Biketour 2013

So far...

12 people from the Europe wide Biketour Collective met in Berlin in the snow for the annual Winter Meeting. You can read the agenda and a summary of the minutes here...

As you can see from these pages, many things are still up for debate- so if you have some ideas - make your self a login and add them to the relevant pages or contact info@ecotopiabiketour.net.... and remember 'You are the Biketour!!'

So why another Biketour??

1. Because we believe in DIY, slow travel and Doing it Ourselves!
2. Because we have a 23 year legacy of creating incredible experiences / skills sharing / self organising / experiential education ... and we want to do it again!
3. Because we want to use our energy and momentum to further the campaigns that matter to us most
4. Because we want to learn from the existing social and activism projects that are happening all over Europe NOW!
5. Because we want to make things happen - and believe we can do that together
6. Because you know it will be the adventure of 2013!

This Years Theme

THEME

Brainstorm from the recent Winter Meeting:::::

• WHAT; Migrant Struggles; Fortress Europe; physical borders and ownership of space; social; psychological; on and offline borders; the virtual and cultural borders.
• HOW; by having a strong focus(s) on what we can achieve; being sensitive to local border perception.Visiting historical and modern day border struggles and traces.
• Action suggestions raged from joining up with existing actions such as the Berlin Wall / East Side Gallery or refugee protests; creating moc border control points; bespoke passports; comparing policies; finding commonalities and sharing skills and cultures, stories; recording and documenting them as radio / video / blog posts and e-activisim tactics.

Slogan words brainstorm: commons / community / borders, boundaries and beyond / recycling borders / rethink borders / cultural exchange /granica, hranic, Granit, Grenze, granični / mapping, remap borders /reclaim / open (your borders, boundaries) / identities / identify your borders/boundaries / .. of the commons / geh an deine Grenze(n)! / Allmende / iron wheels / limits / crossing / terre / pedal movement / paddle / libre (freedom) / movement (body, social)

We have a consensus about 'Borders, Boundaries and Beyond' as a (broad) theme, but need to focus snappy slogan and focus one one or some of the above suggestions, depending on the projects and campaigns we wish to highlight for 2013.

Topics for Discussions or ad-hoc workshops

• Offline and online life: Why do so few people care about their online behaviour even though they are very stricly supporting alternative ways of living offline?
• Corporate Design: Do we also need this? Or should we as critical and alternative people reject the idea that a neat, sterile, clean and reproducible logo should "brandmark" all our publications and even daily items? Do we limit our ways of artistic expressions by trying to produce recognisable media? What are the general psychological rules behind (corporate) design and why does it play a big role in capitalism?
• ...
• ...

Biketour 2013 is cycling for a slogan!

We are looking for a slogan, preferably something positive and imperative eg "cycling towards degrowth!"

Check out some ideas on the 2013 Slogan page

Route Ideas

This year the tour is likely to

• start in ((north)/northeastern Germany (most likely Berlin, but could also be somewhere at the coast)
• end somewhere in the wide region between the adriatic and the carpathian mountains, between the tatra and northern dinaric alps

This rough decision was taken during the Winter Meeting 2013. During the following month, the route will be concretised in order to have "skeleton".

See the 2013 route page for

• ideas for places to visit, routes, contacts (add yours, too!)
• maps with route ideas and existing 'borders'

2013 Aims

There have been many discussions about Aims & Sub Campaigns that the BT wish to support ...some of thoses can be added here.

Kick-off days

This is likely to be a weekend in the first weeks of july. (to be confirmed)

What can we do during the kick-off days?

• A Radical History Bike tour of the Berlin Wall
• Link up with Bike Surf Berlin [1]
• Bike repair workshop
  • Regenbogenwerkstatt?
• Rocket stove workshop
• Organising Ourselves: BT 2013 structure
• First aid workshop / course? (Red Cross, THW, etc.?)
• Workshop planning
• Action planning
• City Critical Mass
• Coincide with exisiting bike or border event
• Organise a Bike or Border event ...

Keep your proposals coming ......!

Things needed for biketour

Collective Equipment

Biketour as a collective "has" some collective stuff (pans / trailers), which are collectively transported and used during the tour. During the rest of the year, these things are stored in different places and should all come together again by the start of the next tour. Things used in 2012 and planned to use in 2013 can be found on the 2013 Equipment page. Please update this page with the things you have and write how they can get to the starting point of the tour!

Private Stuff

Every individual joining the tour will have to use some private stuff. See page what to bring for ideas about what participants need.

Additional things

The tour lives from its different people and all the (material and immaterial) things that these people bring and share. On the 2013 Equipment page you can announce what kind of additional things you will bring to the tour. This can help us to make sure in advance that we won't find ourselves in the strange situations of having 25 guitars but no single bike pump ;). You can also find some inspirations on what to bring.

Food

Food on the Biketour cannot be bought beforehand for and transported over more than two months. We need to buy things in between. It is always challenging to get food that matches criteria like vegan, local, ecolocical, no-cooling-needed, nutritous and from a production/distribution facility worth supporting. Help us to spot places beforehand on our 2013 Food page!

Media (Films, Books, ...)

Watching films and reading books/(maga)zines/etc. can help us understand certain local histories and backgrounds. Here's 2013 Media Library where you can collect all media that you think is useful for the understanding of the regions we pass through or this years theme. (Or just for sharing your favorite film/book...). It would be great if you could take the media with you that you put on the wiki, but of course someone else can get them, too.

Print Material On the Road

• BT booklet 2013: including schedule, description of places
• small language book
• maps?
• stickers?

check and keep BT_2013_advertising_material updated :D

Propaganda

• Where to publicize it
  • some ideas on last year's page [Biketour 2012]
  • put new ideas here!

Get involved!

See the website's Get Involved Page [2] for common things to help with. If you pick one or come up with something new: Down here is space to organise or share your work with others!

Creative Work

• logo
• graphics
• visualisations
• maps
• 2013 Booklet
• ...?

Translation

We are always looking for translators - if you spreak the local language of any of the places we willl be passing through - please get in touch: info[at]ecotopiabiketour.net or see the 2013 Text that needs translating page.

2013 Funding

We are currently seeking funding towards the 2013 Biketour See the Fundraising page

Local volunteering in Berlin

Possibilities

• 2013 Booklet
• transportation of material
• prepare and help with kick off days
  • historical inputs for Berlin Wall cycle path
  • cook
  • accomodate early arrivers
  • get materials
  • ...
• soli-parties and soli-events
• order, buy and fetch food for the kick-off days and stocks taking on the bike tour (fair coffee, spices, ...)
• ...

Archive of Mailing List Communications

2013 Organization Call-out

2013 Host request

2013 Coordinator Call for 2014

Travel plans and advice

• 2013 individual trips page: Page where people can share their travel information if they would like to

• 2013 regional travel advice page: Page with with (cheap) travel opportunities for different regions