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Last Friday evening Dawes Cycles’ products were seen by 27million UK consumers.
Dawes achieved the coup by supplying 85 of its bikes to London 2012’s Olympic Opening Ceremony.
The bikes were ridden into the stadium to the sound of the Arctic Monkeys performing The Beatles’ Come Together’. Each rider was dressed as a white dove in a costume that included special fittings that attached the handlebars to their wings. As the rider gently rocked to and fro their wings would steadily beat as they rode around the stadium.
The Discovery 101 and 201 models were requested by Paul Gage and Phil Magnus from The Bicycle Maintenance Company in Muswell Hill. Having been shipped to London in May to their mechanic Nick Bloom who was working on the set of the opening ceremony for LOCOG, the bikes and parts were painted black so they would be virtually invisible in the darkness beneath the illuminated doves.
The lead bikes were fitted with a cycle computer so they maintained an even pace of 9mph as they circled the stadium in opposite directions with other riders keeping a safe bike lengths gap between each other.
The only other significant modification was to add a rear mudguard to prevent the dove’s tail feathers touching the rear wheel.
The choreography was put together by a creative team that included former BMX rider Bob Haro who featured as a stunt rider in Steven Spielberg’s movie E.T. The Extra Terrestrial and Toby Sedgwick the award winning choreographer from the stage show War Horse.
Dawes Cycles has been working with LOCOG in recent months as their parent company Tandem Group became official licensee for two wheel product for the 2012 London Olympic Games.
Dawes have a range of junior and adult road bikes emblazoned with Team GB decals for those new to cycling that want to emulate their heroes like Bradley Wiggin’s and road race silver medalist Lizzie Armistead.
There’s more on the bikes in this Telegraph article. You can watch the whole ceremony here (skip to 3 hours four minutes in to see the bikes in action).
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