(people yelling)
- [Guy] The amount of people that storm the city
on bikes, yeah Bikestormz.
(dramatic music)
- [Narrator] Go on any news website at the moment
in the U.K, and you'll be met
by a number of headlines about the issue
of knife crime among young people.
In 2018, there were 21381 knife
and other offensive weapon offenses reported,
which was the highest level since 2010.
For many young people in the poorest areas
of the U.K, it can be incredibly difficult
to break out of this cycle of violence,
but we're here to talk to some of the people using bikes
to try and combat some of these issues,
reduce that violence, and ultimately,
to help people find the same joy in bikes
that we all have.
- The message of this event is bikes up, knife down.
- Tearing up the streets man,
it's a whole different ball game.
- Every single one of us are trying to be better.
Are we trying to be better, people?
- [Crowd] Yeah!
- [Narrator] We're in East London with Jake O'Neil,
more well-known as Jake100,
who's one of the co-founders of Bikestormz.
Bikestormz are mass bike rides
that see the streets of London overtaken
by thousands of young kids on bikes.
All united both by the love of cycling
and their desire to reduce knife crime where they live.
Jake also happens to be unquestionably one
of the most skilled bike riders you're ever likely
to see.
- So I learned to ride from when I was young,
I just wanted a BMX bike
'cause I thought it was cool.
Ended up doing more and more BMX-ing
alongside playing a lot of football,
like being a footballer was my dream,
but BMX-ing, there's was always a space in my heart
for that.
I ended up injuring myself BMX-ing
which ended my football career,
and then in that recovery period
I found that all I wanted to do was ride my bike,
not play football.
So then when I came back,
I got a mountain bike as part of my physio,
because a BMX was too small,
and that's when I learned to wheelie
and just took it from there.
(electronic music)
so when I started riding, my family,
I didn't really tell them at first,
I didn't really show them too much like,
'cause I sort of knew that if they've never seen it before,
there might be some sort of judgment
or expectation.
As I started riding more and they started to see the level
of riding I was doing
and seeing how much control I actually had on a bike,
they started to understand it a little more,
they accepted it a lot more,
it was like my parents have always been super supportive
from young, so they just took a little bit
of time to understand it and now, they're fully behind it.
If anything, they're kind of confused
that I've ended up where I am
from just pulling wheelies on a bike.
Like it's more than pulling wheelies,
but the basis of it is pulling wheelies.
(electronica music)
- Wherever you are in London,
you're just surrounded by negative things,
and it's so easy to get drawn into negative things
in London.
Like growing up, knife crime was a big problem,
you had to look out,
you had to make sure you weren't getting robbed or whatever.
Growing up in East London, you have to be very street-smart,
and very street-riding.
I ended up drawn into things
and hanging around people I didn't want to hang around
and whatnot.
But riding a bike meant
that I had something to do every Saturday every night,
I had somewhere to go, I had something to practice,
I had something to work on.
Once my mom saw how much good it was doing
for me and how much happier it was making me,
and keeping me out of trouble,
then she got onboard a lot more
and just really supported it.
When you're young, you hear oh someone got stabbed
on the high road or in Leyton or South London,
wherever.
But when it first really hit me
was when my best mate in secondary school,
his older brother was murdered,
and that was the moment where I was like,
it's serious.
It really happens, you know?
Then like, a year or two on from that,
my best mate actually got stabbed as well,
and then another year or two on from that,
my other best friend,
my few best friends have all been victims
of knife crime in some way.
So it's like, seeing that and being around it,
and being close to it, but not being involved,
just made me super passionate and super motivated
to try and steer other kids away from it
and I was able to ride a bike,
and that was my reason for not being as involved
in anything.
So if that worked for me, it can work for anyone.
(dramatic music)
- Are we trying to be better people?
- [Crowd] Yeah!
(man yells into mic)
- [Narrator] This year's Bikestormz started in South Park,
just South of the River Thames.
