The Bicycle Academy – Bespoke Brilliance
Purchasing a new bicycle can be a costly experience. There are bikes that are highly advanced machines made for the track and those made for high fashion, but even a standard road bike is becoming expensive. For a machine that hasn’t changed much at the basic level over the last 125 years (except with the advancement of materials), why do we find ourselves paying more and more!?
In this great video below, The Bicycle Academy provide a glimpse of the new service they will be providing from their workshop in Somerset, England. The new venture, with frame courses taught by the legendary Brian Curtis is going to teach people the art of frame building, with your first frame going to Africa. Not only will you learn an excellent skill that will allow you to build your own bikes in the future, but you will also do something worthy for those in need.
The need for bicycles in Africa
The South African Government commissioned a study to find out about the need for bikes, and found that people walked an average of 4-hours per day.
The study found that children were walking 10 miles (16 km) to school, and many of the students who made it were falling asleep in the class, due to tiredness having walked that far, not helped by poor nutrition.
Head loading, often done by young girls, is very common in Africa but sadly puts strain on the neck compressing the spine causing long term damage. As well as a means of transport, a bicycle can also be used to carry goods to market, firewood and water etc.
We can’t think of a better way to spend a few nights than learning the fine art of frame making. If you want to get involved, the company are looking to get off the ground through Crowd Funding. If you think this is a worthy cause (we certainly do), why not head on over to their site via the link at the bottom and see how you can help!
The Bicycle Academy – Coming soon from Facade on Vimeo.
