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Bike projects hoping to change the World

anon@indymedia.org (nab) | 08.11.2011 00:56

 

A gathering of radical bike projects happen in Bristol over the weekend 5/6 Nov.  The gathering brought together ~20 people involved in spaces which in some way link politics and bicycles together.  The last gathering was in Manchester.

Topics discussed ranged from "How to include politics into the work we do with Bikes" where different ways of getting messages across and learning from each other were discussed to "Kids, cycling and Education" where questions about different aims about working with children were mentioned.   

Members of bicycle gropus in northern cities were from

Pedallers Arms in Leeds which is a co-operative of people aiming to build strong communities through bike maintenance.  They run drop in bike workshops with a membership scheme.  Running for a year with ~8 volunteers.
Freewheelers who have set up recently in Lancaster by three female mechanics.
In Hebden Bridge there is CycleRecycle based in the Alternative Technology Centre with 3 workshop spaces and 7 volunteers. 

Groups from outside the North are mentioned below.

In Warrington is an attempt to set up a bike recycling workshop with a focus on working with people who have disabilities. 
Bicyology has been running for 7 years and they focus on linking activism with cycling and challenging car.  They have run bike rides interspersed with events in public spaces.
56a Bike Worksop has been running for over 15 years as a do-it-together on Wednesday - Saturday afternoons.  They feel that running a drop-in session empowers people to fix bikes and to take hopefully take this to other aspects of our lives.  56a bike space runs on donations and contributes around £50 a month rent with ~10 volunteers.
Cycle Trainers UK mainly based in London and were set up in 1998 is a non-hierarchical organisation and became a co-op in 2001.  It has 47 members who are contracted on equal pay to teach cycle skills with the majority of the work coming from local councils.  They have recently developed a scheme training HGV drivers how to ride a bicycles in the hope of making them aware of the experience cyclist have of HGVs.
Cranks in Brighton run drop-in workshops on Tue, Fri and Sat.  Been running for 6 years with ~12 volunteers.  Survive fully on donations to pay the rent.
Kebele Bike Woskshop has been running since 1997 and has a drop-in session on a Wednesdays 12-5 staffed by up to 5 volunteers.  It is solely funded by donations and selling second-hand bikes for around ~£50.  The Bristol Bike Project has been running for 3 years and started out from Bristol Refugee Rights with the aim of giving refugee's a bike gives them greater freedom and some then have become involved in fixing bikes.  They work with about ~30 organisations (such as homeless charities and the NHS) and they then receive referrals for bikes.  As the people refereed don't have much money then they found it important to have one maintenance day for people who have been given a bike.


anon@indymedia.org (nab)
- Original article on IMC Northern England: http://northern-indymedia.org/articles/2313