We love cycles and we love people’s cycle stories. Our Staff and Trustees share our passion, and we wanted to share it with you too! Our Cycle Stories is a new blog series devoted to introducing you to our wonderful team, and the diverse and varied ways that cycling has become an enriching part of their lives.

What is your name, and what do you do at Wheels for Wellbeing? 

I’m Eric Gauster, and I’m the Session Manager at the Croydon Arena Sessions. Essentially, I manage the staff there, help them with their work, train them up a little bit and anything else that’s needed. I’m responsible for the safe running of the sessions, making sure they all go ahead properly. Really, I’m the one who deals with the problems and reports back to the boss how the sessions are going etc. 

What has been your career trajectory; how did you come to end up working at WfW? 

I was an advertising photographer for about 20 years, then I decided I didn’t want to do that anymore, and I had a friend who started a cycle training company called Cycle Training UK, back when cycle training was in its infancy, and they were like the start of cycle training in London.

I started doing some part time work for them in 2003 and became a cycling instructor. Really, really loved it, and then I only stopped working for them in 2011, something like that.

I had a developing interest in all ability cycling so Wheels for Wellbeing proved to be a happy natural progression. I started as a volunteer, and then became an instructor, and then I ended up as a session manager!  

Do you use a cycle? What sort of cycle do you use? 

I ride a lovely step through Isla bike mostly, as my abilities are more limited these days. I used to use all sorts of racing bikes and stuff but I just like to trundle around on my Isla bike now. I’m unable to ride on roads due to PTSD. I live near Greenwich, so I use my bike for going to Waitrose (when I’m feeling rich). And I like to cycle up and down the Thames.  

Back in 2005 I was a cycling instructor, and I was involved in a hit and run accident where I got run over and I basically had a car go over the top of me, dragged me up the road, and then went over me again. So, I was in hospital for about three months, and then I was in a wheelchair for perhaps another three months learning to walk again.  

I did go back to cycle instructing in a slightly more limited capacity, and I recovered quite well after a few more years of cycle training; it’s just I really dislike riding on roads because of the memory of being run over. So, I have a sort of love/hate relationship with cycling.

I really love cycling, but obviously I’ve been injured, so I have a sort of PTSD problem, so I just, I only ride when I want to and where I want to. Luckily, London’s full of really good cycle lanes, and Greenwich is really good for cycling, so I still cycle, but I don’t really want to be on the road. It’s the noise of traffic affects me more than anything.  

What does cycling mean to you, and your overall wellbeing? 

All ability cycling has allowed me to maintain my interest in cycling and I enjoy working with the team at WFW and share their vision. I’m a fan of cycling culture. All my friends are cyclists, and I really enjoy working in cycling, so I don’t feel that I’m much different than before my accident.

But I think because of my kind of, you know, my injuries and having been in a wheelchair and stuff like that, it made me more interested in working at Wheels for Wellbeing, because it was a type of cycling that was perfect for me, and I’m working with Disabled people, and so I find I’m just kind of doing what I used to do but with a different sort of community. It’s been really good for me, because if I’d had to sort of give up the cycling culture, I would have really missed it. So, that’s what cycling means to me.  

People have an image of cycling, don’t they, as a two wheel bike, perhaps on a road, probably racing, you know. But I’ve had my injuries, and I don’t ride on the roads anymore, but it hasn’t stopped me cycling, and it hasn’t stopped me working in cycling. I think it’s good, because when people arrive at our sessions and they may be kind of under the impression that they have to ride a two wheel racing bike, and we can say “Well, you know, cycling is not all about that”. 

Do you have a favourite session, route, or adventure? 

I still have my Cycling Tourist Badge for completing 120 miles in 12 hours from when I was 14. After that the early Dunwich Dynamo rides showed me how cycling could be ‘punk rock’! 

I do love Croydon Arena sessions, because they have such an amazing, diverse kind of ‘clientele’. I’ve always worked at Croydon, and I very much like it. It can be challenging at times, but it’s, you know, I’ve always found it very real, and the people are great.  

I also really liked doing the Dunwich Dynamo when it was the early days of it, when it was a bit of a feral cycle instructors kind of ride mixed with couriers. I really enjoyed that. But I also just really enjoyed tooling around London art galleries on my bike.  

Tour de France just bored me senseless. I’m afraid. 

Is there anything that you think WfW does better than anyone else? 

I think through hard work WfW has really grown to be a force to be reckoned with in our field. We have a huge diverse city with an urban cycling culture, and we’ve branched out into the community in many positive ways. 

I think they’re unique.  

I think that the big diverse city does help, because if you’re in a small town, there’s just not enough access to enough people who would be interested in volunteering or helping on a long term. And you have a wonderful diverse range of participants. I think that does sort of feed into Wheels for Wellbeing, because, you know, we accommodate so many different people, and I think we’re quite good at what we do because of that, and we’ve grown. WfW have just managed to be big enough to actually be ballsy enough to be able to go and pay instructors, which in in turn, means, you know, they’re able to run all these sessions. 

If you had a magic wand, what one thing would you change in #ActiveTravel #InclusiveCycling to benefit Disabled people, their mobility, and their wellbeing?  

I’d wish for All Ability cycling to be available in every major park and be ‘seen’ rather than be hidden away. If Park Run can do it, so can we… 

I think the thing about Park Run is that is it’s very visible, you know, that people see it? You go to the park and see lots of people running, and maybe you say “I should do that “. It’s not hidden.

And I think sometimes the problem is, you know, I’m stuck in Croydon Arena, which is great, but no one sees it, unless you go there. So, I think with a magic wand, it would be nice if, in London, five major Parks had an All Ability cycling thing once a week, so people could see people get on bikes that aren’t two wheelers, riding around. Just the visual side of that you’d get a lot of interest. People don’t know it exists. I mean, everyone would benefit from it.  

Also, I think Isabel has talked about this before, but like having some sort of cycling push at hospitals, like a cycling on referral or prescription. I used to teach people referred by the doctors to cycle. You can take a a depression pill, or you can go cycling. 

So, seeing cycling and knowing it’s actually an option for them and could be good for them in all sorts of ways, you don’t have to go fast. 

Thank you for sharing your Cycle Story with us, Eric!