Since Bicycology have their own website and blog I shouldn't really need to post stuff here, but since both are only sporadically updated I will give a brief summary of some stuff that has happened since my last entry. First there was Routes to Solutions in Lancaster and Morecambe. Me and another Bicycologist managed to get a heavily laden Brox and Son of Pedals (tandem with soundsystem on trailer) on a train to Leeds and then cycled them to Lancaster via Skipton over two days. The whole thing went more or less to plan, with films, workshops, rides, a Critical Mass in Lancaster etc. After the event we left Son of Pedals in Lancaster and brought the original Pedals back down South where I gave it a much needed service.
Not much happened over the winter but things are picking up now. On Monday March 30th someone from Bicycology went along to St Mary's Church Hall in Harmondsworth and (on behalf of Bicycology) "adopted" a resident as part of Plane Stupid's Adopt a Resident campaign. This means we will be supporting our resident in their fight against the Heathrow third runway and ultimately helping them to defend their home if construction goes ahead.
Bicycology was also involved in organising a G20 Critical Mass which met at Bank Junction in London at 9am on April 1st. The ride ended up at the Climate Camp in Bishopsgate where Pedals and various other bits of Bicycology kit were put to good use. Unfortunately this peaceful protest ended in police violence - several Bicycologists sustained bruises and Pedals got bashed up a bit with truncheons and kicked over. Fortunately the damage to Pedals was fairly superficial and it has already been fixed.
Bicycology were involved with the march from Heathrow to the recent Camp for Climate Action at Kingsnorth and in the camp itself. I did not take part except for meeting the march at an event at Oxleas Wood.
Bicycology is still going strong. The next big event will be a week long festival of cycling and sustainability in Lancaster and Morecambe called Routes to Solutions which starts on Saturday 23rd of August with a film at the Gregson in Lancaster.
Before that, Bicycologists will be joining the caravan to the Camp for Climate Action. The caravan leaves Heathrow on Sunday 27th July and will reach Greenwich by Thursday 31st of July, where Bicycology has organised a an event called "Life Beyond Cars". This will take place from 4pm to 6pm near Oxleas Wood Cafe on Shooters Hill and include discussions about the possibility of a car-free future. Dr Bike will also be there to tend to any sick bikes. Later that evening Bicycology are presenting a Bike Film night at Welling Methodist Church.
The new Bicycology website is now online!
The 2007 Summer roadshow was a great success, but as with last year, when I got home I was too busy catching up with stuff to write about it here. The website has not been updated since the roadshow but we are having a week long gathering in Anglesea starting on Wednesday next week, during which we hope to get things organised. In the mean time here is a very brief report.
We started our Summer roadshow in Aylesbury on the weekend of July 14th with events in Kingsbury Square and Vale Park. We were hosted at the Friends Meeting House with plenty of space to do last minute preparations for the ride. From there we cycled to Oxford where we camped in a friend's garden near the Thames. Fortunately we moved on when we did, because we later heard that a couple of days after we left the garden was under several feet of water. From there we carried on via Swindon to Bristol, stopping on the way to visit Bikes4Africa in Hullavington. In Bristol we stayed at Kebele where we ran a film night, and did events in Castle Park and Eastville Park. I met up with a guy known as Biggles and went to his workshop to get some brazing done on the four wheeled Brox we had with us. The Brox proved very popular with kids who were always asking for rides on the back. We had an early prototype, and although it was designed for load carrying it proved to be the slowest vehicle in the fleet, even after we took all the load off and distributed it amongst the other bikes. We also had the same tall bike as last year, courtesy of Cycle Magic. From Bristol we headed down through the Mendips to spend a couple of days relaxing at Tinkers Bubble, and then on down to the South Devon coast where some of us braved the sea at Charmouth. Nearing the end of our journey and now with 18 riders we stayed fairly close to the coast for the run in to Exeter where we had another weekend of events lined up.
Most Bicycologists left after that but four of us took the tandem with soundsystem (ridden solo), the Brox, and two bikes with trailers, and spent two days lugging as much as we could up to the Big Green Gathering near Cheddar, stopping on the way to camp at Glastonbury Tor. We were joined later by more Bicycologists at the BGG and spent our time hanging out at the Appropriate Technology Marquee. I got the tandem and soundsystem shipped back to London in a van and got a lift home in a horse box with one of the Circus to Iraq guys. I didn't have long to recover before taking the soundsystem on a ride from City Airport in Docklands out to this year's Camp for Climate Action near Heathrow Airport where there was a Bicycology presence.
That is all I have time for now, except just to mention that we received some funding from Artists' Project Earth.
