Bone- Shakermagazine

bone- shakermagazine

issue #1 Boneshaker: Real Cycling

Except this isn’t real, of course, it’s digital. To get your hands on a real Boneshaker, to feel it and smell it and hide it in your pannier, go . We make other great bike stuff too, here especially bicycle art prints. Check them . And to let your ears take out here your mind on a journey, there’s. our new podcast series boneshakermag.wordpress.com [email protected] © Adam Faraday © Adam

Since helping to set up and run Bristol, UK – where there is a a community bike project here steady-growing, vibrant bicycle in Bristol, my eyes have been culture – to further afield and opened to the breadth of people around the globe. It is my hope and projects around the world that the following pages will doing great great things with both inspire and entertain, raise bicycles. And what impresses awareness and bring a smile to me most about the vast majority your face... and appeal to both of these is the humanity and bike-heads and to those who may desire to do things for the greater not yet even have experienced good that almost always seem to the true joy and freedom that can be an integral part of them. be found from our two-wheeled friends. Thanks for reading. Boneshaker is an attempt to bring together some of these people and projects, both on a local level James Lucas starting with my hometown of www.thebristolbikeproject.org

Contents Contents Puncture Kit 4 My Beautiful Bike 8 Mini Bike Winter Olympics VII 10 Jake’s Bikes 12 Serai 20 Spoke‘n’chain 22 ‘Tunnel’ 30 Slowcoast Soundslides 32 Tour of Switzerland 1966 36 The Bicycle Quick Release: Let ‘em have it 38 Bicycology My Beautiful Bike. 41

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 Theservicing beforeMagician my purchase, it has run smoothly ever since. 44 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 Crimanimalzform of two miniature bubble stickers. The first is Michael Jackson’s face positioned between the handlebars, and the 48 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 Thefor many Bristolmonths had become separatedBike from my Projectbicycle and Last Summer I packed a few things into lay on the floor of my bedroom. The previous days cycling in the 50 panniers and rode my bike around the coast rain could have loosened the glue, dislodging the sticker, but I of Britain. I wanted to learn a bit more about like to believe that there is a supernatural bond between my bicycle and Michael Jackson. the country where I have lived all my life and Riding Guatemala City The sticker has since been replaced with a different portrait of Michael 52 know so little about. I wanted to learn about in memory of the great entertainer. people too. So undertook to make some soundslide films about the people I met on the Illustration and words by Robert Hunter way. The amazing people who live and work www.rob-hunter.co.uk 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

“When I took over mother said, you should put your name Ronnie 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 contributors Bowie the one who started it all, so. RS Bowie It wasn’t so much as buying a bike. It was more buying john coe, nick hand, adam faraday, gavin wilshen, ali sparror, robert hunter, bits and pieces, batteries, whatever. But they would leave bike shop, 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 Stranraer lads out the back would see to it before they came back jethro brice, maria baños-smith, sébastien bernaert, nick soucek, todd legler, 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. bob coe, imogen, hal bergman, stine stensbak & jimmy ell

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 backpats and handclaps 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.” 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 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:

www.puncturekit.co.uk ffi: [email protected]

Hello puncture kit! It says on your website that “...one day when I was looking ‘Puncture Kit was brought to life after sitting in London’s Green Park with my new bicycle not long at my bike I just thought it after arriving from Australia in June 2008… no was the perfect drum frame for car, no drums, and a need to create beats’. What some toy drums!” gave you the inspiration to combine two great bits of gear into one– the bike and the drum kit? How easy was it to adapt your bike to I love doing both and so it was just logical to accommodate the drums? Did it take long to get it me! I moved from Australia to the UK in the right and was there a lot of tweaking involved? summer of 2008 because I wanted to travel and pursue music further. I was playing and It wasn’t that easy to think it all out – it recording in some bands when I got here but took a lot of experimenting to get it right still needed a way to earn some money to get ergonomically and only last week I was by. I used to be inspired by street performers in back in the workshop again grinding bits the main mall of my home town, in Adelaide, off and re-welding better brackets on, etc. and used to watch them in my lunchtimes, but It also took quite a while to find and then never thought I’d eventually be doing it myself. modify drums that would be strong, yet small I was originally thinking of carrying around a enough and also sound good. I wanted a lot small drum kit on the tube and buses but then of different weird percussion too, as I’m a one day when I was looking at my bike I just huge Aphex Twin fan and love the way beats thought it was the perfect drum frame for can be played just on percussion and make some toy drums! them sound quirky.

8 It is funny watching the youtube clips of you What do you make of the current busking and to see the public’s responses to your bike culture in London? performance – is it generally all-round good vibes when you take to the streets? The bike culture in London is very strong. There is a big cycling community and it’s very Yeah, mostly it’s great vibes and people get right friendly and as with any big city, many people into it - just the other day a guy came up and in cars (i.e. taxi drivers) find this irritating. I hugged me and was crying after watching my feel that London does try and promote cycling, performance! I am really grateful that people find although most of it seems to be done by it inspiring and like to take videos and pictures independent, not-for-profit organizations and of me performing and I enjoy talking to people individuals, which is the way with most good afterwards who want to know all about how things hey?! Puncture Kit came about and I particularly enjoy it when people say it’s inspired them to take up Have you always enjoyed riding a bicycle? an instrument. A performance highlight was definitely playing Glastonbury Dance Village I’ve either had BMX’s, road bikes or mountain last year when I was booked to just play busking bikes at some point in my life. I grew up in style around the village during the day, but then a Adelaide with beautiful hilly terrain and amazing stage manager gave me a slot on his stage later that scenery and the best way to explore that was night and it was loads of fun! 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 What are your coming plans for 2010? got a responsibility to do your best. Nobody wants to listen to someone ‘practicing’ in the street, This year I am putting out the Puncture which is what a lot of people think busking is Kit album. It’s a mix of bicycle beats and good for. The collaboration with Axel is great. electronica - it’s all finished but I want to release We both write electronic music together and it with more live shows. Puncture Kit is what individually. He is an accomplished producer and I do now and I know that things take time to most of the ideas I have for the electronica side of develop. I would really like to be touring and Puncture Kit are in ‘sketch’ form. I usually whip doing more live shows and would ideally love something up in Logic (basslines, effects etc) and to go on tour where I could busk in the city then work on it with Axel in order to come up during the day and play a live show at night... with a finished track. it’ll happen soon!!

