CultureNL

Tuesday, 27 May 2014

Cycling Stories: Rosemary, Cumbernauld

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. Rosemary was a customer I met at IAmBikes, a cycling charity in Cumbernauld. Many thanks to Morag Prach for introducing us.

“I wouldn’t say that I am a keen cyclist now that I have had a family, more for them now. We’ve started taking the children out and about on bikes and taking a trailer for the wee one and cycling as a family more than anything.

“I enjoy it, it’s nice to get them out in the fresh air and get exercise as well and see some of Scotland, not too far afield because they are only young. We go along the canals and sometimes to parks and so on, not too far for them yet.

“I don’t cycle to work. I would like to in the future when the girls are a bit older. I live in Cumbernauld and work in Kilsyth so it’s not too far to go. I’m a bit nervous going on the roads so I would like to take my time with that because there are cycle paths in some areas but not in others.

“We got my bike from IAmBikes and two of my daughters’ bikes as well. I think it’s absolutely great, I really do. I think it’s a wonderful thing and I keep telling everybody about it. More as well to save money when a lot of my friends have more than one child. They are all growing and they are not in one bike for very long.”

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

Wednesday, 21 May 2014

Cycling Stories: Shamus, 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. Shamus is co-founder of IAmBikes, a cycling charity in Cumbernauld.

"I have been cycling on and off for 25 plus years now. Years ago I used to do a bit more road cycling but now is much more focused around cycling with the children. I don’t go on the roads because the roads are quite a hazard but there are certainly good routes you can find and figure out yourself to get from A to B.

"I like the freedom of cycling. I got my first bike when I was nine or ten when I lived in Ireland it was a red 5 speed Raleigh road bike, this was back in about 1978. We were about three to five miles away from the nearest school so of course the only mode of transport was a bicycle which I used every day, day in day out in all weathers to get to school and back."

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, 15 May 2014

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

Saturday, 10 May 2014

Cycling Stories: Katherine, 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.

Katherine volunteers with the Glasgow Women's Library (http://womenslibrary.org.uk) in Bridgeton. Many thanks to Kyle Ferguson of the Thursday night Photomedia Studio photography class at Summerlee for taking this photograph.

"I’ve had this bike for three years and it’s really like my faithful friend because I use it both for day to day purposes, I don’t drive, I don’t have a car so I use it to get to uni I use it to get just anywhere I need to go in the city but I also use it to go on holiday quite often go touring. My mother’s really into cycling as well so we’re kind of working our way round the islands so we’ve been to Isla, Jura and Mull and obviously all of the sort of like Rothsay, Bute and stuff like that so we’re kind of edging upwards and we’ve always had amazing luck with the weather, like imagine on a bike in the summer it’s just paradise. I took it to Shetland as well, one of my pals got married in Shetland and me and another girl went round and stayed in all these different sort of bothies and stuff and it’s just the best way of seeing a country, you know it’s just great like, I just love it.

"It’s like freedom you know and that’s what I like about bikes, it’s just pure freedom. You’re not constrained by bus timetables or traffic jams or anybody else’s schedule you can just go wherever you want at the speed you want. If you see something amazing you can stop and hang about or if you want to get there you have the joy of just going really fast as well. I just love it, I’m a real cycling fan."

Friday, 2 May 2014

Cycling Stories: Craig, 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. Craig works at IAmBikes, a cycling charity in Cumbernauld. Support their Cycle to the Moon campaign to get more people cycling by visiting the campaign website.

“I have been cycling since I was six, seven then I took it kind of seriously when I was about fourteen. I started doing a wee bit of cross-country and then I done I wee bit of downhilling and I done thatI for about eight or nine years. Then I quit because I hurt myself but I would like to keep doing it, it’s a sport I would love to get back into again. “It’s only lately I have been doing lot of single track and other kind of stuff as you can see by my face. I had an accident last weekend: I came off my bike and slammed straight into the ground. That’s the best bit about it, cycling and hitting it then getting up and keep going. I mean I didn’t stop, I went got my face seen to and just kept cycling. That’s a reason I like cycling, you don’t know what’s going to happen, a surprise round every corner you would say! “I would say that cycling did change my life because I was 28 stone at one point and I went to the doctors and they said you need to start losing weight because I’ve got fatty tissue on my liver and I could feel the effect of being so heavy. Then I decided I will start going to the gym, start cycling and because I was unemployed at the time as well I had two years of just cycling and I got myself down to 17 stone. A good 60% of it was just cycling everywhere I went, don’t take the car just cycle unless I have to take the car.”

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."

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.”