Iz it that we haz new hoodies? Yes, yes it iz

Following on from the sell-out success of our first run of LCEF hoodies, here we have a new addition to the stable in the shape of the super-fly ZIPPED HOODY as modelled here by our impressively steely-eyed and noble model, Homer. We managed to deliver on a few pre-orders that we took during the Courier Appreciation Day but then finally shipped the remaining Hoodies over to Tour de Ville where they hang in anticipation of your viewing pleasure. Courier rates apply so be sure to flash your ‘London Courier Biometric ID Card’ to the helpful salesmen there before making your purchase to make full use of the available discount.

Many thanks indeed to the iron-fisted whipcracker over at HOP for the sterling work in printing them up for us again and thanks also for the sneaky preview of the LCEF sweatshirt soon to be seen modelled on the streets by our very own Papillon.

Get them while you can – they’re really good quality, warm and comfortable and keep the pishing down rain off your head. Sizes up to XL and colours include red, green, grey, black and navy.

 

Appreciation Day – Much Appreciated!

Full thanks to those involved here but a splendid effort all round to those involved and to all those that turned up making this a most excellent and memorable day – yeah man, let’s do it again soon!

 

London Courier Appreciation Day…

… is going to be on Thursday November 26th. Well, they’ve got their own Appreciation Day in America’s famous America so why not here? Let’s be fair, London’s couriers pioneered the popular use of the fixed-wheel bike as an everyday workhorse back in the early 70’s  so why shouldn’t we borrow one of their good ideas back?? (Timeline: 1967 – ‘Buffalo’ Bill Chidley buys the publishing rights to an alternative left-wing cycling-related offshoot of ‘Oz Magazine’ from Felix Dennis. MT is born. 1972 – Bill purchases London’s first prototype ‘fixie-up-my-wheel bike’ from Eric Zo in a pub in Stoke-on-Trent. The ‘fixie’ is born.)

Anyhow, the LCEF weren’t as organised this time around as to manage to formally request a proclamation from the Mayor of London decreeing that this day be officially recognised in the city calendar but maybe this is something that can be looked at for next year? Who knows, it’s not that far-fetched, right?? Boris is a friendly chap after all. But, what we do know is that we want to do something ourselves to celebrate the working life of London’s couriers, without who’s tireless toil the city would no doubt crumble into ashes.

‘X’ marks the spot so keep an eye out for us at Shaftesbury & Bloomsbury where we will hopefully be brightening up people’s days with free hot coffee (courtesy of Leather Lane’s very own Lawrence aka FULLCITY BIKES) along with a selection of home-baked cakes and treats from various courier kitchens. We are also very happy to have Tour de Ville’s  Ross along for the duration who has very kindly offered his services as BIKE DOCTOR for the day and who will be offering free bike health checks and on the spot maintainance for those who need it. Free LCEF goodies, badges and stickers will be given out and of course info about the fund itself will be readily offered to those who are interested. So come along, say hello, hang out and big yourself up, fingers crossed it ain’t raining…

 

We haz new caps iz it not

Yupsk indeed, fresh in on what’s left of that warming mediterranean breeze, a brave new batch of LCEF caps solely for your millinery pleasure. Loads of colours to choose from and with a few fresh additions this time around just coz we can. Caps can be found in the usual places for the usual cursory fee of only £5 from Metro Imaging at 20 Northburgh St, EC1 so go along, say hello to Overdrive and grab one whilst you’re heart’s still beating. You can of course also get hold of one from Jos and co. at  Tour de Ville (along with some t-shirts still we think..) down on Lamb Lane, E8 on London Fields. We also have new partners in Lawrence and Jim down in Leather Lane, EC1 who run FULLCITY, their recently opened coffee-cum-bike workshop along the market there so keep a sharp eye out for their nicely low-key ‘anti-Evans’ operation and grab a cap as you roll on through..

