You are currently browsing the monthly archive for July, 2007.
The MRCC are planning a UK tour in the summer if 2008, where the cinema will not only be powered by bikes, but transported by them too. Eight members of the MRCC are undertaking the 140 mile journey from Cambridge to the Malvern hills in three days as a little test trip, to see if they can cut it on the open road. There are concerns about the possibility that bicycles will need to be swapped for boats, however morale is high upon departure and the odd puddle can only add to the fun!
This is the story of their little trip.
Day 1 - Friday 27th July
Thankfully the sun was shining for our comrades on day one. However Dafydd was reported missing shortly after departing Cambridge. After some hard riding and a sneaky beer stop the remaining seven arrived in Woburn and settled down for their first night on the road, with a campfire and some beer, but still without Dafydd!
Nice pipe Barbora
“two hours in. Brutal face wind. Dry. Happy. Bit of a dull road. Babs pirate flag flying. Beer stop. Tanning nicely. People getting used to the weight” - Andy
“Ah, fire, beer and rest” - Ben
Day 2 - Saturday 28th July
Another scorching day for the team on day two with Dafydd back in tow and 55 miles of open road ahead.
Ben chowing down some tasty looking breakfast
“Found coffee. Found dafyd. Good breakfast. Planning on 55 miles today, done one and a half so far. Sunny. Less wind. Ben dreaming of lunch time pint. About to bypass milton keynes. Looks like it’s going to be a corking day” - Andy
“Expected two inches if rain and flooding, found an awesome hay barn just outside Morton which gave us our slap up meal. Everyone happily tired and ready to watch the storms” - George
Day 3 - Sunday 29th July
An exciting day as many of the roads were closed to traffic and some even to bikes. This added a very painful extra 10miles onto the journey for Krystl and Barbora’s poorly knees. Thankfully out team make it safely to the big chill before sunset where they be playing house until the festival begins on Friday. As a reaction to life on the road Shaun sports a new, more aerodynamic hair do!
Julie’s Mexican safety gear awaits her
More lunchtime beer!
Sunset over the site
“On the road, good breakfast. Dry. Spent night in abandoned barn. 30 miles to do today. Easy. Just finished a brutal hill. Pip-pip” - Andy
“Tewkesbury. 15 miles to go. No water here because of floods. About to head out. Road closed to cars. Bikes and pedestrians ok though. Babs and krystl got knee problems. Julie painful thumbs. Argument about going to tesco for knee braces. Nothing too heated. Sunny, tanning nicely. Rock on” - Andy
“Arrived. Eaten big food. Great mood. Big top looks great. Been down the hill on the trike already. Amazing sunset. Extra ten miles on our trip due to floods. But we made it, rockin.” - Andy
The last night before we set off to The Big Chill on our bikes. We’ve given ourselves three days for the journey, so it should be easy going, unless we get caught in floods / typhoons / a sudden ice age. Eight of us are biking and the rest of our 42 crew and 20 guests will meet us there.
The paint job on the console is finished, the door will be screwed on tomorrow… The red LED is still blinking away, the thing is alive. The techs are happy, the ten bike test last night went well and we’re looking forward to giving the thing a proper thrashing at The Big Chill.
The bikes have had their slick back tyres swapped out ready for the tour, bike racks we’re ‘found’ and panniers are getting stuffed full of socks and chocolate right now…
Some of our less energetic crew will hopefully be updating the blog with news from the road. Until then.
The last few days before we head off on our bikes… and as expected, a last minute mad dash to make sure everything’s up and running…
Felix welding the last stand…
Lots of lots of motors… And skate wheels!
A bike power station with built in 700W sound system. You don’t see that too often.
Andy getting a little bored of motors and skate wheels.
Shaun made light work of the speakers, superior craftsmanship…
… on the other hand Andy’s command console has been described as “pre-D.I.Y”.
Mike and Felix, wiring up some test speakers, ready for the first sound test with the new amp.
Proud Felix, 5 stands completed!
Happy people! A ten bike test!
And just to prove the command console works, we have a flashing red light…
BONUS!! The cycle powered gig mega mix!