9 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

10 My Beautiful Bike.

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.

watch here http://vimeo.com/9715534

“Chariot Wars.... it’s fun to watch” REVEREND PHIL, PDX

13 Profile: Jake Voelcker of Jake’s Bikes

14 Jake Voelcker 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...!

WWW.JAKESBIKES.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? Mainly maintenance, servicing and repairs. It helps keep old bikes on the road and helps keep Two years ago now. I was very naïve. I saw broken people cycling. We also sell reconditioned used or badly maintained bikes everywhere and I just bikes and build a few special bikes to order. We wanted to fix them and get more people cycling. work almost entirely on fairly practical bikes for I didn’t really think about the practicalities, commuters and utility users: hybrids, city bikes, and at the time I was a freelance web designer tourers and so on. To be honest, it’s cycling as a and assumed that I could continue to earn my form of transport that I’m really interested in. living from that for a year or two and do bikes a couple of days a week. I always imagined a Are there many bike workshops similar to yourselves cosy little shed somewhere with a wood stove, based in the UK? where I could do a lot of barter and trade and swaps and charge people almost nothing. After As far as I know, there are very few bike recycling a bit of searching I found a small industrial unit operations in the UK that aren’t charities and/ in Montpelier, Bristol, in which I could rent a or externally funded in some way. The Oxford corner. Very quickly it got busy, and within a few Cycle Workshop has been going for a number of months I was doing it full-time. years now and as far as I know does pretty similar work to us on a larger scale and South Coast And so you then decided to move to this larger Bikes in Brighton also run an appointment-only workshop space just around the corner? workshop but don’t sell used bikes or do any tuition. I do think that ours is a model that I’d Yeah, well it’s a bit more established now. I am in like to see copied in other cities, and as cycling a larger workshop and so can employ a couple of becomes more popular I think it will be. People other people (workshop assistant Jake & mechanic sometimes talk to me about ‘the competition’ Pete). When I started out people told me it takes from other bike projects or bike shops but I three years to get a new business off the ground and don’t really see it that way. We currently help I didn’t believe them, but they were right. I reckon The Bristol Bike Project where we can, who are by the end of our third year in business I should be based right next door to us and I was pleased to able to pay myself a living wage, so it turns out that see a new independently-run bike shop open just it really does take that long. down the road in St. Werburghs.

17 As well as repairing and selling bikes, I also heard another consumer item that you buy from that you were offering bike maintenance classes a high street shop. Cars have proper service too, is that right? centres and garages that work by good old- fashioned appointments systems. Why not for Yeah, just recently actually we’ve started running bikes as well? tuition and evening classes. There is a series of bike maintenance sessions for people who On that note, how do you think we can actually want to learn how to fix their own brakes or change the way we look at bikes in Britain and gears, and also a real beginners class for novices: make them more appealing and acceptable as a how to fix a puncture - that sort of thing. For means of valid transportation and therefore get those who want to do more in-depth stuff like more bums on seats? a complete bearings service or wheel build, we do one-to-one tuition. We’ve also just started a Well, I think it’s all about normalising cycling weekly drop-in session on Thursday evenings really - we have to get society to recognise bikes for people to come along and fix up their own as a legitimate, normal form of transport for bike using our workshop and tools which is the masses instead of just a sporting or leisure ideal for customers who have some experience activity for the few and there are a whole lot but need a little guidance or want to use the of things on many levels that we can slowly more specialist tools, and I hope it will make change to bring about this shift. For example, bike servicing affordable even for those on a we need better cycling facilities, a wider range very tight budget. of sensible, practical city bikes and cycling gear and properly integrated cycle planning - not Your sign says you work by appointment only - why just a few hastily tacked-on cycle lanes. We is that? also need petrol to be more expensive – which is lucky because that’s going to happen in any Yes, this causes some confusion! Jake’s Bikes is case and we need social demand for localisation, not a shop – it really is specifically a workshop eco awareness and healthier and safer cities – and when we’re busy working on customers’ which, again, we are slowly but surely starting bikes it’s difficult to handle retail sales. We’d have to see. Ultimately we need a shift away from to employ shop staff for that, and frankly I’m car culture and towards cycle culture. Then, not just not interested in selling the latest widgets only will drivers and policy makers and town and gizmos to punters on the high street. So we planners start to see bikes as real road vehicles have an appointments system like a car garage. which have to be respected and given space, but Customers book a time slot to drop their bike also cyclists themselves will become normalised off and discuss what work needs doing, and as responsible road users. then we can give a much more accurate estimate of when the job will be done. The trouble is that these things take time and it’s easy to get despondent or burnt-out when It’s funny that in Britain we see bikes as just plugging away at cycle campaigning. Here and

18 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 second- hand 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 It seems obvious from reading on your website ratios or a step-through frame. Even with girls about your environmental policies that the ethics in their late teens or early twenties, amongst of Jake’s Bikes is extremely important to you – how whom cycling rates are notoriously low, as soon difficult is it running a business whilst still staying as one in their social group gets a stylish bike the true to these ideals – do you have to make a lot of barriers start to break down and cycling begins compromises? to become acceptable or even normal. You can really see it when a customer, who six months Yes and no. It’s not as if I was already running ago was a complete novice, turns up on a well- a bike shop which I decided to try and make a used bike talking knowledgeably about the best bit ‘greener’, so in a way it’s not difficult at all. cycle route to work! The whole point of Jake’s Bikes is the social and the environmental. I used to work at CAT, the I guess it’s also about showing people who rely on eco-centre in Wales (www.cat.org.uk), and then having a car as a means of transporting stuff that it for a couple of other environment and climate- can also be done within reason on a bike, right? change related organisations, so by now I guess it’s pretty ingrained in me, but I’d become a Yeah, absolutely – it’s about leading by example. bit jaded and cynical about environmental When we use a bike trailer to collect and pick campaigning, and working on bikes is a great up bikes, it always attracts a lot of looks and way of doing something positive and tangible comments, mostly positive, and in a small both environmentally and socially, instead of just way it helps to show that it’s possible to carry banging on about how screwed the planet is. cargo without a car or van and makes people think “maybe I could do that”. And lastly, it’s The really gratifying thing is that the ethical stance also about being positive, that’s so important. of Jake’s Bikes is paying off, so I feel that kind of I’ve learnt that negative messages almost always justifies my idealism. Customers definitely like don’t work. Making someone feel bad about the ethical stance, and some became customers as a their carbon footprint or lack of exercise doesn’t result of reading our policies on the website. I really help; supplying them with a bike and enabling think that in an age when everything is disposable and empowering them to use it does. and fast-paced and technology-heavy, it’s really

