Papa's Got a Brand New Bike

There are always such cool chicsters at Everleigh Markets on a Saturday - great to see new riders too with spanking new cool bikes.  Now is the time to ride Sydney!

Everleigh Market - Ever Chic

We finally had some sunshine in Sydney on Saturday and the Everleigh grower's market at Carriageworks was teeming with people and bicycles.

It's what community markets are all about - local, ethical, sustainable produce bought and transported locally on ethical, sustainable bicycles.  Yuri's cherries were the highlight this week for me - yum!

A basket of flowers and Christmas Bush - glorious.

And some not-so-real flowers...... and my fennel.....

Oh Happy Day

What a fun day we had last Sunday with our bike craft workshop in the Happy Talk House.  The bamboo bike crates looked gorgeous as did the ones made from re-purposed irrigation pipe crates.  It was so wonderful to see everyone interpret the basic design in their own way.

We were so inspired that we've started work on a range of re-purposed timber crates too so if you're at the Sydney Rides Festival Street Fair this weekend, stop by the Cycle Chic stall for a sneaky preview.

Now I just want to see all these crates on bicycles and some flower wheels riding around Sydney!

    

    

    

Thanks to everyone who made this event so joyful - you know who you are.....

More photographs on flickr and the Happy Talk House is still creating magic so stop by if you haven't already.

Happiness Is a Repurposed Bike Crate

So we're very excited to be doing a workshop as part of the brilliant Happy Talk project during Art and About Sydney.
Our brief - resourceful, environmentally aware cycle chic bike accessories with a Pacific twist.  Easy.

I've been wanting to make bike crates for a while so we expanded on that by coming up with designs that are entirely sustainable.  Other than the cable ties everything has been sourced from repurposed, recycled and recovered materials -  hell even the transport was sustainable thanks to the cargo bike and the power tools were charged using 100% green energy.

My new white bike was recovered and given a new lease of life too and I am completely in love so expect a Cycle Chic Bike Restoration Workshop soon.

If you'd like some floral wheels to brighten up your day or have a hankering for a cute bamboo bike crate decorated with shells and flowers to stash your bikini in this Summer, we hope you and your bike can make it to the workshop tomorrow!

I have power tools too - don't mess with a woman and her jigsaw...

Make sure you stop by the Happy House for some crafty Pacific happiness and check out their program of events happening all through October.  The Happy House alone is worth the visit.

Severely Pimped Up Ride

I'm not even going to ask how this is possible.....?

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 !

Sundays with Joni

Well we weren't blessed with much sunshine on Sunday for the second Cycle Chic Sundays Sydney ride so I mostly shot in b/w which kind of suited the monochrome day.
I met up with Miss Sonja in Rose Bay and took the ferry in to Circular Quay, chatting to curious ladies en route who wanted to know what we were all about.  Intrigued as they were, I hope the lady who took my contact details is reading this and gets in touch !!!  We'd love you to join us :-)
(Incidentally, this seems to happen each time I ride my beautiful bike which is damn cool - thanks Velorbis).
So we arrived at Circular Quay to find the lovely and beaming Miss Kerry waiting for us, yellow flowers tied to her handlebars, knitted seat cover and Joni Mitchell playing on her handlebar stereo.  Wonderful.  She had found a link to our site through Bike Sydney and turns out she is a real bike ride veteran - so glad you joined us Miss Kerry !
Next stop the Opera House to collect Miss Bronwyn, then some quick pics before heading up to the Art Gallery for some brunch and art.  Met up with a supportive non-bike-owning friend Miss Gill (got to get you some wheels girl.....) who surprised me with some badges from my twitter pals @RocketFuelStyle that she'd bought from the Finders Keepers Winterland Market at Carriageworks.
Then slowly back down Macquarie Street, missing the ferry home by 2 minutes so Miss Sonja and I killed time at the Rocks market and laughed our heads off outside Royal Copenhagen Ice Cream shop - it appealed to us in an ironic sort of way - then back to the ferry with ice cream for the ride home.

    

    

And a final shot in colour just because I want to share my Grandma's emerald green vintage evening gloves with you - I have unearthed a box of vintage scarves and gloves long forgotten which will be making many appearances I feel.......

Regret of the day - missing a photo op with some half drunk orange clad Dutch guys because we had our hands full with bikes and gelato.  Shame, would have been a good pic.

High point of the day - Joni Mitchell accompanying us.