The main aim of the ‘Pimp My Bike’ project was to get young people off the streets, doing something they have an interest in doing. The title of the project instantly relates to young people given the popular MTV programme ‘Pimp my Ride’.
The bikes are first looked at by the bike mechanic who checks them for safety and discus’s any issues with the young person. This was an opportunity for the young people to learn about their bikes, and how to take them to pieces so they were ready to be ‘pimped’.
They then work with the graffiti artists to come up with designs and colour schemes, learning various techniques on how to spray, stencil and accessorise their bikes. They then put their bikes back together and the bike mechanic checks that everything was mechanically sound.
The finished product was a bike that the young person had designed and worked on themselves.