A bike event, where young people gather for a ride around the city in protest against knife crime, attracted thousands to Southwark Park earlier this month.
Bikestormz is a movement that started in 2014 to raise awareness about youth violence with the message ‘bikes up, knives down.’
Co-founder Jake O’Neill, better known by his online persona Jake100, said he’s been riding wheelies for ten years in London.
He said the idea behind the movement is that if kids concentrate on riding their bikes and learning wheelies – they will have something positive to engage with and better themselves as part of a community.
“Personally, growing up in London – knife crime is never far away,” Jake told us.
“My best mates have been stabbed. For me, riding a bike gave me something to focus on. It kept me away from the local area, so I avoided that lifestyle.”
The first event started near Tower Bridge around seven years ago and attracted 200 people.
“But it got so big that [Southwark Council] advised us to move to Southwark Park.”
Now they work with the council and the Met police to host the annual event, which involves meeting at the park and then riding together in protest against knife crime around the city.
Two thousand people turned up at this year’s event, on Saturday, August 19, including people from around the world.
“We had one rider from Colombia, another from New York – everyone promotes it on their social media.”
Jake said it was much bigger before covid and they are building it up again: “We’re planning to hold more mini-events throughout the year, raising money for a workshop that helps kids learn how to fix their bikes, to avoid having to fork out to buy a new one.”
Local senior citizen Sheila Taylor, who lives in Bermondsey, said for the last few years, she’s attended the event.
“I do ride a bike – but I don’t do wheelies,” she joked.
She said although the event is popular, it hasn’t always had the best reception from locals: “Talking to people in previous years, the reaction can be negative. I could understand it because what they’re doing looks dangerous. They look as if they might fall off.”
However, Sheila said when she did go down this year and last year, she was ‘very impressed.’
“The kids are all so happy,” she said, “I was chatting to them and it wasn’t scary at all. The atmosphere was great.”
She said she understands the message behind why they’re doing it. “If they’re practising their wheelies on bikes – they have something to think about and work on.”
Sheila added that the only danger comes with a few individuals not participating in the event allegedly stealing people’s phones.
As one of the organisers, Jake said they know about this and have rules at the events to prevent any trouble.
“The council and the police are very aware that the boys on bikes that are committing the crimes – they are always masked up. So we have a no balaclavas rule. Anyone wearing one is not allowed to take part in the event.”
He added: “Realistically, it is a hot summer’s day so if you’re wearing a balaclava you’re doing it for a reason. We don’t want any of that.”