BMX Bandits
Let Time Out take you to a throwback world where bikes get second lives. Lisa O'Brien reports
Now that you have the gold bike, what about some bling? No? How about a 2km bike ride?
Every Monday night in Newtown, up to 40 like-minded folk gather in a crowded back yard on Forbes Street among wheels, frames, handlebars, tarpaulins and rogue cans of WD40. They are there for the Nunnery Community Bike Workshop or, as it's called by its organisers, bike club.
And the first rule of bike club is, there are no rules. Well, very few. "It's actually an organisation with no hierarchy and very few rules. Mostly it will go the way that people there are willing to make it happen," says Maurice Wells, who founded the current incarnation of the bike workshop with his friend JP in 2006.
What began as a way to build up an inexpensive and environmentally-friendly fleet of bicycles for the 2005 Students for Sustainability conference at Monash University has become a popular weekly workshop where locals and visitors alike can go to pick up a free bike, have their own bike fixed, or tinker on donated bikes that are looking for some much-needed TLC.
"What we set out to maintain, and what Bri [Rocheta, who set up the workshop for the conference] had started, was the aim of getting cycling into the community, focusing on people without much money, without much access to bicycles, and with a focus on doing it sustainably, so doing it with recycled bikes and with a big focus on the ‘do it yourself' culture," Wells says.
The workshop rarely sells on any of their second hand bikes, insisting on their website that they would prefer people's time rather than money. It has no external funding, sponsors or government backing and instead relies on donations, bikes that would otherwise be waste and community support.
On any given Monday, Wells estimates between 30 and 40 people drop into the workshop, many of whom arrive on two legs and depart on two wheels. One such customer was Julian Cirrone, a PR executive from Paddington. Fresh off the plane from the UK in September last year, he was intrigued by a leaflet for the bike workshop at the Newtown Festival.
"It was partly because I didn't have much money when I came out so picking up anything for free or getting things on the cheap was right up my street," says Cirrone, who visited the workshop the following Monday. While there, he picked up a rusty purple BMX with a dodgy back wheel. "They gave it the once over and they tightened up the back wheel. They pretty much did all the work which was perfect because I don't know that much about bikes."
Though he rarely cycled in London, Cirrone saw it as a cheap and easy way to get around Sydney. He now rides his bike to and from work each day and cycles with two friends in a BMX ‘bike gang' on weekends.
According to Wells, Cirrone embodies the core ideas of the workshop. "It depends where people are at, some people just need help fixing a tyre so they can get on with life and some people will come in and really learn to love bikes," he says.
The transformation of Cirrone's bike, however, didn't end at the Nunnery gates. The newly adopted BMX was soon given a makeover courtesy of a can of gold spray paint and, like a phoenix rising from rusty purple ashes, ‘Gold Rush' was born. Recently, one of his friends had the name made up in gold stickers to adorn the bike's frame. So in a city of bling, what kind of attention does a gold BMX attract? "People either laugh and stare...or just laugh."
Nunnery Bike Workshop, 40 Forbes St, Newtown 2042. (0433 622 640). Every Mon 5pm-9.30pm.
Don't condemn your bike to the shed for eternity, show it some love with these rides happening around Sydney.
BikeNorth: North to West Head Sat 31 May. Meet at Eastwood Station (East side), West Pde, Eastwood 2122. (02 9874 5594). 7.30am. This one will have your muscles aching - 90km from Eastwood via Terrey Hills, West Head, Akuna Bay and return.
Northern Beaches Bikers: Bundeena Ride Sun 1 Jun. Meet at Waterfall Station, Kooraban St, Waterfall 2233. (02 9526 7330). 9.30am. A moderately paced 45km ride on and off road from Waterfall to Bundeena.
Leichhardt BUG: Easyrider Sun 1 Jun. Meet at Moores Café, 89 Moore St, Leichhardt 2040. (02 9810 3706). 8.30am. A 30km ride to Cabarita along off-road cyclepaths and some on-road cycleways.
Western Sydney Cycling Network: ‘The Lookout Circuit' Sun 1 Jun. Meet at WSCN Clubhouse, Fairfield City Showground, Smithfield Rd, Prairiewood 2176. (02 9724 1520). 9am. A relaxed Sunday morning ride that starts and finishes at the WSCN clubhouse, using off-road cycle paths with only some hills.