Bike nuts and bike fashion at Festival on Wheels

The newly opened section of cycleway in Bourke Street Woolloomooloo was christened last Saturday with a mini Festival on Wheels.

Bike shop Sable & Argent, along with nearby art gallery Monstrosity, combined to create the event which offered a swap meet, free barbecue and a cycle-themed group exhibition at the new artist-run gallery.

Youngster Bryn Reid from North Narrabeen was there with his dad Ted, who said they came along because they were “bike nuts’.

He said he was interested in the inner city bike style and culture, which was different from the northern beaches scene. The city was more interested in trendy fixed-wheel bikes known as ‘fixies’.

But what’s so good about a bike with no gears, given Sydney’s famously hilly terrain?

“It’s the simplicity,” he said. “It’s like the difference between a Picasso and a Kandinsky. Sometimes the reason for a ride is not to get there first.”

He referred to London’s Tweed run [here] in which groups of up to 400 riders don tweeds and caps (or retro frocks for the ladies) and ride old-style fixies through the upper class areas stopping along the way for a spot of tea and a Best Moustache competition.

Young Bryn did not seem enthused about the tweed trend, preferring monocycle hockey which he plays every Sunday in Camperdown.

The pair also like watching extreme monocycling vids on Youtube, in which young men apparently with balls of steel pogo around cities, skateparks and mountain tops jumping off great heights on one wheel. Ouch.

by Michael Gormly