Farewell to 2017 and goodbye 200th year anniversary of the invention of the modern bicycle.
According to the Chinese Zodiac, 2018 is Year of the Dog with the associated element being Earth and lucky colours blue, black and green… which is surely good enough reasons for a new cycling kit!
Happy New Gear 2018 = Year of the awesome rides!
It is great to see how enthusiastic cyclists are welcoming in the new year.
There are many ways to celebrate the cycling, international and cultural events coming up in 2018.
I started getting excited when I saw a few of the examples (below) of how our talented and passionate cycling community are celebrating 2018.
Source: FotoliaSource: PintrestSource: Rachlink (Etsy)Source: The Olympic TavernSource: San Jose Bike PartySource: PatrikaSource: EU Cycling GroupSource: Olympic Corp
So what’s on in 2018?
Not yet fully enthused about 2018? Let me whet your whistle…..
For the cyclists – get online and see what events, competitions, festivals and meets are on in your area. Of course your first stop for events will always your favorsite cycling website, magazine, news, Facebook, mates or cycling group.
International events – there are so many local and international days of significance in the 2018 calendar – and there are some awesome dates to look forward to, like some of th worldwide holidays and special dates below, like:
For some other global ‘Day of the …’ events that will blow your mates away, check out the massive range of UN International Days -which includes heaps of historical and commemorative dates (too many to list here), as well as many others, such as May 2nd (World Tuna Day), 13th June (International Albinism Awareness Day) or November 19th (World Toilet Day).
Or, for something a little more multicultural for the Aussies- here is Griffith University’s Cultural Diversity Calendar (see below), so you won’t miss any important dates.
So much to see and do in 2018- and so many great rides to experience!
However you chose to celebrate 2018 – I hope this year is filled with fun, challenges, excitement, change ….. and lots of awesome cycling!
Woodford is Australia’s largest annual outdoor cultural and folk festival.
This year, there were over 2,500 amazing musical gigs, performances, shows, talks, demos, roving performances, gardens and activities.
It is a truely amazing experience to wander around Woodfordia.
Bikes at Woodford Folk Festival
Here is a copy of the full program – EPIC!!
There is also the Speakers Program, which has over 70 talks on a massive array of topics – including many current social, political and environmental issues.
It is difficult to tell you everything you can see and do at Woodford, so I’m just going to hit the bike high points and let you explore the full shebang for yourself another time if you are interested (highly recommended!).
On arrival – bike parking
It was great to see that at the entrance, the ‘Bike Parking’ was already filling up and that cyclists had a direct and preferential access to the front entrance – rockstar parking for bike riders!
Wozwaste
I was delighted to see Wozwaste was not wasting anything – and their market stall looked great! I am super impressed at how their product range has increased since I last saw them.
I popped in for a good chat and catch up. they are doing great work with recycling materials. While we were chatting, I asked a few technical questions about issues I was having working with bike inner tubes. They had had the same difficulties I was experiencing and so had decided to switch over to using motorbike inner tubes now as a result.
I really appreciate Wozwaste’s philosophy and commitment. It is inspiring to know people are out there whereby up/recycling is the basis of their business. It was great to see their range first hand and see what they have achieved so far.
Roving Performances
The Rain Cloud
The heat and sun was super hot, so the organisers arranged to have the rain cloud bike roving to help cool off punters.
This is four person, pedal-powered bike which ‘rained’ a fine mist over those who stood near the clouds.
It was a great way to cool off, the drizzle was a very welcome reprieve. When the bike stopped, people were encouraged to sit on the float to rest and cool off – the kids loved it!
There were seven operators, all in various costumes who took it in turns to ride and/ore entertain as needed.
A very effective and impressive roving performance!
The Woodford Postal Service
This roving performance also served a legitimate service.
Within Woodfordia, there is the Post House, from which there is a team of Posties on bikes whose job it is to rider around, interacting with festival goers by ‘delivering letters’.
The idea is that you can stop a Postie (or they might ask you) to ‘send’ a message or letter to someone throughout the day/festival. It can be any message you like and you give a description to the postie and their job is to deliver it – which makes for some hilarious interactions as some of the descriptions are quite vague, so there are many posties going up to people asking them if they are so and so in an attempt to deliver a message.
