Workshop Details

5pm-9pm every Monday
1 Phillip St Waterloo (cnr Cope St)

WHAT DO WE DO?
The Nunnery Community Bike Workshop collects abandoned bikes and parts to create working bikes to put back into the community.

These bikes are put together by you, the community, with help from others who come. It is also a place to fix up your bikes with the tools and parts available. Come and learn to fix bikes, show us how to fix bikes, fix your bike or a friend’s, or just come and have some tea and coffee. Everyone is welcome!

WHERE ARE WE?
1 Phillip St, Waterloo, cnr of Phillip and Cope Sts. We are located in the two garages below the ‘Turanga’ building; we are now a part of the Waterloo Recycling Workshop.

A map is available at the Bikely website which shows the route from our previous location at Forbes St, Newtown to our new Phillip St, Waterloo location.

WHEN DOES THIS HAPPEN?
Every Monday from 5pm til 9pm (we’re all volunteers, so sometimes we open slightly later). If you think you can open up bike club for us one Monday a month, please get in touch. If it’s raining, feel free to call us to see if we’re there. Same goes with long weekends.

DO YOU SELL SECOND HAND BIKES?
No. However, we can help you find people that do, so feel free to ask. The main reasons we don’t are that we would rather have your help than your money, and having some people as customers and some as bike sellers detracts from the community bike workshop.

HOW CAN I HELP?
To see the latest happenings and news at the workshop, go to our Discussions and Events page.

Tools, oil, WD40 and small donations are greatly appreciated, but most of all, we’d like your company while fixing bikes and help keeping the workshop going. Check out our stuff we need page.

The first time you come please ask for a detailed tour of how the place works and where stuff goes. After that we ask you spend 20 min maintaining the space every time you come. This labor share is what keeps bike club going. We gratefully take donated bikes and parts that are not going to be used. At present we do not have a means to receive donations out of our operating hours, we are only able to take donations on Monday afternoons.

WHO CAN I CONTACT?

Mark	0431 118 061	markfinger AAATTT gmail.com
James	0422 684 236	james.ashton.nichols AAATTT gmail.com
Julien	0434 844 659	mountainairextrem AAATTT hotmail.com

If you’re interested in helping to organise Bike Club, you can join our mailing list.

Wednesday Night Mechanics’ School: begins 18 Nov

There’s a new night at bike club! Each week we’re going to be featuring a different part of the bike or bike-related topic, facilitated by anyone from the extended Bike Club network.

There are more details on the Wednesday Night Mechanics’ School page.

Another Night for Bike Club

Hey,

So at the last Bike Club meeting we had a huge turn out (Thanks everyone!) discussed opening another night a week, and there was consensus that this was a good idea. Thats right, Bike Club is looking to go steady TWO nights a week!

Meeting September 2009

The idea behind this is to create a space for more focussed learning, for regular mechanics, those keen to get involved or simply wanting to learn more. This would supplement our regular Monday free for all sessions.

A a bit of Background: We ran a two day mechanics training a few weeks ago and we were overwhelmed by keen people. We had 15 people come for two 8 hour days, and about another 30 send us emails asking to be informed of future trainings.

It would be a semi structured learning program with a set topic or area for each week, which while allowing for some tangents, would aim to comprehensively work through the bike over a couple of months.

We would aim to draw on the expertise and experience that exists already within Bike Club and to expand that to all mechanics and keen new people. We could also occasionally get in particularly experienced people from outside the club for one off sessions, perhaps advanced wheel building, tig welding, who knows!
One idea floated was that we have a suggested donation of a 6-pack that goes to whoever runs the session each week.

We want feedback on whether people are excited by this prospect, and how it could work for them, so either leave a comment or select a day from the poll below.
Select a day and time on the link below (sorry the times were just drawn from thin air, we can fine tune them later)

http://www.doodle.com/hguxx96xmrk76xe8

Once we select a day, i would suggest we spend a few weeks promoting it on the website and with leaflets, then run it as a trial up until Christmas
Other ideas or feedback is welcome

Cheers,
ollie

Meeting & Updating the website

Hi everyone,

We’re having a meeting this Wednesday, the 23rd of September,  from 7pm at Berkelouw Books Cafe, 6-8 O’Connell St (just off King St), Newtown. Lots of things to get through and discuss, so if you would like to be involved with the organisation and future of the workshop then come along and give your opinion.

