Cycle Chic Sundays Did Art!

What a glorious Sydney winter sunday we had yesterday.  We rounded up the chicsters for lunch at the new Deus Cycleworks cafe/store before heading down to Mike Rubbo's exihibition at Tap Gallery.

Great bike art, selling fast, go take a look before it ends on July 17th.  Mike is passionate about positive imagery of people on classic bikes as are we so of course we approve.  Mikael Colville-Andersen has been imortalised as in fact have I and who knows, maybe you have too!!!

   

Some hot bikes with their cycle chicster riders.

The owner of these lovely cycle chic approved red boots is Dutch and rides a Velorbis like mine - say no more.

Paul Martin from Brisbane came down to Sydney for the exhibition - this is how I always remember him - the king of looking cool while standing and riding a Gazelle.

Impromptu bicycle parking outside Darlinghurst's Tap Gallery - we kind of took over the street.

I have a thing about riding shoes..... fascinating.

   

Alacoque is our first beautifully pregnant Sydney Cycle Chicster - looking forward to seeing her in full bloom on her Electra!

Michael and Kathi from the fabulous Feather Brigade heading home as the sun started setting.

Ah the end of a great day - sunshine, friends, food, wine, art and bikes - win!

More pics on flickr as always....

Yep Today is All About the Fashion

It's nice to see someone taking notice of the little things.  Killer blue heels and matching rims - nice.

We'll be seeing more of Amanda and her beautiful Electra as she's another Opera Australia buddy.

I'm converting them all, one bike at a time....

Growers Market Chic

Sydney's foodie scene is huge and it seems growers markets are cropping up everywhere.  One of my favorites is Everleigh Markets, every Saturday at Carriageworks.
Apart from being a great place to catch up with friends over a coffee and croque madame from Bird Cow Fish, it's produce heaven and what better way to transport your organic fruit and veg and Yulla chocolate mousse than by bicycle?!?

I met the brilliant Allison there on her Electra Townie.  A woman after my own heart, she tweets about sustainability (@urbanaffect) and has a great consultancy specialising in urban and social planning - check out her website here.

Cockatoo Island Chic

Well the ride on Cockatoo Island a few weeks ago turned into a (retrospectively amusing) exercise in logistics!
Around 20 or more of us met up at Circular Quay and took the ferry over to the heritage listed Cockatoo Island, collecting film-maker Mike Rubbo and friends at Woolwich with their own bikes PLUS an extra 6 bikes PLUS the "Sociable".... all in all about 30+ bicycles....

Sydney Ferries were fantastically helpful after they got over their shock and the poor ferry guys helped us find space for all the bikes as we headed over to the Island for our ride.
The sun shone, we rode, we picnic'ed, we filmed, I fell off my bike like a 12 year old and still have the bruised, scraped knees to prove it and a good day was had by all.

Thanks to everyone who joined the madness - couldn't have done it without you!
And BIG thanks to Dr Charlton for the vintage bikes that he kindly donated to Sydney Cycle Chic after the ride.  The "Charlton Collection" will be available for use on our future rides.....

Mike's film featuring the sociable is wonderful - not every day that one gets to ride a piece of bicycle history.  More on the ride and the "Sociable" over at Mike's blog.

How lucky we are, sunshine, boys, bikes AND Sydney Harbour.

Arriving on the island, checking we had all the bikes.

The Sociable in action - all about the balance!  And Meredith, who hadn't ridden a bike for many years but thought it might be fun to start again on this?

     

It was a bit gusty at times as Paul discovered.

Filming in the huge Turbine Hall.

     

Bondi Beach Cycle Chic - Part 1

Bondi Beach on a HOT sunny Sunday.  I spent a glorious day at the beach yesterday with Miss Joyce from Cycle Style who was visiting from Melbourne.  There is some serious style going on this year - thanks Jane on her beautiful Electra.

If I absolutely must, I'll force myself to spend more time there this Summer documenting the rise of cycle chic.... someone has to do it :-)

Cycle Chic Sundays, Grey Skies and the Growers Market

I think we luckily managed to capture the only 5 hours of dry weather in Sydney this weekend for our ride down to the Growers Market.  We were joined by some of the (now) regular Cycle Chic Sundays Sydney riders and some new faces which was lovely - and dare I say it, their bikes were even lovelier!
What a magnificent group of bicycles we had.... an Electra, an Abici, a Schwinn, a Gazelle, two Velorbis (or is that Velorbi ??), a vintage Repco Traveller....goodness me.

     

We met on the Pyrmont Bridge under the monorail station then did a slight detour via the new Union Street cycleway around to the market.  It was absolutely heaving, given that this was the start of Sydney's Crave International Food Festival.  So we separated and stocked up on some nibbles before meeting back at the bikes.  Goats cheese and prosciutto from Ocello for me, sourdough bread from Sonoma and La Tartine, passion fruit, tomatoes, cakes, relish, the strangest gourmet marshmallows I've ever seen....yum.

     

     

Kathi (from the lovely Feather Brigade) lead us around the Jones Bay Wharf to Pyrmont Point Park for our picnic.  (It's a great spot for a ride - if you haven't done it yet, do.  We'll definitely be back for a further explore and you can ride right around the harbour foreshore to Glebe).

 

We munched, chatted and munched a bit more then I made everyone pose for photographs for our first fabulous Cycle Chic competition.  The winner will receive a gorgeous Basil pannier thanks to our new supporters Gazelle Australia.

Finalists and details of how to vote will be posted tomorrow so stay tuned!

As always, there are more pics on flickr.  If you took any on the ride, please add them to the Cycle Chic Sundays Sydney group page, thanks !

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!