In an age of instant text messaging, this kind of audience participation activity was inventive, creative and so much fun to be part of.
Everyone was getting into it and the posties did a great job!
Out the front of ‘The Post House’
Festival-goers on wheels
Woodfordia has a great path network and the access is well thought out, so it was great to see a higher number of many festival visitors on wheels getting around.
There were a few wheel chairs, but far more hand-driven chairs and recumbents and a few scooters.
Most notably, there was a very popular trolley stall which hired out wagons for families to wheel their tired kids around. This a great idea for storage, sleeping kids, having some shade, reserving some space and being able to find your people at a distance – GOLD!
Throughout the day, I kept seeing Jeremy and his gorgeous pedal-powered refreshments stall rinding around. I had to go up and chat to him. He is a genuinely beautiful man and was so happy to be out and about. His happiness was infectious. Great shoes and what a smile!
Unknown Pink Bikers
These guys had a compound that was open at certain times and they were entertaining people with tricks, magic and activities.
Later on, I saw them riding around interacting with punters and generally adding to the overall cheer and colour.
Great to see more bikes getting around, but some of the older guys in glitter glam hot pink Barbarella-style costuming might have scared a few of the kids.
Opening Ceremony
I’m sure you will be able to get a hold of some footage of the official opening ceremony for the festival. There were massive puppets, fire work, a latern parade, an aboriginal welcoming ceremony and dancing, various singers to name a few.
Of most interest for this post was the use of bicycles during the later parade to help move the larger lantern around as needed – it was only when you looked closely could you see that bikes were instrumental in the latern below in particular.
Overall – a wonderful time!
Whether you are going for bikes or the music or the culture – Woodford has it all.
It was great to see so much wonderful music, vibrancy, creativity, colour, energy, care and community.
Given that Christmas is impending and the weather has been super hot here in Brisbane, I have sought refuge inside with a cool drink, experimenting making ‘recycled caps’.
The first experiment – making badges
I trialed these for the first time in November this year, when my cousin came up from Victoria and I’d bought up my ‘magic crafternoon box’ (which turned out to be a great idea as we had a few super wet days) and we experimented with making our own badges.
The base are beer bottle tops.
For the inserts, I had some spare inner tubes, bike parts and stickers. I had also brought pictures I had printed on recycled paper. The rest of the images we drew.
We experimented with inner tubes, paper and cardboard types as the base. Then with epoxy, superglue, hot glue gun and Mod Podge to see what different functions, finishes and adhesives we could achieve with each.
As you can see below, some worked out better than others.
Most importantly, we spent quality and creative time, only used items we had recycled and we had great fun doing it together – plus we made our own custom made badges to wear! Sweet!
As the afternoon worn on, we got much more adventurous – and structural!
Second Experiment – other materials
So, in the lead-up to Christmas, I’ve had another crafternoon to test some other materials and found objects. This time they were just caps, no badges.
As last time, I used bottle caps (so easy) and decorated them with recycled inner tubes, a bike chain, small bike parts, but this time also used bits from a $5 mixed jewellery op shop bag, some of husband’s old guitar strings – and any thing else I’m game to try, like a beetle shell and bottle pull rings.
Unlike the first lot, none of these are set in resin or epoxy. I wanted to do a selection without a finish to see how the cardbord and set trickets respond to not being coated.
I’m very happy with this second batch.
I tried some different designs and I really like being able to reuse the small and fiddly bike parts that ususally get discarded.
These caps are great as Christmas tree decorations, as a gift itself, or as an embellishment for presents, or any manner of other uses. I’ve got a few other ideas for these caps.
But considering the time of year, these caps are as close to mainsteam Christmas as I dare to get.
It was a great way to spend a couple of hours on a hot day. I survived only by having a few beers, having Queen’s 1986 Wembley Concert playing and taking regular intervals to walk the dog. A lovely way to spend an afternoon – and stay away from the crazy shopping crowds!
So however you chose to decorate your holiday this week, I hope you a great time.
Bike t-shirts have been on my mind lately. I’ve been seeing more and more of them around. So, the next couple of posts will be exploring bike t-shirts. To get us started, this first post is looking at where to find unique bike-inspired-t-shirts.
Source: Bisikleta
Where to get awesome bike t-shirts
How many bike t-shirts do you have?