 

Fox-Hunt Alleycat Wows Crowds

In honour of Ben’s relocation to the Big Apple and my re-engagement with intellectual pursuits, we organised a local meet of the first urban bicycle fox-hunt, in the hopes of earning some monies for the LCEF and some glory for the red-suited huntsmen and dastardly Fox. Using a Heath-Robinson style contraption we secured several litres of paint to Ben’s bike with a tap to release it in a small but constant trickle. After assembling the hounds at The Foundry, the fox was released with a blast of horns, leaving a clear line of glistening paint in his wake. The hunters were chomping at the bit, anxious to pursue the quarry, but I held them off for three minutes to ensure a clean run. The scent of blood was in the air, and buoyed up by stirrup cups and fine cigars they were hard to control. After the allotted time a shrill horn-blast sent them shooting off down Gt Eastern Street, scattering all in their wake. Competition was fierce, with some of London’s most hardened gentlemen of bicylosical leisure competing. The pack got the scent and followed it doggedly, across Shoreditch High Street and into the populous environs of Brick Lane. Ahh the blast of horns, the rush of hounds, the trampling of discarded bagels and fag-ends, the elegant leaps of gate and fence, the rush of wind and cries of fear from onlooking peasants. Over moor and railway line led the wily fox, through kissing gates and unmarked paths, before emerging somewhere around Cheshire Street, perhaps. By now the pack were by all accounts in hot pursuit, apart from one wizened old rider who had been thrown and winded by his steed, and who lurked in the general area of the hunt. Then, as the fox neared Brick Lane again disaster! he struck a cab, hit a drain cover, and buckled both his wheels. As he limped slowly back to ground, the crafty Overdrive espied him, popping out from behind a well-placed car and scalping the injured beast. There was little honour in the kill, but this was a race that celebrated craft as well as speed and might. The two skulked home to The Foundry, with the rest of the pack mere seconds behind them. Of these, it was Martin who prevailed, followed by James Brown and Dazzler, and for the rest, much wassailing was had.

by Jon Day aka Jontyponty

 

U-Turned. BBQ Mike takes a spill

 The LCEF received another claim for assistance following an incident in Old Street last week. ‘BBQ’ Mike from Adelaide, Australia, a rider for Quicksilver Couriers and a regular face on the alleycat scene and supporter of the LCEF, came a cropper to a U-turning courier van that knocked him from his bike, breaking five bones in his elbow. Ouch. The driver of the London Legal van what did it, remorseful at his ignorance, kindly drove Mike to the hospital where he was trussed and treated and told he would need ten weeks off work for his injury to heal. That’s quite a spell off. Still, the idea of recuperating on the beach in Australia within shouting distance of your family sounds nice so we’ll expect a postcard. Get well soon, ya’ flaming Galah..

 

AFRICAT! Alleycat – Friday 19th June

The LCEF have joined forces with Charlie Chop and the now widely renound Cities in the Dark crew in the run-up to their epic African educational voyage. Have a peek at their website for some info on how they will be taking some simple and very familiar bike-related technology into the developing Ugandan community to help, aid and educate the people there.

Our contribution, as part of the fundraising efforts in the run-up to the trip is to help organise PART ONE of what will very possibly be London’s first intercontinental Afro-Anglo Alleycat! London hosts the first leg, this will be filmed by Cities in the Dark on the night and footage from the race will form part of the traveling showreel shown on their trip. Nice!

Come along and show your face for this one. It’ll go a long, long way!

 

Come out, come out, wherever you are!

The LCEF is one year old next week so we’re gonna have a bash!

Locally sourced, organic, 100% genuine courier punk bands will be very kindly stepping up and thrashing it out alongside some of London’s London’s most tragically beat-whipped courier dj’s. Expect upfront tunes all night, movie backdrops, brown booze on tap and daiquiris for the ladies… Oh, and lasers.

We want to invite everyone and anyone that helped, encouraged or supported the LCEF over the last year whether it was helping to rep us around town, taking part in events, sporting one of our caps or whatever… Welcome one and all.