20 important to show that repair and reuse of old stuff a bike which wears out quickly is still a whole lot is still possible and socially acceptable. The very better than driving a car! existence of Jake’s Bikes in itself demonstrates the viability of running a recycling-based, Lastly, what does 2010 hold in store for Jake’s Bikes? environmentally-friendly business; but I’m not pretending it’s all easy. Buying stock ethically is Well a whole bunch of things I hope! I would difficult. Unfortunately there’s just no such thing ideally like to be running more in-depth as local, organic, fair-trade bike components. bike repair classes; having courtesy bikes for All we can do is re-use or recycle as much as customers to borrow whilst their own is being possible and buy all of our new parts from a serviced; having a fleet of affordable long-term family-run supplier. New components which hire bikes so that people can try cycling for a few wear out quickly are also tricky. 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 anything; hiring out cargo bikes, work bikes for the long-lived option rather than the lightest or and bike trailers of the sort that people wouldn’t the cheapest, and there are plenty of things which want to own themselves but would want to use I simply refuse to stock on the grounds that they’re from time to time; having a community pool of just not designed to last. But the truth is that quality kids bikes that could simply be traded modern bikes simply don’t last as long as thirty- in for the next size up as your child grows... or forty-year-old ones, and it pains me to have to the list of possibilities is endless, and I would sell stuff which I know will end up in landfill in be delighted if other businesses or organisations five years time, but what else can we do? I comfort joined in. What’s important is not that Jake’s myself with the thought that it’s for the greater Bikes grows to do all these things, but just that good: at least it’s helping people to cycle, and even it all happens somehow.

words jimmy ell www.spokenchain.blogspot.com photography adam faraday 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 first got you interested in tinkering with what are you up to?! bikes and playing around with the notion of what is regarded as cycling in a traditional sense? K: We are Kevin and Sylvie, Viva la velorution, fun with bikes, it’s a carnival, a fairground, it’s K: I was part of Friends of the Earth and the future. We’re moving constantly and are involved in all sorts of environmental activism currently planning, thinking and involved in: back in the day – Cyclebag, the M32 cycling club, the Bristol to Bath and Pill cyclepaths and Cap’n Bikebeard, Les Velobici, Mokostumblies then moved into circus (including riding a stilt and Two Loose Les Pegs (stilts), womens’ bicycle tandem from Bristol to Maastricht) and now maintenance/skill-sharing group, bicycle- carnival and fairground stuff. costuming workshops, Bristol’s first Bicycle Carnival, collaborations with the Magnificent Enter Sylvie who cycled backwards when she was 3 Revolution, World Naked Bike Ride, Bicycle years old, was a cycle courier and moved house by Basket Markets, The Polar Bee I-Cycle Cream bicycle from Germany to England seven years ago. Company Carousel, The Ten Tallbikes Tour, Running of the Bulls, The Quest, Sprockets and S: Well, we began making stuff out of rubbish Dust, Mini Bike Maypole, Equinox Rides, oh and for carnival, for stiltwalkers and for poubelle learning to weld! dancers, to form a trash band alternative carnival section. Then we started with the idea What are you making at the moment? of playing with broken bicycles and created We’ve just been finishing off 4 social tandems Dr. Scrap and then coincidentally, for Cycling City’s Schools project and now we’ll Neighbourhood Arts asked us to put together start on The Polar Bee Icycle Cream Company a cycling section for St. Pauls Carnival Carousel (thanks to the support of Arts Council 2009 in Bristol and so Spoke‘n’Chain came England, Bristol City Council and Kambe Events). into being.

25 You always seem to be having so much fun with what S: I wish I could cycle more here in Bristol. you are working on! Is this an important part of your It’s pretty rubbish compared to what I’m used approach and outcome of what you do? to and I still don’t understand the vandalism against bicycles that goes on in this city. K: Fun is important that’s why we’re doing it – we want people to have fun with their bikes There seems to have been quite a resurgence in the and everything, I completed a playworker popularity of bicycling over the last few years – course last year and so of course!!! Spontaneous, both on a practical level, e.g. commuting and less imaginative activities lead to happier, healthier reliance on private/public transport and also in children and adults – fun is for everybody! It’s terms of cool, lifestyle-led, e.g. single-speed/fixed- free and active. It’s not passive consumerist or gear. Is that something that you have noticed? spectator – come and participate and share and join in... if joy goes, then freedom is in danger! K: We have found this particularly so in the USA - there is something definitely new and How is Bristol & its relationship with cycling at different going on there culturally. Public the moment? transport is still terrible here – over-priced and K: There’s definitely something in the air, but not much help at all, so no wonder fewer people it is not a great place to cycle. I haven’t had are relying on it and turning to their bikes and it’s good to see renewed interest in the original a bike for the last 10 years, as on my return stripped-down single-speed/fixed gear bike – from Germany I found cycling here more talking of which, we recently met a 77 year old unpleasant than 20-25 years ago but there chap who had a fixed wheel when he was a lad is something going on - Cycling City has and used to cycle to Weston-Super-Mare from provoked a resurgence and I am back on wheels. Bristol in 20mins!! It’s great to see connections

