Sunrise

Sunrise Celebration, our first official, public event as Pedallers Kitchen went beautifully. It was a proper, thorough test of our set-up and we passed in most regards. It was a hard, 130 mile slog to get there, and hitch, trailer and all survived with barely a rattle.

Towards Glastonbury Tor

Although we arrived on Wednesday, most of the other crafty folks in our area had arrived and set up, so due to a mix up with the site map, there were no real pitches left. Fortunately our slimline nature allowed us to slip onto a small strip on the drag between the main field and camping. This gave us a prime position for preaching, peddling and promoting our low impact cooking techniques.

It was great for us, having spent months building and preparing everything, to have it all validated by people showing a real interest in the project, technology and all the rest. We had spent a lot of time in the preceding months explaining this bizarre concept to people, but actually having it with us changed everything and allowed us to really illustrate the concepts we had been talking about.

On the Wednesday that we arrived, the sun was shining upon us. Fortunately, however, the weather was not going to let us off without properly tested us and our equipment... so for the rest of the time the sky rained and the wind howled. Unsurprisingly, our awning, which although colourful and resplendent, is somewhat reminiscent of a kite, failed to withstand the elements, as one by one the eyelets gave way and the canvas slid down the poles.

Fortunately with the help of our neighbouring leather workers and some gaffa tape, we were able to repair it, but it had to remain down for Saturday due to the risk of further damage. So we spent the day cooking in a rainy gale, with no protection.

But we did surprisingly well. The trailer let in very little water and the rocket stove continued to function well despite burning damp wood and being rained upon. Cooking on an open fire in these conditions would have been nigh-on impossible, so the rocket stove really showed its worth. It burned almost constantly throughout the four days, and used amazingly little wood.

We were lucky enough to be joined by another Pedaller - Harry Woolner, who did a sterling job working along side us. We were also joined by many other colourful friends throughout the days, who gave us great encouragement, support and music.

Cycling into the Sunrise

Day 1 Mileage 40

We left South Wales in high spirits, despite the threat of rain (which came) a beautiful but tough start throughhilly Monmouthshire. We were off to Sunrise Celebration, where we will be showcasing our kitchens technology and running workshops.


Passing Tintern Abbey





 We arrived at our nights destination after 7 hours cycling, not bad concidering the trailer weighs about 65kg's! Looking like drowned rats on arrival, we dried by the fire and refuled,we were warmly hosted by my Aunty and Uncle. The next day the weather was looking a little better, we set of knowing we had a long day, at least 60 miles to go.

Day 2 60 Miles


Puncture repair

 Unfortunatly around the avonmouth area we took the cycle toute through little paths linking industrial estates, where lots of strimming had been freshly...we walked out bikes but couldn't keep the weight of the trailer from the ground so unfortunatly we got a puncture.


You can't actually read it, but on the somerest motorway behind the sign read 'WARNING, delays on the M25'
Not on national cycle route 26!





12 hours later, we arrived at our resting place!

2 of the most physically challenging days of our lives, but we were still in one piece and ready to get going to Sunrise. Hope to see soon of you there! 

We have a tent!

Our remade awning

After months of working on the project, things are really taking shape. We have been cooking up some dinners for the family in the garden these last weeks. We were pleased to successfully erect our 'remade' awning just a few days ago. 

Garden cookery

After Aprils rain, realising we might just need a rain cover, we rummaged around and were lucky enough to find an old, colourful, A-frame tent, which had belonged to the village playing field association in Pete's village. Having just invested in new tents, this was surplus to requirements - lucky us!

We wanted to lose some of it's weight, but retain enough shelter to protect us in poor weather (but probably not a big storm...)  There were grand plans of having this as our main tent, and being able to pack it down for night...but in the end, these were a little ambitious and we settled for the design shown above, by removing the front entirely, reducing the sides to triangles and using longer poles to give us some head room.

This weekend we went for some music and city fun in Bristol...taking in 'Vegfest' a free food and music event down by the harbour. We made a lucky observation, the stalls had their names up high - to be seen over the crowd, so i'm now sewing us a banner to go along the top! 

