BikeWise

Proud to be an Australian Cooperative

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About Us.

Competent and safe cycling

  • RISK MANAGEMENT: Skill development and fun are the main focus of our activities but safety underpins everything we do with: Experience of our instructors Comprehensive curriculum Demonstrable outcomes
  • SOUND EDUCATIONAL APPROACH: Accredited professionals who blend teaching excellence with years of city riding experience
  • PROGRESSIVE: Skills are broken down and taught progressively. Participants achieve more than they thought possible.

Our Awesome Team

Accredited professionals who are all passionate about encouraging others to enjoy two wheels

PATRICK

KERRY

GEORGE

CARLOS

CHU

BRUCE

DONNY

VIRGINIA

RICHIE

JO

JOSE

Our Awesome Team

Accredited professionals who are all passionate about encouraging others to enjoy two wheels

Patrick

DIRECTOR, CO-FOUNDER
Rode to school, rode to get a uni degree in Urbanism where he learnt that cycling was the antidote to personal, societal, urban and world woes. He delivered envelopes by bicycle and raced road bikes for a decade before going back to study Teaching. He took BikeClub into schools and it turned into BikeWise with the help of his dear fellow ex-bike Sydney Bike Courier, Jo (Ed- Aside from a wealth of experience commuting, couriering, touring and racing in here and OS , Patrick has completed qualifications including a BA in Education; the UK National Standard for Cycling Instructors; the Victorian BikeEd qual; Austcycle & SkillCycle from the Aust Sports Coaching Commission; City & Guilds (British Std) Bicycle Mechanics Accreditation… and a BA in Urban Planning)

Jo

(DIRECTOR, CO-FOUNDER
She first got into bikes to impress the boy over the road but then fell in love with the fun and freedom of getting around by bike. She’s cycle toured all over Europe and Australia, and uses the bike everyday as her main form of transport to get to work, go for a swim, head out to the pub...

KERRY

DIRECTOR
Was 14 when she first hopped on a bike in the backyard. She used it to get into mischief and rode at Uni to experience adventures. After a few years of not riding, she picked it up again aged 53; found it made a lot of sense to ride a bike and kept going until she ditched the car in 2018. She says, one of the best things she’s ever done is to ride a bike

GEORGE

INSTRUCTOR
Graduated from riding around the backyard, to riding around the block, to eventually riding around the Sydney CBD. 25 years as a bicycle courier and using cycling as his primary transport option at home and abroad suggests he enjoys this cycling thing (a lot!). Aside from having logged over 1500 hours facilitating group cycling courses George has taught around 750 adults to ride a bicycle for the first time in our specialist 1:1 Learn-to-Ride sessions.

CARLOS

DIRECTOR
First discovered cycling for transport when he moved to Utrecht at the age of 19. His passion for cycling quickly grew; he took up mountain biking, bike polo, and cycle touring. He now uses his bike to go anywhere and verywhere and loves helping others to do the same.

Chu

DIRECTOR
Was introduced to the world of bikes at university. During a soul searching overseas trip after Uni, she was exposed to a sheer number of cyclists in Beijing, Copenhagen and msterdam. Returning to Sydney and bored of her research job, her love of transport and travel by bike lowered and she stumbled upon BikeWise. She is most content when on two wheels and loves seeing smiles, good manners and thank-you waves on Sydney's roads

Bruce

INSTRUCTOR
Was too timid to ride as a kid until his younger brother embarrassed him to finally get on two wheels. BMX was great, then after a 15-year pause he became a dedicated cyclist for getting to parties and work. Then it became work, employed as a BikeWise instructor and CBD bicycle courier. Bruce delivers both kids and adult courses.

Donald

INSTRUCTOR
Retired messenger, over qualified bicycle mechanic, retired mountain bike racer, keen road rider. Donald thinks bikes are very cool, but repairing your own bike is way cooler.