Also, we’re looking at updating the website and the information. Most of the information has been static for the better part of 3 years now, despite our required inputs and outputs changing a lot. While all the people involved with the organisation will be giving their thoughts on the update, the most important people are those that will actually use the site: namely you. While we are just starting this process now and it will likely take some time, we need all the help we can possibly get.

If you’re interested in helping us with this: you can read through the website and if anything strikes you as wrong or in need of improvement, then let us know. Opinions on the format, layout and general presentation would be appreciated too.

Any thoughts on the website, feel free to email me at markfinger*at*gmail.com

Thanks, and we will endeavour to keep everyone updated on the results of the meeting and the ongoing happenings at the workshop.

-Mark

Bike Mechanic Workshop

 

Hi yo!

This is a shout out to anyone who has ever come down to bike club wanting to know more about fixing bikes, or has wanted to help out but been unsure if they have the skills to do so.

Some of the keen volunteers at bike club in conjunction with UNSW and Sydney Bike club have decided to put on a two day skillshare on bike mechanics, repairs and maintenance skills. On Saturday and Sunday the 12th-13th September in a range of sessions with different facilitators, we will be working through the different parts of the bike in a hands on fashion. Tea, Food and Tools will be provided. 

WHY? Bike Club is a space that encourages people to develop their skills in working with bikes and with other people, to encourage the development and sharing of skills within community spaces. But breaking down the knowledge hierarchies takes work, work that we are keen to start. 

Cheers,

ollie

Bike Club just keeps on rolling

Hey,

Just a brief note that things are going swimmingly! We have had a few nights over the last month with almost 50 people dropping by! We have probably put twice this number of bikes out on the road in this time as well.

To all those people who have been helping out lately, those of you who are down every Monday, or even just once a month, THANKYOU, this is how roll. We have had some great donations of tools, bikes, parts and a vice recently, which also makes a huge difference.

If anyone is interested there is a great event coming up called the Sydney Tweed Run – a chance to get out your bike and your tweed vintage clothing and join a casual ride around the city- on Sunday the 7th June – I hope to see a few people down on their vintage bike club bikes. See- http://www.sydneycyclist.com/group/sydneytweedrun

cheerio,
ollie

Meeting this Monday 26th Jan 5pm

Heya everybody,

we’re meeting this Monday at about 5pm to discuss the present state of things, nail down what we need to direct our efforts to, and generally muse about bicycle related things.

The State of Things…from the blurry vision of Mark
The Storage Shed is now fairly well organised, so a big thank you to Dylan and all the other volunteers for doing the hard work and building the shelving and mezz level.

The Workshop is currently alternating between looking like high-density housing and a junkyard, so we need to clean it up. The actual act shouldn’t be too hard, just a matter of putting all the accumulated boxes of donations into their correct places and maintaining it in the future.

The majority of calls and emails that I recieve, in regard to the workshop, are asking about ways to get cheap bikes, if we do repairs, and how to make donations. All this information is buried in the website and as bi-product of the incremental growth of the website is has never been organised after first being set-up. This needs to be remedied, most people admit to being generally confused by it …

…. Things be thus

Cheerios,
Mark

Working Bee from 1pm on Monday, 19th Jan

Hiya all,

we’re having a working bee this coming Monday, 19th of January, from 1pm, to primarily clean out the shed, cull a lot of unneeded bikes and strip parts. We can always push on and clean up the workshop a bit if the energy reserves are high, but the state of the shed at the moment is chaotic at best. Basically no one can get in our get anything out without first spending 15 mins digging through and removing piled up bikes.

So we’ll be going through and getting rid of lower quality bikes, stripping their parts and scrapping the frames. This should mean that we can once again admire our beautiful garage without having to surmount a mountain of pointy metal pieces.

Anyone that turns up and helps out will get first pick of the Cheeky Monkey clean-up parts(lots of random stuff).

So see you all at 1pm!

Cheers,
Mark.

