cLOVEerlicious.....

A Whole Lot of Chic Fun in the Sun

I love a Cycle Chic Kids event - happiness reigns and we get to play with ribbons and weird craft and funk up bicycles and scooters all day - usually helped along by some wicked cakes from the local school - what could be better.
So thanks to the manic cake bakers from Newtown Public School and those caramel kisses.... holy moly....

Oh yeah we upcycled some pretty bikes too and the kids (and adults) went away smiling - happy days.

     

     

Thanks too to lovely Lord Mayor Clover Moore, Carolyn, Michelle and the crew from City of Sydney for another glorious day and gorgeous Kerry for all your brilliant help and of course Mr Chic for the fully sustainable cycle chic kids extra cycle event transport and everything else :-)

And we couldn't do these gigs without the crazy inspiration from the recycle folks at Reverse Garbage...

More Cycle Chic Kids stuff here and email us if you want to be on our mailing list for future events.
More pics here on flickr.

Cycle Chic Kids Go West!

We're excited to be getting out of the Eastern Suburbs this Saturday and taking the Cycle Chic Kids bike magic on the road again!

       

Lord Mayor Clover Moore will be officially opening four beautifully revitalised community spaces over in Erskineville and we'll be setting up shop in Lillian Fowler Reserve between 11 and 1 on Saturday 5 November so come on down and say hi - bring your kids and their bicycles and get crafty with us.

Cycle Chic Kids is all about getting kids excited about riding by getting them to bling up their bikes using recycled or repurposed materials.  You may have seen us at the WOOP Bourke Street Festival earlier this year and we do love to bling bikes..... little kids and big "kids" welcome!!

More info here.

WOOP - The Movie!

The WOOP Festival to celebrate the Bourke Street Cycle Way was a day that will stay with all who attended for a while.  It was a day that heralded a new Sydney, a safer biking Sydney and a community spirit that I heard on the day compared to Sydney during the Olympics.

So here's a little reminder thanks to the City of Sydney, cause we can never get enough of happy citizen cyclists.

Bourke Street - it's only the start of it.

Cycle Chic Kids Do WOOP!

It's been a long time coming but the kids are ready to roll again!

We're very pleased to be presenting the next Cycle Chic Kids event as part of the wonderful WOOP! Rolling Bourke Street Festival Extravaganza on Sunday May 15.

This well-overdue celebration of the Bourke Street Cycle Way is morphing in to a fabulous community festival with all sorts of things planned - live entertainment, a vintage bike exhibit, kids activities, street entertainers, bikes and MORE BIKES and a mega raffle to raise money for the Cancer Council NSW initiative "Do Your Thing."

Events will stretch the length of the Cycle Way from Waterloo to Woolloomooloo and riders are encouraged to ride the loop and show the local businesses (and Sydney!) some bicycle love.  It's time.

Cycle Chic will be situated in Wimbo Park (opposite Devonshire Street) from 11am-3pm, along with Bourke Street Public School and their sausage sizzle.

We are inviting all children (and their carers) to bring their bikes and join in the craft fun with us and our team of wonderfully creative upcyclers.  We'll provide all manner of recycled bits and bobs for you to play with (feel free to bring some bits from your craft box too) and we'll help you to turn your bikes into art!

Have a look at the last event to see what sort of fun we had and then why not finish the day with a ride along the new safe Cycle Way en famille??

We'll be posting more details over the next few weeks but please spread the word to the parents and children in your lives and hop over to like our Facebook page and the WOOP! page to keep up to date with all the details as they unfold.

Cycle Chic Kids Are Go!

The Blingtastic Launch of Cycle Chic Kids!

What a wonderful way to roll off the first Cycle Chic Kids event.

Despite the overcast day which may have kept some families away, we managed to sidestep the rain and spent a very happy few hours in Centennial Park creating magic.

It's funny when you organise a kids event, you can never quite tell if it will work - they're funny creatures (never work with kids or animals right?) but when it works ?  Boy it works.

Within five minutes of unpacking the tubs of craft supplies, all 20 or so kids (plus their eager parents...) were into it, up to their little arms in fabric, flowers, ribbons, foil, paper, bells....you name it we had it.

   

It was hard to keep a smile off my face as I snapped away and watched them festoon their bicycles and scooters and tricycles with their finds.  Talk about creative ?  We had a doll in a basket wrapped in paper complete with a foil cupcake in case incase she got hungry.  We had flowers and leaves stuck like peacock feathers from saddles.  Silver starts threaded through spokes.  Space helmets and rocket boosters attached to training wheels....I could go on.

