Storytelling builds a cycling community

Tales on wheels: people’s stories continue to build the Bendigo cycling community. Photo courtesy Bike Bendigo

By Edward Barkla

The incomparable storyteller, Terry Pratchett, once said: people think that stories are shaped by people; in fact, it’s the other way around. It’s not just people, but communities that are shaped by stories and that’s certainly true of the cycling community in Bendigo. It grows and develops as we share our individual stories of the joy of riding, and each story excites someone to engage or participate.

So what makes a great story? You do. Every story has a you in it and every story is told to make an impression on all the other yous in our community.

Of course there are some whose motto seems to be: never let the truth get in the way of a good story. We’ve certainly all heard the cycling story that, like the best fishing yarns, is an embellishment of the truth. On the other hand, some struggle to share a good story because what’s actually true sounds too implausible to be taken seriously.

Some in our cycling community are born storytellers. They capture our imagination and we hang on each word they utter. They share the colours, depth and breadth of the setting, and transport us so thoroughly into the moment that we live their story with them. There are others whose stories are a short and succinct one-page sketch, but we’d do well not to dismiss them. Hidden in the bare bones can be untold wisdom for those willing to listen.

Learning to listen to a story without reservation is the key to allowing it to shape us and mould our thinking. A story can act as a yardstick allowing us to measure how far we’ve come, or how far we have yet to go. It can mirror our own biases, holding them up to us so we recognise that we might need to broaden our thinking. Likewise, a story can challenge our ingrained prejudices, suggesting new ways to think, holding open gates to new avenues to explore. And in some of those avenues, we form new relationships.

Storytelling is not just folklore, it’s not just tripping down memory lane. Stories are very much about the here and now, linking lives across the community. I love listening to people tell their stories and, more often than not, find we are more closely connected than we realise.

At the end of another year, I want to thank everyone who’s been willing to share their stories in the hope they inspire someone else. Inspire them to try something they’ve always wanted to do. Inspire them to reach out and make a connection. Inspire them to face life with courage.

Looking forward to seeing you on the road soon, God willing.

 

Cycling is a broad church

By Edward Barkla

Cycling community: it’s simply about people getting around on two wheels. Photo courtesy Bike Bendigo

The year is drawing to a close. The team of Bendigo Bike Life writers have shared diverse stories, their passions and those of others they have met on the road.

Thank you to the readers of the Bike Life column as you all have a story of your own and just from reading the articles we share a common link. As people who ride bikes, we all share a common euphoria on two wheels. We all have experienced the freedom two wheels offers, choosing to go where we liked, when we liked, sharing the trail or road with whom we liked.

There is a lot to like about cycling. I’ve come to appreciate more and more the unity of vastly different aspects of cycling. Lycra, fast wheels and flashy bikes do not represent the whole of the bike riding community.

There is a lot to be said for those disciplines of cycling not related to distance speed or terrain. There is a lot to be said for each person’s time and effort on the bike and its contribution to their overall health and wellbeing.

The team writing these articles hope that, in some small way, they connect with where you are currently, or where you might have been once ant that memory warms your heart. The team also hopes that their articles in same way excite you to a new horizon that is yet to be conquered a new experience to add to your memory box of cycling experiences.

There is no end to what cycling has to offer whether it be on road, off road, uphill or down dale. What is for you won’t be the same as for others, but that’s what makes cycling so appealing. We are doing the same thing for a different outcome. For all that, we’re achieving unity in creating a cycling community.

What more can we find to share with you? While you all do your own thing, there is always a story to share. As long as you’re willing to share with us with the same hopes and desires of making a difference in the cycling community, we’ll tell those stories.

We also thank the Bendigo Weekly for providing the space to tell your stories. As the name suggests, cycling is a lifestyle. We hope you’ll continue to share in the Bendigo Bike Life.

Looking forward to seeing you on the road soon God willing

MTB club and community building trails

Grand plans: Spring Gully will become the centre of an exciting network of mountain bike trails. Photo: Bendigo Tourism

Spring Gully will soon be a hub of mountain bike activity as new sustainable trails are built.  Many existing trails have become degraded and eroded over time and with the boom in cycling are being impacted on more than ever.  But the Bendigo Mountain Bike Club has big plans for Spring Gully. Over the last few years, it’s worked with local land managers towards a sustainable network of trails for the city.

The club has been developing its ideas for a planned network with Parks Victoria, City of Greater Bendigo and DELWP along with local community groups.  Spring Gully has been identified as the priority area for development.

It’s easily accessible from the city centre, and intersects with the Bendigo Bushland Trail and the Goldfields Track which links Bendigo with Ballarat.  The Goldfields Track has recently been deemed a trail of significance by the state government. The Ride Goldfields concept will see five mountain bike trail networks along its route including Harcourt and Spring Gully.

Why do we ride? Coffee!

Social stimulant: coffee is the real reason cyclists get out of bed so early and take to the road. Photo: Dion Jelbart Photography

By Chris Lightfoot

Why do we ride? It’s good for us, keeps us healthy, helps control our weight, it’s fun and so on. Mostly true, if boring! However, really, there is only one answer on which most riders, even the professionals, agree.

Coffee!

On any morning at coffee shops around Australia, there will be one or more cyclists enjoying a well-earned coffee. This ‘life giving nectar of the gods’ is the secret to many riders rolling out of bed at least an hour earlier than they would normally and hitting the road.

