In photos: CycleLove’s second year celebrating bike culture
January 30, 2014
CycleLove started with a couple of “What Ifs” that the old me would have chewed over… and then dismissed as unlikely to succeed.
Thanks to Bill Cunningham, something clicked inside me, and I found myself converting my what ifs into reality, and began clicking away myself with a camera again.
What if… I started taking photos of interesting people on bikes?
What if… I put on a free screening of the film that had inspired me to start taking photos again?
Luckily, it turned out that they weren’t so unlikely, and before long I found myself cycling a hundred miles to deliver a t-shirt and watching my dream bike being hand-crafted for me here in London.
But all that was a while ago now… and I can’t quite believe this website is now two years old…So what’s been happening with CycleLove since?
January 2013
We celebrated our first birthday party at Look Mum No Hands!, which is now the spiritual home of CycleLove, and pretty much the whole of London’s cycling community.
February 2013
I headed north to join the Vulpine Cycling Fete at the Manchester Bike and Tri Show, and show off the CycleLove bike (built by Saffron Frameworks) for the first time.
March 2013
The V&A (the world’s largest museum of decorative arts and design) was taken over by a world of bikes in a brilliant event produced in collaboration with Bike V Design. Cycling there to talk on a panel about bike and design culture felt a little surreal, but in the best possible way.
April 2013
I finally got round to writing about how I caught the cycling bug when I moved to London, and ended up with three bikes in my bedroom after not cycling for almost a decade.
The London Tweed Run celebrated its fifth birthday in even more style than usual, and photographer Ian James was on hand to capture the show for CycleLove…
May 2013
Spin London rolled into Brick Lane with one of the most ambitious urban cycling shows ever to hit the capital… and pulled it off with aplomb.
Tokyo Fixed became Kinoko Cycles, and London suddenly had a new retail mecca for cycling.
June 2013
Frame builder Tom Donhou began a mission to ride his stunning land-speed record bike to 100mph…
And after months hauling myself up and down Swains Lane (the only properly steep hill in London that’s quiet enough for training), I headed to the Alps with my bike for the first time, to spend a week tackling famous climbs like Alpe d’Huez, Col de la Croix de Fer and Galibier. There were a few moments where I wanted to throw my bike off the mountain, but it was an amazing mind-and-body-bending experience, which still puts a smile on my face whenever I think about it.
July 2013
Thousands of people took part in a London Cycling Campaign Space4Cycling protest ride, after young French woman Philippine De Gerin-Ricard was killed by a lorry whilst cycling on “Cycle Superhighway 2″ in East London, tragically becoming the first fatality of the Barclays Cycle Hire scheme.
August 2013
As the city sweltered under an uncharacteristically barmy summer sun, BMX legend Bob Haro was in town to promote his new book, and found time to hang out with the kids (and me) at the track just down the road from CycleLove HQ.
On a more serious note, and fired up by the Space4Cycling rides happening across the UK, I wrote again about the importance of making space for people on bikes in London, instead of pointing fingers or swithering over proposals and rhetoric.
September 2013
We put together a list of our favourite cycling blogs from the four corners of the bike world. Be sure to check out the comments on the article for some great suggestions from you guys.
October 2013
Graphic designer Ben Stott became our roving reporter at the fifth L’Eroica, and came back with this beautiful set of photos of the vintage bikes and rolling Tuscan hills that make the event such a special one in the vintage cycling calendar.
October 2013
Back in London, I pedalled over to Best of Britannia in Farringdon to check out the bike brands at the show: Kennedy Bicycles, Michaux Club, Vickers Bicycles and Moulton.
And fresh from New York, we featured the cycle style portraits of photographer Sam Polcer.(If you like these, you can now pre-order his Preferred Mode book on Amazon)
CycleLove became a two-person team with the addition of Fiona Mandos to the blog, and gained a passionate perspective on cycling culture thanks to her Belgian roots.
November 2013
We launched our CycleLux online shop, bringing together some of our favourite bike brands and people together for the first time, alongside a new range of CycleLove prints and tshirts produced in collaboration with young creatives Duane Dalton and Penelo.pe.
December 2013
Thousands of votes were cast for the CycleLove x Kinoko Best Bike competition and we duly whittled down the entrants to 10 rather lovely bikes of all descriptions, before putting them on display at the Vulpine Cyclogames in Hackney.
After much drooling from the punters, and a hotly contested judging session, the deserved winner was Paul and his immaculately presented Nagasawa Track.
As the month came to close, we posted a huge list of resolution ideas for people who ride bikes. Looking at them again, I’m currently guilty as charged for #10, and have been squeaking my way across London in the rain these last few weeks. Moving swiftly on…
How was your last year of cycling?
Posted to London
by James Greig
