Cycling the wrong way down Brick Lane in East London today, I happened to notice a couple of bikes flying flags, chain to a lamp post. The bikes were rather unusual, double height custom jobs and the flags contained a URL for tallbiketourbritain.com which I guessed meant I'd come across some people on a bike tour. I started to write a note to leave on the bikes inviting them to the 12th anniversary London critical mass bike ride at the end of next month but the cyclists returned so I got to have a chat...
So, it boils down to this. Two brothers from North London ,Will and Ed Stevens, are planning to pedal 4,500 miles around the British coastline on a pair of specially-built 'tall bikes', in order to raise money for two
British cycle-related charities.
Their custom-made 'touring' tall bikes were constructed by Cyclemagic in Leicester and are intended to "elevate bicycle awareness around the country, as well as raising money for the charities Sustrans, Re-Cycle and Cyclemagic Community Projects.”
For those that don't know, Sustrans is involved in establishing cycle paths and is growing into quite a large real estate owner in the process. Re-cycle is a very cool charity which collects old bikes and bike parts then ships them to Africa where local people are taught how to repair and maintain them, to improve their lives in a sustainable manner.
See www.re-cycle.org for more information.
If you are in London you can check out the bikes yourself as they will be joining the critical mass this friday, meeting on the South Bank under Waterloo Bridge. The brothers (both over six foot tall themselves!) will begin their epic journey the following saturday, (1st
April 2006) from Buckingham Palace and would welcome a bike powered send off.
23-year-old younger brother Ed says, "This is the first time that tall bikes have been ridden such a long distance. It's not the most efficient form of cycling (someone suggested we push a peanut from Land's End to John O'Groats with our noses!), but we are determined to succeed. "
If you want to find out more or offer places to stay while on route then check out the brothers website,
www.tallbiketourbritain.com
They'll be maintaining the site as an online journal during their 5 month journey and maybe they'll post something on Indymedia as I told them about the site when they were moaning about lack of media interest.
I'll try to upload photos of the bikes from the mass on friday.
British cycle-related charities.
Their custom-made 'touring' tall bikes were constructed by Cyclemagic in Leicester and are intended to "elevate bicycle awareness around the country, as well as raising money for the charities Sustrans, Re-Cycle and Cyclemagic Community Projects.”
For those that don't know, Sustrans is involved in establishing cycle paths and is growing into quite a large real estate owner in the process. Re-cycle is a very cool charity which collects old bikes and bike parts then ships them to Africa where local people are taught how to repair and maintain them, to improve their lives in a sustainable manner.
See www.re-cycle.org for more information.
If you are in London you can check out the bikes yourself as they will be joining the critical mass this friday, meeting on the South Bank under Waterloo Bridge. The brothers (both over six foot tall themselves!) will begin their epic journey the following saturday, (1st
April 2006) from Buckingham Palace and would welcome a bike powered send off.
23-year-old younger brother Ed says, "This is the first time that tall bikes have been ridden such a long distance. It's not the most efficient form of cycling (someone suggested we push a peanut from Land's End to John O'Groats with our noses!), but we are determined to succeed. "
If you want to find out more or offer places to stay while on route then check out the brothers website,
www.tallbiketourbritain.com
They'll be maintaining the site as an online journal during their 5 month journey and maybe they'll post something on Indymedia as I told them about the site when they were moaning about lack of media interest.
I'll try to upload photos of the bikes from the mass on friday.
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