SUPER BONUS!! In fact, thanks to ‘Big George C’, there’s loads more music from the gig!
AND ANOTHER THING!!! The full screening list for our three nights at The Big Chill festival!
Don’t you worry… we didn’t forget about the surreal 50s circus madness that we promised! After hours of meetings, brainstorming sessions and plenty of discussions… the ideas about the costume looks have been solidified.
The sewing girls have been working hard to deliver and it’s time to bring them to light. We’re combining the 50s rockabilly with a touch of cabaret & tool-belt madness… all in red & black! We got amazing woman of all tasks, Jennifer, putting the skirts together. She is as good at fixing a bike as she is at sowing… don’t get too excited she is taken. We got Julie on the tutu making front which is happening faster than expected as she discovered a less time consuming method than the hours of pinning that we thought we’re in for. Ali is working on makeup, Jasmine on hats, Carolyn on asymmetric hairstyles and we can’t forget MandaPanda who is helping to source all other quirky bits that will be part of the costume show! There we go… I can’t wait to see it all together!
It’s been a few days since our last post. Not because there’s nothing to write about, in fact there’s too much to write about, we’re just all too damn busy doing it, to get round to writing about it! So here’s a few pictures instead.
Hauling new kit around in trailers…
Andy gives the ‘death stare’ to the 16th connector that needs soldering…
Julie gives the ‘Felix Stands’ another lick of paint…
Anderson connectors, good but a right pain in the ass sometimes…
(Top secret tent plans in background)
Ben G happy as Larry with the all new ‘Power Block’…
The guts of the power block, diodes, fuses, a heat-sink and lots of wire…
George and Shaun give the bikes some attention…
Shaun with slightly manic grin on his face after blowing a wheel apart…
Our 35 mile bike ride to Bakers Oven…
Start of the ‘Control Console’… Step 1. Find wood lying around The Portland Arms…
Step 2. Build big bastard box…
Step 3-8. Slowly fill box with the kit, trying to use as little 4 gauge cable as possible…
Step 9-27. To be continued…
The Bicycology Bikeride 2007 is starting this Saturday. From Aylesbury to Exeter via Bristol stopping along the way to hold events to celebrate everything bike and talk to people about climate change and other environmental issues.
At their events there will be things for all ages to do, for the terrified-of-two-wheels or car-addicted, to the most committed cyclist. Including free bike check-ups, bike power generators, bike workshops and other fun stuff about a fossil fuel free future. You can even have a game of Bicycle Polo if you fancy?
All the events are free, and at several stops Bicycology will be joined by local cycling and environmental groups promoting their causes.
For full details of the tour, check out the Bicycology website.
The workshop is becoming a busy sweaty place as we’re full steam ahead to get to our 10 bikes, 10 power generators (and spares) target. Felix showing his colours by fighting off an illness to get messy with the welder, managing to knock out four stands in two days. Shaun and George on the bikes, making the best of some donated old steeds. Ben G is going RS crazy, designing and starting to put together the ‘control box’… Babs in London, ‘making connections’, setting up yet more big gigs for the cycle cinema. Simon wading through hours of film, making the selections, putting together the final edits… We’re getting closer.
We even had time to fit in a 20 mile bike ride today, to beef up those legs for cycling to the Big Chill.
Another busy day in the workshop and we’re up to 8 (touring) bikes, 2 single speeds, a pirate trike and 6.5 bike power stands completed. Meanwhile other agents are building control boxes, sourcing amps, looking into speaker box design, blowing up wheels, buying washers and working out what material to buy for the usherettes dresses…
Two and a half weeks before we set off for the bike ride to The Big Chill and the pace is starting to pick up!
The Magnificent Revolutionary Cycling Cinema is pleased to announce the UK premier outside London of the compelling feature documentary B.I.K.E. in the cycle powered cinema on The Big Chill Arts Trail. Here’s what the B.I.K.E. crew have to say about their film…
“Driven by anti-materialism and a belief that the impending apocalypse will render cars useless and leave bicycles in power, Black Label Bike Club (BLBC) battles mainstream consumer culture and rival gangs for its vision of a better tomorrow. Pulling threads from Critical Mass and the wider bike counter-culture, B.I.K.E. explores such themes as radical politics, personal artistic vision, global responsibility, relationships, group formation, and perhaps most prominently, pain and love.”
