The 1st Birthday ride to Saltford was a wonderful day out. Starting from the workshop, through the sunshine out via Easton, the Railway Path and a leisurely ride to The Jolly Sailor in Saltford. Lots of chips, drinks and defrosting feet by the open fire and then back towards Bristol through the perfectly timed snowfall. Finished off with a quick stop at Eastside Roots at Stapleton road station for a warming home made mulled cider.
The Bristol Bike Project is now one year old! and what a year it's been! We have repaired and given out almost 200 bicycles to underprivileged people in Bristol in the last year, not to mention all the countless repairs and tweaks that have kept people out there on their bikes. We have evolved from two friends fixing up bikes in our back garden to a 15-strong team of volunteers with a well-equipped, beautiful workshop in the centre of stokes croft. And the project continues to evolve - early next year, watch out for a 20minute documentary about the bristol bike project and BBP-inspired t-shirts designed and sold by Howies, not to mention the various evening workshops that will be starting to happen regularly.
Paul from The Cycle Hub presents the new tools to Colin at the Bristol Bike Project
We are pleased to say that the bristol bike project is featured in the latest edition (issue 3) of The Ride Journal, a beautifully presented collection of personal stories related to bicycling. Not only that, but they have also kindly donated some money to the project to help us buy some more tools and equipment. A huge thank you to The Ride Journal team for their support.
image by chris carlssonBike hackers, welders, climate campers, artists and engineers will be working together to design and build The Bike Bloc across two cities: Bristol ((15 – 30th Nov), at the Arnolfini Gallery as part of Platform’s C-words show. Copenhagen (4-18th Dec) at The Candy Factory, Lærkevej 11, 2400 NV. Copenhagen (closest station is Nørrebro st).
Go get involved, either designing and building the prototype in Bristol, putting together the real thing in Copenhagen or swarming with us on the day of civil disobedience on the 16th of December.
Become the Bike Bloc short Film
a bicycle coffee depulper which removes the outer shell of the coffee bean allowing farmers to then roast their own beans in the sun.
a soil plow used by hand to work soil, pushing it like a wheelbarrow
We had the pleasure of spending a day at St Paul's Adventure Playground last tuesday of half term week. We were one of the many activities on offer and we did our best to repair as many bikes as we could. Thanks to all involved at the playground - we had a great time and look forward to the next one!
Some of the kids dropped by our workshop the following day to make repairs to their bikes that we were unable to do out at the playground. Following such enthusiasm from the kids we worked with, we are now in the process of trying to set up an after-school evening workshop for kids wanting to come by and learn how to mend their bikes with us.
We now have more space for storing and working on bikes! This is the outdoor yard next to our workshop before we started work last week. We found all of the timber in a skip and got going with it. Big ups to henry and joe for their building skills. This now means we have an outdoor space to work in and to store more of your donated bikes.
August has been a great month and we have continued to distribute a lot of bicycles. Thanks again to all of those that have donated their unwanted bicycles to us. We have an ever-growing team of co-volunteers on board which means we are able to work through more of your unwanted bikes. One of them is Rob who is cycling from Cirencester to South Africa and in the process raising money for Re-Cycle starting in October of this year - please have a look at his website www.tri4africa.co.uk to support his amazing journey!!
Will came back to see us last week after coming out of detox as part of a Salvation Army program he is on. We had worked with him a month ago and he had gone away very happy with a bike. He told us that that same weekend that he had received his bike, he had cycled 38miles as part of Bristol's Biggest Bike Ride and had not touched any alcohol all weekend because he was so energised from riding his bike.
John (pictured left), working alongside one of our volunteers Will, is another gentleman that we have recently worked with by way of the Salvation Army. He is keen to volunteer with us on a regular basis in order to learn more skills and to keep active.
“When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments. Here was a machine of precision and balance for the convenience of man. And (unlike subsequent inventions for man’s convenience) the more he used it, the fitter his body became. Here, for once, was a product of man’s brain that was entirely beneficial to those who used it, and of no harm or irritation to others. Progress should have stopped when man invented the bicycle.”
Elizabeth West, ‘Hovel in the Hills’
Two months ago, alistair oldham, head of documentary-making at the University of the West of England contacted us about the possibility of making a short documentary about the bristol bike project.
well, we've made it! As of this week, we have now restored and distributed 100 bicycles!
Please take a look at our new website here:
wowzer, what a day! the sun stayed shining and people turned up in their thousands to see the carnival parade in which we were cycling. Thanks to all involved - here's to next year!