Bicycology have been meeting every three months or so to plan a Summer 2007 roadshow. We have decided to do a two week tour starting in Aylesbury on the weekend of July 14th and ending in Exeter on the weekend of July 28th - these are both Cycling Demonstration Towns. Our most recent meeting was on the weekend of March 17th at Kebele Community Co-operative, chosen because we will be spending the middle weekend in Bristol. There were also people staying at Kebele for a planning meeting for this year's Camp for Climate Action which will take place from August 14th to 21st. Last year our roadshow ended up at the camp but this year we decided to keep it separate. No doubt we will be promoting the camp on our ride, and some of us will probably also be involved in a ride to the camp.
The long overdue update to the Bicycology website is still in the pipeline but here is a preview.
The Summer roadshow went very well but I have not had time to write up a report. In fact, due to me getting a job last month I have had to cut right back on my involvement but will still be attending the next meeting in Leicester on the weekend of November 11th. A few Bicycologists were involved with events at Lancaster University Freshers' Fair last week and some are planning to set off tomorrow cycling from Lancaster to Faslane to take part in Faslane 365. Pedals got a new paint job during the Roadshow and has not been home to London since then - it will be on Faslane duty and I hope it does a grand job.
There is loads of stuff to be getting on with and I hope the group manages to maintain the incredible energy that got us through the Summer. There are many hours of video footage to edit. A short promotional video would be good to help with future funding applications and it would be great to make a longer film to submit for next year's Bicycle Film Festival. I will continue to provide hosting for the Bicycology website but I am not directly involved in maintaining the content, which is in need of updating. I apologise for not being very prompt at answering queries sent to the info at bicycology email address, and am waiting for a volunteer to step forward and take over that role.
I probably won't be posting much more stuff on this page (at least not for the next few months) but I just want to big up Bicycology one more time and say thanks to everyone involved in getting it together and making the Roadshow such a special event. I want to leave you with a photo I shot from the stoker's seat on Chris' semi-recumbent tandem whilst cycling out to the Big Green Gathering. It was taken from somewhere on the towpath between Bradford on Avon and Bath which is an awesome cycle route - see the excellent interactive guide on Paul Stephens website. Looking at Paul's map we must have been on the Avoncliff to Dundas section, and looking across the canal I saw this cool piece of recycled bike sculpture which I captured without even slowing down:-)
Only two days now till the start of the Bicycology Summer Roadshow 2006! The Forest Gate Community Festival went well and since then I have cycled out to the Big Green Gathering on a semi-recumbent tandem that will be coming on the roadshow. There were about six Bicycologists at the gathering and we used it as a sort of final rehearsal. I have been too busy with it all to keep my own website up to date but the Bicycology website has some new stuff on it, and will be updated while we are on the road.
The final planning meeting for the roadshow will take place in London from July 13th to 16th. On the 15th we will be visiting the Forest Gate Community Festival as a sort of rehearsal. Meanwhile, the Bike Caravan to St Petersburg has recently crossed the Russian border - see this press release.
There are a couple of Roadshow flyers available for download from the Bicycology wiki (under "Latest News").
At the weekend I joined a few other Bicycologists to ride from London to Runnymede and back as part of a Reclaim St George weekend. Here is my report.
Tomorrow night at RampART the community cinema will be showing a number of bicycle related films and there will be a Bicycology stall.
The next planning meeting will be in Sheffield on the weekend of May 20th.
And finally, the new Bicycology website is up and running.
Last weekend there was another Bicycology meeting at St Matts and we are definitely making some progress. We had a break on the Saturday to go for a ride together to Greenwich via the foot tunnel. It was nice to be riding together again even if just for a couple of miles.
I have set up new hosting for Bicycology web and email and hopefully the new site will be up soon.
There has been a suggestion that some people might split off from the Ecotopia Biketour and ride to the Camp for Climate Action. I have just emailed Ecotopia to let them know about the Bicycology tour.
Rob Newman has put the Bicycology announcement on his website on the Rising Tide page.
At the Sumac meeting it was agreed that the destination for the 2006 roadshow would be a "climate camp" somewhere in the north of England but this could not announced because plans were in the early stages. Now the cat is out of the bag - check Camp for Climate Action.
The next Bicycology meeting will be at Matilda in Sheffield on the weekend of 2006-01-28.
At the end of a long weekend of meetings at the Sumac Centre in Nottingham, 15 riders from the 2005 G8 Bike Ride formed a collective called "Bicycology" and agreed to work on organising a month long UK bicycle roadshow to take place in the summer of 2006.
www.zenatode.org.uk Ian Gregory 2010
