Cycling Cultures blog

The Private View Bike Ride started at Two Wheels Good on a gorgeous sunny day with 25 people turning up on an amazing range of bicycles. The peloton featured cargo bikes, a recumbent, penny farthing, tallbike, fixed gear, flying gate, paper bicycle, tourers, hybrids and racers. Bike sized bunting affixed to stewards bikes added to the colour.

The motley peloton set off along Stoke Newington Church Street and down Albion Road to PUSH Cycles where we stopped to view four portraits. For some riders it provided a good opportunity to bike shop.

Back on our bikes we headed east, across Kingsland Road, along Sandringham Road and down to Wilton Way until we arrived at London Fields Cycles on Mare Street.

At London Fields Cycles we had snacks (muesli bars, juice and water) while looking at the eight photos on display.

We cycled on through London Fields, around Broadway Market (which was heaving with people and stalls) and over Regent’s Canal to Lock 7 where we viewed seven portraits.

Four down, one to go. We headed into town along Hackney Road and Columbia Road crossing over Kingsland Road and running parallel to Old Street until we reached Look Mum No Hands.

We arrived at Look Mum No Hands to find half the cafe reserved for us, twelve portraits to look at and enough cake to satisfy even the hungriest cyclist. Thankfully more people joined us at the cafe to help.

We stayed at Look Mum No Hands until we had at least dented the cake mountain, we played on different bikes in nearby side streets, told stories and drank beer into the early evening.

The purpose of the ride was to showcase the portraits, and the point of the exhibition was to represent the rich and diverse cultures of cycling in Hackney today. The event provided lots of opportunities to network, talk about the broader research project and engage people who otherwise might not get to see the work that we are doing and contribute. Thankyou to everyone for participating in the research and coming along for the ride.

Many thanks also goes to UEL’s Creative Community Development fund for supporting the event.

Britt took lots of great footage of the ride and the film will be posted here soon.

Tomorrow is the Private View Bike Ride. We are starting at 2pm at Two Wheels Good, 165 Stoke Newington Church Street London N16 0UL. From there we will cycle to PUSH cycles, then London Fields Cycles, onto Lock 7 and we will arrive at Look Mum No Hands around 4ish.
The weather is looking good.
See you there.