A Beautiful Machine hits Bristol

Drop everything and head west!* Tommorow night sees the opening of a two week long celebration of the bicycle. “A Beautiful Machine” runs from the 26th of March to 9th of April above the Howies store in Bristol and features over 50 artists from around the world, 15 incredible speakers (including us, so make that 13) spread over five evenings of talks. There will also be bicycle treasure hunt, what's promised to be a rather special bicycle auction. Oh and a Critical Mass.

All the artwork at the show will be auctioned and entry to the talks costs £5 a pop with proceeds going to Save the Children's Haiti appeal. 

Talks take place on the Tuesday and Friday evenings with three speakers giving their all for 30 minutes max  (we'll be tag teaming it ) and there will be Q&A sessions at the end. They start at 6.30pm and tickets are limited to 50 per evening. The art exhibition is open every day 9.30 - 6PM Monday to Saturday and 11AM to 5PM on Sundays.

If you want to come along and hear us talk about road.cc we'll be doing our thing on 2 April – that's Good Friday, there is every chance that we will be updating the site live from the show what with the internet never sleeping and all.

Speakers tomorrow night are Sue Lycett of Save the Children, Tim March – skid, wheelie and table top expert and general BMX legend, and Amy Fleuriot – the driving force behind female fashion brand Cyclodelic.

On the 30th it's the turn of Laura Fletcher head producer of the London Bicycle Film Festival; Poppy Smith, art editor of Cooler an action sports magazine for women; and Dr Lowenna Smith, bike racer, physicist, and Cycling Plus product tester.

Then on the 2nd of April you get us, plus Ben Hillsdon who's going to spill all on Bristol's Cycling City project; and Gavin Strange the man behind Böikzmöind the upcoming film about Bristol's fixed scene and much more besides.

On the 6th it's John Stevenson founder member of the Yorkshire Mountain Bike club and a man with knack for being in at the start of big moments in cycling; Nick Hand whose Slowcoast ride took him around the Britain's coastline meeting artists and craftspeople; and James Fairbank of clothing brand Carhartt.

Finally on the 9th of April belt-driven round the world cycling record setter James Bowthorpe will be talking records and spinning some too, he'll be accompanied by Rapha designer, Graeme Raeburn (we're guessing talking rather than taking a turn on the decks, but you never know); plus Rob Lee of Syncros Endurance.

Within the show there will be two 'walls of bikes' that are purely set aside to photographs of the bicycles belonging to all those involved… um, I might have to clean my chain before I send any pics in. “We all know that we can spend hours looking at these wonderful machines but even more interesting is finding out what each of us ride! We'll also be encouraging everyone coming to the show to add to this with their two wheeled wonders,” says John.

To find out more about A Beautiful Machine check out the event blog which also includes a full list of all the artists taking part at www.abeautifulmachine.co.uk  you can also follow its progress on Twitter too at www.twitter.com/abm_event

A Beautiful Machine has been put together by John McFaul a man who, according to the event press release, “stands among the pioneers of contemporary design, exploring new avenues and tearing down barriers”. Scarily that's true. And when not tearing up and down new avenues and destroying metaphorical street furniture he rides his bike and is a contributor and tester on road.cc.

* Unless you're starting out from west of Bristol in which case… head east!