Bike removalists
My wonderful housemate Kat moved to our new place by bicycle. Here’s a video we put together from the footage.
Kat writes:
We put the word out and a crew of fifteen showed up with panniers, trailers, backpacks, baskets and sound systems. Fueled by peaches, sangria and sprouts, we towed a mattress, kitchen supplies, clothes, books, pot plants, camping gear, a spare bike, a banana lounge and Geoff (navigating and filming from the big trailer). From Fitzroy to Northcote took less than 30 mins, and we never had so much fun moving house!
A lot of the footage is taken from the back of an awesome car-width bike trailer (belonging to Elliot of the Institute for Sensible Transport). You’ll see it fly past in some of the still shots. I borrowed it to move my bed late on a Sunday night. Without the pack of bike riders around I guessed it would be a bit scary going down the busy streets of Sydney Rd and Separation St, so I did it in the wee hours of the night. The only honks I got were of encouragement or of ambiguous intent (the emotional range expressed by beeping horns is rather limited after all). It turned out to be physically pretty easy. As long as you can avoid big hills, moving by bicycle is all right.
To me this bike move concept is the evolution of Critical Mass — the bike riders’ celebration rides which weave around many of the worlds major cities each month. I’ve always found Critical Mass rides a bit purposeless and often but not always that much fun. By comparison, after helping someone move by bicycle you can celebrate with a beer with a bit more genuine righteousness, having actually achieved something tangible. And feeling righteous after working while relaxing with beer is one of life’s most unequivocally positive and untainted experiences. These are indeed rich rewards for an hour lugging someone’s sofa on a trailer.
Perhaps in the future a bike move co-op will organise along the lines of permablitz.net to help people get together and assure some reciprocity, and there’s some moves in that direction. If anyone would like to help, I’m happy to replicate the permablitz website code for them. Email me adam at eatthesuburbs dot org
Kerry Dawborn said,
March 9, 2008 @ 5:51 pm
Fan-bloody-tastic! Looked like fun – exercise, community, great knowing you have these lovely, innovative people to help. What we all need – good friends, creative thinking and determination to live lightly on the planet!
Tamara Davis said,
March 11, 2008 @ 1:19 pm
Nice work!!
I also moved house by bicycle last year. Glad to find a kindred spirit(s). I didn’t manage to move my mattress, though – for that I did use a car later (during an earlier move we took the mattress on a bus). I put a photo up on my webpage http://dark.dark-cosmology.dk/~tamarad/dayinlife/image.php?year=2007&month=4&day=1 , where you’ll see that I didn’t manage to muster up as much help as you… there were just three of us… but we managed to load ourselves well enough to do everything in one trip.
I was living in Copenhagen at the time, and didn’t really know anyone who had a car we could use easily. Thus the biking. Copenhagen was great for bikes. I lived there two years and probably got into a car no more than a dozen times.
adam said,
March 11, 2008 @ 10:39 pm
Bike Move #2 !!
http://shaneonabike.wordpress.com/2008/02/28/movin-house-ala-bicycle-a-crew/
Jan! said,
March 15, 2008 @ 10:16 pm
That is the most awesomeliest thing I saw all day! It was linked on the touring mailing list on phred.org.
Great music, too. What is that song?
cat said,
March 18, 2008 @ 8:35 pm
now that’s the kind of stylish sustainable madness i expect from you miss lavers!
and the perfect beginning to your new place…
arian, for the record, says he thinks tha moving house is a ridiculous thing to do on a bicycle- and that nonetheless he loves your work!
:-)
Adrian Dent said,
March 19, 2008 @ 11:44 pm
I moved by bike once, but it was just me, and I didn’t move everything by bike (three or four large trees in large tubs) and I only took the bike from dandenong north to the train station, then from Oakleigh station to the house in oakleigh. And got spoken to sternly by a cop for carrying a bow and arrow on public transport…
Once a network gets going, it should be doable in the suburbs.
Adrian
Jai said,
March 22, 2008 @ 8:54 am
With larger trailers you can do ti easily (?) more easily.
http://www.bikesatwork.com
Jai
Geoff said,
March 23, 2008 @ 11:28 am
More help needed! We are organising a carbon neutral bike gig at Brunswick East Velodrome on Sat 29th. See the below and the website for more information.
>>>
It’s all systems go and we need YOU!
We need as many bike trailers as possible for moving the equipment. If you can help, please meet at 116 Albert Street, East Brunswick at 9am on Saturday March 29. Please bring occie straps or equivalent tieing devices.
We are also asking for:
– donated homemade cakes / homebrew / bread to sell to raise money to cover costs
– help on the day doing things like helping the bands set up, gophers
IMPORTANT – if you can help with the move, please RSVP, with your name and what sort of trailer you have.
Please forward this to others with trailers. Thanks! Geoff and Elliot.
>>
VeloRock 2008 – The bicycle powered indie gig
Date: March 29; 2pm – 7pm
Venue: Brunswick Velodrome, Harrison Street, on the Merri Creek.
Come and see The LuckSmiths, Mid-state Orange, Crayon Fields and other Melbourne indie bands at the Brunswick Velodrome. VeloRock is special because all the bands and their equipment will be transported to the venue by bicycle and the event will be run on 100% greenpower. VeloRock is a demonstration of the unrealised utility of the bicycle, human power and sustainable energy. And amazingly, entry is FREE!
Website: http://www.velorock.net/
ebee said,
April 9, 2008 @ 6:22 pm
wow. impressive! I’m gonna tell my friends here in cold Oslo, Norway about you guys, and when I’m moving… :)
Dan Cass said,
August 26, 2008 @ 11:48 am
B e a u t i f u l.