    

The wonderful Paul became No 1 King of Bling and was sweet-talked by all the kids into driving them around (and around) the park in the Gazelle Cabby.  Who doesn't love a ride in a cargo bike, it's the modern equivalent of the bouncy castle I reckon.

And the fun didn't stop with the kids.  Quite a few parents tried out the Cabby and my Velorbis.  Nice to see adults having so much fun with bikes too - it really is infectious.

  

So fun was had by one and all  and plans are already underway for the next one.  BIG plans.  Please make sure you like the facebook page to be kept upto date with details or drop me an email and I'll add you to our new Cycle Chic Kids email group. 

It was impossible to judge a winner out of the kids as they all made such an effort so we decided to award a Basil basket to Hannah who made the longest journey to join us with her Dad.  We loved meeting you both and Mark you have been voted the coolest Dad on two wheels (or three in your case....) - hope you survived the long trip home?

It's been impossible to edit the 300 odd photographs from the day (see the rest on flickr) but the kids speak for themselves, so here the are - some of the first Cycle Chic Kids from Sydney.

    

I am endebted to so many people for helping to make this a success and offering their support.  What a wonderful bicycle community we are a part of.  Without wanting to turn this into an Oscar acceptance speech, permit me to say THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to (in no particular order):

The Lord Mayor, Clover Moore MP who was due to launch the event but her recent foot injury prevented her from attending.  She has been a great supporter of Sydney Cycle Chic as we are of hers!  Her speech is here.

The entire Cycle Team at City of Sydney who tirelessly give me their help and advice.  Elaena Gardner from BIKESydney for her wisdom and loaning us their Cabby (sorry about all the stickers....). Kathi from Feather Brigade for her crazy craftiness.  The supreme Queen of Craft, Liane Rossler for just being the most creative and generous person I know.  Liz Nield and Lyn Heal from Opera Australia for getting behind me and digging out those pink leaves.  Neroli for being so wonderfully generous.  Miss Sonja for being my fellow cycle chica from the start.  Milou for being calm and keeping me in Gin. Jim for being there and giving me free reign of the UTS faculty guillotine.  The kids and parents at Montessori East for getting into the spirit.

And of course, last but not least, Mikael, the Godfather of Cycle Chic for the cute logo and the Felix's (Sydney and Copenhagen) for inspiring this in the first place.

Cycle Chic Sundays Sydney Does Surry Hills in Style!

Wow.  I'm still coming down from Saturday's ride and it's now Monday!
The image of everyone smiling, ringing their bike bells cycling down Bourke Street in the spring sunshine is still very much with me and this really does feel like the start of something very exciting in Sydney.  How wonderful to meet so many other like-minded riders who most definitely "get" what the cycle chic movement is all about.  Bravo to everyone for getting into the spirit and joining us, it wouldn't have been a success without you!

Special thanks, of course, to City of Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore for showing her support and joining us at the start of the ride.  Thanks to her vision, we are slowly getting the infrastructure we need to explore this "city of villages" - and explore we will, just try to stop us.

There's only one way forward from here - and that's straight ahead, on two wheels, slowly, stylishly and smiling.....

Here is a snapshot of the day from Tokyo Bike to the Beresford Hotel via the Bourke Street cycle way to  Remy & Lees Cafe with lunch in a park and shopping at I Ran The Wrong Way.  Rather a lot of socialising and less riding than perhaps we envisaged but so nice to just let the day unfold organically.  This is after all, what Cycle Chic Sundays is all about - catching up with friends and meeting new ones while riding bikes and looking chic.  Indeed.

  

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

Special thanks go to Mike Rubbo of Sit-up Cycle Blog for documenting the ride in his inimicable way.  He's posted his colourful take on the day here.
And the completely delightful and inspirational Sue Abbott who also posted about the ride on her Freedom Cyclist blog here.
And the lovely Feather Brigade who posted here.
There are also a zillion more photographs in the Cycle Chic Sundays Sydney flickr group.  Feel free to join and add your own pics of the ride to this group - we'd love to have you.
[apologies for not naming everyone here, I will attempt to do so in flickr]

PS: plans for the next ride are underway and will be posted here soon so please follow us or like our facebook page to keep upto date with everything!