Chandra and Matt, the winners of our design competition’s brave new t-shirts will finally be unveiled on the night and we’ll also be showing off new colours from our shortly to arrive from Italy fresh batch of caps for all those who want to get one or update on last years.

Latest news – Anyone turning up on a bike will have the luxury of being able to bring their bike inside the large patio area of The Korsan Bar thereby avoiding the risk of theft from all the millions of marauding gangs of bike theives that constantly patrol the area..

Wookie’s Alleycat with No Name kicks off just after 7:30 so you’ll need your map.

——

In relation to the entire globe, London is a small place. Happily, this means that the LCEF is never really very far away from someone who needs to claim and also that lines of communication are able to be opened up pretty quickly. We use a very simple model that is purposefully transparent and there for all to see.  A year is a long time in politics and it’s been a good twelve months for the LCEF.  We’re pretty stoked to feel that we’ve managed to establish the fund financially. We had a solid catapulting from initial donations and from growing that we’ve been able to make help available to all those that have applied to us.

Since that first very worrying day back in Spring ‘08 when two of our messenger friends Ephraim and Chewy got run over on the same day and spurred the whole thing into being, the LCEF has received 8 further claims for assistance, not all of which have been publicised. We were able to offer help in each case simply through the generosity of everyone that has been involved with the fundraising. On that side of things and by way of letting people know where we are with things, we’ve totted up that we probably paid out less than half what we have in our secure co-operative account right now (if we paid out a couple of bags of sand last year). That being the case there’s no reason in the short term for our not being able to offer help to any London courier injured at work if it is asked for, which is nice.

As always, anyone with any ideas or interest in helping take the LCEF forward get in touch. Big ups again to baddesigner and to Big Daddy Wayne for the slick flyer design. See you at the party!

 

LCEF 1st birthday t-shirt design competition – final results

Yes indeed. All the votes are in and have been duly counted, recounted and triple-checked on the trusty LCEF abacus. We have a winner! Or can we say we have two winners? Yes we can because we can and we do!!
Thanks very much to all those people who showed out to vote. A truly great range of interesting styles and ideas drew in some brilliant support and encouragement for all the designs submitted and it was a close one right till the very end.

A clear winner emerged at the finish though in the shape of Chandra’s rather beautiful ‘guardian angel’ design – well done and thanks very much to Chandra - it’s a real beauty, a lovely concept and a very well deserved winner.

The fight for second place was very hotly contested and very close indeed so having decided that it would be good to choose two designs to print, we took extra special care when counting the votes to find out which of the other designs would go forward. Well done and thank-you also then to Matt (Baddesigner) – another very popular design which will be printed alongside Chandra’s.

But it doesn’t end there! – by popular demand we will be using Kucharz’s super spot-on slogan to go on the back of Matt’s t-shirt. ‘Because you can’t drive!‘ Classic.

Well done and thanks again to everyone who submitted. Details to follow very soon on the LCEF 1st birthday party when the new shirts (and new caps!) will be unleashed but stick Friday April 24th in yr diary. Spare a thought in the meantime for the poor wee hungry child slaves over at the Workhouse of Pistard who have their very good work cut out for them over the next couple of weeks. There’s a buckfast in it for ya.

 

Donkey Derby II raises over £300 for LCEF!

Friday night at The Horseshoe, Clerkenwell and another brilliant night of courier roller racing courtesy of the Rollapaluza crew. Many thanks indeed for another evening of slick fun and games to Caspar, Winston, Eggpie, Gertie, Nhatt, Akeley and Sleepy for showing out in true style and of course thanks also to all those that turned up to race, support and spectate. Extra special thanks goes out to MC Buffalo Bill for hosting with the most with, as ever, always an encouraging word

Congratulations go to Janky James and Nhattattack for the win and to Mary and Roger Ramjet for the runners up spot.

We raised £335! Proper bo. Full results and pics here..