26 being made with older generations! I still really as an ‘external skeleton’ which allows mankind wish kids had simpler bikes and didn’t get sold to outstrip the process of biological evolution. inappropriate copies of specialist bikes. But we Fernand Léger, a Paris artist, saw the act of think that the real change that is happening is cycling as an aesthetic fusion of body and a pedal-powered cultural shift – emancipation machine: “A bicycle operates in the realm of all over again from capitalism – an opportunity light. It takes control of legs, arms and body, to regain freedom and autonomy for ourselves. which move on it, by it and under it (Fernand A revolution is taking place... just check out Léger, The Circus)”. Budapest and its critical mass to see that cycling there is spearheading a green eco-movement There is also a great part in Nowtopia where Chris which is about much more than just bikes. Carlsson talks about kids and bikes and then learning to drive. He says: I have recently finished reading Chris Carlsson’s excellent book, ‘Nowtopia’ and there is a great “In the U.S., the prevailing cultural norm still chapter in it called ‘Outlaw Bicycling’. He quotes sees the bicycle as a toy. As children we are given Ted White, a long-time bike activist, a bicycle when we are deemed ‘ready’ and it is often our first experience of self-emancipation “people who are into bikes tend almost always from the narrow confines of home, of our to be in some way independent thinking street and of parental supervision. On bikes, and self-sufficient... bikes are cheap, simple kids quickly expand their territories... our and democratic and sexy in a very different first liberation is eventually forgotten as the way than riding around in a car. Bike promise of “true freedom” behind the wheel of transportation is about individuality but not a car is pumped into us before we can even about excess. Bikes are congenial and social. walk, shaping the imaginations of children Bikes force us to be in our bodies and help us to from an early age. The bicycle is usually seen know and love our bodies as they are”. as a mere stepping stone to the real thing, one’s first car. And few people eschew that path and Whatcha reckon to this? refuse to drive – the bicycle is left behind as a child’s plaything, or maybe in our overweening K: Yes! FREE, simple and so easy to use, to athletic culture it retains some use as a device make, to fix, to play with and to re-invent... for exercise’’. and you know that joy as a child and teenager, freedom, you feel that freedom when you Is this something you guys experienced? ride... man and machine, the fixed gear bike is almost complete unity with the machine but K: This isn’t my story. I have never driven, not dominated by the machine – it is an extension although I agree that it is the prevailing of the human body just like stilts are... but this culture. I still don’t understand the people isn’t new - the bicycle, first time around in Paris who express concern for their environment in 1897 with Sarah Bernhardt was fashionable and still drive private cars - it is the single most and outrageous – they saw the bicycle then as a polluting act a human can undertake. It really liberator, a machine to extend the potentialities is the car drivers who are still in nappies and of the human being. Alfred Jarry described it who aren’t experiencing ‘true freedom’ and

27 28 who are controlled and conditioned by the any old bike, be a child again, have fun and marketing men and still playing with toys. enjoy the wind in your face, ban advertising, create a 21 hour working week, de-pave and dig S: Think we’re coming back again to the idea that up the carparks and turn them into gardens, ban cyclists are more often than not, independent- cars from city centres, make pedestrians king of thinking and self sufficient people, who won’t the road and banish the rich to a tax haven in believe the dream about the car that advertising the middle of the atlantic, e voila: A wonderful is trying to tattoo into our brains. I certainly view on cycling! still feel that I have more freedom on my bike even after I passed my driving test. There are no Tell us a little bit about your current location as it constraints as to where a bicycle can carry you, sounds and looks pretty exciting. as you can carry it through the dessert if you hit one or put it on a train if your legs get tired. S: Well, we are now back at Pro-Cathedral (an I think it is the one way to really experience self- old, empty cathedral awaiting development into, emancipation and to experience who you are and yep you guessed it, more student appartments), how far your legs are going to take you. You don’t but we’re not sure for how long – there is an get that sense of self when you drive in a car. exchange of favour and the developers are happy for us to be here as long as it suits them. Before How do you think we can change the way we look being here, we were at the old police station in at bikes in our society? Do you think this is already the centre of the city, run by ArtspaceLifespace, changing slowly? who have been really supportive of our project.

K: Yes, but there is still this absurd addiction There seems to have been quite a growth of to cars. And to criticise the car is taboo – we autonomous, volunteer-led spaces in Bristol over mustn’t upset the motorist!! On the positive side the last couple of years (Magpie, Emporium & though, we need to encourage more and more The Free Shop to name a few) and also the official people to ride bikes, to act bravely – this is one use of derelict buildings awaiting development revolution that actually can make a difference, for creative endeavours (Pro-Cathedral, The Old so do it, be brave, be bold and if you really want Bridewell Police Station and the disused motorcycle to be ethical, revolutionary and to do something shop in Stokes Croft) – this is pretty exciting for about the environment, our society and the everyone? How do you feel about this? awful corporate capitalist corruption, quit your addiction to the car. Make this world a better K: Autonomous spaces like this have been around place and turn parking lots into paradise. Let’s Bristol as long as I can remember. They come and have critical mass every day. I believe the bicycle go. There is a little bit of a trend for them at the can achieve all of this. moment with the whole ‘regenerate empty shops’ grants. And yes it is exciting and one can only S: To change the way our society looks at bikes, hope that more and more spaces will grow and hmmm... but how do you change society? We stay and take over. Talking of which, The Cube (a need to take bicycles away from the marketing famous volunteer-run cinema and arts microplex big wigs and let each individual experience – www.cubecinema.com) is over ten years old riding for themselves. Ride more tallbikes, ride now and I was involved in helping to start that

29 up. It’s not a squat or a temporary space, cos What are you looking forward to this coming year it actually has a bona fide 15 year lease, but and where can we see you doing your thing? when it was started, it felt like we were making a last stand. Maybe it was the beginning of K: We’ll be cycling to Shambala Festival and something. Weymouth Carnival on tallbikes, building our first fairground ride – the Polar Bee I-Cycle Cream There are currently over 3,000 or so empty commercial properties in Bristol, which are a Company Carousel – and then coming up soon, a potential resource for all of us here in Bristol and midnight Dekochari Hausu bike ride and movie yet they are allowed to fall into decay and ruin in on May 30th. pursuit of profits. Last year we were relying on the council to come up with some space for us Can people volunteer and get involved with to build the bicycles for St. Paul’s carnival – for Spoke‘n’chain? quite some time this was leading nowhere and if it hadn’t been for ArtspaceLifespace, we may S: Yes. Sharpen the tide of oil, dip in the sea of have had to abandon the project altogether. 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

“When I took over mother said, you should put your name Ronnie 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 Bowie the one who started it all, so. RS Bowie It wasn’t so much as buying a bike. It was more buying bits and pieces, batteries, whatever. But they would leave bike shop, 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 Stranraer 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 “I’m Keira Rathbone, and I’m an artist, specialising in Keira typewriter art. I was studying for a fine art degree, and I went home to pick up my typewriter, thinking I would use Rathbone it for writing my sketch book, but when it came down to Typewriter it, I didn’t have anything to write. So still wanting to use my typewriter I just thought I would artist, 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 Poole, slashes. I started using it as a mark making technique.

