Moultoneer - Steven Kyffin
The latest in our regular series of profiles of riders of Pashley and Moulton bicycles.
Tell us a little about yourself
I am a Brit born in China and brought up all over. I used to sail small boats but now ride bikes. I come from a ‘maker’ and trader’ family. I’m curious, principled, never give up in the search for excellence and my Pa told me I became awkward at the age of five and would not follow the rules. I learned to overcome that particular challenge when I chose to join a massive multi national, well know for driving Innovation to the point of smashing the status quo in everything we did.
What do you do for a living?
I am a designer, who worked for others for ten years, for myself and my clients for ten more, then ten with Philips as global head of Design Innovation and for the last ten at a UK university as Dean of Design and now latterly as lead for Innovation across the University to help to reposition the NE of the UK as a home for the Innovative and Creative, just as it used to be!
What are you passionate about?
Design ideas that change the world. Enabling others to have strong sense of their identity, to be Creative, continually being transformed and in a close community with a strong sense of belonging and contributing …and for myself …trying very hard to to what I haven’t done before. I used to sail boats, as my mother did, now I ride bikes, as my father did, I was never any good at squash, as my brother is!
What is your earliest memory of riding a bike?
I didn’t learn to ride a bike until I was eight, we had scooters in Germany for years, but never a bike till I went to secondary school. We pretended the bike of my friend’s mother was an MTB, and crashed it into a tree on a wild down hill run. Not the best idea on a Ladies town bike in the 70s!
What was your first bike?
A five pound Raleigh framed 26” wheeled ‘boy’s’ school bike painted in house blue gloss. I never lost my need to find bikes from skips and rebuild them. I didn’t buy my first all new fully built bike until I was about 35. It was a Yellow Moulton Land Rover APB.
How long have you been a cyclist?
Riding and working on bikes for 55 years, or there abouts!
What bike are you riding?
We have a lot of bikes in the family, a very lot. My fave of course is my Stainless steel Moulton Pylon New Series with ’new ‘ fork. HED wheels, Campag Super Record group set, Carbon finishing kit. Just the best for so many reasons. But I also love my Cinelli XCR, Dave Yates steel Framed sportive bike. Hello Moulton Speed Six and my Dutch Gents town bike, which I use for commenting in the winter.
How many bikes do you own?
Ah that one… depending on the day, they are always in a perpetual state of becoming and re-formatting… but about 20, and between us all nearer thirty I suppose.
What is your dream bike?
I have it, as above :-)
What appeals to you about cycling?
The friendships which are built across generations and ‘types’ of people when riding in groups, Being in the fresh air, opportunity to challenge my self, now that I’m addicted to my own endomorphins, I love the feeling of flow when I’m riding at pace (for me) and it’s a cheap way of using the best tools available to achieve the most with my body, in order to stay strong I have to ride in all conditions what ever the time of year. Is a simpler version of the professional eco system I live in, so I have the opportunity to experience with all sorts of leadership and relational issues, without it actually mattering quite so much! I love to be able to meet new people and make connections and friendships which enrich so many other parts of our family life :-) We don’t need to live by water to do it. Sailing was glorious for so many of the same reasons, but so much more restrictive for the ways and places where we lived.
What does cycling mean (signify) to you?
It is a means of keeping physically and mentally fit, it forces me to become resilient, enables my to be independent when I travel, to do it well, I have to maintain my bike in showroom condition, forces me to care for my things and repair them if I want to keep the costs to a minimum, which I do! Provides social interaction and dependency on others when we ride in groups. It provides an eco-system of care relationships, performance, collective competition, every day functional support, exploration of the world I live within… Cycling means my legs are capable of taking me to experience so much more.
What do you dislike about cycling?
It is addictive, and sometimes stops me from experience the littles things en route …and sometimes it sets people against each other.
How often do you ride your bike, and for what purpose?
Every day for commenting, shopping and so on, 10k Km a year or 8 hours at least a week for exercise, the occasional long distance tour with family and friends. And one weekend a year as an excuse to meet up with friends with common interests in the most enchanting environments.
What’s your favourite cycle route or destination?
Riding out of the north shore of Lake Garda in northern Italy up to the lakes in the hills. Lago di Tenno, specifically, and riding up onto the moors south west of Blanchland in Northumberland in the UK. I once road the Beach Road south out of Melbourne in Australia, that was pretty special as I met up with some people I used to sail against twenty years earlier, completely by chance.
I realised when we lived in The Netherlands, cycling is like walking, everyone who is able, ’should’ do it, it widens our horizons in life in ways that we never never could expect until we reach them! The experiences have enriched my life beyond my wildest dreams. And they have been wild.