Pedalling to Pick up Sticks

Trip Mileage: 119miles.

Through wind and rain, and thankfully some sun, the Pedallers made it up to our first event of the season 'Pick up Sticks'. A wondrous gathering of friendly, hard-working individuals coming together to live, learn, cook, eat, play and be together at the newly re-established Earthworm Housing Co-Op, Leintwardine, Herefordshire.

http://pickupsticks2012.wordpress.com/  

For us it was an opportunity to test the road worthiness of the trailer, the stamina of our legs and to start share our project with people in REAL life (i.e. not through this blog..) We can now safely say that the trailer is road worthy, and kept everything (almost) dry despite a full day cycling through the rain. Our mental strength was tested somewhat on that wet second day on discovering we had taken the wrong road out of Hereford, adding over 10 miles to the journey, but we managed to keep up our spirits, singing through the rain till we reached our destination. Although it was hard going, we now know it is totally possibly to travel by bike and still arrive with the kitchen sink!

We'd like to say thank you to our Hereford hosts, whose hospitality enabled us to make the journey.

We couldn't have picked a better first trip, to share a weekend with people, some unknown at first, and some old friends, where the focus is on balance between more than one element; of fun, and work and play. So often our lives are divided, different parts serving different roles. work = money, party = fun.
The focus of the weekend was to share work on the grounds of the house, knowledge and skills whilst living, playing and eating communally.  Pedallers Kitchen contributed to the communal cooking, firing up a rocket stove oven which hadn't been used in a while to make Cake and sour-dough bread, giving us a crash course in full time rocket stove cooking. The outdoor kitchen at earthworm boasts the MOTHER of all rocket stoves...which did the majority of the cooking for the weekend.

Rocket StoveTASTic!

 We look forward to Pick up Sticks take 2!

The Christening

We have just returned from taking the loaded trailer, with all the kitchen bits, on its first outing on the road. No problems... fortunately, because we set off to our first proper event tommorow - Pick Up Sticks. A 60 mile cycle. Here's some photos from todays little jaunt.

Swapping the trailer between bikes (and our new logo)

Curvaceous frontage

The trailer is only reflectors, lights and roof away from being fully roadworthy. Check out the new streamlined front!

Hitch installed (without a hitch)

Despite the title pun, this has been one of the trickier parts of the build. There are a lot of different requirements that make up the ideal hitch, and attempting to accomplish all of these in a DIY hitch is a difficult task. We needed our bike trailer hitch to:

• Have movement in every plane (including twisting)
• Be easily detachable
• Be interchangable between different bikes
• Be very strong
• Be able to withstand pushing from behind (when breaking with a heavy load)
• Not interfere with the rear rack or panniers
• Not attach to the axle (we both have quick release skewers that couldn't handle the load)
• Not place too much strain on any one part of the bike frame

So no easy task...
The making of the hitch is one thing that no one agrees on. Every one seems to be different, even with off the shelf trailers. With homemade trailers (and also some bought ones), many opt for flexible couplings such as pneumatic hose or a heavy duty spring as this allows the required movement in all planes. However, I'm not really keen on the flexibility, especially if the trailer is pushing from behind.

I have trawled through the internet looking at every design I could find, but none really seemed perfect for the job... but fortunately I have a mechanical engineer for a father. I planted the seed of the problem in his mind and sure enough he managed to produce two amazing options for the pivot. One was a ball and socket, turned on the lathe, and a beautiful piece of work, but the angle of rotation turned out to be not quite enough.

However, his second creation is not only beautiful but functions perfectly. It is based around a door hinge, but with lathe turned and milled parts, and with a rotating nylon sleeve on the shaft to allow for the twist. This took care of the movement, but I still had to sort out the attachment...

So I have spent the last couple of days staring at the bikes, and playing around with bits of wood and metal and trying to accomplish all the above bullet points with limited tools and materials. Today I took the plunge and started drilling, cutting, bashing and screwing and unexpectedly finished with a strong functioning hitch that seems to tick all the boxes.

The attachment is sheet aluminium with a shaped piece of wood sandwiched between

A work of art!