Bike Club Meeting 23rd Nov at 7pm

Heya all,

There’s an organised meeting at 7pm, down at the new Waterloo location (1 Phillip St, Waterloo). With the move mostly complete we need to start organising a lot of things that will need to be run differently from the old site. We also need to sort out collection for all the stuff from the Nunnery, the old site on Forbes St. Julien said something about meeting at the Nunnery at 6 to do all that, I’m not sure of the specifics, but if you’re in the area at the time it would be helpful to check it out and see if anything is happening on Forbes st.

Everyone have a great day, and I hope I will see you tonight!

Cheers,
Mark.

We’ve moved!

***
This Monday, the 17th of Nov, we will not be open for fixing or providing bikes, we will be busy sorting out our move into the new premises at 1 Phillip St, Waterloo.
If you come down to help out, we can probably in turn help out with your bike, but we are going to be too busy installing fittings and moving things around to help everyone so we recommend coming down the following Monday, the 24th of Nov, and we can help you then.
Any and all help for today, the 17th, from about 6pm at the Waterloo site is greatly appreciated as we have a lot to do to be ready for opening.

Cheers,
Mark.
***

Hey everybody,

we’ve finally moved down to the Waterloo towers!

We are now based from the two garages under ‘Turanga’ Building,

1 Phillip St,

Waterloo 2017

The long belated move is thanks to the fantastic efforts of Mike from The Factory and Dylan & James from figure8, they’ve all done so much and helped everything happen.

We’ll be unofficially opening up this coming Monday the 17th of Nov, but at present we have moved in without actually setting up. Our primary concern right now is to get everything set up and ordered, but we are still happy to help everybody out. Once everything is working ok we’ll have a ‘proper’ opening. So, feel free to swing down this monday – from 5pm – to check everything out, get some advice/help to fix your bike, or just hang out and chat.

Cheers,

Mark

Otesha Project (Aus) & Nunnery Bike Brunch

The Otesha Project (Aus) and The Nunnery Bike Workshop are hosting a bike brunch fundraiser on Sunday 12 October in Newtown… $5 all you can eat… 9:30-12pm

Bring your bike for a re-tune…

Money goes to a great cause, the Otesha Project (Aus.): Cycling for Sustainability which 17 crew members are involved with. Leaving in November on a 5 week bike trip – riding from Brissie to Newcastle stopping at High Schools along the way to talk about sustainability issues and perform a play on enviromental sustainability & social justice issues. Hoping to empower and provoke thought along the way.

Hope you can make it to the FUNdraising brunch!

We would love to have your support and hang out on a beautiful Sunday!

Details:

Where: 16 Sloane St, Enmore

When: Sunday 12 October 9:30am – 12

What: $5 all you can eat brunch

Why: to fundraise for Otesha’s 17 tour members to cycle from bris-newcastle to visit schools and engage kids on sustainability issues…

All the money helps us further develop our project and help pay for needed equipment and other expenses along the tour.

If you can’t make it perhaps you might consider making a donation to our cause by checking out our goal to get enough funds to support youth after we have left communities – http://otesha.org.au/biketours/nswtour

Also check out the event here –

http://www.new.facebook.com/event.php?eid=28651413084

Working Bee at new Bike Club Space

Hey,

So the after sorting out the paper work, we are set for a working bee
this Saturday at the new bike club space in Waterloo. The Idea is to
get the new space set up so we can have an orderly and hassle free
relocation in the not too distant future. Any help would be great, as
would any spare tools and fittings (like wall brackets, hooks,
shelving materials etc)

Its on this saturday from 12 midday.

A WORKING BEE
Waterloo Recling Project, Phillip st Bottany, between Cope st and
George st, (down botany road from redfern station away from the city,
turn left at Raglan st, left again into Cope st, right into Phillip

st).

Sweet as, Hope to see you all down there

cheers,
ollie – 0422331213

Pushy power, funky vibes, and the odd fair-trade chocolate bar: Otesha prepares to empower rural Victorians

Are you looking for something challenging to do in January? How about empowering youth about a sustainable future? Or riding around rural Australia living sustainably and “being the change you want to see in the world”?

The Otesha Project (Australia): Cycling for Sustainability is undergoing massive preparations for its upcoming bicycle tour in rural Victoria starting in Melbourne on January 18th. The tour will ride along the Great Ocean Road, up to the Grampians, making our way over to Bendigo before finishing back to Melbourne while speaking to youth about sustainability issues.

Working Bee for new Redfern Location

******************

Sorry everybody, with the new work site we are required to put in some paper work before we can commence work, we’ll keep you posted about when the working bee will happen but as of now it’s cancelled for this Saturday. – Mark

******************

Hiya all, hasn’t been much happening on the web page lately because we’ve all been busy fixing bikes…or something to that end.

But good news, for those that didn’t know the future of the women’s collective at it’s present location is not guarenteed and so we’ve been looking for a new space for some time. The hosting and welcome by all the women involved with the house has been uniformly fantastic over such a long time and while we have to move on, the worst of it is that they very well may lose their home. But thanks to the efforts of Dylan and James there was a new site found for Bike club in the Redfern Public Housing Towers. This is not only a fantastic site for the facilities (roofing and wide open spaces on concrete surfaces) but also it puts us into more of a central location to help anyone who might have a use for the bike club facilities.

You can find out a bit more about the new space on the figureight site here.

So to get this new space ready for a mass migration, we have a working bee this Saturday the 16th of August. We’ll be leaving from the Nunnery at 11:30am to get to the new space by 12:00. If you can’t make the ride or want to go a bit later, there’s a map here that shows the route we’ll be following, once you get to the corner of Phillip and Cooper it’s on the left of the car park. It’ll be a good day to see the future of bike club progress, and this is where it all starts.

Hope to see you all there!

Cheers,
Mark

Bike grease, sustainability, adventure, and endless peanut-butter sandwiches: Otesha hits the road on a mission to empower youth

Are you passionate about sustainability and looking for something a little different to do this coming summer? And what about bicycles? Have you ever dreamt about riding around parts of Australia on two wheels? If so, then why not put those dreams into action and join The Otesha Project (Australia): Cycling for Sustainability’s forthcoming adventures. The project is currently seeking 40 participants to take part in two six-week cycle tours: Brisbane to Newcastle (15 November – 22 December 2008); Melbourne regional loop (18 January – 1 March 2009).

Since 2000, The Otesha Project (Aus.) has pedalled across Australia educating youth and raising awareness about environmental sustainability and social justice issues. Otesha is a Swahili word for ‘reason to dream’ and is the underlining philosophy of the organisation. The Otesha crew combines theatre performance with interactive workshops to empower high school students to consider their life choices to ensure a positive future.

Current consumption behaviours in Australia have far reaching consequences that are both unsustainable and inequitable. The negative impacts of these practices usually affect the most disempowered people in society, including young people who now face an uncertain future. For Shane Bill – co-director of Otesha (Aust.) – it is about making small changes: ”It is recognising the need and challenging ourselves to slowly adjust our lifestyles,” he says. ”For instance, perhaps you might choose to say no to plastic bags. Such a choice has a rippling effect in our community and beyond: it not only creates less demand for petrol products, reduces the harm to sea life and creates less waste, but it also encourages and inspires those around us to do the same. By empowering the youth of today, we support the future leaders of tomorrow to create a more sustainable world.”

Worried about your bicycle touring experience? Don’t have much knowledge about sustainable consumption issues? Never fear, that’s why an Otesha bicycle tour is here!

Otesha (Aust.) is seeking individuals from all walks of life – people with varying experiences, backgrounds and interests. While on tour, participants not only learn skills to become strong advocates for living sustainably, but also develop skills such as media communication, leadership, acting, and communal living.

”One of the most beautiful aspects of being on tour is the change and growth of the actual participants,” says Shane. ”Being the change they want to see…brings a smile to my face.”

The application deadline for tour participants is August 15, 2008. For information about applying visit the Otesha (Aust.) website at www.otesha.org.au/biketours/apply.

If you wish to find out more feel free to contact The Otesha Project (Australia) crew at info@otesha.org.au.

Peace and bike grease,

- The Otesha Project (Aus.)