The bicycle tree was an inspiration from the North. More specifically, the idea was born out of a t-shirt from Manchester ‘s I BIKE MCR festival. The beauty behind the bicycle tree was the organic process by which it came to being. No planning was involved, just a sheer coincidence of events that fell into place to create this urban curiosity. Some of MR crew met a distinguished gentleman named George while visiting Raven’s Ait. George used to have a bicycle shop many years ago and was also a bit of a collector of abandoned bicycles in the streets of London. This is the piece of the string that led MR to a room filled to the ceiling with bicycles, bicycle parts and wheels. Opportunity not to be missed. MR released many wheels from the shackles of George’s room where they have been sitting for the last 10 or more years. We literally brought them to light. Thanks to Tim from Electric Pedals we had 1000 LED lights to wind in between the wheels (just on a side Tim is meant to be our competition in the world of bicycle power but we sort of like him). Tanya’s input on warehouse architecture pointed us to the black and yellow striped hazard pillars. Special urban touch. The wheels got hang in no pre-planned order, just what felt right for each wheel in each new space created by the combination of the previous matches. There were 7 people who took part in suspending the wheels. Some hang just a few and some staid up till the bird’s call. Two other people that came up to learn about building their own generator helped to wire things together and set the regulator to the right voltage. Nice participation. The lights were wired to a tall bike sitting few metres away from the tree, waiting for a curious passer-by to climb up and witness the lights pulsing with every turn of the crank.

WARNING! This is not a current blog but rather an event that occurred over 2 months ago. Forgive us for breaking the bloggers code but we had to tell you