Bow-nanza ventures out for the first time!

The Bow-nanza bike appeared in public for the first time on Sunday. And we're pleased to report  it went down like a house on fire!!

Sadly the June day was not quite as blazing as we had hoped, but still the crowds were out in Victoria Park where we tested it. 

Peter's mother in law had provided a delicious chickpea and chicken curry which was available from the front of the bike, meanwhile I (Dominic) had got extremely busy in the kitchen with the sumptuous cake selection - Lemon drizzle cake, Brownies & Flapjacks. 

Alister and Hannah from Flight Design (the fantastic metal workers who adapted the bike) were there to lend moral support to Peter as he cycled it over from Hackney Wick and also to finish the cooking of the Brownies off in their handy local oven!

We met some great people and everyone was  very enthusiastic about out our street food bike idea. Can't wait to get out there again!

Grand Opening of the Sightlines Exhibition

A great night last night at the opening of the Sightlines exhibition which was held in the Mayor's Parlour near Bow Church. 

Crystal Bennes and team had done an amazing job of transforming the space with bright colour tapes which led up to the exhibition 


 

The Bow-nanza bike was located outside on the terrace. It was great to see it displaying food finally!! The food was provided by local Bromley by Bow community food group - FoodCycle. Here they are setting it up before the opening. Curry in the pots in the front: 

& great to see the back laden with cakes!!

We're very happy to say the Bow-nanza bike was at the centre of the celebrations after the more formal exhibitions had opened inside. Here it is in full effect!

Some of the Bow-nanza exhibits from the Sightlines exhibition

Here's some of what we exhibited at the Sightlines exhibition yesterday. Apart from the bike we showed 3 A1 panels. The first explained the development of the Bow-nanza concept (described in detail in this blog). The second showed the development of the bike prototype. Here it is:

The third panel shows how the Bow-nanza bike would be used in a cartoon format:

Painting the Prototype Bow-nanza Bike

An intense few days in the run up to the Sightlines exhibition which opens on Thursday 23rd of May!!

First Monday and Tuesday - painting the finished bike outside Flight Design's workshop in Hackney Wick. 

Here's the raw bike prior to decoration beginning on Monday morning:

and here it is by mid Monday morning!

Some relentless precision spray-canning & brush painting work from the amazing Alex! A genius! Perhaps stemming from a well spent youth as a graffiti artist?

Here he is in action and waiting for the final triangle of paint to dry near the end of the decorating process. 

Alex stopped painting for a bit more road-testing of the bike on Tuesday lunchtime. This time the road-test pilot was Jim Blakemore from Bikeworks (who provided the original Babboe cargo bike and have given brilliant advice all the way through):

And here's the finished bike at the end of Tuesday.

Invite for the Sightlines Exhibition

Here's the flier for the Sightlines Exhibition on Thursday. All welcome!!

Bownanza Bike Mach 2!

It's back! The revamped and revitalised Bow-nanza Bike. 

Stripped down to a mere skeleton for now (to make sure we're happy with the shape), but much slimmer and trimmer. Much less top heavy. 

Here's Peter road-testing it outside Flight Design's workshop in Hackney Wick. 












After an understandably cautious start... it flies!!

Road test of the Delivery-Bike-Van prototype. Mach 1

Exciting to get the bike out of the workshop and on to the road today, if only to see that designing vehicles isn't as easy as it looks! 

What seems very plausible on the drawing board, is in fact incredibly heavy and un-manoeuvrable on to the road. 

The bike looked good in the workshop...

...and all seemed well as Jim from Bikeworks set off on the test drive, but then it seemed to take him ages  to turn back the other way. But he managed it eventually.

Then Peter had a go and eventually managed to turn around and come back the other way. But on trying to park the whole upper part started to go and then - in slow motion - completely tipped over! 

Disaster. It could only mean one thing. 

Back to the drawing board

Detailed CAD bike designs

Here's a sneak preview of how we're planning our prototype street food bike. After a lot of toing and froing, we've pared it back to more like a mini delivery van / bike concept. 

The next step is going to see if these designs will really work on our purchased Babboe cargo bike!

Bownanza @ the Feast food festival

A great but very cold day at Feast food festival in Tobacco Dock.

Early March felt completely Siberian! But we were told to thank our lucky stars because last year it was raining and there was no cover. 

We were there with new buddies Kitchenette to launch the concept of our Bownanza 'Meals on Wheels' street food with our brand new 'pre-op' bike. 

We met some great people and most importantly tasted some extremely delicious food.