Cycling t-shirts are a quick and easy way to identify yourself, and others, as a lover of all things two-wheeled.
Some people wear them to promote their particular cycling code (road riding, MTBing, BMX etc) or their favourite era of riding (1970s, 1980s, Klunketz) or their favourite rider (Eddie Mercx, Kelly McGazza), favourite bike shop, or bike brand (Campagnolo, Rapha, Castelli, Specialized).
Others have commemorative bike t-shirts of special places they have ridden, special bike races (Tour de France) or events they themselves have participated in – like the t-shirts you find included in event registration packs.
Some riders are part of a team that produce their own t-shirts, others like new bike t-shirts, or one-off, limited editions, others inherit, swap, find them in op-shop and few even design their own.
Over the years I have scoured op-shops, been given bike t-shirts as gifts or won them as prizes.
Regardless of where you source your bike t-shirts, it is a clear signifier of your cycling passion, identity and community.
There are some very cool designs floating around – the more unique the better!
Design: @ilovedoodle
Not all bike t-shirts are created equally
I’ve always got my eye out for bike t-shirts when I am out and about. I especially like the unique and funky designs.
Bike t-shirts with crappy graphics, cheezy memes or that are heavily branded are by far my least favourite.
Like many other cyclists, I wear bike t-shirts a lot.
It is a great ice-breaker when out and about, as strangers who are cyclists will often strike up a conversation knowing that you have something in common.
I’ve had some lovely random conversations and met some wonderful people that I would not have otherwise had a chat to if one of us had not been wearing a bike-shirt.
Conversely, I always make an effort to acknowledge other people who wear bike t-shirts.
So, where do you get your funky bike t-shirts from?
If you are looking for some new ideas – here are my top 4 online places to get some funky bike t-shirts.
10am Registrations start
10:30am Quick speech on details ect
11:30am Registrations close
1-1:30pm Peoples choice closes
2pm Trophy presentations
These are approx. times as its our first show and we’re still getting into the swing of things.
Between these times we can mingle and meet others and talk bikes for the day.
Few key points to keep in mind are:
*when you arrive just come over to the rego marquee and fill out paperwork and we’ll give you all the info you need
*if you arrive after rego closes you are still welcome to display bikes, but they wont be eligible for trophys
*all trophy winners must be present to win, if not it will go to next in line!!
*please use your peoples choice to vote for a bike you like and not your own as if everyone votes for there own bike then no one wins.
* judges bikes will not be up for any awards as its a conflict of interest.
* any questions on the day, just come up to one of us wearing a pedal pushers shirt and we’ll help out as best we can.
*its a public park so we can’t be held responsible for any damages to property but if we all show some respect for others property and keep a look out then there won’t be any problems.
*please use bins provided
*most of all….enjoy the day and meet some like-minded people!!
Public libraries are a major hub for many communities. When I presented at the Australian National Walking and Cycling Conference in Adelaide in July, I suggested local libraries are an ideal location to integrate bicycles more into the daily community experience.
My approach was slightly subversive.
Instead of building massive expensive road transportation infrastructure to try and get more people cycling (Herculean effort!), smaller actions could be taken to ingratiate bicycles (not cycling) more into the everyday community experience. This kind of low-key familiarity and regular exposure to bikes would be ‘just part of the everyday experience’ for people. That is where I see bicycles become more socially accepted, especially by non-cycling people. This is where positive social change and greater community acceptance of bikes could be made.
So how can you start with libraries?
My suggestion was to decorate a series of bicycles in book genres. As an example I used my art bikes to help explain.
This is easily done. Decorate one bike as Romance, another with Cooking, another as Sci-Fi, Crime, Thriller….well…..you get the picture! Alternatively, you can use another theme, event or ‘International Day of the X’ ….or the library can come up with their own idea.
In any case, once decorated, each bike has a rack (bookshelf) hanging from it that offers books in the genre/theme.
There are add-on bonuses you can apply as well, like host a preceding community event to theme decorate the bikes.
As a case in point – I was delighted to see a variation of this suggestion already being enacted during the last fortnight as it was …
Australian Children’s Book Week 2017.
The last week in August was Australian Children’s Book Week 2017.
One of the winning books this year is called The Patchwork Bike by Van T. Rudd.
Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Winners 2017
That means more bikes were in libraries! Woopee!
I was delighted to see a full bike related promotion featuring this event and The Patchwork Bike at my local library. This is what you saw as soon as you entered the main front door:
Wynnym Library, QLD.
I love the bike and books – it is such a great combo.
Some super progressive libraries have gone one step further.
At some rare University libraries, you can find reading bikes (below) where you can study and cycle. To date I have not seen these in any Australian libraries – if you have, please let me know!
These bike instalments have scientifically proven to significant positive impacts in learning/academic results, health outcomes and future livelihoods. A brilliant foray into this is the first chapter of John Matey’s book SPARK. It is an incredible read about how bicycles and exercise is having a significant impact on turning around the lives for hundreds of US students – especially those from low-socioeconomic schools. Awesome stuff!
Grab a copy of Spark from your local library – and ask them when they are installing a bike reading station while you are there!!
Troy Uni Library, USA.
There are so many ways that bicycles can contribute and add value to readers, students and the general public.
Whether it is Children’s Book Week or not, it has been great to see bikes having a greater presence in libraries. It would be great to see bikes become a regular fixture within libraries, not just for special events.
I hope that there will be more creative and progressive integration of bicycles in more local, university and state libraries.
Until then – I have enjoyed seeing more bicycles being happily displayed in libraries to celebrate Children’s Book Week 2017.
Congrats to The Patchwork Bike for being one of this year’s winners!
This time last week, I headed in the afternoon with Leki into Brisbane city to participate riding ‘The Big Push for Road Safety’ event hosted by Space for Cycling (BNE).
It was an awesome event!
All the riders gathered in town where there were some speeches and time to socialise. It was great to see so many different types of bikes, and there were lots of kids, dogs in baskets, colours and smiles abound.
Then we had a lovely slow roll around town.
What happened while riding ‘The Big Push’?
There were constantly bells ringing happily, often punctuated by laughter and the constant ripple of riders chatting. I made sure to have a chat to the people I found myself riding alongside.
As we rode, I saw riders introducing themselves, passing compliments and sharing a few jokes. I saw pedestrians stop to wave and cheer encouragement. I saw riders trying to coax people out of cars with a laugh as we waited for red lights to change.
When we stopped, you could see the bike column snaking away ahead and behind – it looked amazing!
There were many active souls there that had upcoming bike related events- it was a wonderful opportunity to hear what was going on and link to the Brisbane bike scene.
I rode most of the way home next to an awesome couple on a tandem. It just so happened I was wearing my ‘I love tandem’ t-shirt! They were great company and had rigged up a massive speaker on their back wheel and were cranking out some funky riding tunes to keep us all bopping happily along! GOLD!
What a relaxed, fun and a social way to advocate for better urban cycling!
During our ride stopped off for a quick photo out the front of Parliment House, Brisbane.
The pubs were filled with Mayweather vs McGregor fight fans, so it was an added bonus passing open windows and hearing the cheering emanating from inside. Once the fight concluded, the pubs we passed were still packed, so we have a very jovial and supportive audience as we rode past.
I had to ring all my bells extra hard to match their happy cheering!
One of the highlights of the day for me was sticking around after the ride.
As others filtered away, it was an opportunity for me to chat with the custom low-rider crew (see photos below).
The range and style of their fleet is impressive and their owners happy to chat bikes. Each bike is personalised to suit the owner and it was great to see the multicultural, multi-age mix of low riders.
I accepted an invitation to ride one and was immediately smitten!
These low rider bikes are so comfortable and very cool to ride.
We chatted for a while, and they told me about an upcoming bike event they are hosting next month, which I am very keen to attend.
We exchanged contact details and am looking forward to spending some more time with these Kool Katz! Meeting them was an even better bonus on the day.
The event made the TV news on various channels, which was great for spreading the word. An unfortunate, but timely reminder given that five cyclists were involved in a road accident just two days prior.
The day was a success and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
Congrats to all who made an effort to go and big kudos to the organisers!
Yesterday was a very busy biking day! Early morning saw me visiting the Chicks in the Sticks 2017 (all-female MTB event) at Mt Cotton, followed by The Big Push for Road Safety social ride in Brisbane city in the afternoon. This post is a brief run down of the Chicks in the Sticks event – Big Push post will be next!
