Archive | October, 2011

Revolights gets funded!

10 Oct
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Some of you will remember that I blogged about an exciting project called Revolights a little while ago… well I’m really pleased to say that the project was successfully funded raising a fraction under 500% of the target amount in 49 days!

This is great news for every one of the backers involved as they’ll get their rewards, and Kent, Adam & Jim get to start their new business with a bang.

It’s cool to see any project succeed but revolights was a bit special because not only is it bicycle related but it’s about helping people too.  Have a look at their kickstarter page and website for more information…and here’s hoping that we’re successful with our crowd funding campaign later in this month too.

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The Ultimate Utility Bike for Modern Living

9 Oct
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I read about The Oregon Manifest Constructor’s Design Challenge on the headsetpress blog yesterday evening and have spent most of my time since pouring over the bikes and all the info about the design choices of the builders etc

The challenge, which concluded at the end of September, was to design and build the modern ultimate utility bike;

WE’RE LOOKING FOR THE ULTIMATE UTILITY BIKE FOR MODERN LIVING!
The Oregon Manifest Constructor’s Design Challenge is a one-of-a-kind design/build competition, in which some of the country’s best custom bike craftsman and select student teams vie to create the ultimate modern utility bike.

The winners of the challenge have been selected and can be seen here, but each bike offers design ideas for the TBA Africa bike as it  will share many of the same design criteria. Aside from any particular usefulness it’s just nice to see what other people come up with when given a blank canvas and a problem to solve. Some of the designs are rigorously functional, whilst others are more artistic and decadent –  and that’s the most important thing to highlight; the fact that there’s probably all sorts of weird and wonderful bicycle ideas floating around inside peoples heads, bicycles don’t have to be restricted to the double diamond design and so neither do those building them.  Given the opportunity wouldn’t you like to make something a little different, something that reflects you and your particular bicycle riding needs…?

Click on each image to be taken to the dedicated design page for that bike, but make a cup of tea first…there’s quite a few!

 

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Keeping you updated…

7 Oct
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The Bicycle Academy is on track and things are going really well – the crowd funding campaign is coming together, the Africa bike design project is picking up steam and the workshop is progressing too.

As many of you know I do this alongside a full time day job, running a MTB club and being the organiser of the Cobble Wobble (which took place in September) so I’ve been a little stretched lately. I’m working flat out to make sure that The Bicycle Academy is up and running in the new year and ready for the crowd funding campaign on the 24th October, but haven’t done the best job in the world recently of letting everyone know how things are progressing.

Rest assured though plenty is going on, so over the next few weeks I’ll be posting frequently with info to keep you all in the picture.

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#VendrediVideo – Shinya Kimura

7 Oct
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A short film about custom motorcycle engineer Shinya Kimura, directed by Henrik Hansen . Sure it’s not about push bikes, but the principle of making something custom by hand is exactly the same, and Shinya Kimura is very very good…

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Privateer issue 3 – Custom

2 Oct
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I picked up an old copy of Privateer (issue three) the other day and was really pleased to see that there’s a 16page special all about the custom bike trade. I’m really looking forward to reading it later this evening… (click on the link above if you want to order yourself a copy).

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Countdown to Crowd Funding

1 Oct
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I’m really excited to announce that The Bicycle Academy will be making its crowd funding attempt on October the 24th for 6 weeks !

Those 6 weeks will be really important for us, it’s our chance to turn this wonderful idea into the real thing; our chance to raise enough money to start up; kit out the workshop; finish the design of the Africa bike and ultimately to start teaching people how to build bicycles.

It’s really important to get our message across to as many people as we can by explaining what we are hoping to do, why we think it’s a good idea and also why crowd funding the start up costs is the best way forward. So if you want to come on a course, are keen to see The Bicycle Academy succeed, or just want to help us help others who are in need of bicycles – please spread the word and be prepared to make a pledge once our crowd funding campaign launches on the 24th.

We’ve come a long way in the 10 months since I wrote a wishful post on my blog; we’ve got a workshop; a brilliant frame builder and gained a lot of interest and support too –  so lets all pull together and see if we can make The Bicycle Academy really happen…

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