CultureNL: April 2014

Friday 25 April 2014

Cycling Stories: Gabrielle, Glasgow Women's Library

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.

Gabrielle is the Volunteer Co-ordinator for the Glasgow Women's Library (http://womenslibrary.org.uk). This is a fantastic resource based in the east end of Glasgow and I strongly recommend you check out their website. Many thanks to Irene Laird of the Thursday night Photomedia Studio photography class at Summerlee for taking this photograph.

"I hadn’t cycled since I was a child really, I had given it a wee try briefly a few years ago and I had a scary moment so that had been it.

"But about a year ago my colleague suggested we started a project to get more women into cycling. I love being outdoors and I love being active so I was like ‘oh yeah that sounds good’ and the more I got involved in the more I felt that I ought to get my bike out which is how I started cycling on a regular basis.

"I’m not a manic cyclist but I cycle every day whatever the weather, it’s kind of all or nothing with me. I cycle to work along the Clyde from Partick to Glasgow Green so I can go all the way along the river which is nice, and there’s a cycle path the whole way.

"I hadn’t realised how many people are interested in cycling, it’s like a very special club but not an exclusive one at all because I really want more people to cycle but you certainly find that when you meet another cyclist you always have something in common to talk about. It’s a whole other world of bikes and cycling.

"Thanks to cycling, I feel much more connected to the weather, not always a good thing when the weather’s awful but if it’s a lovely day it just feels wonderful to be outside and I think it’s worth soldiering through the wind and the rain just to have those lovely evenings or mornings when you’re cycling and it’s cold and crisp and sunny. Cycling is at just the right pace for me: I love walking but I couldn’t walk to work as it would take me far too long, whereas cycling gets you somewhere quite fast but not so fast that you miss out on everything either; you do notice things and notice people and you notice the subtle changes in the river’s current, and whether the water’s still or a bitty choppy."

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

Thursday 17 April 2014

Cycling Stories: George, 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. George is Head Mechanic at the Bike Station in Glasgow (www.thebikestation.org.uk/glasgow), where he has worked for the last two years.

“My current bike is a Specialized Rockhopper which I got as a donation. I’ve done a wee bit of work on the bike, just fixing it up. I use it maybe 2 or 3 times a week, just going to the bank, running about, that type of thing.

“I used to work in the printing industry before I came here, advertising that kind of thing. I came to work here purely by chance. I’ve always cycled since I was a kid, I’ve been cycling for 36, 37 year. When I was a wee boy my gran bought me my first bike for £3 at a car boot sale, or the Barras Market and I’ve always had a bike at some point in my life. I’ve always been mechanically minded, I always like to fix them up and take them apart, it’s a general interest I’ve always had.”

Monday 14 April 2014

Cycling Stories: Steven, 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. Steven works at the Bike Station in Glasgow (www.thebikestation.org.uk/glasgow).

“I started at the Bike Station 6 months ago and I had no interest in cycling whatsoever before I came but then the longer I've worked here the more it's sort of grew, the interest and now you could say I have a real passion for it.

“I brought my bike which I recently just got and I built that myself, along with the help of some in here. It's a road bike, an ideal road bike and I love it. I don't ride to work yet, I'm not too confident in the road yet but I ride it every day up to my girlfriend's because it saves time on buses. I used to get the bus but it's a bit of a pain.

“It took quite a while to find a bike that I liked and then one finally came in and it was in a bad condition so I just done it up, put a few new parts on it, tightened everything and degreased it and now everything works fine.”

Friday 4 April 2014

Cycling Stories: Karolis, 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. Karolis works as a Supervisor at the Bike Station in Glasgow (www.thebikestation.org.uk/glasgow), running a workshop of bicycle mechanics.

"Since I moved to the UK 6 years ago – I’ve been cycling since I was a young boy but our cities are quite small so it’s enough to walk there – but when I moved to this country distances were a lot further to walk and public transport takes you too long and a bicycle was a really good answer to all of my problems.

“So, I have got kind of my second first-bicycle after so long of not cycling. I really have quite a few bikes, I think most of the bike mechanics end up with having loads of bikes: you want to have one fast bicycle, you want to have a trail bicycle, you want to have a touring bicycle, it all depends what you want.

"From my side I like knowing my bicycle and putting it together, it just feels a lot nicer to ride a bike which I can say ‘I made it, it’s my bicycle’. Yes, this is how my cycling journey started, simply commuting from work to just around to the shopping and then I started doing some cycling a bit further going maybe out of the city boundaries and doing small touring for the weekends. I haven’t done any long touring yet, it’s on the plan. I still like to have my bike in a corner which is becoming slowly a big beast.

“I don’t see a point of having 5 of the same bike, for the same terrain or same type so I have a few different types: I can just jump off and on a road bike and I would go out of the city and go very fast, go up the hills or get my mountain bike you know, go not so fast but I can go on the rougher terrain and not thinking about any potholes or little bits on the roads, and then I am trying to finish my touring bicycle, which I would like to travel a bit and cycle round Scotland or even go back home where I am from. I am from Lithuania so that would be amazing, I’ve been planning that for a while."

Tuesday 1 April 2014

Cycling Stories: Neil, 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. Neil works at the Bike Station in Glasgow (www.thebikestation.org.uk/glasgow).

“I've been working at the Bike Station since September and been cycling for I don't know, since I was a wee boy. I remember having a bike when I was wee it was a brown Raleigh and it had a drop frame. It was sort of rusty orangy-brown and it had a number 4 on it because I was 4 years old. I remember growing up with that bike and when I got too big for it we asked the neighbours for a tin of spray paint and we sprayed it against my parents' wall. We ended up with a big red outline of a bike on my parents' wall, which got me into a lot of trouble.

“Where I grew up I was fortunate to live next to some woodland so I was cycling round in the woods a lot when I was a wee boy that was in the '90s when mountain bikes were becoming a lot more modern so mountain biking is what I've definitely been growing up doing and that's what I still really enjoy doing. I'm fortunate to be able to work in the outdoors a lot of the time, taking folk mountain biking and stuff like that so mixing my job and also fun has been a great thing to do.

Like a lot of folk here it's the same, we've all got the same passion just riding bikes and things. It's been great so mountain biking's definitely where I'm at, but that's changing.

“I've not been into road cycling much at all but I think now I'd be keen to try that. The opportunity to build up a bike is here to get myself on a road bike and do that so yeah I like bikes of all kinds, I'm changing in that respect just trying new things and stuff you want to do more.

“I've entered the Scottish Cross-Country races. You get a few different types of entry level so I started off in a totally open category. I was doing quite well in that and thought I'm not pushing myself enough you know I was doing... not easily but quite well so I moved up to the next level and that was a lot tougher! I'm wanting to do the cross-country races again this year - I've had a couple of years out of it, I've just had a wee baby as well so I'm keen to get her on a bike already.

“I see bikes as a totally functional thing though, I've got a car so it's great but in a city you can use a bike for anything and you'll be good. I got this bike - one of my old bikes I got gifted and just from all the corrosion and it ended up snapping the frame so I found this little frame and just built it up and it's been great for me.”