Cycling Stories: Richard, Glasgow Bike Station

Ahead of the opening of cycling exhibition 'The Perfect Machine' at Summerlee Museum in July 2014 we are profiling cyclists from around Lanarkshire and Glasgow. Richard works at the Bike Station in Glasgow (www.thebikestation.org.uk/glasgow).

“I’ve been working at the Bike Station now for 3 years. I previously worked in another Glasgow bike shop and it’s always a little bit different than your conventional bike shop as far as the recycling element. I’m not just working in a shop basically.

“As long as I can remember I have been interested in cycling. I guess at some point my interest did go from just being a young boy into bikes to having a serious professional interest in it and that’s when I started working in bike shops. I do like the general cycling culture and the ethos that goes with it, I am into for want of a better word upcycling as well as general bikes so matching my interest in recycling to bikes has been great.

“This is a pretty unique bike I guess. It's actually originally a cycle speedway frame but I have rebuilt it as a town bike so it's not my number one bike by any means. It's the bike that I normally leave outside pubs and leave lying around, it's not super expensive but I guess it's quite unique because it uses a coaster brake so aesthetically it looks quite minimal. It's probably not for everybody to be honest! It's single speed as well which is in my opinion all you really need for town but I've got a relatively short commute so I don't need a bike with a range of gears. It's the only bike I have mudguards on because mudguards do look rubbish normally. It started off as a cheap, throw-together bike but it's hard to make a bike that I don't really like to be honest.”

If you would like to be featured in 'Cycling Stories' please contact Justin Parkes, Industrial History Curator on 01236 856376; ParkesJ@culturenl.co.uk

'The Perfect Machine', Summerlee Museum of Scottish Industrial Life, Coatbridge
5 July to 14 September 2014

Cycling Stories: Caroline, Glasgow Bike Station

Ahead of the opening of cycling exhibition 'The Perfect Machine' at Summerlee Museum in July 2014 we are profiling cyclists from around Lanarkshire and Glasgow. Caroline works at the Bike Station in Glasgow (www.thebikestation.org.uk/glasgow).

“I am a Travel Choice Adviser for the 'Better Way to Work' project which is a sustainable travel project. We work with businesses and organisations to encourage people to take other means to get to and from work other than the car, reducing single-occupancy car use.


“From a young age I was interested in cycling. There were always road bikes kicking around whether it was my mum’s childhood bike or my brothers they had BMXs. My first bike I probably got when I was 5 and I used to just cycle up and down the street, back and forth (we lived in a cul-de-sac). I must have driven people crazy, I was literally just going up and down the street. I always remember going cycling with my dad and it would always just be me and my dad. I’ve got two older brothers but they didn’t cycle and they still don’t, they’re not interested in cycling at all so I guess maybe that’s why I liked it so much because my dad really liked it too so that’s probably why I got into it."

If you would like to be featured in 'Cycling Stories' please contact Justin Parkes, Industrial History Curator on 01236 856376; ParkesJ@culturenl.co.uk

'The Perfect Machine', Summerlee Museum of Scottish Industrial Life, Coatbridge
5 July to 14 September 2014

We're back in business - Airdrie Town Hall cinema reopening for Easter!

After the success of our cinema programme at the Town Hall during last May Bank Holiday weekend and the summer holidays, we're delighted to announce that we'll be firing up the ol' screen in the Lesser Hall and bringing you 2 new flicks at cheap and cheerful prices over the Easter break!

We can exclusively announce...

The Muppets Most Wanted (PG)
Monday 7th April - Monday 21st April
11am and 2pm Disneys 'Muppets Most Wanted' takes the entire Muppets gang on a global tour, selling out grand theatres in some of Europe's most exciting destinations, including Berlin, Madrid and London. But mayhem follows the Muppets overseas, as they find themselves unwittingly entangled in an international crime caper headed by Constantine-the World's Number One Criminal and a dead ringer for Kermit and his dastardly sidekick Dominic, aka Number Two, portrayed by Ricky Gervais. The film stars Tina Fey as Nadya, a feisty prison guard, and Ty Burrell as Interpol agent Jean Napoleon.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (12A)
Monday 7th April - Monday 21st April
7pm After the cataclysmic events in New York with The Avengers, Marvel's "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" finds Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, living quietly in Washington, D.C. and trying to adjust to the modern world. But when a S.H.I.E.L.D. colleague comes under attack, Steve becomes embroiled in a web of intrigue that threatens to put the world at risk. Joining forces with the Black Widow, Captain America struggles to expose the ever-widening conspiracy while fighting off professional assassins sent to silence him at every turn. When the full scope of the villainous plot is revealed, Captain America and the Black Widow enlist the help of a new ally, the Falcon. However, they soon find themselves up against an unexpected and formidable enemy - the Winter Soldier.

TICKET PRICES WILL BE AS FOLLOWS: £5 adult
£3.50 child/concession/senior citizens/Kidz Kard/Passport to Leisure
£10 family ticket (1ad, 2 children) £18.00 supersaver (2 ads, 3 children).

We'll also be selling our usual repertoire of snacks and goodies alongside some new additions! Sweet, salted and toffee popcorn will be available to buy for £1.80! We also have kids (and grown-ups') favourites... tubs of candy floss for £1.95, Hot Dogs for £1.50, ice-cream tubs at £1.70 plus a selection of snacks and drinks.

