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