While everyone was arriving,
one of the other event founders, Mac gave a speech,
letting everyone know why they were there,
and what the aims of the event were.
One particularly cool moment
was when Mac asked everyone riding a C-100 bike
to lift it in the air.
The C-100 is actually Jake's own pro model
of bike, and is the first bike designed specifically
for the type of riding that he does.
- Earlier this year, I also released my signature bike
with Collective Bikes, and that was another big thing
for the scene as well,
because that was the first really mountain bike design
for wheelies.
So it was like, what I've always tried to do
is really try and break through the scene,
get these opportunities and make it.
Because if I get these opportunities,
in due time it just means more and more people
are going to get them.
It's just opening it up to those corporate companies,
and those people that are going to be able to invest
and try and help push the sport basically.
- [Narrator] This year was the eighth edition
of Bikestormz, and it's safe to say,
it was absolutely massive.
(crowd chattering)
(inspirational music)
- [Emcee] Five, four, three, two.
(inspirational music)
- [Narrator] There were genuinely so many people
that it took around ten minutes before everyone
was out of the park and onto their bikes.
The ride then headed West, crossing over Tower Bridge,
and following the North bank of the river,
all the way down to Battersea,
before crossing back over the Thames
to ride all the way back up the South bank,
to South Park.
It's so great to see literally thousands
of young people coming out to ride the bikes.
And the amount of positivity surrounding the event
was properly inspiring.
- Riding a bike kept me out of trouble,
and it just may have opened me up
to new places in life.
- Yeah, riding my bike has definitely helped me
because just when you're riding,
it's hard to explain, you're just free, 'innit?
You just do what you want.
(sad music)
- [Narrator] Although almost all of the interactions we had
at Bikestormz were incredibly positive,
not everyone was completely sold
with how the event is currently being run.
- We have security issues, public safety issues,
the young people have to listen to a team.
So this needs to be more organized,
more coordinated.
At the moment, I don't feel like it's organized.
I know we have a strong police presence,
trying to do their best to coordinate it,
to guide the rules and all that,
to keep it safe, but the young people also need
to listen to the instructions,
because it's good that we are located today in the park,
but we would like them to be aware that they have
to keep the public safe, and themselves also safe,
so this is a problem we're having.
- We've always been respectful to the police
'cause we know that especially back then,
we knew that they didn't like what we were doing,
and they didn't understand it, you know?
Growing up in London, before anything good happens to you,
it takes people a year, two years,
or it takes people a lot of time
before they actually understand who you are
and what you're trying to do.
So I think once we opened up conversations
with them and we invited them along,
we're respectful and we're open to working with them,
they've begun to understand what we're trying to do
and what we're trying to achieve,
and now they're fully behind it and they support it.
- [Narrator] Despite some
of the issues surrounding this part
of our sport at the moment, its potential
for creating some serious positive change cannot
be underestimated.
With thousands of people showing up
for this year's Bikestormz, who knows how big it can be
in the future?
- With this sport I'd see it one, growing bigger,
and bigger, and bigger.
It's already grown so quickly in the years
that it's been about, 'cause we're in the time
of social media, so whatever you do can get shared
to millions of people instantly.
So I think that's why it's grown so quick already.
This sport is different because it's a bit more raw.
It's got a strong meaning to it,
so I feel like everyone going in the same direction
as the other extreme sports,
but it'll definitely be on the same level though.
- It's inevitable man, it's getting bigger and bigger.
So future's here, man.
It's actually coming sooner than we thought,
but it's a good thing, you know?
'Cause you don't want
these kids growing up doing other things,
you rather have them on bikes.
(dramatic music)
- [Narrator] Let us know what you think
of Bikestormz in the comment section down below,
and if you'd like to see more of this sort
of content from us in the future, don't forget
to give it a like, and share it with your friends.
And why not check out another video
where Hank and Ollie tested a cheap bike
and a super bike on their commute?