Chicks in the Sticks 2017.
This event is Australia’s largest “Women’s Only” 3hr Mountain Bike Endurance race. It is hosted by the Rats Cycling Club and was held at Karingal Scout Camp (Mt Cotton, QLD). Last year I rode in this event and had an awesome time, this year I went as support. This event is one of my favourite in the riding calendar, and I always make an effort to go.
Why? Because it is ALWAYS a good day!
It was a beautiful morning and there was a great turn out. When I arrived at the race village, it was full of colour and bustling with the movement of families, kids and riders milling about, people catching up, preparations being made and checking bikes over.
The race village has a few extra additions this year, like a designated kids pop-up nature play area that was filled with games and activities for the families and kids that had come along for the day.
It was a great opportunity to catch up with mates, take some photos and wish the riders well.
It was great to see so many riders. I was particularly excited to see the range of ages. When I used to ride Enduro, one aspect that was most lacking for me what the low female participation rates in general, but particularly for women over 35. So I was thrilled to be in an environment where, for one MTB event at least, that this category was well above the norm! Hooray!
There were also lots of random giveaways and some great podium prizes. I appreciate that this event encourages participants to dress up if they want to – which adds an extra flair, colour and enjoyment to the ride.
Here were a couple of my favourites:
The first event of the day was the Little Chicks in the Sticks ages 5-11 and 12-16 who had their own race before the main field took off at 9 am. As I was not riding this year, it was an opportunity to take some photos and videos, which was a new experience as I am usually in the ride, not watching from the sidelines! See my race start video at the end of this post.
Although I didn’t stay til the end, I had an awesome morning soaking up the colourful, happy vibe. I cheered on the riders, chatted to families who had ‘come to support mum’, checked out some of the new stock at the team tents and had a thoroughly lovely time.
A good day was had by all!
I was really inspired by the riders who participated ‘up the back’ of the pack – those who were being brave and gave MTB a go – some of them for the very first time. It was great to hear how many people had come after being ‘invited by a mate’ to come and try – people who would normally not have tried riding off-road being encouraged my a female rider-friend to give it a go. They were my favourite stories to hear. It takes a lot of guts!
This event is a wonderful example that it is possible to run a competitive MTB that caters for serious racers, as well as for those who are just starting out, want more off-road experience or who are there just to have fun.
If you are keen to give it a go for next year, or know of someone you think might be interested, there are many different categories to participate in..
I tip my hat to the organisers who worked incredibly hard to make this day such a success.
A big congrats to all the riders who participated – you all did so well!
All the families and supporters who came as well made the day even better!
It was a brilliant event and I can’t wait to do it all again next year!
I had a great time and made the most of my time there networking and getting the low down on current issues, debates, research and trends in urban and rural cycling.
There were so many great sessions it would be difficult to cover them all, so I’ll give some event highlights in the next post. I was super impressed by the range and scope of the cycling (and some walking) presentations.
My session was entitled: Bicycles Create Change: An innovative guide to creating memorable and meaningful engagement in community bike projects.
Basically, my roundtable session used some of my community bike projects as case studies to explore a number of key aspects I think are important to consider when planning, managing and running community bike events.
I undertook each of these ‘case study’ events as a private, individual community member, which means that I did not get paid for them, but I also didn’t get any money from the events either – it was purely for the love.
I had 4 classifications to present 6 case studies, some of which you can see more of on the PROJECT page.
The classifications (and case studies) were:
Individual (Leki, and Art Bikes)
Pair collaboration (Leki & the Ova)
Group (Bicycles Create Change Summer Internship)
Wider community (Recycled Dreams Community Storybook and #Bikes_CISTA)
Create community bike events where the focus is NOT on the actual ‘riding’ of bikes. This is because I think there will be better acceptance of bikes in general if the general public have more every day, positive and fun interactions with BIKES (in general) and not just see them in relation to RIDING – so create events that doesn’t rely on fitness’ access, confidence, age, or even having a bike, etc. This will mean that bikes are normalised into daily community life and are more readily accepted.
Not to see cycling/biking only as a ‘sport’.
