“I’M RAISING THE PROFILE OF CYCLING FOR PEOPLE WITH DWARFISM”
Steve Scott, 61, from Timperley, has helped design the ideal bike for people with his condition
“I started cycling when I was
in secondary school on a bike that my dad modified for me. He’d lop bits off of regular bikes because my body size proportions are different. But I could still never put my feet down, so I learnt to balance on a bike pretty quickly.”
“I took up cycling seriously
when I was 30 and I had my first bespoke bike made by Harry Hall of Manchester. As a dwarf I have a different leg structure – my knees aren’t quite midway down my leg. To make the bike work for me, Harry created a cardboard cut-out of me as part of the design process.”
“Along with several friends we
established the Dwarf Sports Association 30 years ago. We don’t shy away from the word ‘dwarf’ and our ethos is to look at ways in which we can engage in all sports.”
“My passion is cycling and I’ve
worked to get cycling established as a sport for people with dwarfism. We started raising its profile with a Coast-to-Coast ride featuring 10 dwarfs and I hope one day it’ll be a sport on the Paralympic timetable.”
“I belong to a local cycle club,
Tatton Velo, and ride with friends and club mates around the Cheshire lanes and along the canal into Manchester. I’ve got three bikes, including two bespoke ones made by Dave Yates – I’m still not able to put my feet down, but they’re great otherwise. I’ve also got a Brompton for when I’m working away.”
“I’ve cycled from London to
Istanbul over a four-year period, completing 500 miles in a week each year. It started with a group of school friends. We progressed from doing LEJOG to doing London to Paris. Then four of us kept going. The following year we rode Paris to Frankfurt, and so on.”
“We’d planned to cycle back via
Iran, Iraq and Syria but that’s not been possible. I’ve cycled across parts of Australia and most of Europe, apart from Italy. I would love to cycle through Italy.”
“We noticed that many dwarf
cyclists were using adapted children’s Islabikes so we started talking to the company about making bespoke bikes. We spent a weekend cycling in the Lakes with Isla Rowntree, the founder, and engineer Mike Granger, to see what worked for us and what didn’t.”
“As a result of that relationship,
Islabikes is now making bikes for people with disproportionate dwarfism. I’m now able to straddle an Islabike and put my feet down because of the extra-low step-over – so me and my kids have to get out of the habit of jumping on and off!” Dwarf Sports Association ( DSAUK. org); Islabikes ( islabikes.co.uk)
“WE CYCLED WITH ISLA ROWNTREE OF ISLABIKES, AND AN ENGINEER, TO SEE WHAT WORKED FOR US AND WHAT DIDN’T”