COMING SOON TO AIRDRIE TOWN HALL... 

Tickets will be available from 01698 403120 and www.northlanarkshire.gov.uk/entertainment - keep an eye on our Facebook and Twitter page for details of their going on sale!

Cycling Stories: Victoria, Glasgow Bike Station

Ahead of the opening of cycling exhibition 'The Perfect Machine' at Summerlee Museum in July 2014 we are profiling cyclists from around Lanarkshire and Glasgow.

Victoria Leiper manages the 'Better Way to Work' campaign for the Glasgow Bike Station and is the founder of the 'Belles on Bikes' women's cycling group.

“About 2 years ago now I was working for the Cycle Touring Club (CTC) and setting up cycle projects for young people across Glasgow. There was a project called Bike Club and I found that there were almost no girls were coming along to the sessions. I thought well wouldn’t it be great if we could do something which was aimed specifically at girls? There would maybe be one or two girls and they would be either out of their depth or alienated by the environment and then they would never come back again. So we set up some sessions that were specifically aimed at building confidence for girls to ride bikes and then that kind of evolved and I got calls from adults looking for some more sessions and my colleague and I decided well let’s get some funding and start up a ladies’ cycling group, like a leisure kind of a social group.

"We were successful, we received some funding from Cycling Scotland and so we set up Belles on Bikes. It was focused specifically on women and girls, any age really and we trained women volunteers as cycle trainers so that they could deliver sessions themselves. It has evolved with me, I left that job but I still wanted to be involved and still run the group but just as a volunteer and now 2 years later we’ve got over 250 members and a whole programme of sessions that we run across the city. We do trips away, we do events aimed at encouraging even more women to come along and we do beginners’ training sessions and we do rides that are like 100 miles long so there is something for everyone.

“There’s a sad story behind my bike: I was knocked off my old bike last December. It was one of the first bikes I bought, through the Cycle to Work scheme a few jobs ago and I loved it, it was a single speed bike that was just great for commuting and I had cyclocross tyres on it so I could ride along the canal or on any kind of surface. I loved it so much but unfortunately it was damaged after I was hit by a taxi in Garscube Road, it was awful. I was fine though just the bike was a bit damaged. After that I could probably have fixed the bike but it was written off by the bike shop and I never felt the same being on it. So, I got some money from the taxi’s insurance company and it wasn’t a huge amount but it was enough to build this bike, so I built it myself. The frame was a donation and pretty much everything on it is as it was, I just changed it to a single speed hub and I changed the bars and got this nice Brooks saddle also from the Bike Station and I love it, it’s better than the bike I had to say goodbye to. So it was a good thing that came out of a bad experience."

If you would like to be featured in 'Cycling Stories' please contact Justin Parkes, Industrial History Curator on 01236 856376; ParkesJ@culturenl.co.uk

'The Perfect Machine', Summerlee Museum of Scottish Industrial Life, Coatbridge
5 July to 14 September 2014

Cycling Stories: Robbie, Glasgow Bike Station

Ahead of the opening of cycling exhibition 'The Perfect Machine' at Summerlee Museum in July 2014 we are profiling cyclists from around Lanarkshire and Glasgow. Robbie works at the Bike Station in Glasgow (www.thebikestation.org.uk/glasgow).

“I've always been keen on cycling since I was a wee boy. I lived in East Kilbride when I was a kid right beside the countryside. Unfortunately the countryside is all houses now as you can imagine but I used to go out with my friends and we would get sandwiches in the morning and head off to the hills and cycle maybe down to Glasgow or whatever, we had so much freedom when I was a kid.

“I had a wee kick-about bike which we used to set up jumps and, an early form of BMX I suppose. We used to set up courses in the woods, that kind of thing.

“I worked for Careers Scotland for quite a long time, probably 15 years and they had a big reorganisation and there were some redundancy packages and I took one of the packages and I did some voluntary work with Sustrans and I'd also helped out in my kid's school teaching Bikeability. There was an opportunity to go on a cycle training course through another organisation and they paid for the training. So I did the training and just really quite got into it and then this job came up when the Bike Station was based in the Barras and I was lucky enough to get it. That was 2 years ago so it was quite a change of direction for me but it's really been an amazing sort of journey this place expanding from a tiny kind of a market stall in the Barras.

“I've not been out as much as I would like. I usually go out on a Sunday, 2 or 3 of us from here go out to the Campsies, or sometimes go up to Aberfoyle and cycle round Loch Katrine and places like that which is great but just because of the weather and one thing and another I haven't been out so much this winter but now the light nights are coming along hopefully I will get out during the week and with some friends as well. Mostly it's road cycling I do but I've been on the Velodrome. Just recently I just got my accreditations for the Velodrome and it's been good fun you know, I can't hope to compete or anything like that. It's kind of terrifying the fitness of some of the people but, I wasn't last so that's something. So yeah I think I'll go up there, it's good fun.”

If you would like to be featured in 'Cycling Stories' please contact Justin Parkes, Industrial History Curator on 01236 856376; ParkesJ@culturenl.co.uk

'The Perfect Machine', Summerlee Museum of Scottish Industrial Life, Coatbridge

5 July to 14 September 2014