Create ‘Bike events’ that cater to non-riders – create positive bike exposure
If they don’t come to you – you need to go to them! Bike events need to go into the community- no more events where the riders are (physically or otherwise) separated from the general public
Debunk the ‘road-riding-is-the-only-type-of-cycling-I-see-in-my-community-and-that’s-not-me’ myth – create events where the focus is not on the type of riding, but that it is fun and anyone can use a bike for all kinds of things
Seeing bikes as an object other than just for riding – better integration of bikes into our communities in ways that are not solely about riding
creating events that invite participation, celebrate ‘local heroes’ and local surrounds
Creating events that have a zero-waste policy. No more cycling events with plastic cups, copious amounts of advertising flyers in musettes or crappy McCrap-crap that goes along with far too many cycling events – better still, how about bike events that have a reverse-rubbish feature and turn any waste brought into the event into something more positive?
….and I’m sure you can’t think of your own ideas as well. I’d love to hear them!
I presented 3 x 10 minutes, each followed by 15-minute discussions.
To add a little interest, spark and creativity, I presented in a custom-made outfit made out of recycled bicycle tires and parts. I had the idea for this outfit as a prototype for a series, and as I was busy getting the presentation prepared, so my collaborating partner Claire Tracey made the outfit and hat based on my requirements and infused a little of her own magic. (Thx CT!) I made the accessories. This ensemble was the prefect compliment – and reflection – of precisely the points my presentation was making – Hazah!
I was very interested to hear what people thought of the ideas and projects I presented – and the questions and discussions that ensued gave me a lot to think about.
One of the best outcomes? Following the presentation I was approached by a group of young marketers who are working on a behaviour change project to get more local people aware of – and riding – bikes. They want me to bring the Bicycles Create Change perspective to their project and consult! A wonderful presentation result. Whoopee!
This in-depth, insightful interview and event guest post comes coutesy of the every effervescent and thoughtful @BettyLillowaltzen. Betty is an Artist, Educator, Keynote Speaker and all round amazing soul. This is a wonderfully comprehensive and enlightening discussion of one of Melbourne’s most loved (sub)cycle-cultural ‘bumpy’ urban rides – the Melburn Roobaix. Thanks to Betty Lillowaltzen for her time and effort in painstakingly interviewing all the key stakeholders, event organisers, riders and participants that went into producing this post – the extra details make this piece an extra rich and wonderful read! Mwah BL!
A quick survey of the Melburn Roobaix crowd and there is something immediately obvious: women!
Why does this adventure around Melbourne’s laneways enjoy the most gender diversity of all bike events in Australia?
“I’m in!”: my response to Zane Alford’s invite to join him and Wookie in the 2017 Melburn Roobaix. I hadn’t needed to hesitate as I knew that my complete lack of bike fitness was in no way a barrier to fun in the famously costumed ride, nor was my 1980s chevvy heavy stainless steel Malvern Star. Roobaix skills are seemingly more centered around an ability to decorate oneself and bike, eat and drink and look really silly; I’d be a natural.
That Melburn Roobaix was not going to be (in Andy’s words) “a sausagefest” as so many other bike events are, but instead a celebration and a great day out void of competitive elitist vibes I was certain of, but what I wasn’t so sure of was why? Inspired by the rise of women’s sport and, better yet, the rise of women within sport, I wanted to know how the Roobaix has evolved to be the most gender inclusive cycling event in the country (according to a recent survey by Cycling Australia).
Two questions burned: were the organisers conscious about involving women? and if so, how did they go about getting women involved?
Melburn Roobaix is a creation of Fyxo, the family company run by Melodie and Andy White. I knew Andy from back in the ol’ days when I worked for messenger bag company, Crumpler. I met him 15 years ago after an Ally Cat at The Public Bar: two years after the lock on the womens’ toilet door broke and at least nine years before it would get fixed; in the days of $1 pots of Geelong Bitter on a Monday, Punk bands and bestickered fixies piled along O’Connell Street. Andy was fancy dressed but still sporting his ‘Ask me about the weather’ badge, and talking with some couriers and female riders – even back in 2003 he was recruiting women to ride. He suggested that I ride in the next Ally Cat and I felt momentarily convinced that this would be a good idea but didn’t think I was up to splitting traffic on a fixie to keep up with Melbourne’s maddest riders.
