St Paul's Adventure Playground Workshop

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.

new yard space!!

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.

more 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 & John

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.

Slowcoast

http://www.slowcoast.co.uk/

Nick Hand, from Bristol, is riding around the entire coastline of Britain, making soundslide films along the way which document artisans that live and work along it. Take a look.

On his blog, there is a great quote:

“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’

The Bristol Bike Project Film!

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.

They have been filming the project and the people we work with for the last six weeks and are currently editing the film which should be ready by the end of september. There will be various screenings of the film in and around bristol and we will have a link from our website when it is live. Watch this space!

one hundred bicycles!

well, we've made it! As of this week, we have now restored and distributed 100 bicycles!
Our team of volunteers keeps growing and we continue to receive a steady stream of unwanted bikes - a HUGE thankyou to all those that have supported us in so many ways - by giving us your unwanted bikes, volunteering your time to help us out or just dropping us a positive email telling us how much you like the project! THANK YOU! onwards and upwards.........woo hoo!

New Website

Please take a look at our new website here:

www.thebristolbikeproject.org

We will continue to update this blog with latest news about the project.

Bristol Bike Project at St Paul's Carnival 2009!!!

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!

Bike-Costuming Workshops!

These workshops held by our friends Sylvie & Kev at Cap'n Bikebeard last week were in preparation for St Paul's Carnival on Saturday July 4th. They were a great success and a lot of fun was had by all. The procession takes place at 1pm at the carnival on saturday - see you there!there was even time for a bit of stilt-walking!

Workshop May 2009

May has been a very busy but great month for us here at hamilton house and we have seen a lot of happy people cycling away on their new bikes! We have been working with a mixture of both young and old and male and female and we feel extremely privileged to spend time in the company of so many wonderful people from all over the world and from such diverse backgrounds.

We are continuing to receive many unwanted bikes from the general public and we are very grateful to those who have brought bikes down to our workshop and also to everyone that has helped spread the word about what we are doing. Thankyou!

bikes = freedom

we recently received an email from a friend of ours - ben moss at bristol wood recycling project and wanted to share it with you:

"Well done on your Bristol Bike Project. Bicycles = Sustainable Movement + Personal Control = Freedom in a constrained world. Free bicycles = Freedom for all.

Bicycles are a vehicle for physical freedom. But from the empowerment they give, they also create freedom of the soul. It destroys physical barriers and by doing so destroys mental barriers. My bicycle changed my life. I reckon you'll be doing the same by giving away yours".

Bike-Costuming Workshops

We are very happy to announce that we will be running two bike costuming workshops with our good friends Sylvie & Kev from Spoke n' Chain on the 24th & 25th june at our workshop in hamilton house. We will be working with a group of 15 refugees & asylum-seekers, who have previously worked on and received a bike from us. The workshops will involve a lot of cutting and painting cardboard structures that can then be fitted to peoples' bikes for the bike parade at St Paul's carnival on Saturday 4th july. The theme is seas & oceans. If you fancy lending a hand at either of the workshops, please contact us at thebristolbikeproject@gmail.com.
Be sure to come down to see the Carnival bike parade on the morning of the 4th July!!

road.cc article

A recent article published about our project on road.cc here:

http://road.cc/content/news/4417-what-difference-bike-makes

Thanks to rebecca and all the road.cc team for taking an interest in what we are doing and for helping us spread the word about the project!

Richard's Bicycle Book

I recently purchased 'Richard's Bicycle Book' in a secondhand bookstore on Gloucester Road in Bristol. Ballantine's book, first published in 1972, fortuitously appeared at a time when cycling was experiencing a resurgence in popularity due in part to the oil shortages of the world oil crisis and the appearance of lightweight road bicycles. He is currently chairman of the British Human Power Club and of the World Human Powered Vehicle Association.

I wanted to share this passage from the book:

“...You have to expect that I would believe bicycling is a good idea, but how do I get off expressing the notion that bicycling is philosophically and morally sound? Because it is something that you do, not something that is done to you. The most important effect of mechanical contraptions is that they defeat consciousness. Consciousness, self-awareness and development are the prerequisites for a life worth living. Now look at what happens to you on a bicycle. It's immediate and direct. You pedal. You make decisions. You experience the tang of the air and the surge of power as you bite into the road. You're vitalized. As you hum along you fully and gloriously experience the day, the sunshine, the clouds, the breezes. You're alive! You are going some place and it is you who are doing it. Awareness increases and each day becomes a little more important to you. With increased awareness you see and notice more, and this further reinforces awareness.

Each time you insert you into a situation, each time you experience, you fight against alienation and impersonality, you build consciousness and identity. You try to understand things in the ways that are important to you and these qualities carry over into everything you do”.

It is our genuine hope that the people that receive a bicycle from us will get the opportunity to experience that vitalization and sense of awareness that riding a bike can bring!