would take some polish to it and
occasionally my brakes would be tightened
or my wheel pumped up, and I didn’t know
why! He told me it reminded him of the
countryside where he came from, where bikes
were the common mode of transport.
But the bosses took a different stance. At
first they mocked but, just like with the armed
guards, my bike started to grind against their
world view. I tried to point out that driving
to the supermarket at lunchtime was slower
than cycling – it was only ten minutes on foot
for God’s sake and they’d enjoy the sunshine
and some exercise if they came out with me on
two wheels! But they considered themselves
city people, and the bike was confined to the
countryside – it was part of a life they rejected
and strove to move away from.
After about nine months, the big boss
told me that cycling to the office was ‘too
dangerous’, and ran ‘against the organisations
policy’ so I should stop cycling in. Soon after
that, Cruz told me I was no longer able to
keep my bike inside because there was not
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enough room for it. He looked at me with
very sad eyes and I asked what was wrong. His
niece had died that weekend because she was
ill and his family had no money to pay for a
car to take her from the remote village where
she lived to the hospital. The head boss of the
Population Council drove a Mercedes but his
love of cars didn’t stretch to a lift for Cruz’s
niece. I didn’t last much longer in that job and
left to work with a grass-roots organisation run
by indigenous women and it turned out they
would give me the education of my life.
Around that time, the idea of starting a
Critical Mass in Guatemala City was taking
shape. No one rode a bike, car drivers needed
educating, bus drivers needed taming, and
more than anything, people needed a reason
to get on a bike for the first time and collective
action seemed like the best way to go about
encouraging this. We put word out that the
first Critical Mass in Guatemala City was to be
held on the first Friday of the month. About
12 people turned up – we made some noise
and confused and annoyed the car-drivers!
Numbers didn’t go up considerably as time
went on and I realised that the reason people
weren’t coming was because they simply didn’t
have a bike.
And so it was that we discovered a great little
organisation about 2 hours from the capital off
a beaten track, right next door to Maya Pedal
who have become famous for making practical
machines out of bikes, from coffee grinders to
washing machines. Quite quickly, our front
room turned in to a bike storage space for
around 50 bikes; we had all shapes and sizes
and it felt good to be in the company of so
many bikes.
family-friendly, more ‘cyclists rights’ approach
and is now also seen as a way of exploring new
places on the outskirts of the city.
Not long after, I cycled over to a gathering
organised by an art collective and saw a guy I’d
met once before who was involved in sharing
circus skills with street-kids. Sébastien was
immediately interested in the bike project and
in buying a bike off me, so he cycled me over
to my house then and there, with me on the
back and him laughing in broken Spanish.
The bikes continued to sell and many people
came to agree that somewhere between a
pedestrian and a car driver, our bikes let us
float in and out of places, immunised against
the city’s many barriers and opening up the
possibility of another Guatemala City.
When he saw all the bikes piled up his eyes
lit up and I knew he’d be part of the future of
the project. He opened up a whole world to
me through the kids and his take on spending
time with them. Unlike me, they had a strong
sense of belonging and I began to realise that
it was actually my bike that was allowing me
Since we left, the country has become more
dangerous as the drugs trade and the gangs
push the stakes ever higher. This translates into
15 murders a day in a country of 2 million.
But it’s typical of the spirit of the people to
come out on to the streets to stake their right
to a different future so bike demos fit into a
myriad of other visible struggles for a fairer
and more dignified existence; the difference
“our front room turned in to a bike storage
space for around 50 bikes at a go...”
to feel at home in Guatemala because it was
part of how I could experience the city. All
belonging is only as temporary as life itself,
but when I was on my bike, alone or with
others, I was interacting with the city, with
its people, the different places and routes and
taking in all the sounds and smells along the
way. Like life, cycling is transient by its very
nature; it is the journeys themselves that make
up what matters and not the destinations.
between here and there is that they believe
another world is possible, and that’s why in
small pockets at least, change does happen.
Critical Mass continues to happen in
Guatemala City on Sunday mornings.
For further information visit the blog:
www.masacriticaguate.blogspot.com
Sébastien and I continued to go and pick
up batches of bikes and they sold like hot
cakes. Slowly cyclists became more and more
visible on the streets of the city and people
who had been genuinely shocked when they
first saw me on a bike in a city dominated
by danger and pollution, started to cycle and
even turn up to Critical Mass. What had been
unthinkable just months before, became a
reality and over time, a group of Guatemalans
took over the Critical Mass and gave it their
own meaning. It started off as a sometimes
angry protest aimed at car drivers, but this
group preferred to take it in the direction of a
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boneshakermag.wordpress.com
[email protected]
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When the spirits are low, when
the day appears dark, when work
becomes monotonous, when hope
hardly seems worth having, just mount
a bicycle and go out for a spin down the
road, without thought on anything but
the ride you are taking.
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SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE