Men who want you to swap four wheels for two

By EMMA BOURKE
A SUCCESSFUL trend will always contain the key elements of affordability and entertainment. That might explain why more Australians are now opting for two wheels instead of four. According to the Australian Bicycle Council, last year (2010) Australians bought 284,474 more bicycles than motor vehicles.

Whether we buy them to stay fit, reduce our carbon foot print or just to look good, bicycles are an ever growing trend in Australia. Whilst it can still be considered a niche market, people are once again looking at bicycles as an alternative mode of transport in our dense urban environments.

Before I walked into Steve Callahan’s and Benny Tyrell’s workshops I couldn’t help but envision an orphanage for bicycles, as if this is where all our unwanted bicycles went after they were tired and we were done with them. Dozens of re-painted frames hanging from the ceiling waiting to be rebuilt, parts and tools laying out across a tired looking work bench and another dozen completed road bikes eagerly lined up, waiting for their new owners to collect them for their new, exciting lives on Canberra roads and bike paths. As it turned out, my imagination wasn’t far from the truth.

Steve’s workshop concept stemmed from a new-found interest in track bikes after he was in a car accident eight years ago. As his knack for building and servicing bikes progressed, Steve started Callahan Bicycles, which he hopes will one day turn into a small local shopfront and maybe a reason to retire from his day job as a public servant.

Steve bases the popularity of bicycles on a number of factors, with environmental sustainability and personal image playing major roles for young newcomers.

“Younger people haven’t been put off the car dream really, but there is defiantly a subculture that regards the bicycle as a better means of transport,” he said. “Better for style, better for showing off your clothes, better for short trips around town when you live in a dense urban environment and better for the environment where the kids have good environmental ideas and credentials…In Australia, because our natural environment is so beautiful and our cities are so clean it’s easy to get lazy about the environment. So maybe the climate message that were getting is a big part of the psychology of younger folk turning to bicycles, and that’s not a bad thing.”

Benny Tyrell, owner of ‘Benny Chop’s Hand Built Death Traps’ builds and personalises road bikes and cruisers.

“My bikes are a bit more aggressive – very street,” he says. “But I try to make bikes that suit their owners personality. I hardly ever build bikes for clean, fresh, lovely looking people.“

Tyrell mostly makes fixed gear bikes for his clientele, as he feels they are the best bikes for the urban environment that he and most of his clients are accustomed to.

“Years back everyone I knew rode BMX, but we all like riding to the pub and realized a race bike which is fixed gear, gets you there in the half the time,” he said. “So it pretty much grew from there. I like fixed gear bikes because it feels like it’s a part of your soul, If the bike stops, its because you stopped, if you want to go faster, you have to peddle faster…other people prefer to go faster by flicking a switch and changing gears which takes the same amount of energy going fast as it does going slow. It just feels more right with a fixed gear…out of all of the fads; this one is probably the best one, considering where the environment and our current economy is going.”

Like Steve and Benny, so many other bike enthusiasts are recognising the cycling industry as a booming one. Reasons behind its popularity may be due the changes of our climate and living conditions or for some people, the idea that bikes just make you look good.

Regardless of the reasons and whether this is a fad or a long-term commitment to a new healthier lifestyle, cycling has been and always will be in it for the long run.