So come on down to the cycle powered cinema on The Big Chill Arts Trail and viscerally experience the ethos of B.I.K.E. by providing the green peddle based electricity needed to screen this powerful new movie.
We are still programming the cycle powered cinema and the running order is not fixed yet. So check back here later for the screening time. This film is not to be missed and it wont happen without your peddle power. Viva la revolution! Viva la B.I.K.E.!
So Jason returns to the workshop, armed with five projectors (3 different models), a screen, cables and other nifty testing kit. Jason can only be described as a very nice man who seems to know a hell of a lot of projectors, cinemas, audio systems and other whack kit. Yet another handy person to have on board with the project.
We use the 4m throw distance that we’re going to have at the Big Chill and set up the screen, slightly smaller than the 8×6‘ screen that we’d like to use. The Sanyo is up first and it reas 3.9ft-c and pulls 340W of juice. Which doesn’t seem very bright… The lens is pretty dirty and there’s some discolouring around the edges, so we not too sure about the lamp life, maybe it’s on it’s way out.
Next up the Epson and as soon as we turn it on it’s noticeably brighter and when we do the proper test, it measures a whopping 30ft-c and only pulls 230W. Some Orbital videos get us all excited as it starts to look like a cinema, three weeks before we set off for the gig.
Finally we try the nec, which comes in at 10ft-c and pulls 205W… So we soon make the decision on the Epson and Jason’s even got a spare one, with a broken lamp. So we pack them all back into the van to take them back to Jason’s for cleaning and sourcing a cheap spare lamp.
The end of the night and there’s just enough time to head back to Ben’s to test out his hand built sub-base that he’s lending us for the Big Chill gig… And it’s a monster!
Bonus! The Delta Family mix from the gig on Monday on their blog.
It’s our first public test of the equipment and we haul three bikes and some of the kit the long distance down from the workshop into the back room of The Portland Arms, ready for our first gig.
The bikes take a while to set up, but with practice it can only get easier. Sound check goes ok, although we forgot about monitors, so the full band has a little trouble hearing itself.
Pedalo Folk is up first, one man, one bike, one guitar, one amp, one mic and another amp. We’d forgot about powering the mic when we did our first test with Pedalo Folk last week, so instead of a leisurely 40W ride, it was closer to a 70W slog. Still, he stepped up to the mark like a pro and pulled of a great set. He was later heard saying “You know, with exercise, you hit that line, but when you break through…”
Next up is The Delta Family, who take a slightly more leisurely approach and it’s time for some of the crowd to hop on the bikes and get sweaty. Two bikes are powering a couple of amps as The Delta Family start sampling the crowd, bikes and whatever noise they can find. Soon Paul fires up the guitar and we’re treated to a rare live performance, a single twenty minute bike powered epic.
A quick shout out about the project and Wednesday’s meeting (7pm at The Portland Arms - discuss the grand tour) and Shaun jumps on the decks for some bike powered music mayhem. Maybe not quite on top form as energies drop at one point and we loose power for a moment, for the only time during the evening.
Next up, the headliners, The Jelly Royale, a five piece which in sound check were pulling around 250W from four amps at their loudest. So all three bikes are fired up and there’s a queue of people ready to jump on the bikes if needed. As it turns out, the band probably averaged around 170W continuous, so there wasn’t much need for ‘change-overs’ on the bikes. The Jelly Royale rocked the house, only their second gig, just a shame they didn’t have more songs.
Still time and energy left to power some more DJ fun whilst a couple of the team do their first radio interview for 209 radio in the front room of the pub. Soon it’s time to pack up and a stirling team effort means everything’s back in the workshop in minutes, certainly a fair bit quicker than the set up.
Thanks to everyone who came along… Without you and your legs it wouldn’t have been possible.
