Recycling bikes for fun & community
Business Mentoring Project Takes Off
April 5, 20073rd Australian Regional Economies Conference – Port Macquarie
April 9, 2007Thriving neighborhood backyard bike club- much like a neighborhood house or a men’s shed- a place for locals to meet and fix bikes
The Forbes St Nunnery Community Bike Workshop (it’s not really a nunnery, just a place where some nice ladies live and work) in the inner city suburb of Newtown collects abandoned bikes and parts to create working bikes to put back into the community.
Residents were inspired to form the club which promotes sustainability and fostering local community when they attended the 2005 Students of Sustainability Conference.
Over 40 bike loving volunteers meet each week, and their club has no sponsors, external funding or government support.
The Bike Club’s website proclaims:
“Come and learn to fix bikes, show us how to fix bikes, fix your bike or a friend’s, or just come and have some tea and coffee. Everyone is welcome!”
One of the club’s founders, Briana Rocheta told The South Sydney Herald the club is a “challenge to throw away culture,” and that they are constantly amazed with the quality of bikes thrown away during hard rubbish collections.
“During Council clean up we find a bike on almost every street. Often they just have two flat tyres so we pump them up and ride them away.”
While volunteers are invited to ride home the bicycles finally assembled from assorted parts; the bike club is planning to send bikes and wheelchairs made from bike parts to Ghana through David Peckham’s Village Bicycle Project.
6 Comments
There are similar bike fixing workshops at CERES in Brunswick (Melbourne). They have a bike recycling shed. You can buy an old bike there and join in a workshop where they help you fix it and teach general bike maintenance. For more info see: http://www.ceres.org.au (Follow the links from Getting Involved to Onsite Groups. Info about the bike shed is at the bottom of the page).
This sounds wonderful – is it a common activity I wonder? I had not heard about it before Glenn dug up the info on the Forbes St workshop. Does it happen in other states? How many are there in NSW and Vic? If there’s one around the corner from you – drop us a line?
Hi guys, it’s maurice from the now famous nunnery bike workshop. Other ones to look out for:
UNSW: unswbikeclub.wordpress.com
ACT: anubicyclecooperative.wordpress.com
Mortdale: goodwillbicycles.com
Have fun, start your own!
Thanks for the info Maurice. I agree – start your own – they’re a great idea!
Great thing to learn new skills, action the ethos of recycing and build community at the same time.Wonderfull ,
well done
Annie
Western Sydney Cycling Network recycle bikes at their bike shed, at the back of Fairfield show ground.
You can find out more about us at our web site.
westernsydneycyclingnetwork.com.au