Cycling at COP27

Last year we posted re the the paucity of cycling on the COP26 main event, this year I don’t know if much has changed inside. But outside of the event there are a range of cycling stories.

Something Egyptian from the city of Cairo.

Something from London.

Something from the UCI.

You can ride there from Cairo

Or you can make a proper statement on what cycling can mean for all of us and ride from Sweden, at the age of 72, ride through 17 countries and travel nearly 9000 kilometers.

Chapeau Dorothee Hildebrandt

Dorothee Hildebrandt, 72, rides her bike to the U.N. climate summit COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, Saturday, Nov. 12, 2022. AP

Big Bike Film Night

Hi HBK friends here is some info. about upcoming bike film festival screening at the Stanley Bunbury Lecture Theatre, U of Tas, on Tuesday 27th September that brings the world’s best cycling short films together for one night.  

It’s geared to inspire, with an absolutely breath-taking range of short cycling films that celebrate the fun, adventure, and inspiration that cycling enables, whatever your ride is; and this year’s collection has 12 films, runs for just over 2 hours and 20 minutes.

The summmary details the tapestry of inspiring tales/ films that will be showcased, AND… this year every ticket purchased to attend a screening of The Big Bike Film Night goes in the draw to WIN A CYCLING HOLIDAY to New Zealand thanks to the Presenting Partner Ngā Haerenga Great Rides of New Zealand. 

DateHobartTicket Booking LinkFacebook Event page
Tuesday 27th September, 7pmStanley Burbury Lecture Theatre, UofTashttps://www.trybooking.com/CABHVhttps://www.facebook.com/events/1164718077656424/

If you have time, please watch the trailer link below, to get an understanding of some of the enticing films in this year’s line-up.  

The Big Bike Film Night Promo Trailerhttps://youtu.be/6tZbhV_rkR8

Photosynthesis

6 years ago, HBK spawned the crazy offshoot of The Electric Light Bike Orchestra.

Helmed by Lance (one of our long term volunteers and erstwhile HBK President during the transition years from Taroona to the CBD) ELBO was a DIY-Synths-on-Bikes project.  6 of the HBK chefs rode around at night making weird sounds. We used specially made light-sensors so we could get beats and rhythms from our flashing bike lights. IT was weird.  It was crazy. It was entirely home made. It annoyed the neighbours.

Lance did not give up on this, and although ELBO passed away after 3 iterations, his current project – Photosynthesis – is very clearly the grandchild of ELBO.

In its current form, Photosynthesis is a loose collection of artists who come together to explore and experiment on Lance’s now extensive suite of home made synthesisers, modified keyboards, circuit bent toys, hacked guitar pedals, and, of course, a synth-bike beast known as the Warp Generator.

Every item within the pool of instruments is either homemade or hacked in the same spirit as the best Frankenbike that HBK ever produced, and like the Hobart Bike Kitchen,  Photosynthesis is built on a model of interactivity and inclusion.

What that actually means in the real world is that we make an effort to interact with the people and space that we play in by sensing the surrounding light and (with some on the spot tuition) letting people play our instruments a little bit.

Amazingly, somehow, beyond all reasonable expectations of public decency, Photosynthesis now gets gigs at actual events and there are *3* coming up in the next week. All free. All experimental.

On Saturday 30th we will be playing and exploring at the Ability to Create Festival at the Hobart Town Hall between 1-2pm.  As a relatively short set, this will probably be mostly playing and explanations.

Next weekend we will be set up and doing a long form exploration set at the Beaker St Science Festival at TMag. You can find us in the TMag courtyard on both Friday 5th and Saturday 6th between 6pm – 10pm.  We will be taking a long slow journey through a range of sounds and instruments, and will particularly be exploring the effect of sampling the projections done by long term TMag VJ collaborator Cary Littleford. We hope to allow a better deeper interaction with both the environment (ie all the lights around us) and the people who attend.

We don’t know what will happen. But there will be home made synthesisers, lots of lights, strange sounds and a smattering of old upcycled bike parts….

Here’s a link for more on PhotoSynthesis

How much cycling at COP26 you ask?

Well it’s less than SFA.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/carltonreid/2021/11/02/no-bicycling-at-cop26-means-quickest-way-to-decarbonise-road-transport-is-inexplicably-missing/?sh=4f15c496740a

Thanks to Carlton Reid and Forbes.com

and don’t try riding there either

Donations, yes please

You may have seen the Donations page link. That explains the things we need to maintain the bike kitchen operation. But here’s an update on how we’re going.

We know Tasmania is a very generous community and we have always appreciated what comes our way.

We currently have more bikes than we can store, so we’d love to have more volunteers helping us get them back out there being ridden.
It would be great to be able to donate more bikes to those in need but we can only work with those who come in on a Sunday. So if you have time to donate that would be amazing.

What is a donation we can always use a little more of? Money.
We’ve always got tools, parts, insurance etc… to pay for and we no longer have the wonderful Sustainable Living Expo Bike Auction as a fundraiser, so a donation is a great way to keep HBK around to be helping you in the future.
To that end we’ve now set up a PayPal account that you can easily make a donation to.
Click the button and you’re on the way.

Cake. Yes I’m serious. Come by with a cake or some biscuits you may have baked on a Sunday afternoon and you’ll feel the love from the hard working bike chefs.
It’s as much about being a welcoming community and a place for everyone as it is about hunger.

Whatever you can do. Thank You.

Weather permitting

It’s been great to have HBK running again post COVID.
There have been a couple of Sundays which have been weather affected so it’s always good to check the Upcoming Sessions page, and the Facebook feed just to be sure that we’re open.

But that said we had a great day last Sunday.

We look forward to seeing you at HBK.
If you have a bike to work on bring it in, if you need a bike come and get one.

More bike riders makes Hobart better.
A more connected community, healthier, safer and just more fun.

Bicycles put smiles on faces. Here’s proof from last Sunday.

Open this one to see a bigger view and get the feel for how much is going on.

We’re on the back :-)

Planning and Induction Day

Hi HBK Friends,

This coming Sunday (28th June 2020) will be a planning and induction day.
Please note this is NOT a business as usual Sunday Session.

We’ll be preparing to ensure the processes are in place so we can all socially distance and still provide the same friendly assistance we always do.
We’ll be working on a shed cleanup and generally having the site ready.

We will also be running an induction for any new volunteers who would like to be involved.
You don’t need to be an expert (we’re certainly not). If you have a Sunday free from time to time and want to see more people riding bikes then you’re qualified.

If that’s you we’d love to see you on Sunday. If you’d like to volunteer and can’t make Sunday just let us know at hobartbikekitchen@gmail.com

HBK Reopening with a standard Sunday Session will be 5th July if all goes to plan.