We asked participants of Forum No.2 to bring an object and tell a story that was either directly related to their own bike practice or to a bike culture in their local area. Everyone responded to this task in a creative way.
Here are a few examples of Bike Show and Tell:
“My girlfriend and I have been talking about getting married and I gave her one of these. I painted a little message on it and got her to close her eyes and put it on her finger (laughing) in lieu of the real ring. It’s not the most expensive one she’s had but it is certainly the biggest.”
“There is a growing culture of mobile technology and cycling culture. There are now eleven apps on the iphone for the London Cycle Hire Scheme. They do things like show you where your nearest docking point is and how many bikes are available. You can find and plan routes. There is an app where you can find your nearest bike shop and you can also add photos. You know for a long time cars have had sat navs and I think cyclists now want to know where to go.”
“This is all the way from Indonesia. It really works [turns wheels]. My brother gave it to me because he is living there at the moment. It sits in my office. It’s a sit up and beg bike and I have noticed in Leighton Linslade that more and more people are wanting these bikes. When I went for my bike which looks very similar to that, I had to pay extra to have you know this shape handle bar which suits my wrists a bit better than the straight ones. I get very upset about the ergonomics of bicycles because they are wrong, they’re just wrong (laughs). One of the things I wanted to bring forth to this meeting is the culture that is developing in our town of ladies going off to cycle for a coffee. We’ve got one group that meets on a Tuesday which is the outcome of a get-back-into-cycling course that we ran for adults and it all turned out to be ladies in the end… women, ladies, mothers. They drop their children off at school and leave at ten o’clock. They used to go a couple of miles and have a coffee in the garden centre. Now they are going about fifteen miles, up the hill and down and out to all the villages surrounding, having a cup of coffee and then cycling the fifteen miles back. All in a couple of hours. It just goes to show that most of them said, “I won’t cycle very far, I will just go down to the canal with my children” and now they are doing this. It’s that culture of coffee and cycling… isn’t that nice.”
“I’ve bought my Carradice saddle bag. It is a classic really, is it a design classic. Along with Brooks it just looks beautiful to me. It’s extremely functional, very hard wearing. You can take it on and off your bike quite easily and this is my little strappy thing to go on it that turns it into a messenger bag for the over fifties (laughing). They are not expensive and Ortlieb don’t make really a saddle bag. Everyone seems to go for Ortlieb because it is waterproof and its German but in fact you know we’ve got great local products. People ask me where I got this from quite regularly and they don’t stock it in most shops, it’s mostly mail order but you know it has tremendous meaning and culture and history attached to it and that’s why I brought it.”
“This is my Barclays Cycle Hire Scheme token. I actually rode one for the first time today from City Thames Link Brighton Train to here. There is a docking station about two minutes walk on this side and I found it great. But for someone who likes to cycle quite fast the bikes weren’t exactly conducive to my cycling style. I have to be more laid back and adopt a different cycling culture, not rushing everywhere which probably isn’t good for me anyway.”
“This is about memories but it’s also about welcome and how important it is to welcome cyclists. If you travel from Hungry to Serbia you expect to experience a rough time in Serbia but low and behold when you cross the border you come across a fantastic huge road sign which actually welcomes all cyclists. It doesn’t just do that it. All the way to Belgrade there are little signs that are fairly technical with distance and destination but actually give lots of little poems. Each sign has a different poem and they are all related to the bicycle. So you’ve got Kennedy and people saying how great the bicycle is and John Ford and there’s one by a French philosopher who talks about a long journey being a great eye opener to all habits and a great challenge for all prejudices. The point I am trying to make is how important signing is and how important it is to welcome somebody. It stuck in my mind because I think it’s fantastic.”
“This event took place a couple of weekends ago – the Kidical Mass. It is the first one we had in Glasgow. I think it gives you a sense of what it is about. There is a lot of community based action, impetus and enthusiasm for cycling and everything that it can do to benefit our urban environment.”
Thanks to all the people quoted here and to everyone else for contributing their stories.