Dorset 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 more senior of the club members. We were having in previous years toured the UK, Ireland to tackle just one mountain pass and cover and Holland, I and fellow members of the about 50 to 60 miles each day. I, and the Upton Manor Cycling Club, decided to ‘do’ other younger members of the group, having Switzerland in July that year. On the way round been used to riding much longer distances we would also venture into Italy and Austria. each day in the UK, thought this was going The Upton Manor club was founded in 1924 to be a bit of a doddle. My opinion was, by J J Cooper, who had a cycle shop and made however, changed half way up the very first cycle frames in Upton Park, in East London mountain that we tackled! Showing off and – not far from West Ham’s football ground. racing ahead of the others, thinking I must Although sadly no longer in existence the be near the top, I hit the wall. Getting club was thriving in the mid-sixties with both “hunger knock” is no fun at the best of times, time-trial racing and touring members. I think but half-way up a mountain with falling you could say that all of us going on the trip temperatures, it’s awful. With only a packet were fairly fit, but as even the least experienced of polo mints to revive me, I had to stop, cyclists will know, cycling uphill is hard. So munch the lot, and then slowly peddle up to riding over Alpine mountain passes each day the summit, another forty minutes or so of was not going to be easy. 10% gradients. Needless to say I had learned We departed by train from London, then my lesson the hard way and after that I made by boat across the Channel, before boarding sure I ate well, paced myself – the passes are the train once more to Lucerne. The schedule a lot steeper and longer than I thought – and had all been worked out and booked by the carried plenty of food with me.

38 On the way round we were to tackle some the distance – which is reached via 34 hairpin of the highest of the Alpine passes, including bends at some 22km distance. It was awesome the Grimsel at 2,163m (7,103ft), the Furka and when, after much effort, we finally got to at 2,436m (7,999ft) and the giant Stelvio at the top, we really began to think that it was all 2,757m (9,045ft), that’s over 1.7 miles high! going to be down hill from here. The weather was mixed, as it often is in the From there on it was a relatively flat run Alps. One moment it would be tipping it down across the border into Austria and on to (rain lower down, but sleet or snow near the Bregenz on Lake Constance. We arrived in top), and the next we’d be in brilliant sunshine. Bregenz on Friday 29 July 1966 and the next The mountain air was wonderful, the scenery day on our schedule was a rest day. Now you fantastic and the mellow sound of the cow bells may be wondering why I remember this date echoing across the valleys was just magical. specifically, but it was, in fact, the eve of a very Staying in small hotels or guesthouses important day. We awoke on the Saturday along the way our favourite evening meal was morning with one overriding concern. How Vienna Schnitzel and chips! You could get it were we going to see the World Cup final everywhere and it was just the job for storing up between England and West Germany. Now, enough energy for the day to come, especially right from the start, and every four years since, when it is washed down with a glass or two of we had never thought that England would win German beer. the World Cup, so we had no plans in place. Everything went well for me until we got to In fact, without the communications marvels St. Moritz. This was our only overnight stop of of today, it was perhaps surprising that we even the tour at altitude (over a mile high) and I was knew that England had got to the final. sick several times in the night. I blamed it on Anyway, we wandered aimlessly around this the altitude, but for some reason everyone else beautiful Austrian town with only one thing seemed to think that it was due to one too many in mind, until at last we came across an Italian strong beers the night before. Whatever the bar that had a television. No big screen and reason, despite being unable to eat breakfast, black and white of course, but nonetheless if I had to get on the bike and cycle over yet we peered closely enough we could just about another mountain pass! Rather than shoot off make out which side was which. With half the ahead with the younger riders I could only just bar (mainly Italians) supporting England and about turn the pedals and stay with the more the rest (Austrians) vying for West Germany, senior guys. It was the longest, hardest day I can the atmosphere was great. None of us will, of remember, but I did make it and was absolutely course, forget that day. As West Ham provided fine the next day after a good night’s sleep. the captain and all the goal scorers in the We were now crossing the border into Italy 4-2 win we really felt that Upton Manor and ahead of us was the big one, the one we’d all and Upton Park had won the World Cup for been dreading. The Stelvio is the second highest England. When we went out that evening Alpine road pass, being just 13m lower than (for celebratory Vienna Schnitzel and chips of the Col de L’Iseran in France. Now for those of course), we were shown great hospitality from you who follow the Tour de France, when you the Austrians and it seemed that everyone came watch the pros going up the Tourmalet or Alpe up and congratulated us on England’s win – it d’Huez, remember that they are mere tiddlers was brilliant! compared to some of the Swiss/Italian passes. After that it was a fairly gentle ride across Alpe d’Huez, for example is only 1,860m high country from Austria, back to Switzerland, – the Stelvio is 2,757m, nearly half as high retracing our steps back to the UK from again! I will never forget the morning we woke Lucerne. It was a brilliant tour and one I will in Bormio and saw ahead of us the Stelvio in never forget!

39 the bicycle quick release let ‘em have it!

For the fifteen or so years I’ve been involved of bikes and bike parts that happens in any in cycling, the ‘quick release’ wheel and seat city. The industry cash in on wheels being mechanism never made any sense to me as nicked – as people keep purchasing new a standard feature on bicycles. Many friends wheels to replace stolen ones. have had wheels and seatposts stolen in seconds – in the middle of the day – from When I was a teenager I got into mountain busy public places. biking and lapped up the scene like a thirsty alsatian – y’know like kids do – reading It got me thinking.. what is practical about the mags cover to cover and reciting bike having your bike disassemble so easily that components with friends like top trumps. I when locking your bike up outside, you then got a job so that I could buy more bike parts. need to carry your two wheels and seatpost I spent all my money on bikes! By the time I around with you all day? Or, what is practical had my second bike stolen however – which about carrying enough U-locks or cable to I couldn’t afford to replace – I was bike-less bind your frame, front wheel, rear wheel for two years. When I finally got a bike again and seatpost to a secure street object? Why I bought two good locks, ripped out the would bicycle design integrate a feature that quick releases for allen key skewers and still made your bike so vulnerable and such a have it 8 years later. pain in the ass? I am no longer interested in the bike The quick release (QR), an Italian invention industry. Despite the humble bicycle being from the 1920s, became popular among part of the love-in greenwash economic cyclists in race situations for speed of wheel sector it is not an inherently ecological, removal to deal with punctures. In the 1980s society changing tool. The bike industry the consumer bike market adopted it as is big business and operates under the the standard with hollow axle wheels – not same profit motives as the car industry. for necessary speed but for everyday ease. Last week I got chatting to a guy in a Ironically enough, the most quoted reason bike shop who was telling me how the for the ‘consumer advantages of QR’ is that bike companies are starting to build their you can ‘easily put your bike in your car’! bikes with proprietary componentry - i.e. you would need a set of ‘Trek’ allen keys While today you may still not find them on to maintain a Trek bike that would not cheaper bicycles most bikes are sold off the undo the allen key bolts on a ‘Raleigh’ peg with QR mechanisms. Don’t get me bike. I laughed. This is great capitalism! wrong; If you decide to fit them that’s fine. Proprietary Digital Bicycle Diagnostics But for me, fitting them as standard makes anyone? MOT, Road Tax... is the bicycle the industry complicit in the constant theft exempt from any of this?

