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-The Coronavirus pandemic has brought so many changes to our daily lives.
The restrictions we face vary person to person, country to country,
but it affects how we ride our bikes, how we work, even the kind of food
that's available to us.
In among the harrowing statistics and the general anxiety,
there are some positive news stories out there.
Many of them are involving people riding bikes.
We have gotten together three mini-stories to share with you.
The first involves pro-cyclists becoming
the fastest delivery riders in the world.
The second is a charity Bike for Good, based in Scotland.
Then finally, we've got one based right here in my hometown of Bristol,
which we're going to start with because he's actually delivering
my morning coffee. A true hero.
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-My legs are very sore today from sprinting.
It's okay because I'm full of endorphins and about to become full of caffeine.
My name's Kit and this is Lost Horizon Coffee.
I started this last summer. Got this roaster second-hand.
Built this place, finished it about September.
When lockdown started, there was quite
an increase in demand for the letterbox coffee.
I was doing, maybe,
a couple of delivery rounds beforehand which had, maybe,
10 orders in each, but now, like yesterday there was 20 orders.
I can't carry anymore than that. That's a full bag, a full rack.
It feels really nice to actually cater for people
that are having to stay at home and provide a service.
It's really nice to be meeting customers too, from the pavement.
I'll drop the packet, I'll stand back from the pavement
and talk to people from a slight distance.
-Hey, Kit. How's it going?
-[?]. It's good fun riding right now,
in the sense that the roads are super clear.
The air is really clean too.
It makes quite a difference to riding around the city,
and because the air's cleaner, the sky looks just so much more vibrant.
-Like everything, there is a carbon footprint associated with drinking
coffee, from farming to shipping to boiling the kettle.
The general consensus is that one kilo of coffee contributes
11 kilos of carbon.
Kit, however, offsets 22 kilos of carbon for every kilo of Lost Horizon.
Yes, delivering coffee by bike might only be a small contribution to that,
but there are other benefits, like zero emissions contributing
to a more pleasant urban environment.
-This is the roaster. She's called Delores.
I inherited her with that name.
She roasts about one and a half kilos of coffee per batch.
A batch takes about 12 minutes, something like that.
It has taken us a little while to get to know one another
and work out the stuff and nuances of behavior.
I suppose you all want to see the setup. This is my bike.
It's got a steel frame, made in Germany.
We've got Columbus Zona steel.
It means I don't have to be too careful about it but it's still light enough.
It's got a Sugino crank set and a bottom bracket from Japan.
You've got the Phil Wood hubs.
-Impressively, he rides with a broken plastic front basket
held together with some bungees
and I believe the old zip tie. A true hack.
-It's really nice to get to meet people at the moment.
There's just a strange sense of--
Obviously everybody is just separate from each other, they've all
isolated themselves but there's this kind of community
feel that's come with that and people give each other
two meters, three meters on the streets or pass.
There's a sense that we're all
in it together and people are sharing smiles.
It's really nice to see that.
-The next mini story is based a little further north from here.
Bike for Good are a small bike charity based in Glasgow in Scotland
whose mission is to enable people to cycle for transport.
However, during Coronavirus their focus is expanding just a little bit.
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-Bike for Good is a cycling charity and social enterprise based in Glasgow.
Usually, we run two community hubs, each with a shop
and a full community outreach program.
We collect bikes from across Glasgow to stop them from going to landfill
and then our team of mechanics refurbish these bikes
and we sell them on via our shops
so that people have access to an affordable means of transport.
Bike for Good has definitely had to adapt due to the Coronavirus crisis.
The first idea that we had was to provide a delivery service
for essential goods to our vulnerable service users that we work with.
We also are providing free bike loans for key workers.
We've got doctors and nurses and support workers who would usually use
public transport to get to work.
They are now coming to us and borrowing a bike for a fee.
We are also providing one-to-one
doctor bike mechanical sessions via video calls.
-People have been overwhelmingly positive
about us delivering food by bikes.
We've had lots of curious questions about what kind of bikes we're using,
if they're electric, how fast they can go.
People have been really glad that we've been able to deliver to them
and also to be a point of contact for them.