Encouraging people to get on a bike has always been a talent of Andy’s, as is having a yarn, so I felt comfortable picking up the phone, not having seen each other in 8 years, to ask him some pretty pointed questions about women in cycling, race, LGBTIQ+ inclusion, men’s clubs and elitism in sport. He answered all my questions with grace, humour, references to anti-establishment, mutual outrage and added some radical plans.
I was not surprised at all that encouraging the participation of women in the Roobaix was intentional, or that this year’s event also took place during World Pride – though this was underplayed, Andy reflected on being really quite chuffed that there was a turnout of transgender people this year and that as the ride becomes more community oriented it increasingly represents our whole community (though the lack of racial diversity is still quite apparent at all bike events and a challenge for the future).
So how did they do it? Andy reflected on the first year of the Roobaix, explaining how “a guy showed up with all the gear, he had a Garmin and had worked out the fastest route which was mainly on roads and which was pretty unsafe.” He and Melodie wanted to make it less of a race and move away from the tricked out, almost exclusively male lycra crew, so they just eliminated a first place prize. “We are more excited about the costumes and the turnout and having someone show up dressed as a banana”, he explained.
It’s important that everyone is safe. A sad reality of bike events around the globe is the inherent risk of traffic and obstacles, though organisers are always looking for ways to make cycling safer for everybody: as Andy says, “every event where no one dies is a good event”. The dangers of riding are all too familiar to the White family, as in 2007 Andy suffered a broken neck. Though he was lucky to be able to be back on the bike within a week of removing the halo, they had developed a new appreciation of the risks of riding. Andy was emphatic that making an event less competitive did help to attract a broader demographic, but that he in no way considered female riders to be non-competitive. While for many people the Roobaix is the first organised ride that they participate in, there are plenty of female riders who go on to compete in timed events and women who are already riding competitively.
Bike racer, writer and blogger Verita Stewart is one such rider. Verita had been a regular bike commuter, but it wasn’t until moving to Melbourne from country Victoria a few years ago that she joined other riders and started to compete. Verita was able to identify other reasons that the participation in the Roobaix was so high and diverse: “You can ride on any bike. This weekend is the Grand Fondo and you can’t just rock up on a mountain bike or a cruiser or BMX or tandem or recumbent or folding or narrow bar fixie or adult trike or city bike or hybrid. Each event requires a really specific bike and kit and for many people that’s a barrier. Wearing lycra is also enough for some people to say ‘that’s not for me’, and I know that some of my friends have not participated in other events because of that”. Melburn Roobaix was one of the first events that Verita rode in and each year she met more people in the cycling community and brought more friends along, many of whom wouldn’t identify as bike riders. “I know that tennis isn’t for me. I can’t hit a ball to save my life. Cycling as a sport isn’t for everybody either. The Roobaix is more of a community event than a race though, it’s more about being in a big community and maybe putting on a cossie and exploring places you haven’t been before, and that’s why so many people say ‘I could do that’.“
The types of costumes that people wear are usually naive and silly and we don’t see the kinds of sexualised costumes that people wear to other fancy dress events. I asked Verita how she thinks the Melbourne Roobaix has developed its particular style? “Well, it’s a really family and community event so I think that if you showed up dressed in a French maid’s costume you’d just feel like a bit of a twat”. Not many of the other bike scenes have been as progressive, and we spoke for some time on what we thought caused some of the costs, perceptions and gender inequality that are still so prevalent at other events and which form real barriers for people entering cycling as a sport in all its various forms.
Personally, now in my mid-thirties, I’m more active than ever: not the most fit that I’ve ever been necessarily, but I find myself enjoying a greater variety of sports than I ever have before and participating with less and less trepidation. I regularly surf with other women and it’s been exciting to paddle out each weekend and see sisters lined up along a break. It’s more than just exciting, it’s inspiring and exhilarating. We often joke about approaching middle age and just starting to have the childhood we wished we’d had if we hadn’t felt so discouraged from having a go. Imbued with the excitement of events like the Roobaix, WAFL, surfing and the power of staunch advocates and idols such as Serena Williams, I am excited for a new generation of women.
We still have such a long way to go but already the surge of excitement around women in sport has had a distinct effect upon me.
Where I may once have said “I’ll get back to you”, I now say “I’m in”.
