I Bike MCR Festival

I Bike MCR is a grass­roots fes­ti­val organ­ised vol­un­tar­i­ly by a group of cyclists in Man­ches­ter, UK that want to pro­mote cycling and bike relat­ed activ­i­ties no mat­ter how crazy they seem, such as Bicy­cle Polo.

They aim to pro­mote cycling in Man­ches­ter and also intro­duce new bike sports and events to cyclists and to share our skills and expe­ri­ences with cyclists that might not have had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to try some­thing before e.g. bicy­cle polo or all­ey­cat rac­ing.

–Fri­day 4th April–
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=10032456724
Mid­night Ride to Form­by

Sun­rise swim. Meet at The Sand­bar at Quar­ter to Mid­night to ride. Bring good lights, food, tow­el, swim­ming stuff, warm clothes, bike etc.

It’s about 40 miles and as its a night ride we’ll take to the road which we should have more or less to our­selves. A few stop offs for some light refresh­ment is like­ly.

“An adven­ture by moon­light. We’ll ride tho­rugh most­ly traf­fic free coun­try lanes, set­tling into groups to ride with peo­ple going at a sim­i­lar pace. Stop­ping off now and again for a swig of some­thing to warm us up. Fly­ing through lit­tle vil­lages, past dark fields, under a blan­ket of stars and a black sky dot­ted with bats…we’ll feel tired and won­der why we’re not in our beds at times and we’ll nev­er get that nights sleep back. But it’ll be worth it. And as we ride into the sun­rise and towards the shore of Form­by where our cheer­lead­ers, the red squir­rels, will meet us..we’ll be glad we did it….even if it rains the whole way!!!”

–Sat­ur­day 5th April–
Bicy­cle Polo class
1pm Platt Fields Park

The MCR Dropouts bicy­cle polo team will teach you how to play the sport and help you get a team togeth­er for the tour­na­ment.

–Sun­day 6th April–
1pm The Pankhurst Cen­tre
Ladies Day
Clit­i­cal Mass Ladies Bike ride to Reclaim the roads and feel con­fi­dent by rid­ing togeth­er (and to socialise!)…with a talk about the his­to­ry of cycling and women and a ladies only bike main­te­nance class.

–Fri­day 11th April–
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=22597226472
Hell Of the North West III
A fast ride around our city. Get to the check­points get back.
Alley Kit­ten Race- As above but on kids bikes or shop­pers!
To par­tic­i­pate in this event please reg­is­ter ASAP by email­ing cantgoslo@gmail.com

Fol­lowed by par­ty at The Sand­bar, every­one wel­come (whether par­tic­i­pat­ing in the alley cat/kitten or not). With DJs and a chance to hang out/socialise with MCR bike
com­mu­ni­ty.

–Sat­ur­day 12th April–
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=12227197436
2pm Bicy­cle Art Parade
Meet at Cathe­dral Gar­dens next to Vic­to­ria sta­tion on Sat­ur­day 12th April at 2pm for a nice pic­nic in the park and to admire each oth­ers fan­ci­ly dec­o­rat­ed steeds and
rid­ers (bring some nice pic­nic food and drink)..also if you don’t get chance to bling your bike before you come, there will be oppor­tu­ni­ty and mate­ri­als to do it there…

Also there as part of the Autonomous Spaces Event will be Folk bands, a soundsys­tem, mag­ic tricks, street the­atre and art ses­sion! then we shall ride around the city show­ing off how great our blinged-up bikes look..

–Sun­day 13th April–
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=9591312073
Beer Ride
Meet at Noon at Cathe­dral Gar­dens, next to Vic­to­ria train sta­tion for a ride into the peaks with a few stops at some nice coun­try pubs.

We won’t be cycling uber fast but it is quite a dis­tance (obvi­ous­ly peo­ple can drop off when­ev­er they like). We will give every­one points to cycle to togeth­er and so
the faster ones get to the pubs first and wait for the oth­ers (which might slow them down on the next leg!)

Be pre­pared to ride about 30–40 miles at a steady pace. We hope to be back in MCR by the evening.

–Sat­ur­day 19th April–
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=22520893208
Yo Fix­ie III
2pm out­side The Sand­bar

An event for fixed gear rid­ers. With comps inc: Track Stand, Track Skid, Sprint and more.

To par­tic­i­pate in this event please reg­is­ter ASAP by email­ing cantgoslo@gmail.com

The Sand­bar have very kind­ly agreed to putting on an amaz­ing “street par­ty” type thing at the back of the bar, with a dj and out­door bar, dur­ing the Yo Fix­ie event so even if you haven’t got a fixed wheel bike you can come down and watch the oth­ers and socialise with oth­er bike lovers.

–Sun­day 20th April–
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=9971607739
Bicy­cle Polo Tour­na­ment
1pm Platt Fields Park

Teams from around the UK com­pete to win the I Bike MCR Polo Tour­na­ment with a game of bicy­cle tag at half time that’s open to every­one to join in…so whether you’re a polo play­er or not come down with your bike and have a go..

ace prizes to be won!!

If you want to play with your team REGISTER ASAP at info@ibikemcr.org.uk

If you want to start your own team to play in the tour­na­ment but want some tips come to prac­tise on Sat­ur­day 5th April, Bicy­cle Polo class, 1pm Platt Fields Park

–Fri­day 25th April–
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=14320240405
Crit­i­cal Mass Bike ride
6pm Cen­tral Library

Fol­lowed by End of I Bike MCR Fes­ti­val Par­ty
(every­one invit­ed!!!):
8pm — 2am Aqua Bar, Albion Street, MCR
With…
Bands: Cash for Your Sto­ries, The Autono­mads, The Kirkz and Hail Brethren
DJ’s from Pick Your Own and Long­shot play Dub, reg­gae, ska, dub­step, dis­co etc
AND the Rol­la­paluza guys roll up to put on a Roller Race!!!

Roller Race- The final heats will be amaz­ing short races after com­peti­tors have set their qual­i­fy­ing times. “It’s a dra­ma – the grit­ting of teeth and twist­ing of faces,
as rid­ers give every­thing in those 20-some­thing sec­onds of each race. Only opera could por­tray the inten­si­ty and dra­ma.” (Therese Bjorn, www.londonmessengers.org)

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I Bike MCR Fes­ti­val from Fri­day 28th March to Fri­day 25th April 2008
Email: info@ibikemcr.org.uk
Web: http://www.ibikemcr.org.uk/festival.htm