The Bristol Bike Project won the Grassroots category of the 2011 Observer Ethical Awards.

Here is a video the Observer made about the project:

The Bristol Bike Project : The Observer Ethical Awards 2011 from The Bristol Bike Project on Vimeo.

I’m heading to the Women’s Night at the Bristol Bike Project. Run weekly, these sessions from 5-8pm offer women a chance to learn to fix their bikes in a women only environment. I’m looking forward to it. I recently installed a new cassette on my road bike (I added a few extra teeth to deal with bristol’s many hills) and there’s slippage between a few gears that I’d like to tinker with.

Some blurb from the BBC website:

Because it is important to be able to fix your own bike and not to have to rely on favours of male friends or the often quite expensive bike shop. The knowledge of mechanics has been historically gendered and segregated – that is, men (and boys) are encouraged to pursue technical and mechanical activities while women (and girls) are discouraged. As such, women are often seen as unable to use tools and hence not trusted to use them. Women are perfectly capable of carrying out mechanical tasks and it is very important for them to have the space to learn new skills and practice existing skills without assumptions about ability based on gender.

The Bristol Bike Project is a unique organisation that ‘provide ‘free’ bicycles to members of underprivileged and marginalised groups that would not otherwise have the opportunity to own one’. They work with Bristol Refugee Rights, Bristol Drugs Project, Second Step, The Big Issue and a range of youth groups. However the bikes are not altogether free. Participants have to earn them. I spent the afternoon at a Earn-A-Bike session whereby participants work with volunteer mechanics to fix a donated bike. The sessions last 2-4 hours and up to six teams work side by side in the fully equipped workshop.

Project members emphasise the ‘practical, hands-on engagement that functions as a bonding process between owner and bicycle’. And I saw this in action. I spent the afternoon observing, talking, holding things, asking questions, standing in the way, getting out of the way, drinking tea and eating biscuits as people fixed up bikes and rode them away.

I saw how participants chose a bike from a range of specially pre-prepared bikes. Mechanics had already spent up to two days on each one working through a highly detailed checklist to ensure the frame, bottom bracket, headset, chainset, seatpost, handlebars and other key parts were ok.

Participants then worked through the second checklist with up to two mechanics. These tasks are viewed as good skills to have to keep a bike maintained or to fix something minor when it happens. They include replacing tyre, fixing puncture, replacing brake levers and cables, indexing gears, oiling the chain and replacing brake blocks.

I noted how mechanics worked as much with participants as they did with the bike. They encouraged them to ‘see’ and ‘feel’ parts of the bike, to understand what was wrong and how it might be fixed. They talked through the problem, demonstrated how to fix it, then put the tools in participants’ hands.

They then checked to see if the problem was fixed and if needed the process was repeated. One participant, who already had some bike knowledge, told me he had learnt a lot from the experience. I did too.

I hope to spend more time at the project to understand in more depth the value they add to the local community and to individuals lives. In addition to the Earn-A-Bike sessions I’ll attend the Women’s Maintenance Sessions on Mondays.

From initial observations, conversations and just a brief glimpse at the range of local cycling events/activities it is clear that DIY/recycled bike culture flourishes in Bristol. Bikes have second and often third lives here. They are donated to projects, updated, given new futures and transformed into amazing new things.

Here are some pics* I took of an exhibition at The CREATE Centre about bike projects run by Spoke’n Chain, Life Cycle and The Bristol Bike Project.

*Apologies for the poor quality photos. It seems I have broken yet another camera. Cycling and cameras, for me, don’t go well together.