-I'm here outside Glasgow Bike for Good,
and it's pretty sunny today and I'm going to show you the cargo bikes
that we've been using during the COVID crisis to deliver.
First up we have the GSD Tern.
When we are carrying food, we pop them in these pannier bags, which
fit about two really big bags of groceries in them.
Then, with the old box and old inner tube technique, we've got
space for another three or four full bags of shopping.
This is our Bullit. It's made by Larry vs Harry.
It's a really fun bike to ride.
Takes a little while to get used to the handling
with the steering being so far out the front.
We've got the kids carrier on the front, because actually, it's a great
way of carrying loads of shopping.
-One of the more positive stories I've been involved with
has been helping out our volunteer coordinator Yanny.
Yanny is a fantastic baker of bread and with the local bread shortages,
this was a great opportunity for us to help out,
but the only problem was trying to get flour
to Yanny because Yanny doesn't actually own a car.
That's where our trusty cargo bike transported 60 kilograms plus to her.
Now, Yanny's actually baked over 70 loaves of bread for our local
community and I'm just happy that I was able to help out.
-Why do we do what we do?
We're all really keen and passionate cyclists and we've seen the benefits.
We want to change lives through cycling.
-Awesome stuff. Now the fastest bike delivery rider in the world.
Bernie Eisel managed to grab a quick chat with Davide Martinelli of Astana
in between training sessions and supporting his local community
by delivering essentials to vulnerable people.
-Here we have Davide Martinelli.
David, thank you for taking the time for this interview.
How are you at the moment?
You were under lockdown for so many weeks now.
Pretty much since a week you're allowed to train outside, or not?
-Yes, normally the next week, we can train but now we are still in lockdown.
It started to be a bit long.
-I mean, you come from the Lombardy region,
it was hit really hard by the Coronavirus. A small town, Loreto.
How did you get involved in delivering medical kit to the locals?
-Yes through Lombardy,
it was really under Coronavirus and a whole group of people in my
small city, Loreto, it started to be
ready for do something for various people and when I heard it, I was
thinking, "Why not? It can be my moment."
Normally the night before the evening or afternoon I receive all the plans
for the following day.
I know already where I have to go where I have to start
with the first people, if I have to go in pharmacy,
or at the supermarket, so it's all very well organized
so for me it's easy.
-Which bike did you use for it?
-Mountain bike. I use a mountain bike because it's more easy when I have
on the back my backpack and sometimes is full so it's
more easy and more comfortable for me.
-How many kilometres did you do a day? Did you use it as a training?
Did you push on or did you just, at the end, just enjoyed being
outside and to ride your bike?
-No, it's only enjoying because five kilometers.
Sometimes I did also three times for day
but in total is, I don't know, 25, 30 kilometer.
-It must have been really surreal to ride around your region
and no traffic or pretty much no traffic, no people on the road.
Just you and your bike.
-Yes, that's true. That's true because where
I live normally there aren't a lot of cars but now
it's really I can do all the trip, 10 kilometers without cars,
so it's really like during a war. It's unreal.
-What did your family say?
I've read that your dad who's one of the most successful
sports directors in our sport, he said this is bigger than a victory.
-Yes, it's true. When I explained it them, my idea, they was happy.
It was a good moment for do something for my village.
Yes, also my father said, "If you want to do it, you must do it
and I support you for sure 100%."
-Great story, Davide. I'm proud of you and I think many other people too.
Good luck for hopefully a season that starts in autumn.
-I hope. Thank you. Thank you.
-Seriously, go away.
Cheers, folks.
That is good. That is a good brew.
Got to say some huge thank yous, not just to Kit for delivering
my morning coffee but to all of those incredible people out there
that are supporting their local communities at the moment.
Fantastic. Also, I'd love to hear more of these stories as well,
so if you know of anyone who in your local area is doing
something fantastic, whether they're on a bike or not,
then give them a big shout out in the comments section down below.
It could be a small business.
It could be super fast professional cyclist delivery riders.
Whatever it is we want to know, because
how cool would it be if we can keep making videos like this?
Anyway, thank you very much for watching.
I am just going to savor this moment a little longer.