Putting the time in...

Pigeon_1

I think it's fair to say that my first attempts at brazing would have fallen short of that of even a pigeon. They were pretty rubbish. 

Since then I've had 6 lessons, and have progressed to the stage of producing mechanically sound yet overly "flowery" joints, failing to "put enough rod in", and forgetting the importance of rhythm no matter how many times I would remind myself before hand. 

Brian's work, however, is immediately identifiable; it's exact, clean, repetitive and instantly fascinating. 

It's important that people realise the level of craftmansip and experience needed to be able to braze to the same level as Brian, after all, Brian is the best there is.

The Bicycle Academy frame building courses will be able to get most anyone to the flowery stage, producing perfectly strong joins that are more than adequate for any bicycle or trailer frame. The primary aim of The Bicycle Academy will be to generate bespoke working bicycles for Africa, so the frame building courses will be designed to teach people how to braze to an appropriate level. But for those of you wanting to work towards a high quality finish, we will offer drop in sessions a couple of times a week, where you can come and practice whilst building more frames for africa, and even embark on your own frame projects should you wish. The drop in sessions will be open to anyone who has completed the frame building course, so you'll already have all the basic skills and know what to do.

I, like most people, am hoping to get as close to emulating Brian's brazing as I can. I know it's going to take some time but that isn't a bad thing as I really enjoy the process.

Gentle Encouragement

"Finally... that's one you can actually be proud of!"

 

Proud

Brian isn't as blunt as he sounds, he's always very encouraging and I never leave a lesson felling anything other than enthused for my next, but he does have a way with words, and likes to keep me grounded. Last lesson Brian decided that I should braze with no supervision, that he'd be better off sat in an armchair in his garden than standing over my shoulder. I tried to play it cool so decided to talk to him as if what I was doing was the most natural thing in the world. Well it didn't pay off; my first few joins were sloppy, I was relaxed but I wasn't focused, and so things got a little messy. Brian happily talked back though, knowing full well what the result would be. After about the 4th attempt he said..

"I don't know about you, but I can't talk and braze at the same time, I'd make a right mess of it."  ... then smiled at me. 

I brazed the join in the photo last of all, after Brian celebrated it's complexity in his usual way;

"...I can see no reason at all... why you aren't capable ...of... completely messing this up."

I decided that I'd try and prove him wrong so stopped talking and got my head down. I blocked out the image of Brian sat in his tatty soft armchair looking into his garage at me trying to look like I knew what I was doing. I pretended he wasn't there. I tried not to think about my shaky hands that have plagued me since starting to braze, I focused upon rhythm and all that Brian had taught me so far about being patient, reading the pool and actively adjusting the flame position and angle. Now it's no work of art but it's the best join that I've brazed so far, and importantly I did it on my own. I can't wait for my lesson this Sunday...

it's the magic number

3p

I've been pretty rubbish at updating this blog, something that will improve as I get to spend even two consectutive moments working on this project. Truth is that although The Bicycle Academy occupies my mind most of every day, I currently have a 9-5 and run two other projects ( P3 The Black Canon Collective and P4 The Cobble Wobble ) both of which are very dear to me and need most of my tme outside of work. But that's cool, it's these three projects that make me tick, and no matter how excited I am about The Bicycle Academy right now I want to not only keep the other two going strong, but to grow them further.

P5* (The Bicycle Academy) is at that stage where it's so exciting and so new that I'm scared by it, scared that I'll brake it or fail to make it into what it is capable of becoming. It's the same with any project that I care about though, and is perfectly healthy. I think once I get over this phase of nervous fear you'll see some real progress and bofore long will be able to get involved too.

I'm not creating this as a fad or for the sake of it, I'm creating it because I really beleive in it and feel that it could be something amazing... it's just that by saying that out loud so that other people hear, well that puts the pressure on.

I've never set up a company before, don't really know anything about Social Enterprises, am a Crowd Funding virgin and still don't have a workshop space...oh and I've never built a bicycle frame before. I'm not sure that these things matter though, because I'm going to give The Bicycle Academy all that I can, and will do my very best to make it work.

I've taken 11 days holdiday to focus on riding and also so that I can work on this project uninterupted for a few days consecutively, to get into the stuff that needs more than I can give at the moment. I'm pretty excited. Think I'm getting over my fear, hell I've written 3 blog posts tonight!

So please bare with me, I'm almost there...

*P1 and P2 are no longer active, but they were fun and are looked back upon fondly. 

intermewebber

Www

I've just started the website build, now I say "I" but in truth its entire build and construction will be down to David Evans from Espace Solutions . 

It's early days, but we scribbled some stuff down and got a feel for the type of thing I'd like, at least I hope so anyway. I'm pretty sure that my requests were about as broad and vague as they could have been. I guess the website hasn't formed in my head yet, so a bit of pixel scrap book making is in order...

I'm really lucky that David has offered to help with this, but he seemed very keen to be involved if a little worse for ware once I'd stuffed him with chilli and wine.

Check out David's blog here: http://highwaycyclinggroup.wordpress.com/

1.5 x 1.5 = more than enough

That's right, what could possibly be bad about having a pitch at the awesome Bespoked Bristol ?? Well the answer is nothing.

No matter how small our pitch is it's going to be ace to be at the event at all, and will be a great way to let people know about what we're doing and how to get involved.

Bespoked-bristol

It's exciting to see The Bicycle Academy displayed on their website, brings an added sense of reality to the project and a welcome deadline.