It’s midday in Central London on August 17, 2024, and a 4000-or-so stronghold of young Londoners are wheelying their way from Southwark Park to Battersea Park and back, to the deafening beat of an EDM track that I certainly don’t know the name of.
The bikes, the music, the tricks – and the excitement – are the work of Jake O’Neill, one of the co-founders of the pioneering East London collective Bikestormz. It’s a carnival atmosphere rarely seen in central London — one that’s also making a 33-year-old me wish I’d taken the time to practise riding one-wheeled prior to becoming a dad last year.
Origins and Vision
O’Neill, known on the scene – and to his 330k Instagram followers – as ‘Jake 100’, is a born and bred East Londoner who co-founded Bikestormz alongside Mac Ferrari in 2015. The pair met in North London during the very early days of the UK’s ‘Bikelife’ scene, a term coined to describe the growing trend for like-minded cyclists to ride in groups. They shared a simple – albeit ambitious – vision to provide young Londoners with an alternative to crime and violence.
Now, nearly one decade, ample ride-outs, and an ever-growing number of cycle-mad, trick-savvy attendees later, Bikestormz’s bi-annual events — best described as cycling’s answer to the Notting Hill Carnival — are bigger and more popular than ever. The last event, on August 17th, saw thousands of riders turn out, and it shows no signs of slowing down.
Freedom Through Cycling
O’Neill is clear about why it’s become so successful. “Cycling is complete freedom”, he says. “It’s roaming without a care. It’s riding for as long as you want with no one telling you otherwise. It’s a tool to escape for most of us”.
Clearly that sentiment rings true with the participants. Since its inception, Bikestormz has gone from a handful of mates cruising around the city (usually on one wheel) to a powerful, fully-fledged youth movement.
Each Bikestormz event is more than just a ride-out, though. While the ride is the most highly anticipated happening on the agenda, the whole day comprises food trucks, music, and trick competitions.
Building Community
“For me, Bikestormz is about bringing as many people from our city together under the shared passion of riding bikes and doing wheelies”, O’Neill says. “We saw how positive what we were doing was [back in 2015]. We were becoming friends with people that, if it wasn’t for bikes, we’d have never been friends with. Being from East London there’s no way I would’ve hung out with people from South [London] if it wasn’t for riding bikes”.
Bikestormz, which is considered to be the biggest ride-out of its kind in Europe, is giving young Londoners the feeling that they have the power of the city, even if it’s just for those few moments. “As a kid in the city, all the odds are stacked against you”, says O’Neill.
“You feel helpless, not listened to, and like you have no power in your own city. But what we’re doing gives that back to the people for an hour. Suddenly they aren’t helpless, they are listened to and they have power. It’s a really magical thing”.
Fighting Knife Crime
Crucially, Bikestormz has a mission beyond freedom on two wheels. Since day one the collective has been guided by the mantra ‘Bikes Up, Knives Down’, an important acknowledgement of the knife crime problem that London continues to wrestle with. This year’s Bikestormz event comes after knife crime recorded by the police in London rose to over 15,000 in 2023/24, according to Statista — the highest number reported in the capital since before the pandemic.
Nowadays nearly every Bikestormz rider wears ‘Bikes Up, Knives Down’ merch on each of its ride-outs; gear that during its time has been co-produced alongside supporting brands like Nike, adidas and, most recently, Drake’s Nocta.
“Stabbing has always been a problem here [in London], but we know now that we can bring young people together in a positive manner”, says O’Neill, whose passion for combating knife crime was partially ignited after his best friend’s older brother was stabbed to death. “Now [we want to] take it outside of London. How can we get more young people together in a positive way?”
Growth and Support
“At Bikestormz’s first official ride-out in 2015 there were 200, maybe 300, people”, O’Neill recalls. Now riders come from all over the UK for the biannual event. And while the group’s numbers have soared astronomically, the support the collective receives from the authorities — namely the Metropolitan Police and the council — has also increased ten-fold.
“When we started riding back in the day, all the public were seeing was young people in tracksuits riding bikes around central [London]. When there was no culture and no community behind us, it’s understandable why people would look at us negatively. We never had a problem with it. It was a shame, sure, but it just meant we had to change that perspective. That’s life in London”.
Now both the police and the city council actively support Bikestormz. “We used to get stopped and chased by the police week in, week out. They said we were dealers or thieves – or anything they wanted us to be. Now they’re fully involved. They help us, rather than hinder us. They understand it more. They understand we’re doing this for a reason”.
Future Vision
O’Neill remains ambitious. Following the success of Bikestormz London, he’s dead-set on taking the collective further afield and replicating its setup in other “major European cities”, he tells me. And why not? After all, the premise of Bikestormz is relatively simple: it’s an escape for young people, a place to meet new friends and, for some, an alternative to dipping a toe in crime, a pathway that can feel unavoidable in a city like London.
“When we first started Bikestormz it was just about mates riding together”, O’Neill recalls. “But now, after seeing how much of a positive effect it can have not just on individuals, but on communities as a whole, our goal is to continue to grow and help as many people as possible across the world. Bikestormz really is limitless”.
