Yesterday I was at the brilliant Winchester Gallery where they have a great exhibition called How to Draw a Bicycle I met the folk who organise the ride Chase the Sun which is so much fun. I printed some bookmarks and talked about the Printing Bike and how it came about.
Today I loaded up the Printing Bike at the Premiere Inn in Basingstoke. Premiere Inn’s let you take bicycles into bedrooms, which is quite an ask with the heavily loaded Printing BIke. In the lift I have to lift the front end up into the top corner of the lift to pull the back into the lift, quite something to see.
The ride over the Chilterns was brilliant. Mostly because Jon Heslop told me about ‘following the line’ on the Garmin. Following the line is a revelation because you literally just do that as you ride, no map which make it so much simpler,after all, do you really need to know how may houses or churches you are passing?
I met some nice folk on the journey: David (CoastRider) who, like me, has ridden clockwise around the British Isles. And then Anke, who is a printer and we’d met at a British Print Society day in Bristol a few years ago. And finally Mike Hardiman whose bike was loaded up and headed on his first bicycle camping trip. I’d forgotten how social a bike ride can be.
Finally I ended up in Oxford to stay with Alex and Richard, and tomorrow I will print at the Weston Library part of the Bodliean Library. Very exciting.
Thanks to all those who supported this project through crowdfunder.
A full set of the bookmarks printed on the journey are available to buy in the shop and will be shipped in the autumn. All profits will go to helping Nick visit more public libraries on the printing bike this summer.