In 2012 I Want To…

30Jan12

My 2012 to do list. I have not gone too crazy with it, but have chosen a few key things that I think will make me happy if I achieve them. So it may be the end of January, but that still leaves me plenty of time to get working on them and in fact I have already started on some of them.

Challenge myself more: in work… in play… in general…

It is not that I feel that I don’t always challenge myself at the moment. BUT I do think there is always room for more and there are certain things that I would like to focus on in particular:

In Play (and most relevant to this blog) 

1. Ride my bicycle faster and further (and get less punctures). As this blog probably displays: I like bicycles. I can’t quite always explain the sense of freedom that I feel when I ride them, but it is a good feeling and it always makes me happy. However, I would like to challenge myself this year to cycle faster and further, not because I have to, but because I want to.

2. Take a cycle tour of parts of Scotland I have never visited. Considering that I am Scottish and do regularly explore Scotland by bike within my local vicinity. There is in fact a whole lot more of this small isle that I have not seen, so I plan to take a tour this summer to some of places further north and even those separated by some patches of sea (for which I will ask the aid of some boats) in order to have a fun & challenging summer break.

3. Discover more places I have never seen before. This resolution fits to cycling, but is not exclusive to it. I recently returned (last night) from a skiing holiday and I am somewhat still in awe of the last week of discovery… of pushing myself to new limits and seeing truly breathtaking views over mountains and beyond. It is easy to sometimes stick to routine or revisit favourite spots. But it is also important to discover new things and I want to do more of this in 2012.

Filed under: blogs, Personal   |  Leave a Comment

A little festive glow

27Dec11

Following on from my previous post about glowing in the dark, I also discovered this video. The bike lights here are a little more wacky, but fun and I think even a little festive. So I thought I would share the jolly Bright Bikes.

Filed under: Bikes   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: Bikes, bright bikes, Design, glow, glow in the dark

Glow in the dark bikes

27Dec11

My blog stats have been going crazy for the last few days with people searching for ‘glow in the dark bikes’. The people who have been lucky enough to visit my blog have been able to read about ‘glowing in the dark’ and the ‘shine a light on me competition’… However, I don’t think this has been the aim of these searches and the sudden spike led me to question what they are looking for and have I missed something in the glowing bicycle world? So I did a Google search and the first items that I came across, are items that I have seen before such as the Puma bike and the Cambridge bike. However, after a little more digging it seems that the cause for the commotion has been due to a recent Blackberry Curve advert, which according to the ’Two Wheelin’ Tempe’ blog is not yet available online, but is very similar to the Blackberry Bold video below.

I must admit that I am not really a Blackberry girl, but the glowing bikes in this short and sweet advert are pretty cool and they make me think that designing for lighting up cyclists still has plenty of room to evolve in new and exciting ways. Looking forward to see the new advert too… so will need to keep an eye out for it.

Filed under: Bikes   |  5 Comments
Tags: Bikes, blackberry, Cycling, Design, glow in the dark bicycles, glowing bike, glowing night bike, neon bikes, reflecyives

Surprises at Work: Sarah Halliday’s Impressive Cycling Paintings

13Dec11

The Big Sprint

Sometimes people at work really surprise you and unearth something you didn’t know existed before, you just have to take the time to talk. The other day I had a meeting with one of my colleagues about a project we are working on and he shared with me a little of his families history and how his sister had competed in the Olympics a few years ago and his dad had been a medal winning runner. Although he may not compete at this level, he is one of the most passionate people I know in our company that advocates the true benefits of being active and truly spreads this passion with everyone he meets. So now I guess I understand why this is a little more.

Another great surprise was discovering that another of my colleagues, Sarah Halliday,  is also a very talented artist and created the paintings that I have added to this blog post.  What I love about her art is that she combines her passion for cycling and painting, I think the results are stunning and definitely worth sharing. Sarah is a self taught artist and discovered her passion for painting whilst living in the south of France and participating in the cyclosportive circuit. I like the way she describes her work as stated below:

“I was struck by the spectical and drama of bike races. I am not looking at creating a portrait of a cyclist but to capture the essence of the race itself: the moment of a sprint, the effort and/or suffering of a rider, or just the sheer vastness of the terrain he has to conquer.”

Filed under: Art, Bikes, Cycling   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: Art, Art Bikes, Bike, Bikes, biking illustration, Cycling, cycling illustration, cyclosportives, Design, Illustration, painting, sarah halliday

A Warm Welcome From Cheeky Cycling Chaps

11Dec11

This cheery little (well actually reasonably sized) painting greets you as you enter my parents house. I was back visiting this weekend, and it reminded me of how these cheeky cyclists never fail to make me smile. So I thought I would share it and perhaps let it make some other people smile too. We don’t actually know who it is by, as it ended up with us by chance… but my guesses is that it is an amateur affair, although still lovely splash of paint.