40 by Ali Sparror | www.participatoryspectacle.info

Cars (I’ve never owned one, or fixed one) progress teasingly at arms length. The next were a one-time tinkerers playground. thing is always better, and the last thing is OK, I’m being romantic, they were a just about to break. relatively open access technology that anyone could work on if they desired. Until I’m tooling my own bike components Design innovation, psychological profiling (I don’t think it’s gonna happen) I will be and planned obsolescense have made cars at the whims of an industry that on the into the brilliantly marketable commodity whole exists to propagate itself through of a robot friend who understands not economic profit. only what you mean when you press the brake pedal, but who you are and what Remembering that (all property is theft) if your career and lifestyle motivations someone wants something enough they are – the mass production of KITT, David will steal it, ditching your quick release Hasselhoff’s intelligent and highly advanced mechanisms is a simple action to better car. The problem with proprietary design secure your bike. Hacking your existing is that the technology is encoded and the quick release is a good non-consumption interface unique to each model; it isn’t and free way to do this. The wheel is accessible to the general public. And the still easy to loosen and tighten, but history of industrial design teaches us that opportunists won’t be able to nick it. The great innovation is always followed by financial alternative is purchasing a set of a subsequent regression of its liberatory allen key skewers (around 12 pounds for potential to keep consumers and technological 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 01 Open your quick release (QR) to remove your wheel. Unscrew have it...! 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.

Lock the skewer rod or the QR head into a vice so that the lever faces down to the ground.

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.

04 skull end of lever Once you’ve removed the washers the QR lever should slide out. skewer rod 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 head 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 split washer frame – replicating the function of the now discarded head.

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 Bicycle: our chosen and well-loved way to attract attention, and that the bicycle form of transportation, Psychology: allowed you the freedom and intimacy to talk how our brain works, and how we to the people you passed along the way. But work socially, AND Ecology: the planet on the G8 Bike Ride there was little time to and ecosystem we exist in. stop and chat about why we were riding and the issues we were passionate about - we were ‘The Bicycology Guide’ which encompassed always in a hurry to just get there. different environmental and social issues, and formed the basis of our topical leaflets – all of which are So in the Winter of 2005 some of the G8 Bike currently available to read and download from the Riders decided to form Bicycology: a cycle Bicycology website. To enhance the spectacle we activist collective, with its initial aim being to borrowed a giraffe-like tall-bike (two bikes welded do another cycle tour, with the opportunity on top of each other) and a reverse steering BMX. to put on events along the way. Our name We pride ourselves in being able to carry everything Bicycology (pronounced: bye-sigh-koll-o-gee) we need on our bikes, actively demonstrating that is an amalgamation of the words bicycle: our bicycles are not only a practical but hugely enjoyable chosen and well-loved form of transportation; way to get about. psychology: how our brain works, and how we work socially; and ecology: the planet and We have since done another summer cycle tour but ecosystem we exist in. this time in the South West, improving our range of activities and resources, to put on events such Bicycology’s first tour took place in August as pedal-powered film nights and talks. In 2008 2006, beginning in the (now sadly extinct) we worked hard to produce a week long event in RampArt squatted social centre in London, and Lancaster celebrating cycling and sustainability, ending in Lancaster. We had devised a number called ‘Routes to Solutions’. of activities to attract and engage with people as we stopped off along the route. These included For this event, we created a series of educational Dr.. Bike – a free bike check and repair, and workshops such as ‘Food for Thought’ where we various pedal-powered machines such as a cooked and ate a vegan meal with locals, and game-boy. We compiled a booklet discussed food and environment-related issues, as

44 well as showing a pedal-powered film about makeshift shelters and face severe repression by the vegan organic farming. ‘Cycling question time’ french police and by people-smugglers. It is hoped was inspired by political panel shows, and gave that these bikes will allow activists supporting the locals a chance to air their cycling grievances refugees to travel between groups of refugees more as well as to explore what can be done to make quickly and effectively. This is very typical of the kind Lancaster a more cycling-friendly place. We of activity bicycology will continue to engage in, also created events for young people; ‘Planet using the skills we have developed to support a cause Bike’ took place in a local children’s library and that we feel is important. was a storytelling bike adventure and bike craft activities, whilst ‘Bike fixing for Kids’ gave young In the future Bicycology hopes to continue with people a chance to learn and use some simple its cycle activism. We are currently supporting the mechanic skills. Merthyr to Mayo Solidarity Bike Ride in support of communities resisting fossil fuel extraction. We’ll be In recent years we have been improving our skills cycling from Merthyr Tydfil in Wales, where locals and resources, through bike mechanic training, are suffering from huge open-cast coal mining and development of leaflets and operations on their doorsteps, to Rossport in County literature, as well as bike electricity generators Mayo, Ireland, where Shell propose to bring a and a smaller, more easily transportable sound- dangerous high-pressure gas-pipeline onshore. system. We have been supporting larger events We’ll also be attending the World Car Free Network such as The Camp For Climate Action and The conference that is happening in York at the end of June, Climate Caravan, as well as attending various and popping up at smaller events around the country. other actions and demonstrations to lend our support, and putting on some smaller events of To find out more about BICYCOLOGY or the our own such as film nights. No Borders Camp in Calais visit: www.bicycology.org.uk Our group operates on a non-hierarchical basis; www.calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com 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 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