How did coffee become part of the cycling culture? The stimulant nature of caffeine is but one answer. The more accurate answer to link between cycling and coffee is … the social element.

Community FreeWheeling

Ros, Sebastion and Jedia work on a bike at a FreeWheeling workshop in Rosalind Park.

By Nicola Dunnicliff-Wells

You might have seen the FreeWheeling Fun tent down in Rosalind Park, across the creek from the farmers market. It’s where volunteers fix donated bikes and give them away to people needing them, chat about bike riding and support anyone wanting to give it a go.

It all started with a question. Leading up to Ride to Work Day last year, community development teacher Ben Shue asked a group of colleagues and friends: what are we passionate about in terms of bikes?

The ideas came tumbling out over a breakfast – captured in drawings on butchers paper – and FreeWheeling Fun was born. “I think collectively from those pictures, it was just everybody cycling,” says Ros Woodburn. Natalie Jacobson agrees: “We just wanted to get people on bikes – people who hadn’t been on bikes for a while, or people using bikes to get from A to B.”

“If people don’t have a bike or don’t know how to ride or don’t have someone to introduce them to cycling, this is the grass roots first step. It’s a very practical thing to do,” says Ben. Giving away donated bikes quickly became one of the group’s key aims – sparked by Ben’s passion for getting bikes that were sitting in sheds out into use. “They’re just wasting away, and we’ve got people who really do need a bike.”

Some recipients of those bikes have had no other transport. “Like a mum and young son who didn’t have a car,” explains Ben. “I had a Karen couple learning English at TAFE who have five children approach me; and a family of four kids who make their own way to school as Mum works early hours.”

The group’s physical presence in Rosalind Park provides an opportunity to engage the community about riding. “There’s a lot of talking that goes on,” says Natalie. “People talk about their anxieties, the barriers. We all look ‘normal’ – we don’t rock up in lycra. We’re helping to change people’s attitudes – whether it’s going for a ride with someone, or just getting them to think some more about dusting off that bike.”

When it comes to making a difference, FreeWheeling Fun is a small group doing big things. And, says Ben: “It’s as much an opportunity to volunteer as it is about promoting and providing bikes”.

To get involved or donate a bike, donate money, or request a bike, email freewheelingfun@gmail.com or text Ben 0419 000 237 or Ros 0407 581 070.

Pedalling towards a bicycle friendly Bendigo

By Steven Abbott

Communal benefits: making it easy to get more people on bikes in Bendigo brings a range of health, environmental, economic and transport benefits to the city.

This will be a big year for cycling in Bendigo and will have the town buzzing. Stage 1 of the Jayco Herald-Sun Tour finishes in Bendigo in March. The International Madison brings Australian and international competitors to town. The mountain bike club hosts two major events. And the Great Victorian Bike Ride comes here twice. But it’s not just the elite and competitive riders who are making their mark.

Bendigo offers a fabulous mix of a rich goldfields heritage, quiet country roads and a compact city perfect for exploring on two wheels.

On top of that, the health, environmental, economic and transport benefits of encouraging more people on bikes are too good to ignore.

It’s a combination that a group of volunteers in Bendigo couldn’t ignore. They’re working passionately to help the city become bicycle friendly for visitors and locals alike Together they’re known as Bike Bendigo.

Bike Bendigo launched in October last year with a vision to see everyone who rides a bicycle in any capacity as part of one community. In Bendigo that’s a large community and Bike Bendigo will focus on advocating to government for more and improved bike infrastructure. And ‘bike infrastructure’ can be defined pretty broadly.

Certainly it includes bike lanes and parking for commuters and shoppers. But cycling in Bendigo includes all kinds of riders and competitive disciplines. Bike Bendigo has an inclusive vision that sees them all as different aspects of an activity that has many benefits.

Already, the group has helped to established ‘Free Wheeling Family Fun’ which is a bike workshop, training and recycling session held monthly next to the Farmers Market. It is also currently developing a website, calendar of events and regular community bike ride.

Bike Bendigo will focus on running and promoting community events that encourage bike riding. It aims to help business and other groups pursue ideas that are bike-related. And it wants to promote Bendigo as regional Australia’s bicycle capital. All of this while having fun!

If you have an event you’d like promoted, an idea you want to get off the ground, or you’d like to get involved in any way you can contact Bike Bendigo on social media or via bikebendigo@gmail.com.

Have a great year, encourage a friend to take up bike riding and don’t forget to give others a quick wave and nod as you enjoy all the benefits of a bike friendly Bendigo.

The cycling community starts writing

By Eddie Barkla

Hardly a week goes by without someone commenting how much they miss the “Cycling with Eddie” column. As the cycling landscape across Greater Bendigo and the wider region is constantly changing, it does seem there’s a need to track it, to talk about it.

There are no boundaries when it comes to human-powered transport on two – or three – wheels. Just as you see everything from a business suit to comfy track pants to stylish lycra on a bike, there are different bikes for different people and disciplines. The important thing is that people are getting out on wheels and the cycling demographic is expanding rapidly.

There are still many stories to tell and insights to share from the old hands the new riders alike. So the column is restarting, but with a new twist. This time it’s members of the cycling community itself who are writing.