Bicycology/Archive
This is a list of all the things that were removed from the Wiki and archived by James - March 2008
- 2007 Tour Timeline
- 2007 Places - People resposible and info collected, etc
- 2007 Diary Dates
- Text for a Bicycology information leaflet (A4 Folded)
- Text for Banner
- Bits of Text for Website
- Past Events - 2006 Tour
- Bicycological Quizasaurous thoughts
- Article on G8 Ride
- Agenda for Rampart Meeting 12-16th Dec 2007
- Kitlist2007
- Bicycology/Misc - some random photos from the web
- Draft Guide Pages - there were lots of old versions of 2006 and 2007 Guides
To be Archived
Below is stuff to be removed from the wiki site that hasn't yet been archived elsewhere. Please put stuff here if you notice it is out of date.
Bicycology/Big Green 2009
Who is bringing what so far...
Tim Mini stand, basic spares, reasonable toolkit, tyres for belts, chains and cables for bike jewelry Who We Are banner
Dan Mini Stand, unreasonable toolkit, tetrapaks
James & Imogen Storm kettle, 1 or two pans, herbs and spices, generation kit( - including stand, battery, car amp, speakers, invertor, projector, gameboy, lights), Handouts for mechanics workshops, Scissors, Knife Approx 30 Spokes Small toolkit including chain-breaker
Ian Piddles?, tools, nuts and bolts, cable ties etc, about 100 Pedalling for the Planet stickers, boiling ring with regulator
Aurora & Matt stand, basic tool kit, pink & green banner, possibly leaflets, possibly big pan (will co-ordinate with im)
Katie little gas burner thing, staples: pasta/rice/quinoa for 5 days, basic toolkit minus pump, a few cooking items in van
Andrew Basic tool kit
Things that need to be there but we don't know who is bringing yet....
Leaflets and guide pages
Info banner/stall thingy
Past Events - 2006 Tour draft text for website
Bicycology Tour 2006 for editing
The tour began at London’s RampART St squatted social centre, and after a couple day of preparation, we were off. We hadn’t even got five miles before the Tallbike suffered a puncture. Soon after that, the heavens opened… not a good start! Still, by the time we arrived at Finsbury Park for Finfest, the rain had eased off. We set up, rode the Tallbike around, and played a bit of bike polo.
We left in the afternoon, only a little later than planned, and rode out of London as the sun set. It was getting dark by the time we arrived at the Quaker Meeting House in Amersham, who’d kindly offered to let us camp in their garden. No time to rest though, and in the morning we rode into Aylesbury, for an event in the [Market Square?].
Aylesbury one of six towns in the UK named ‘Cycle Demonstration Towns’ by the Government. This means it is receiving £500,000 a year for 3 years (to be matched by the local council, ie £1.5 million a year) to be spent on promoting cycling, hopefully becoming a beacon of success showing what could be done elsewhere. We were joined by people from the council, handing out information and free reflective snap-bands, while we got the kids drawing on the pavement…
We left Aylesbury late, after a fine takeaway eaten in [?] park, trying out the Tallbike on the skate-park, and chatting to some local kids. It was already getting dark by the time we left, and there were some pretty serious hills on the way to Redfield. Pedals sped off, but was audible in the distance, an inspiring beacon to chase.
By the time we reached our hosts that night - The Low Impact Living Initiative (LILI), we’d ridden 60 miles from London. Many of the Bicycology Collective had stayed at the LILI whilst on the 2005 G8Bikeride. There was one very important difference – we were upgraded from camping in the garden to beds for all in their converted stable. Thanks LILI!
The following day began with stretching. 53 miles and many hours later we arrived in Coventry, where we camped out at the Peace House, where the G8Bikeride had also stayed. The food awaiting hungry cyclists lived up to the promises made by veterans to those who’d been flagging earlier on. And then some… Thankyou Coventry cooks!
The next morning we rode to [x] park, set up, and waited (not for very long) to be inundated by broken bikes and our Doctor Bike’s did their best on at least 38 in less than 5 hours, joined by local bike mechanic Falcon. Unfortunately, a few were beyond our means and time constraints (sorry Agnan, your Red BSO - first in and last out – just couldn’t be done… Sorry Alex with your Gold Viking, hope you got that bottom-bracket sorted…)
There was plenty of room for bike polo, and Bike Beautification got underway under a much-needed shelter.
The day was completed by a very pleasant ride back to the Peace House and an even more pleasant feast (Thankyou, Thankyou, Thankyou! Peace House cooks), before a trek into the centre of town for a bike-powered film-night at the [x]. The main film shown was a documentary [name, hyperlink] on the 2005 London World Naked Bike Ride, which went down pretty well…
Leaving Coventry, 120 miles covered already, and we barely noticed the 30 that took us to Leicester and a total of 150 – our legs adjusting to the routine. We arrived early enough to set up in the courtyard at the entrance to [x] park, and were joined by local specialist-cycle manufacturers ‘Cyclemagic’ – the geniuses behind our Tallbike, amongst other delights. Some wacky races ensued, but sadly the weather took a bit of a turn for the worse, and the day was practically rained off. We huddled under a gazebo, and consoled ourselves with chips.
Pedals took a trip around the centre of town, and Leicester-local Bicycologist Charlottamiles was interviewed on [Radio Leicestershire?]. The collective went back to hers for more fine food, before a quick coupla pints (Cheers! to the barfolks in [x]… We particularly enjoyed hearing a certain Happy Mondays song repeat it’s first half 30 odd times…)
The next day was partly spent in Leicester as well, with a visit to Spinney Hill Park in the morning and another 20 bikes Doctored. Sadly, again, 2 we couldn’t solve – Sahar’s broken frame was a little too much for any Dr. Bike, but we hope Suhel’s green and purple Atomic got the new chain, tyre and seat it needed…
After a quick visit to the fantastic ‘Bikes 4 All’ bike-repair and recycling organisation (which had provided a Bicycologist’s Bike and Trailer), we set off for Nottingham, meeting on the way a family of cyclists who’d heard about us on the radio, hooray! And also getting a bit lost for the first time, boo!…
Another 37-odd miles and we were in Nottingham. Scheduled as a (by now well-deserved) rest day, which we spent at the Sumac Centre – the venue where the Bicycology collective was born. We tried to rest, but there was a lot to do – plenty of bike checking, and Pedal’s new paint job was begun…
The Devil makes work for idle legs, however, and of course the ride of Sheffield had a few hills. Luckily it was pretty beautiful, and there were beers on arrival… Plus we stayed in the pretty impressive squatted gothic mansion Crookesmoor House (student accommodation until weeks before)…
Our day in Sheffield was spent at Devonshire Green, beside the skate park. The rain returned, but there was a good game of Bike Polo. There was more bottom-bracket trouble for the Doctors tho’ (hope you got ‘em sorted in the end, Jason and Hazel). Due to spectacular stupidity, and the Tallbike’s second skate-park, a Bicycologist sustained one fracturedwrist. Luckily, the Bicycology Collective travels with a couple of tandems – who’d want to let broken bones get in the way of a good ride? Total distance covered on leaving Sheffield – 235 miles… Another huge hill to escape, and another beautiful day’s ride to Leeds. (Sadly, the mileage record was a bit neglected after this, so we can’t tell you how far that was…)
Our arrival at The Common Place social centre in Leeds was greeted with cheers, which was nice… There was another fine feast (Thanks Common Cooks!), and a buzzing atmosphere – with last minute preparations being made for the Climate Camp in nearby Selby (our final destination).
The Leeds event was held in Little London’s Oakland Park, by the [x] Community Centre. In a mere two hours, and Doctors dealt with more than 30 bikes – it was chaos, and there were plenty we couldn’t fix - sorry Darian, Jordan, Ramore, and all the others we had to turn away…
The tour now turned toward Lancaster, and a couple of days hard but beautiful riding. We had to set our tents up in torrential rain in [Skipton?], but we woke to sunshine, ready to ride on. Unfortunately one of our number had a little problem with a wheel exploding – check those rims folks! Luckily this happened before we’d travelled 100 metres, and not on one of the many serious hills encountered later that day.
The bloke in the bike-shop warned of a hill to end all hills on our route, but though it got pretty rough, we made it through the Trough of Bowland, a serious contender for most beautiful bit of the ride. Someone obviously agrees, because part of our route is also part of the [Tour of Britain ?]. We travelled it the opposite way, however, and were sadly a few days off seeing the race itself… Another night of camping, in a Bicycologist’s (now ex-) garden. More fine food, this time round a fine fire, celebrating reaching the northernmost-city of the tour...
The day in Lancaster was split into several events, focussed on a day in Market Square, with the by now well-rehearsed Bike Doctoring and Beautification, and assorted Pedal-powered cinema and sound. We were joined by the local cycle-campaign (Pedal-Power?) and (Sustrans? The council?).
Like Aylesbury, Lancaster is also a ‘Cycle Demonstration Town’. It is also a town with its own Bicycology subgroup.
It was the last Friday of the month, so we joined Critical Mass on a ride around the city having a little party on wheels to celebrate the bike and the fact that we’d virtually finished our tour…
In the evening we showed films at the [x]. This featured a wide variety of short films, and sparked plenty of discussion. We stayed that night in the very spacious Quaker Meeting House (thanks), and then it was over, well almost…
Bicycology then made it’s way back down the country toward Leeds, via a different - considerably flatter, but no less beautiful, route. A fair bit of night-riding and one night of unconventional camping later, we arrived at the Climate Camp outside Selby, where we would stay for a week, joined by many other groups who had come together to discuss Climate Change and actions that we can take, both collectively and as individuals. The Camp gained much media-attention, and another is planned for this year.
During the week, Bicycology travelled into Selby to do our thing, attracting Police attention for the first-time (“we didn’t know repairing bikes was an offence, officer”).
See The film Made About Our Event in Selby.
Oh, total distance ridden by this point – a whopping 467 miles… Well, ish…
And that pretty much concludes the story of the 2006 Bicycology Roadshow, except to say that there is so much left out, so many moments of hilarity and joy and triumph (ok, and a little bit of exhaustion and pain!) that to find out what a tour is really like, you’ll have to join or visit us on our next one… We look forward to seeing you…
2005 G8Ride Article
old. can probably be taken off site, but maybe nice to put it on the main bicycology site?
[this has been sent off in the below form to, so far, Last Hours (who say it'll be in), Adbusters (no response), Red Pepper (") and Velovision ("). People can still edit it if they like, because i'll keep sending it as i think of places it can go.james]
Against Global Warming, Against the G8, We Cycle, We Recycle, We Resist and Recreate – Pedal and People Power combine…
by Kristov Pistov & The Bicycology Collective
From the 26thAugust - 4th September, a Camp for Climate Action will take place in 'Megawatt Valley' near Leeds - home of the largest emitter of Greenhouse Gasses in the UK, Drax Power Station. The Bicycology Collective is organising a pedal-powered roadshow from London to the Camp, which will stopp off at Aylesbury, Coventry, Leicester, Nottingham, Sheffield, Leeds and Lancaster, for days of film-showings, talks, bike games, bike ballet and all important bike maintainance workshops. The aim of the tour is not only to get people to the Camp in an environmentally sound way, but to raise awareness of environmental issues and the importance of individual change and collective grassroots action.
The Bicycology Collective emerged from the 2005 G8 Bikeride, where, determined not to let the hypocritical leaders of 8 of the most polluting countries of the world usurp the language and concerns of activists, and cover up their responsibility for problems with false promises, a bunch of cyclists resolved, ‘Fuck the rhetoric, let’s Ride!’
The ride was fantastic - from humble beginnings of a tiny meeting at the 2004 London Anarchist Bookfair where no one even had a map - upwards of 50 cyclists made their way from London to Edinburgh and beyond. Fuelled only by muesli, cheap cider and hope, they took part in the blockades at Gleneagles and Faslane Nuclear Submarine Base, Critical Massed every town along the way.
Many of the riders, including those from America, Denmark, France, Germany and Sweden, met for the first time on the evening of June 17th, sitting on the roof of the RampArt squatted social centre, under the stars and the shadow of Canary Wharf. They left London in style on June the 18th, 6 years after the ‘J18’ Carnival Against Capital rocked the City. Blaring Fela Kuti from the tandem-pulled ‘Pedals’ soundsystem they took a quick sightseeing tour past Parliament and Buckingham Palace, stopping off at Downing Street for a brief blockade before lunchtime.
The Bikeride was always intended to be a way of showing solidarity with local campaigns and raising awareness about opposition to the G8, as well an environmentally-friendly way to get to the protests. The group met anti-bypass campaigners in Linslade (leaving a trail of mysteriously uprooted surveyor's equipment in its wake), a protest at Coventry Airport against proposed expansion (a wake of traffic cones), and stayed at the 9 Ladies anti-quarry Protest Camp in the Peak District (named after the stone circle on the land it defends, riders slept in some of the most advanced and outlandish protest tree-houses in the country). At Lancaster University a Critical Mass was held in protest at the prosecution of the ‘George Fox Six’ – students arrested for aggravated trespass after disrupting a corporate conference held on the campus.
The ride also provided an excellent opportunity to visit some of the country’s Environmental and Social Centres. The Redfield Community, a housing co-op in existence since 1978 and housing the Low-Impact Living Initiative (LILI) which offers courses to help people lower their impact on the planet, and at the same time save money and improve their quality of life. The Coventry Peace House is a housing co-operative and peace and environmental centre operating in 6 previously derelict houses since 1999. The Sumac Centre in Nottingham, established in the mid-1980s is a café, bar, community centre and home of the ‘Veggies’ Vegan fast-food catering company. The Basement in Manchester, which opened in December 2004, is a radical bookshop, offering free internet access and a mini-library as well as a cheap vegan organic café. Finally, the Talamh Life Centre is a housing coop and environmental training centre with a permaculture focus. In Penrith we slept in the excellent Bluebell Bookshop, which specialises in environmental books.
Once in Scotland, riders participated in the blockade at Faslane, acting as messengers, relaying coffee, biscuits and gossip between the four blockaded gates, and providing music for the locked-on to tap their toes to. On Wednesday 6th of July, they contributed to the attempt to blockade the summit itself. Intending to cycle as close to the Gleneagles Hotel as possible, the group, by happy accident, ended up Critical Massing the sole access route to the Media Centre, creating a huge tailback and making sure every journalist arriving knew of the opposition to the summit. In Glasgow, riders participated in a bridge blockade against the extension of the M74 motorway and in the evening ‘Pedals’ powered a party on a squatted community garden on the proposed route. We laughed at George Bush’s cycling accident at Gleneagles: offering him training and a supportive environment to make it to next year’s summit by bike...
As well as an environmentally-friendly way of reaching the protests, the Bikeride was a great way to raise awareness and to see the country - an implicit aim was to promote tourism within the UK as opposed to Climate-disrupting flights abroad. We were blessed with mostly beautiful weather and much of the landscape we rode through was stunning (and helped feed the anger at the sight of open-cast mines and concrete jungles). In short, it was the most fun ever...
OK, so it was a bit of a copout to return to London by coach, but we felt we deserved it (some of the more determined did cycle home again). Gaia must have had a different opinion - at Watford the coach got a flat (we’d got lost in Watford’s spaghetti junction on the way up too!)
Through non-hierarchical organising, the (mostly unconnected) pain and thrill of the trip, the group became close-knit – and as well as forming the Bicycology Collective, some riders have become involved in this years' G8Bikeride to the Summit in St. Petersburg, leaving Berlin on the 2nd June, with a feeder ride from the UK.
The Bicycology Collective, meanwhile, is still interested in hearing from people who would like to join or help host the ride, particularly if they can offer customised bikes (tall-bikes, choppers, bicycle-powered washing machines, you get the idea…), tricks, street theatre skills or anything that can help interest people. This year we will be taking a pedal powered monitor to show films as well as ‘Pedals’, our sound-system and suggestions for bike-related films and songs we can play along the way, as well as crucial donations, would be welcome. The Collective will also be present at the Big Green Gathering and hopes to put on one-off events after this years tour, and to build a serious activist-cycling-community. See websites for more details…
Keep on Ridin’
Links:
Bicycology Collective – http://www.bicycology.org.uk Camp for Climate Action - http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/ G8Bikeride Blog 2005 featuring thousands of photos - http://g8bikeride.blogspot.com G8 Bikeride 2006 Site - http://g8-2006.plentyfact.net/index.php/Cycle_Caravan The RampArt - http://www.rampart.co.nr/ LILI - http://www.lowimpact.org/ Coventry Peace House - http://covpeacehouse.members.gn.apc.org/index2.htm The Sumac Centre - http://www.veggies.org.uk/sumac/ The Basement - http://shortcutz.nologic.org/thebasement/ Talamh Life Centre - http://website.lineone.net/~talamh/