46 47 48 Todd Legler Todd

49 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 ride on November 2nd, 2007. names like Los Angelopes, a large and agenda was neutral, many Critical Mass participants voiced antelope with ape hanger handles participants invoked the group’s their outrage at the City of Santa for antlers for a mascot and collective motto: “If you rode Monica Council Meeting a few Pier Pressure, in which a giraffe a bicycle, you’d be home by weeks later and some participants and pigeon with a handlebar now!” – a statement against convened as ‘Council of N’, moustache wearing a cycling cap oil dependency, in support of a secret group that privately is a recurring theme. sustainable living and a collective discussed the police harassment. critique of the L.A. transportation Members of the CRIMANIMALZ infrastructure. The riders are ‘Council of N’ talked with city are looking for city officials to pointing out that in a city like officials and the police, but talks make bicycle safety a priority, Los Angeles made for cars, led nowhere. Several of the not only through the creation of bicycle riders are reaching their ‘Council of N’ members voted safe and easy places to ride, but destinations faster. on creating a secondary ride in also as a means of transportation Santa Monica, this time calling on the city’s increasingly busy CRIMANIMALZ was initially it Criminal Mass, naming it so thoroughfares. With rising gas created out of rider reaction because they felt they were prices and a government bent to the police crackdown of being criminalized for their on pushing sustainable practices, Santa Monica Critical Mass, a legal behaviors. This name was more people are expected to bicycle ride with as many as 300 changed to CRIMANIMALZ, turn to bikes as an alternative participants that meet on the a portmanteau of the words means of transportation. first Friday of the month. Ignored Critical, Criminal and Animals. The in large for over two years, Santa name CRIMANIMALZ invokes We caught up with Richtotheie, Monica Police officers issued 32 the animal spirit of the Westside one of the three guys that citations, many erroneously, at bicycling community which is started Crimanimalz, and put a the Santa Monica Critical Mass host to large group rides with few questions his way....

50 For more info: www.crimanimalz.com words: jimmy ell www.vimeo.com/crimanimalz stills captured from ‘Crimanimalz Freeway Ride II’

L.A. has a real reputation for doors on purpose to stop you the average person and most being a totally car-centric city. Is from passing - do you get a lot of people are also afraid of riding there much of a bicycle presence aggro from motorists? We usually in the street. Obviously this in L.A. right now? Los Angeles don’t get ANY aggression from doesn’t excuse the people who is a “Car City”, no doubt. A few motorists on the freeway... are driving less than 5 miles to years ago, bicyclists were this They’re too busy reading books their workplace - imagine if they “pesky P.O.S. that’s blocking or talking on their cellphones rode a bike instead of driving – my way”. Aggression was the in traffic. When they DO notice that would be thousands of cars norm out there and sadly still us, especially when on the staying home and not clogging is today. However, bicycling tallbike, it’s usually a sea of honks up the streets nor polluting our has skyrocketed since then and cheers! We spice up the air. The real trick though is that and now it’s something people commute home and hopefully biking has to become COOL in are just ‘getting used to’. We’re make them wish they were riding order for the masses to really get slowly becoming an accepted with us instead of being stuck in involved. obstacle of the environment! that metal heap. What do I mean by that? Well, Have you had many run-ins with Portland, Oregon has tons of There definitely seems to be the police whilst freeway-riding? bikers comparatively speaking an ever-growing cycling culture We’ve had one run-in which and you can expect to see them in many US cities, the obvious you can see at the end of the everywhere, day or night, rain ones being Portland, Davis and 2nd freeway ride: http://vimeo. or shine; hopefully within the San Francisco – do you think L.A. com/1050311 - that’s me with next decade, bicyclists will be could ever follow suit? L.A.’s bike the PARTY TIME cape and the expected on the streets here too culture has grown like a wonder tallbike. After a long lecture in that way. weed through the cracks of this and several questions, they watered desert, but even though asked how I made the bike. Very When was your last Freeway our numbers have probably over- cool guys. They were mostly Ride? Undetermined. There’s a tripled in the last 2-3 years, there concerned with our safety which fat blurry line between riding are just SO many vehicles in L.A.! I truly appreciate. I am grateful on the freeway for F.U.N. and The city is putting in train lines even more that I didn’t get a for demonstration purposes. to connect more areas, but it ticket since we all ran from the Although the total of illegally still doesn’t quite get you places officers and were chased for being on the freeway is that your car could. You have to about 5 minutes up and down somewhere just under 10. remember that L.A. is the second streets going the wrong way, biggest city in the USA and spans sirens blaring... of course they I noticed that on one of the out at almost 500 square miles picked me to follow – the guy freeway-riding videos, some – biking 20 miles or more to and on the tallbike whose head was car-drivers actually open their from work is just too much for bobbing around 10ft in the air...

51 The Bristol Bike Projectwas 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’ skill- sharing workshops, single-speed nights, ‘chopshops’ and bike-trailer building are also all happening now on a regular basis.

52 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.

53 words maria baños-smith pics sébastien bernaert

RIDING GUATEMALA CITY

On my way to work one morning, I came City. Therefore it’s dangerous to go out after up against a police block. It was a usual dark. So, no one goes out, and so on. The occurrence, but this time was different. As I concept of critical mass is often used in a bike stopped to see what was going on, a military setting, but in Guatemala (like in many other policeman shouted “Hey you! You can go places) it’s used to limit people’s space to round that block over there to get down to live. A CIA-backed ‘guerilla war’ ripped this your office”. How did he know I was headed country apart for 36 years and the shocking that way? Easy, I was on a bicycle so I was truth is that today more people are murdered easy to spot – the authorities had noticed me every day in Guatemala than during the do the same journey every day – there were conflict which ‘ended’ in 1996. barely any other bikes on the road and so I was easily singled out and very visible. I used I had left my job just over a year earlier. to give as good as I got to the endless cajoles My dream job advising a Member of the from the gunmen guarding every shop front European Parliament on international and government building who’d whistle or development issues didn’t exactly turn out to shout at me as I went past simply because be a nightmare, but certainly an interrupted I was a girl and on a bike. But after that night’s sleep with some panicky sweats day I stopped answering back. I became a thrown in. Like so many others I wanted to little more aware of my vulnerability, but make change happen; I’d studied a Masters actually had never felt safer; if they’d been at the best lefty university in the UK and had watching me for that long and not bothered lived in Latin America. Now I understood me, they probably never planned to. It was how the ‘big’ decisions are made, in Europe at my bike that gave me precious freedom in least. However, I was aware of just how little one of the top three most dangerous cities I really knew and felt like I needed to go back in Latin America. and live amongst those people whose name politicians, policy makers and well-meaning This was Guatemala City, 2004, where a rich kids (often the same thing) want to act fearful population is a controlled population. in and hear it from them directly. I knew by No one goes out after dark in Guatemala now that it was the people that would make

