Cycling Stories: Morag, IAmBikes

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. Morag works at IAmBikes, a cycling charity in Cumbernauld, where she runs the Cycle to the Moon campaign to get more people cycling. See the campaign website to follow their progress.

“I remember my first bike, it was a blue and yellow Raleigh Nippy and I absolutely loved it. I was always falling off and cutting my knees.

“As I got older, my mum managed to get me someone else’s bike, it was passed down and then I didn’t ride again until I was at university. I went to St Andrew’s University and a bike was a good thing to have to get about and to get to my classes. But on my first day out I was knocked off: a guy reversed out of a parking space, didn’t look and knocked me clean off my bike. Then my bike was stolen and I was a student so I couldn’t afford to get another one.

“I didn’t actually get another bike until just after I had my daughter. I’ve got two kids and they were old enough to cycle to school and we worked out that there was a safe route from our house. It’s off the road and is a mile and a half which if I take the car is about five and a half miles, so a really easy, great way to cycle. Last summer was fantastic so the kids were quite happy and they felt the benefits as well. Everyone was chatting about it at school and before we knew it all the bike hoops were full and people were having to strap their bikes to the railings in the school playground. I lost a stone in weight and felt absolutely phenomenally good, so good that that’s why I wanted to get involved with the IAmBikes charity.”

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