Here is the poster for the Shuttle Relay, Stage 7 - part of the Rochdale Canal Festival 2012.

We’re hoping for a mass ride of Oldham cyclists - all ages and levels of experience welcome.  This is not a race but a celebratory procession of decorated bikes and an exploration of a beautiful stretch of canal running through the heart of Oldham.

Come down to one of the 5 start points - clearly marked on the map on the poster, decorate your bike (we’ll have specially made bike flags) and yourself (with our specially-made silver mirror-vests) and join the fun as we accompany the shuttle on its journey from Mytholmroyd to Manchester.

ILLUMINATE!

The first public outings of our mechanical fish-bike sculpture and kinetic bird-bike sculpture happened on Saturday 14th April at the Illuminate Festival on the Rochdale canal in Failsworth, Oldham.

We had a great turn out and everything went swimmingly (apart from the odd slipped chain).  The lads from Failsworth Q Youth Centre were out in force, all helping us set up and take down the sculptures, plus putting in sterling work pedal-powering the fish and bird all night.  The crowd were great - supporting the pedallers, taking photos and some of them having a go at pedalling themselves.  The festival finished with a Pyrotechnic spectacular and we took our fish and bird in for the night, but they will return, improved and on wheels, for the Manchester Day Parade.  Watch this space…

This Post is long overdue.  The last three weeks have been spent busily working at Grass roots Community Garden in Failsworth, creating kinetic bicycle sculptures for the Illuminate Festival which happens this Saturday, 14th April along the Rochdale Canal in Failsworth, Oldham.

For the GrassRoots workshops, I’ve teamed up with Richard Dawson - artist extraordinaire of all things mechanical and kinetic.  Richard is working on another part of the Catalyst project in Oldham called ‘Salvage!’ and you can follow his blog here:

http://catalystjunksculpture.wordpress.com

As there are lots of similarities between ArtBikes (art from, with and using bikes) and Salvage (kinetic junk sculpture), we’ve teamed up to make….kinetic junk sculpture - from bikes! 

We’ve been working with several groups of people including: volunteers from Grass Roots Community Garden (Darren)  Chadderton Court Art Group (Andy, Dennis, Scott and Maxine) and Failsworth Youth Centre (Sam, Sam, Steven, Dale, Ste, Daniel, Levi, Peter and Martin), plus assistance from art student/ volunteer youth worker Hebe Phillips.

We’ve been making 2 large kinetic sculptures, made mainly of old bikes and bike parts but incorporating all kinds of stuff like wheelbarrows and bed-bases.  One is a giant fish which swims through the air and the other is a giant bird which flaps its wings and looks a bit like a pterodactyl.  Both of them are powered by a human pedaller, sat on a reconfigured bike below the sculpture.  For the Illuminate festival, they will be stationary on the canal bankside, but for the next festival (Manchester Day Parade – 10^th June) they will be on wheels and towed by other bikes.

Here’s a selection of photos showing the fish and the bird taking shape as the weather changes over 3 weeks in Spring.

Many, many thanks to Sarah and everyone at GrassRoots for giving us such a great space to work in and for putting up with all our mess.  The end results will be worth it…

I cycled up to Alexandra Park today and met up with Kevin Lanham  of Oldham Wheels for All.  They’ve got a fantastic set-up there with a range of adapted bikes for people with disabilities and additional needs.  The centre is obviously really popular and I met a few of the members who talked about their love of cycling and how it was helping them rehabilitate after strokes and serious operations.  The volunteers and members alike are all really enthusiastic, as are the Activ8 Oldham bike sessions operating from the same site. 

I’m hoping we’ll be able to harness these fantastic resources and enthusiasm for some of next year’s ArtBike projects.  Watch this space…

The Bike Pavilion outside Gallery Oldham

I set the Bike Pavilion up outside Gallery Oldham on Tuesday.  The good news was that the sun shone all day, the bad news was that the road was being dug up right outside the main entrance to the Gallery and Library, causing a lot of noise and disruption.

In any case, many interesting people stopped by for a chat - Mountain-Bikers, BMXers, Downhill speedfreaks, Commuters and Road Racers (Thanks to Alistair from Saddleworth Clarion for spreading the message) and a chap who had cycled all the way across the USA.  I even spoke to a lady who likes to plant old bikes in the garden!

The momentum is building for a series of exciting cycling-based creative activities to take place across Oldham early next year…  If you’ve just joined this blog or are reading it for the first time, then  welcome to Oldham ArtBikes - the home of everything art and cycling related in Oldham (the clue is in the name).

If you’re interested and want to find out more, or have a particular idea or interest you’d like to discuss (around art and cycling) please use the ‘ask’ facility on this page and don’t forget you can submit your details here. or contact Oldham Arts & Events team on 0161-770-3070.

The Bike Pavilion’s next outing will be at the Royton family fun day this Saturday, 29th October, 10.00-3.00, at Blessed John Henry Newman School (formerly Our Lady’s) on the corner of Broadway and Rochdale Road in Royton.  Come along for some Bike-spiration…

Noah, 27th October  2011.

The Bike Pavilion makes its inaugral appearance at the Canal Festival.

We had a steady stream of interested visitors over the day - keen off-roaders, urban explorers, novice cyclists and passing anglers.  People stopped for a chat, looked at the pictures on the Bike-spiration wall, chatted some more, commented on the curious Bike-Pavilion and signed up for future projects.   Watch this space for the next appearance of the Bike Pavilion - somewhere in Oldham, sometime this summer….

Today is the launch of the Oldham ArtBikes project at Wrigley head, Failsworth, as part of the Canal Festival.  I’ve designed and made the ArtBikes info-pavilion at my studio during the last week.  It’s made of 3 old bikes and various spare wheels and will act as a focus for all our bike related activities during the project.  It also houses a ‘Bike-spiration’ wall with images of interesting, inspiring and mad bikes and bike projects from the serious world of road-racing to a collection of bonkers custom-bikes across the world.  I hope these images will be a springboard to get the cyclists of Oldham thinking about what they love about cycling and which art activities they want to get involved in.

Watch this space…..

Noah, 14 August 2011.

Hi there,

If you’ve reached this page, chances are you’re:

a) interested in cycling in one of its many varied forms,

b) living or working in Oldham, or maybe just visiting,

c) interested in taking part in some exciting unusual and possibly quite odd art activities on 2 wheels,

d) all of the above.

Over the next few months, there will be a series of interesting activities involving art and bikes in Oldham.  Visit the Oldham Artbikes blog to find out what, where, when, who, how and even why…

To register your interest, post your comments and contact details on this site, or phone Oldham Arts & Events Team on 0161-770-3070.