I’m sitting writing this in a municipal campsite in a small town just south of Bayeux in Normandy. It’s a nice camp site, pretty much empty this time of year (September 20), good facilities. Except it’s a little odd, no toilet paper - the local town free paper came in handy there. Also the chair I’m sitting in is screwed to the wall, so I’m basically sitting in the middle of the gents, like a toilet attendant with a laptop on my knee.
So here are some notes and pictures from the first few days of our brilliant little Printing Bike adventure.
If you are new to this. The story is that after many mornings drinking coffee with my friend Robin Mather, we hatched a plan to build a bicycle to carry a small printing press. We would then crowd fund the project and cycle through England, France and Germany to the home of modern printing (well technically moveable type), to Mainz in Germany where Gutenberg invented the thing that changed the world (at least as much as the computerwould five hundred years later) in 1440. On the way printing postcards of work by friends, artists and poets. Simple.
The first day
The last few days before we headed south to Poole and then across on the ferry to France and onto Germany were a blur of weddings (taking photos for a friend), late nights getting bits of work done, celebrating (wedding and getting bike made) and getting ready to leave.
Robin (print bike maker and print bike journey companion) had decided to make himself a touring bike in the time between the printing bike going to the painter and us leaving (under a week). So late nights got later with the final night being a 2am finish. Muriel (Robin’s girlfriend) and my wife Harriet had joined us for the late night session to help prepare the postcard addresses and pack them into little packages to send to the folk on the journey.
We had arranged to meet a few friends at our local coffee shop, Small Street Espresso, at 7.30am before we set off.
By this point though, we had decided to head back to Centrespace to finish loading and packing. Robin, who had finished his (very nice) tourer the night before, had offered to load his bike with the camping and heavier stuff, leaving the printing bike free for the press and type, paper, ink, quoin keys, furniture (no not that type, it’s the little wooden and lead stuff to lock things into the printing chase).
Our friend, James Bowthorpe had made the nice little (not so little) box for the front (to carry paper, ink, blocks etc) and the rack on the back of the printing bike to carry the Adana Press and it had arrived (thanks Hannah) late the day before. So the folding and packing happened and seemed to be fairly straightforward.
Our friend, James Perrott was joining us for the first day as was Muriel. So the four of us rolled off from Centrespace about 12.30, almost immediately my handlebar got an uncontrollable wobble, a bit like a kind of circus bike thing. Resolving this meant moving bits of weight and test short rides along a busy St Nicholas Street. This was an hour of fiddling and adjusting before the bike was balanced enough to head off. By this time Muriel had nipped off to get some sandwiches which we ate in Castle Park (about three hundred yards from Centrespace, and not enough distance to even register on my gps).
It was a beautiful day to set out. And we rolled happily along the Bristol Bath cycle path to Bath (more coffee).
And then made for Frome where we headed to the brilliant Bicycle Academy, set up by Andrew Denham two years ago, and where Robin teaches folk how to make bicycles half of his working time. It has become established as one of the best places in the world already to learn how to make a bicycle frame.
Luckily my cousin Chris, who lives in Frome, was around and happy for Robin and I to sleep on his sofas. He also treated us to a top bit of Italian nosh in a local place. Morning, and my generous cousin bought us a full on breakfast beofre we rolled out of Frome towards Poole.
First day was about 28 miles, which meant a long 58 mile ride from Frome to Poole. Both bikes are extremely heavy (Print Bike takes two to lift), which means a slow heavy ride. The Print Bike though, is lovely to ride, on a flat and downhill you can get a real nice roll and hills, with plenty of gears are good too. We hit a few bigger hills in Dorset and one monster, which involved three recovery stops for me (Robin though chugs up them all, no worries). The first days are real leg testers and it takes those days to tune in to long days on heavily loaded bikes.
Lunch and we met up with our good friends Jilly and Simon from Centrespace (where we both have workshops). We met in Dorset at a little pub about 15 miles from Poole. It was great to see them, both good souls and it was a kind of party like atmosphere eating a picnic by the little stream in the village.
We arrived in Poole, about sixish to meet Simon and Jilly agin, and they had offered to cook supper and were also camping with us that night. By the time we had set up camp and the print bike, we were losing light and the first little print run (of Simon’s alphabet people linocut) it was printing mostly with head torches in a field (not ideal). Anyhow, it was very enjoyable and exciting, though a little testy. We laid the cards to dry in the back of Jilly's car (making a mental note to buy a washing line and pegs for drying cards in France and Germany)
We ate a nice Thai curry (thanks Simon and Jilly) and slept well in the tents for the first time. Robin and I are sharing a tent (saves weight) much to the amusement of the Centrespace folk.
Morning and an early rise to catch the 8.30 ferry, we lined up with all the leather clad bikes to get on the ferry and managed to catch a glimpse of lovely Jilly and Simon on the quayside.
Arriving in Cherbourg at 1pm, we rode into town and ate at a little place before heading off onto French roads for the first time with the bikes. We got only about 29km riding in before setting up camp at our first municipal campsite in a little town in Normandy. I cooked a lentil veggie stew which was could only generously be called a bit average. We were just too knackered to print that night.
Next day, Robin fired up the brilliant coffee using gear from our friends at Full Court Press and coffee from the brilliant Small Street Espresso. The coffee was totally brilliant and felt like a rocket fuelled start to the day. The mistake though was Robin buying a sausage from the little street market in the town (poor bloke suffered all day from that). Still we rolled out of town about ten and got a good 80km ride in during the day to take us very near to Bayeux, which is where we are now.
We got into town about 5.30pm, enough time to set the Print Bike up and print a beautiful lino cut from Jon McNaught. We had set up the newly acquired washing line to dry the prints for a few hours before walking into town to eat. I got a little nervous about leaving the prints to dry with the damp nights, so we layed
the prints out over clothes in the tent before heading to town. By the time we got back they were dry enough to interleave ready for posting in the morning (today). Well we’re already into day five and headed south towards Paris and a meeting with our friends the French anarchist printers, of whom I will tell more later.
Here are some photos from the first few days.
(its 8am now, and I’ve evacuated the Gents toilet and made for the picnic bench outside, the gents toilet isn’t a good place to be working at a laptop at the best of times).