However, if anyone recognises the style in any way do let me know

Filed under: Art, Bikes, Cycling   |  2 Comments
Tags: 2011, Art, artwork, Bike, Bikes, Cycling, Design, fahradd, fiets, paintings, scotland, velo

#womanwheelers and #manlymovers get the cyclist name game rolling

11Dec11

Cyclists come in lots of different shapes, sizes and styles and normally I would be the last person to label them. However, as a follow up to my post about Woman Wheelers and some more random Tweets, where I suggested a possible male alternative as #manlymovers. A number of other suggestions arose – these suggestions play a pretty simple word game of mix and match – namely mix a term for a lady or gentleman and match it with some bike related term. I may be pretty easily amused, but I  thought these were too fun to be left as a fleeting tweets and they have potential for something… not sure what?!! So I have written them up below for future reference and sketched* one of them quickly into a image above.

Filed under: Bikes, Design   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: 2011, Bike, Bikes, Cycling, Design, dundee, Graphic Design, groups, Illustration, illustration styles, illustrator, inspiring, ladies, manly movers, names, people, scotland, woman, woman wheelers

If you sing to the sun… sometimes it shines for you

04Dec11

“Bring me Sunshine, in your eyes,
Bring me rainbows, from the skies”

The skies were bright blue early yesterday morning, but after fixing a puncture and doing a few other things  - I didn’t end up getting out until later in the day.

The blue skies where still bright when I left, then they turned to grey skies which were soon joined by some cold cold winds + (I think) sleet. At this point the  Morcambe and Wise song popped into my head and I enjoyed a wee singsong. It seemed to do the trick, as the skies seemed to clear up and as I was heading back into the city I saw a rainbow. True story.

Filed under: Bike Rides   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: 2011, Bikes, bring me sunshine, Cycling, morcambe and wise, photography, river, scotland

3Cs = Cakes + Cycling + Coffee

04Dec11

Cyclists and Cake go pretty well together. Add to that a dash of great coffee and you have a recipe for good things = high energy and happy people.

[Tonight two things led me to making the cakes seen in the picture above: 1. I took a look at the search terms leading to my blog this week and one of them was cycling cakes (although having since googled it myself I don't know how they ended up here, as there are hundred of results for cycling cakes). 2. My friend asked to pop over to get her cake tin back, but I was out at the time so instead I invited her over to drink some wine and bake some cakes. So the result was lots of cakes. All cakes contained carrots. Mine had carrots, courgette, a hint of lemon + a little bit of spice. Whilst my friend Lara's had carrots, orange and chocolate. Both were definitely a success and could definitely give any cyclist a boost.]

So back to topic = Cyclists and cake. After a quick Google search it is clear to see that I am not the only cyclist with cakes on the mind. In fact, there are many…

Filed under: Bikes, food   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: Bike, bike cakes, bikeminded coffee and cake tour, Bikes, bistro bike bistro, cafe, cakes, cakes coffee cycling, coffee, Cycling, cycling cakes, cyclists, food, patisserie cyclisme, velo

Getting lost will help you find yourself – The Holstee Manifesto

03Dec11

The Holstee Manifesto has always been a favourite of mine. It inspires you with a sense of empowerment, and I love that reading great words and letting your mind transform them into great ideas allows you to feel that. It is a message that not only inspires and excites me, it does exactly the same to many other people as they state on their website that it is a “message that has since been shared over 500,000 times and viewed over 60 million times online”.

Holstee states that: “Above all else, it has confirmed for us that with genuine positive intentions, anything is possible.” I like that. I’ve always thought that nothing is impossible, it’s probably not easy, it probably won’t come quickly, but it’s probably not impossible. Probably.

So I was obviously delighted to find that Holstee have now transformed their words into a video and it features lots of lovely bicycles. A definite treat for anyone who likes a bike and who likes to dream, to think and to do.

So then after watching the video, it made me wonder if – has anyone written such a short and snappy manifesto about riding bikes?  I am certain there will be manifestos out there, but are there any that capture the imagination and ignite a sense of empowerment as these words do?

Via Sweet Georgia Brown 

Filed under: Bikes, Cycling, Design   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: 2011, bicycle, bicycle video, Bike, Bikes, create, Design, do what you love, fiets, Graphic Design, holstee, holstee manifesto, life is short, life is simple, lifecycle, manifesto, this is your life, velo, video, words

Starting to have ideas for #shinealightonmecomp

01Dec11

The #shinealightonmecomp is a small friendly competition that arose from a recent conversation on Twitter and which I thought was an idea worth doing something with. So I thought about it a little more, as can be seen in my  <glowing in the dark post>  where I discussed people who are using reflectives to brighten up their night riding in inspiring ways and then I started to think about how I could do it myself. Aided with some friendly Twitter banter <seen below> that discussed the possible addition of ‘categories’ and ‘bonus points’,  I wanted to think up something fun. >> Read more to find out more about the idea

Filed under: Art, Bikes, Cycling, Graphic Design   |  1 Comment
Tags: #shinealightonmecomp, 2011, Bike, clothing, Cycling, cycling jackets, Design, fashion, Graphic Design, Illustration, inspiration, reflectives, scotland, vaude