54 “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 traffic, changing direction every time a bus there for over 3 years. I say ‘lived’ because belched out a cloud of black smoke. It was you don’t really stay or visit somewhere for excruciatingly painful, but definitely preferable that amount of time. Living somewhere that’s to public transport. I soon bought my own not home makes you redefine living. I was bike and it wasn’t until then that I was able to very alive, but I was also never really at home. really move in the city. And ‘live’ in the city. Some places will allow you to create a home, but the jolted and tragic history of Guatemala From then on I cycled the main artery of that’s swamped in secrecy doesn’t allow a the city every morning past the market stalls newcomer to share a sense of past, and the setting up, the grid-locked traffic and armed present is so tenuous that you’re never sure if it guard after armed guard standing on the can really be the ‘home’ of anyone. entrances to shops, banks and government buildings. Invariably, some of them would Monday morning in Guatemala and it was whistle or shout some obscenity as I went my first day at work. I remember cringing at past and I would respond in kind at them the thought of having to wait for an irregular before whizzing down the road and out of bus to take me to the other side of town with sight. Bikes give you the safety of a get-away no control over what time I’d get there. The vehicle. Over time however, the presence Population Council offices were in the wealthy of armed guards became complemented by 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, military personnel on street corners, not as the bus got fuller and fuller of workers guarding anything in particular, just the streets making their way home. I ran the rest of the themselves, or rather claiming a stake on way home and a couple of hours later, James behalf of the army Colonels and the Generals (my brother, who also happened to be out of the shared space and reminding the city’s there as a journalist) arrived back on his bike, inhabitants that they were in control, and clearly having experienced quite a different these were their streets. city journey to mine. His rusting black racer had a thin pannier rack on the back and I The first time I rode past the gates guarding used to sit on it as he whizzed through the the entrance to the road my office was on, the

55 armed guards greeted me with some surprise enough room for it. He looked at me with but they smiled at the unusual sight. They’d very sad eyes and I asked what was wrong. His get a bit miffed if I just ducked the barrier, so niece had died that weekend because she was I’d stand and wait for them to lift it and let ill and his family had no money to pay for a me through – it was their only daily task and I car to take her from the remote village where didn’t want to take it away from them. But it she lived to the hospital. The head boss of the was clear as day that the streets were designed Population Council drove a Mercedes but his for cars, not pedestrians and certainly not love of cars didn’t stretch to a lift for Cruz’s bikes. At my office Cruz, the cleaner, beamed niece. I didn’t last much longer in that job and when I first brought my bike to work – he left to work with a grass-roots organisation run created a little space for it inside and I could by indigenous women and it turned out they swear he would take some polish to it and would give me the education of my life. occasionally my brakes would be tightened or my wheel pumped up, and I didn’t know Around that time, the idea of starting a why! He told me it reminded him of the Critical Mass in Guatemala City was taking countryside where he came from, where bikes shape. No one rode a bike, car drivers needed were the common mode of transport. educating, bus drivers needed taming, and more than anything, people needed a reason But the bosses took a different stance. At to get on a bike for the first time and collective first they mocked but, just like with the armed action seemed like the best way to go about guards, my bike started to grind against their encouraging this. We put word out that the world view. I tried to point out that driving first Critical Mass in Guatemala City was to be to the supermarket at lunchtime was slower held on the first Friday of the month. About than cycling – it was only ten minutes on foot 12 people turned up – we made some noise for God’s sake and they’d enjoy the sunshine and confused and annoyed the car-drivers! and some exercise if they came out with me on Numbers didn’t go up considerably as time two wheels! But they considered themselves went on and I realised that the reason people city people, and the bike was confined to the weren’t coming was because they simply didn’t countryside – it was part of a life they rejected have a bike. and strove to move away from. And so it was that we discovered a great little After about nine months, the big boss organisation about 2 hours from the capital off told me that cycling to the office was ‘too a beaten track, right next door to Maya Pedal dangerous’, and ran ‘against the organisations who have become famous for making practical policy’ so I should stop cycling in. Soon after machines out of bikes, from coffee grinders to that, Cruz told me I was no longer able to washing machines. Quite quickly, our front keep my bike inside because there was not room turned in to a bike storage space for

56 around 50 bikes; we had all shapes and sizes family-friendly, more ‘cyclists rights’ approach and it felt good to be in the company of so and is now also seen as a way of exploring new many bikes. places on the outskirts of the city.

Not long after, I cycled over to a gathering The bikes continued to sell and many people organised by an art collective and saw a guy I’d came to agree that somewhere between a met once before who was involved in sharing pedestrian and a car driver, our bikes let us circus skills with street-kids. Sébastien was float in and out of places, immunised against immediately interested in the bike project and the city’s many barriers and opening up the in buying a bike off me, so he cycled me over possibility of another Guatemala City. to my house then and there, with me on the back and him laughing in broken Spanish. Since we left, the country has become more dangerous as the drugs trade and the gangs When he saw all the bikes piled up his eyes push the stakes ever higher. This translates into lit up and I knew he’d be part of the future of 15 murders a day in a country of 2 million. the project. He opened up a whole world to But it’s typical of the spirit of the people to me through the kids and his take on spending come out on to the streets to stake their right time with them. Unlike me, they had a strong to a different future so bike demos fit into a sense of belonging and I began to realise that myriad of other visible struggles for a fairer it was actually my bike that was allowing me 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 between here and there is that they believe part of how I could experience the city. All another world is possible, and that’s why in belonging is only as temporary as life itself, small pockets at least, change does happen. 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 Critical Mass continues to happen in taking in all the sounds and smells along the Guatemala City on Sunday mornings. way. Like life, cycling is transient by its very For further information visit the blog: nature; it is the journeys themselves that make www.masacriticaguate.blogspot.com up what matters and not the destinations.

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

57 58 boneshakermag.wordpress.com [email protected]

59 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.

60 SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE