the bristol bike project

This blog has a new home

2011-04-06T10:35:00.003+01:00

Please note that the Bristol Bike Project blog is still alive, but has now moved. For more recent blog updates go to The Bristol Bike Project website here... http://www.thebristolbikeproject.org/?page_id=4

Thanks.

John O'Groats to Land's End

2010-12-06T17:01:00.006Z

We recently received a kind donation from Emily & Chris who cycled from John O'Groats to Land's End and decided to raise money for the project in the process.

"The idea came about as a bit of a joke originally and everybody, including bike shop staff and our supportive parents thought we probably wouldn't make it", says Emily, "We met some of the most amazing people- the Laird of the Loch (a guy that lives in a boat on Holy Loch), a retired couple that overtook us on mountain bikes then fed us green tea, cherries and popcorn, the friendliest Dutch couple imaginable and some crazy folk in Bristol who led us to the discovery of the most incredible falafel takeaway place! It rained 28 out of 30 days and we cycled 1125 miles on bikes that have the combined age of 100".

"My friends kept telling me that I should raise some sponsorship money for it but I couldn't think of a charity that particularly stood out and then I heard about The Bristol Bike Project and was reminded by an article I saw in the Guardian newspaper. Basically, I think what they do is great and if I didn't live about 200 miles away I'd go down and get my hands covered in bike grease helping out! So Instead, I thought about doing the ride to raise money for the bike project".

A HUGE thank you to Emily & Chris for their kind donation - it really does make a difference and allows us to continue doing the work that we are.

Petition for Aziz - Please sign....

2010-09-12T19:20:00.002+01:00

Abdul Aziz - the gentleman from Afghanistan who features in the Bristol Bike project short film - is being threatened with being returned to Afghanistan against his wishes and fears that he will be tracked down and executed by the Taliban if he returns. As such, we have set up an online petition to raise support for him.

Here is the link to the petition site : it would be great if you could sign it and spread the word and get friends and family to sign it too - having recently spoken to Bristol Refugee Rights, this sort of thing really can make a difference.

http://www.petitiononline.com/A1359943/petition.html

many thanks in advance for your time and support.

The Bristol Bike Project Exhibition

2010-09-06T22:33:00.004+01:00

To coincide with Bristol's first two-week Cycling Festival, we have been asked to be part of a cycling-inspired, 2 week exhibition at the Howies store in Bristol. We will be exhibiting photographic prints and illustrations drawn from the last year and a half, plus we will have tshirts and badges for sell!

The opening night is Friday 10th September from 7-10pm and is free entry. See you there!

Project Group Ride : All Welcome!

2010-08-21T12:41:00.002+01:00

We are having a group ride to coincide with Bristol's first Bicycle Festival to celebrate almost 2 years of the project and the fact that we have just repaired and given out our 300th bicycle!

So come and join us for a short, circular ride around Bristol, taking in Ashton Court and Durdham Downs, with a picnic en route. We are meeting at 11am on Saturday 11th September outside the workshop on city road and all are welcome - bring food for a picnic if you wish! See you there.....

Short Film #1 : Sean from Bristol Drugs Project

2010-06-28T02:08:00.005+01:00

This is the first in what we hope to be a series of short 4 minute films about some of the people we work with at The Bristol Bike Project. This first film features Sean from Bristol Drugs Project who we worked with recently and who was happy to talk to us about how having a bicycle has helped him in his everyday life. We hope you enjoy it.

Watch the film here!

A Busy Weekend for the Project!

2010-06-13T22:04:00.011+01:00

Phew, what a busy bicycle weekend!

The organisers of St Werburghs Farm Summer Fair invited us down on Saturday to be on hand to help people fix up any problems they had with their bikes or simply just to inflate tyres and oil chains! It was a fantastic day - the sun stayed out, our friends Cap'n Bikebeard made an appearance with their pedal-powered soundsystem, the tall bikes were in full effect and we met a bunch of very lovely people in the process....thanks to all - we look forward to the next one!!

Sunday morning was Bristol's first naked bike ride, a peaceful, imaginative and fun protest against oil dependency and car culture. A few of our team made a spectacular appearance, all on tall bikes and were part of a 200-strong bicycle street party!

And finally, Sunday afternoon saw us head down to the opening celebrations of Bristol Refugee Week in Queen's Square to do a spot more bike maintenance and help spread the word about the project. And of course, letting people have a go on the tall bikes!

'Saddled with Success' Guardian article

2010-05-22T11:00:00.008+01:00

See the article about the project featured in the Guardian Newspaper here

boneshaker magazine issue1 out now!

2010-05-06T11:58:00.007+01:00

A couple of the crew here at the bristol bike project have been inspired to start a magazine! boneshaker magazine is a collection of articles, stories and anecdotes about people and projects doing great things with bicycles. Full to the brim with photography and illustration, we hope that it will both inspire and entertain, raise awareness and bring a smile to your face…and appeal to both bike-heads and to those who may not yet even have experienced the true joy and freedom that can be found from our two-wheeled friends.

It will be available nationally soon, but in the meantime pick up your copy in Bristol from one of the following: the arnolfini, the here shop, jake's bikes, Howies, bristol bike workshop and Bike. Happy reading!

The Bristol Bike Project goes to New York!!

2010-05-06T00:00:00.005+01:00

We are very pleased to announce that 'The Bristol Bike Project - a short film about cycling, recycling and asylum', filmed during the Summer & Autumn of 2009, has been selected for the New York Bicycle Film Festival running from June 16-20th, 2010. It is currently in its 10th year and they expect around 30,000 people to attend!

Chopshop 2!

2010-04-22T10:18:00.004+01:00

a very practical bike trailer and ridiculous chopper bike with 5ft forks!

A Beautiful Machine - Our Very Own Bike for Auction!

2010-04-14T00:43:00.010+01:00

The bike on display as part of the "A Beautiful Machine" exhibition.

Following on from the two-week cycling event, A Beautiful Machine, up at the Howies store in Bristol recently, at which James was invited to speak about the project and what we get up to here, we are pleased to say that our group project bike build is up at the store and is being auctioned off to raise money for the project along with a bunch of other bike goodies kindly donated by Charge, Hope Technology, Brooks of England, Rapha and The Ride Magazine.

Colin proudly displaying the bike that he and others put so much work into.

The bike was given to the project about 4 months ago and was originally a lime-green peugeot racer in a pretty bad conditon. The first thing we did was to strip it down and wire brush it (with an angle grinder) back to bare metal. It then had 5 coats of clear spray lacquer before being built back up into a single-speed with reclaimed parts here at the workshop. We very much look forward to seeing it blitzing its way around the streets of Bristol soon!

To make a bid for the bike or any other of the bike bits in the auction please visit the Beautiful Machine blog where you can see what's up for grabs and find out how to make a bid. A huge thanks again to Nick Hand and John McFaul for inviting us to be a part of this event.

James speaking at the Howies store about The Bristol Bike Project

Supporting Foodcycle

2010-04-07T18:58:00.005+01:00

The food distribution system has changed dramatically in the last several decades. As the economy moves from small local retailers to large supermarkets it is an inevitable consequence that food waste is generated and it is now estimated that food retailers waste 500,000 tonnes of food each year in the UK with a similar amount generated from the private catering sector.

FoodCycle's main goal is to fight food poverty using this surplus food and to feed people suffering from poor nutrition and malnourishment. FoodCycle is different because young volunteers from many backgrounds lead each project and their programmes use food to reconnect young adults with their local communites; social cohesion is formed amongst them and disadvantaged and underprivileged people as they directly help improve the communities that they live in.

Louis (pictured), a volunteer at Foodcycle, has also been lending a hand at the bike project for a while now and 2 weeks ago refurbished a donated bicycle to be used by Foodcycle in Bristol for transporting meals with the use of a bike trailer.

For more information about the Foodworks project and how to get involved please take a look at their website: www.foodworksuk.org

New Youth Programs

2010-03-25T22:17:00.006Z

We are very happy to have started several youth programs here at the project, working for Challenge and Support, a largely preventive, early interventions pilot project supporting young people involved in recorded anti-social behaviour and/or low level offending. The focus is to positively affect young peoples' behaviour, attitudes and levels of engagement.

We are currently running comprehensive 6-week courses for five young lads, covering most aspects of bike-building and maintenance, at the end of which they will get to take away a bike that they have put together themselves. The lads have already been responding well to the workshop environment and have been enjoying getting their hands dirty taking several broken bikes apart in order to learn how to build a bike from scratch. We are keen to continue with these youth programs - if you would like further info, please get in touch!

chopshop #1

2010-03-12T20:43:00.008Z

outside of our weekly wednesday and thursday workshops we had our first 'chopshop' today with our good pals spoke n'chain and managed to warp n weld our way through some redundant frames and to build some fantastic tall bikes.....expect to see them at this year's cycling carnival in september and zipping around bristol soon!

200 bikes!

2010-02-28T19:26:00.009Z

We are delighted to announce that we fixed up and gave out our 200th bike this week here at the project. A huge thankyou to all those who have donated their bikes to us - please continue to spread the word about the project and encourage people to bring their unwanted bicycles down to us. We are very excited about the year ahead and are looking forward to organising some more project group rides as it gets warmer.

Thomas, Gezae, Adam & Colin work on Thomas' bicycle.

After spending an afternoon with us working to fix up the bikes that they chose from our stock of donated bikes, Thomas & Adam are ready to get cycling!

Charge Bikes supports the project

2010-02-21T16:40:00.014Z

The Bristol Bike Project... from posy dixon on Vimeo.

Charge Bikes Rider Posy Dixon visited us last week to talk to us all about what we get up to here at the workshop for a forthcoming magazine article that she is writing. She also made a very short film of her day at the project - see the clip above. Thanks to Posy, Sam (her photographer) and to Charge Bikes for their support.

b&w photos by Adam, more on his Flickr

The Bristol Bike Project T-Shirt

2010-02-14T12:15:00.007Z

We have just received some of these wonderful t-shirts inspired by the project, designed by Nick Hand.

Nick commented, "I was asked by my mates at the howies shop in Bristol to design a T shirt for the Better by Bike project. A few other designers and illustrators were asked as well. My preference was to help a really good, specific project and maybe funnel some cash from the Ts that way too. I took my camera down to the project and spent an hour or so just photographing bike bits - it seemed to make sense to do something which summed up the project visually. Every now and then you come across great people doing great things, and your instinct is to get involved. The Bristol Bike Project is just that".

These T-shirts are on sale now at the Howies store in bristol. A percentage of every t-shirt sold will be donated to the project to help us keep doing what we do...

'The Bristol Bike Project - a short film about cycling, recycling and asylum'

2010-02-01T10:48:00.006Z

'The Bristol Bike Project - a short film about cycling, recycling and asylum', filmed during the Summer & Autumn of 2009 is now finished and we have copies available at the workshop.

We have just heard from the director, that it has been selected for the Oneworld Documentary Festival in Prague, which bills itself as the largest human rights film festival in europe, from the 3rd to the 10th march. www.oneworld.cz It is a very multinational festival and usually only accepts a small handful of films from the uk (as in two or three) and goes on to be distributed around 30 odd czech towns and goes to a whole load of schools and universities.

It has also just been accepted for this year's Unchosen Bristol Film Festival in November 2010. So we are all really pleased to hear this news and really hope that the film will help to spread some awareness about what it means to be an asylum-seeker in this country, as well as encouraging more people to bring their unwanted bicycles to us!

There will also be a link to the film from our website some time in March - we will keep you posted...

Women in the Workshop

2010-01-27T21:44:00.008Z

This Monday we had our first womens' bicycle maintenance get together at the workshop. It was great!!! Lots of women came, some to fix their bikes others to make one up from scratch and some just came to join in and help. Between us we solved most problems. We just need to bring a blow dryer next week, to fix the mudguard.

People who couldn't make it rang to say they'll come next week.... it's got off to a really good start and i'm sure the night will continue beyond the four week trial and develop and grow into a regular fixture here at the Bristol Bike Project. Come along! Please either call or email Sylvie on 07961 225053 or bikebeard@googlemail.com for further info....
Vive la Velorution! La Bici e libera!

Bicycology & No Borders

2010-01-20T23:59:00.006Z

This Friday (22nd January), we are happy to open our workshop doors to a group people from the Bicycology cycling collective who are coming in to fix up a bunch of our bikes to be used by No Borders folk in Calais.

Calais, a French coastal town, is a border between France and Britain. Last year it was “home” to over a thousand migrants waiting to travel to the UK. Now, due to increasingly repressive measures taken by the French state (and endorsed by the UK government), numbers have dropped to around 350 resident migrants at any one time. Most are forced to live in make shift tents or abandoned buildings; these are routinely destroyed by riot police.

Bikes are an essential tool in Calais and are used by No Borders activists as quick, cheap and efficient transport to enable them to monitor police activity in different migrant areas; the bikes will also form a bike library for migrants. For more info about No Borders and the situation in Calais, check out: www.calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com

Bicycology is a cyclists' collective that offers a range of activities to promote cycling and make the links with wider issues of environmental and social responsibility. A passion for cycling is used to pursue a vision of a just and sustainable world through a combination of education, entertainment and creative direct action. For more info see: www.bicycology.org.uk

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

2010-01-18T00:15:00.006Z

"I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word".

Social Tandems - kids' bikes wanted!

2010-01-11T20:41:00.004Z

a social tandem bike!

Our good buddies at Spoke'n'Chain are in the process of building social tandems for schools in Bristol, to be used as working vehicles to encourage bicycle use and to enable the schools to take part in this year's Cycling Carnival, coming to Bristol in September 2010. They use recycled bicycles to build these and are looking in particular for medium sized girls' bikes.

They are also beginning to build bicycle-based fairground rides and are generally interested in reusing kids bikes. We are currently not using a great deal of kids' bikes here at The Bristol Bike Project and would encourage you to get in contact with Sylvie if you have any unwanted kids' bikes and would like to donate them. Please either call or email Sylvie on 07961 225053 or bikebeard@googlemail.com

Thanks!

Let Refugees Live in Peace

2010-01-06T22:56:00.005Z

We went to show our solidarity for 50 refugees & asylum-seekers that were being moved against their wishes from Bristol to Cardiff today, some of which we have worked alongside and given bikes to here at the project. Many of those being moved had very short notice, in some cases barely a week and many of them have been based here in Bristol for a substantial amount of time - some for 9 or more years. There is no explanation given as to why this has taken place.

This is a shockingly disrespectful way to treat people who are here lawfully and who are doing their best to try and live with dignity in a situation that is already fraught with uncertainty and limitation. Despite not having the chance to work and support themselves as they would prefer to do, these 50 people are learning English at college here and trying to become integrated and to feel part of the community as best they can. But how can we expect people to integrate and to feel settled if this is the way they are treated?

Despite the large crowd of protestors at the demonstration today, the coach finally managed to leave at lunchtime, albeit with a lot of police assistance. After the coach had finally managed to depart, I politely asked a couple of policemen present if they were proud of what they had just helped to facilitate and both replied that they were 'just doing their job'. Simple as that, apparently. Even when various people attempted to explain to them what was taking place they were totally uninterested in the cause and completely non-questioning of their actions - not that i expected anything else.

The Bristol Bike Project originally started because of our desire to help refugees & asylum-seekers gain more independence and to hopefully make their lives a little bit more manageable here in Bristol and we are appalled at the way this group of people has been treated today.

snow & scrap wheels

2010-01-06T22:54:00.002Z

Saltford 1st Birthday Ride

2009-12-27T09:51:00.011Z

The 1st Birthday ride to Saltford was a wonderful day out. Starting from the workshop, through the sunshine out via Easton, the Railway Path and a leisurely ride to The Jolly Sailor in Saltford. Lots of chips, drinks and defrosting feet by the open fire and then back towards Bristol through the perfectly timed snowfall. Finished off with a quick stop at Eastside Roots at Stapleton road station for a warming home made mulled cider.

A really enjoyable ride, good food and drink and great company from everyone who came along. One of my favourite days of 2009 and a brilliant way to round off the year. Thanks to everyone who made it a great day and a wonderful year.

Click [>] play on the slideshow below for some more photos or view them bigger here.

We are One!

2009-12-16T18:14:00.009Z

The Bristol Bike Project is now one year old! and what a year it's been! We have repaired and given out almost 200 bicycles to underprivileged people in Bristol in the last year, not to mention all the countless repairs and tweaks that have kept people out there on their bikes. We have evolved from two friends fixing up bikes in our back garden to a 15-strong team of volunteers with a well-equipped, beautiful workshop in the centre of stokes croft. And the project continues to evolve - early next year, watch out for a 20minute documentary about the bristol bike project and BBP-inspired t-shirts designed and sold by Howies, not to mention the various evening workshops that will be starting to happen regularly.

a H U G E thankyou to all of you that have donated bikes and parts to the project - none of this could have happened without you!! We will be having a celebratory ride on saturday 19th december along the cyclepath to saltford for some pub grub - we will be meeting at the workshop at hamilton house at 11am if anyone fancies it.....the more the merrier!

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. ~ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Busy days.

2009-12-10T21:42:00.005Z

Busy days the last few weeks at the Bike Project. The workshop is great to walk into on a cold day. Full of warmth and enthusiasm. A good place to be.

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Photos by Adam [+1] [+2]

The Cycle Hub supports The Bristol Bike Project

2009-11-26T09:46:00.002Z

Paul from The Cycle Hub presents the new tools to Colin at the Bristol Bike Project

Working in partnership with The University of the West of England, The Cycle Hub was given the opportunity to recycle old bikes that students had abandoned at UWE campus. After these bikes were fully safety checked and tuned up they were then sold to current UWE students. The Cycle Hub raised £265 in the process, which has kindly been donated to our project. With this money we have been able to purchase a new set of tools for our ever-expanding workshop. A huge thank you to The Cycle Hub for their support. Happy days!

The Ride Journal

2009-11-22T23:23:00.002Z

We are pleased to say that the bristol bike project is featured in the latest edition (issue 3) of The Ride Journal, a beautifully presented collection of personal stories related to bicycling. Not only that, but they have also kindly donated some money to the project to help us buy some more tools and equipment. A huge thank you to The Ride Journal team for their support.

Put the Fun Between Your Legs!!

2009-11-14T17:02:00.005Z

image by chris carlsson
Put the fun between your legs: Become the Bike Bloc Bristol & Copenhagen Nov – Dec 09

For the UN summit Mobilisations in Copenhagen, Climate Camp is teaming up with artactivist collective The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination to design and build a new tool of civil disobedience, to be unleashed on the RECLAIM POWER day of action on 16^th December. Made from hundreds of recycled bikes, The Bike Bloc will merge device of mass transportation and pedal powered resistance machine, postcapitalist bike gang and art bike carnival.

Bike hackers, welders, climate campers, artists and engineers will be working together to design and build The Bike Bloc across two cities: Bristol ((15 – 30th Nov), at the Arnolfini Gallery as part of Platform’s C-words show. Copenhagen (4-18th Dec) at The Candy Factory, Lærkevej 11, 2400 NV. Copenhagen (closest station is Nørrebro st).

Go get involved, either designing and building the prototype in Bristol, putting together the real thing in Copenhagen or swarming with us on the day of civil disobedience on the 16th of December.

Become the Bike Bloc short Film

Maya Pedal

2009-11-08T14:27:00.005Z

a bicycle coffee depulper which removes the outer shell of the coffee bean allowing farmers to then roast their own beans in the sun.

a soil plow used by hand to work soil, pushing it like a wheelbarrow

One of our growing team of volunteers here at the bristol bike project, henry, has just headed out to Guatemala for 4 months to do some voluntary work for a non-governmental organisation called Maya Pedal. They are a fantastic group that recycle used bicycles to build pedal-powered machines, 'bicimaquinas', which support and help facilitate the work of small-scale, self-sustainable projects. We wish him all the best and hope to keep up to date with his work whilst he is out there.

St Paul's Adventure Playground Workshop

2009-10-29T18:19:00.003Z

We had the pleasure of spending a day at St Paul's Adventure Playground last tuesday of half term week. We were one of the many activities on offer and we did our best to repair as many bikes as we could. Thanks to all involved at the playground - we had a great time and look forward to the next one!
Some of the kids dropped by our workshop the following day to make repairs to their bikes that we were unable to do out at the playground. Following such enthusiasm from the kids we worked with, we are now in the process of trying to set up an after-school evening workshop for kids wanting to come by and learn how to mend their bikes with us.

new yard space!!

2009-10-14T14:57:00.003+01:00

We now have more space for storing and working on bikes! This is the outdoor yard next to our workshop before we started work last week. We found all of the timber in a skip and got going with it. Big ups to henry and joe for their building skills. This now means we have an outdoor space to work in and to store more of your donated bikes.

more bikes!

2009-09-08T18:51:00.005+01:00

August has been a great month and we have continued to distribute a lot of bicycles. Thanks again to all of those that have donated their unwanted bicycles to us. We have an ever-growing team of co-volunteers on board which means we are able to work through more of your unwanted bikes. One of them is Rob who is cycling from Cirencester to South Africa and in the process raising money for Re-Cycle starting in October of this year - please have a look at his website www.tri4africa.co.uk to support his amazing journey!!

Will & John

2009-08-11T11:30:00.003+01:00

Will came back to see us last week after coming out of detox as part of a Salvation Army program he is on. We had worked with him a month ago and he had gone away very happy with a bike. He told us that that same weekend that he had received his bike, he had cycled 38miles as part of Bristol's Biggest Bike Ride and had not touched any alcohol all weekend because he was so energised from riding his bike.

John (pictured left), working alongside one of our volunteers Will, is another gentleman that we have recently worked with by way of the Salvation Army. He is keen to volunteer with us on a regular basis in order to learn more skills and to keep active.

Slowcoast

2009-08-11T11:25:00.001+01:00

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

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

On his blog, there is a great quote:

“When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments. Here was a machine of precision and balance for the convenience of man. And (unlike subsequent inventions for man’s convenience) the more he used it, the fitter his body became. Here, for once, was a product of man’s brain that was entirely beneficial to those who used it, and of no harm or irritation to others. Progress should have stopped when man invented the bicycle.”

Elizabeth West, ‘Hovel in the Hills’

The Bristol Bike Project Film!

2009-08-11T11:20:00.005+01:00

Two months ago, alistair oldham, head of documentary-making at the University of the West of England contacted us about the possibility of making a short documentary about the bristol bike project.

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

one hundred bicycles!

2009-07-25T17:48:00.009+01:00

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

New Website

2009-07-18T17:07:00.004+01:00

Please take a look at our new website here:

www.thebristolbikeproject.org

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

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

2009-07-07T19:02:00.009+01:00

wowzer, what a day! the sun stayed shining and people turned up in their thousands to see the carnival parade in which we were cycling. Thanks to all involved - here's to next year!

Bike-Costuming Workshops!

2009-06-26T17:29:00.006+01:00

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

Workshop May 2009

2009-05-29T20:57:00.007+01:00

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

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

bikes = freedom

2009-05-29T20:48:00.004+01:00

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

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

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

Bike-Costuming Workshops

2009-05-22T22:14:00.003+01:00

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

road.cc article

2009-05-22T22:13:00.000+01:00

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

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

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

Richard's Bicycle Book

2009-05-22T21:53:00.009+01:00

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

I wanted to share this passage from the book:

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

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

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

What a difference a bicycle makes!

2009-04-30T22:33:00.010+01:00

There are many ways in which having a bicycle helps Refugees & Asylum-seekers living in Bristol.

'Yad' originally from Ethiopia, currently lives on the outskirts of Bristol. Prior to having a bike he used to have to walk for one hour to get from where he lives to the college in the city centre where he is learning English and to visit the Refugee Welcome Centre in easton.

"I can now also visit friends that live in different parts of the city and stay in touch with people that i would not otherwise see if i didn't have a bike".

"Life is much easier now i have a bike", says Yafiet from Eritrea. "I can get into and around the city centre and it is a great form of exercise and helps me to stay fit. It stops me from ever getting bored and gives me a very positive state of mind".

the bike project up and running!

2009-04-25T21:24:00.001+01:00

Welcome to The Bristol Bike Project! We (Colin & James) have been up and running since the start of 2009, working to provide bicycles for Refugees & Asylum-Seekers in Bristol. We have had a fantastic response to our appeal for unwanted bicycles from the general public and have received and repaired all sorts of bicycles in various states of disrepair.

We are currently in the process of trying to obtain funding in order to make this project sustainable and if we are successful, have plans to extend this project to include other minority/underprivileged groups such as single parent families and detached youth. Please do get in touch if you have any suggestions for inner-city groups within Bristol that we could work with.

If you know a little about bikes and are interested in volunteering, please also get in touch!!

50 Bikes!

2009-04-24T19:00:00.005+01:00

Woo hoo!! We are extremely happy to say that, as of this week, we have now overhauled and distributed fifty bicycles to refugees and asylum-seekers in Bristol (plus a couple of bikes for SPAN, the single parent action network in easton). We are so excited to have achieved this already and hope to carry on the good work that we are doing. This really could not have happened without the donation of so many unwanted bicycles from the general public, so a HUGE THANKYOU to those that have donated their bikes!

Please do continue to get in touch if you have any unwanted bicycles that you would like to see go to a good home:

email colin or james at:thebristolbikeproject@gmail.com

New Workshop Space

2009-04-18T20:54:00.001+01:00

We are pleased to say that we now have a new workshop spa ce in the Hamilton House building in Stokes Croft as part of the Co-exist community right next to the wonderful Jake's Bikes. We originally started this project in our back garden and then moved to an old horse stable and now we are here! Thanks to Jamie & Oli at Co-exist for having faith in us and giving us this opportunity. Our new address is:

Hamilton House

80 Stokes Croft

Bristol

BS1 3QY

Please see the map below for directions:

Our motivation for securing a workshop space right in the centre of the city means that we are now able to invite people needing a bicycle to come and see us at Hamilton House and for them to spend a few hours working alongside Colin and myself, helping to overhaul their own bike. In this way, we hope:

-to only be supplying bicycles to those who both really need them and who are really committed to the responsibility of owning a bike and the general maintenance and security issues that come with it.

-to be encouraging people to learn new skills which they can share amongst their peer groups.

-to be helping people help themselves. It is all very well handing out free bikes as we previously did, but we truly believe that people will care about and take much better care of a bicycle that they have spent time fixing and working on themselves.

We are currently working at our workshop space on Wednesdays and Thursdays of every week and have 3 or 4 people coming down on each of these afternoons from the Bristol Refugee Rights Welcome Centre.

Your Unwanted Bikes Wanted!!

2009-04-18T20:00:00.001+01:00

Please do get in touch if you have unwanted bikes in any state of disrepair. So many people have bikes collecting dust in their garden sheds or have bikes that need more work than they are worth. We will accept any bikes of any size or shape or age. If we are not able to repair the bike ourselves, we will almost certainly use various components and pass the frame onto Sylvie & kev at Dr Scrap who are doing great stuff for this year's St Paul's Carnival!! All of our unusable inner tubes and tyres go to Katcha Bilek who makes fashion accessories. We therefore recycle pretty much everything and do our best to prevent as much as possible from going to landfill.

Get in touch if you have a bike that you would like to donate:

thebristolbikeproject@gmail.com

THANKYOU!

Colin & James

Skill-Sharing!

2009-04-18T01:20:00.009+01:00

The emphasis here at the Bristol Bike project is on skill-sharing and really encouraging people to get stuck in and to learn new skills. We hope that by doing this, people will become more knowledgeable as to how their bicycle works and more confident about working on it themselves, that they will develop a greater sense of their own ability and that they will also be able to share newly-learned skills with their peers.

Why Refugees & Asylum-Seekers?

2009-04-18T00:57:00.009+01:00

"Swan eaters! Gun lovers! Housing queue jumpers! Granny thumpers! You name it - asylum seekers and refugees have been called it", which is why Refugee Action set up the nationwide Refugee Awareness Project here.
Please make time to find out more.

I have been volunteering at the Bristol Refugee Rights Drop-in Centre in Easton helping to teach English for almost one year now and it was during the Autumn of last year that i first became aware that many Refugees and Asylum-Seekers have to walk between one to two hours in order to reach the centre, as they are unable to afford public transport. By having a bicycle, they will have more freedom to get to and from the drop-in centre as well as to college and other voluntary work and also elsewhere within the city and it will undoubtedly bring with it greater independence and hopefully make their lives that little bit easier.

It really is so important to make the distinction between those people choosing to come to the UK seeking employment (economic migrants) and those that have been forced here out of fear for their lives - most, if not all, Refugees and Asylum-Seekers have fled their native countries for fear of persecution, torture and possible death. They have an incredibly hard time whilst seeking asylum here in the UK and we are pleased to be helping them in the little way that we can.

A few points:

Anyone in the world has the right to seek sanctuary in another country if they are suffering persecution in their home country. ‘Asylum’ is a form of legal protection granted by a state to refugees fleeing persecution. The right to seek asylum in other countries comes from the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and a protocol established in 1967 to extend its scope. A total of 145 countries have signed up to one or both of these, including the UK.

The UK only hosts 3% of the global refugee population (and the percentage is the same if you include asylum seekers too).
In 2007, the top five countries of origin for asylum applicants to the UK were Afghanistan, Iran, China, Iraq and Eritrea.
Most asylum seekers flee to neighbouring countries in the developing world and only a few have the resources to make their way to industrialised countries in Europe or North America. For example, by the end of 2006, 79% of refugees from Africa also found asylum in the same continent.

There is technically no such thing as ‘an illegal asylum seeker’ or ‘illegal refugee’. Asylum seekers and refugees are people who are part of a legal process and have made themselves known to the authorities