Virginia

INSTRUCTOR
Started with BikeWise in May 2022. She has taught a little bit of everything but found her happy place with the Balance Bike Clinics. Virginia's path back to cycling as an adult was a little unorthodox. She fell in love with hardcourt bike polo and spent years playing and traveling around the world with her bike. Virginia loves hoarding bikes (8, down from 11) reading books (62 so far this year), collecting dresses (she is too scared to count) and teaching children the joy of cycling.

Richard

INSTRUCTOR
Growing up in the burbs where all the fun stuff was a good car ride away, cycling meant freedom. As an adult I still love the sense of freedom and kid-like fun you get from riding and I love sharing that experience with my wife and daughter. My favourite types of riding are mountain biking, touring, commuting and soon gravel

José

INSTRUCTOR
Dad, husband, nurse, bicycle courier and keen cyclist. Jose first got into cycling as an adult as a way to commute to his office in Mexico in 2009. The commute was 20km each way and he did it on a single speed. The more he rode, the more he got the bug. Jose transitioned from a single speed to a track bike, then a roadie, then a cyclocross bike. His favourite bike is his single speed cyclocross!
FROM 1998 - 2008

FROM 1998 - 2008

● Patrick and Jo gain a smorgasbord of relevant urban cycling experience.
● Patrick graduates with a BA in Town Planning and Urban & Regional Studies and moves to the Netherlands to pursue Road Cycling dreams (fails), manages an Amsterdam bike shop for over 4 years and sees human scale Town Planning and widespread urban cycling for the first time and becomes inspired!!! He cycle tours Europe extensively and works intermittently as a Sydney bicycle courier – wonders what life is all about – then returns to uni in ACT to study for a BA in
Education.
● Whilst studying at University of Canberra he starts BIKELOVE, a free bike repair service for students in response to the over-crowded car parks and lack of cycling uni students. While working as a primary school teacher in Lyneham (ACT), he founded BIKECLUB to support cycling-to-school culture and facilitate school excursions by bicycle! (He does this again in London)
● Jo (from the UK) takes a year out and works as a bicycle courier in Sydney, falls in love with the Australian way of life and all us Aussies of course. She then returns to London to begin her professional career in Behavioural Change.
● Patrick and Jo (now both in the UK), continue professional careers while gaining the UK National Standard Cycling Instructor accreditation and work experience through Cycle Training UK (CTUK).

FROM 1998 - 2008
SEPTEMBER 2008

SEPTEMBER 2008

● Patrick and Jo return to Australia which coincides with the release of a City of Sydney tender for provision of Cycling Courses. Recognising that the City will benefit most from a transport and urban cycling perspective, Patrick and Jo work together to form BikeWise and submit a tender that focuses on their unique experience, expertise and qualifications.

SEPTEMBER 2008
2009

2009

● BikeWise gets our first Certificate of Currency on January 12th , 2009
● BikeWise is successful in being awarded the tender to design an original, on-street, practical cycling course run that runs between St Peters and Central Station in Sydney.
● Initially, all courses are delivered by Jo & Patrick working as Lead and Support Instructor.
● BikeWise designs the first Bicycle Care and Maintenance courses offering hands on practical skills required for transport self sufficiency
● We also transform the Sydney Park Cycling Centre bike storage room into a Mechanical workshop and Teaching space (borrowing from the Amsterdam Bike Shop management)
● Feedback from the community for the City of Sydney programs goes beyond expectations!

2009
2010

2010

● BikeWise triples in size and capacity.
● First employees are bicycle couriers Dion and George (both bicycle couriers).
● Carlos was recruited to head up the mechanic courses and training of staff (him having a teaching background as well as extensive professional experience as a shop mechanic made him
perfect for the role)
● With the recruitment of Kiwi Sam and a curriculum rewrite we developed a revised School Excursion Junior Cycling course to Sydney Park (previously not run for 5 years).
● The new format meant kids doubled the amount of riding and took lessons all over Sydney park
● Gained Randwick, Leichhardt and North Sydney Councils as a client

2010
2011

2011

● BikeWise ran over 250 different types of cycling courses this year!
● With our fleet of cargo mobile bike mechanics, we supported ‘Share the Path’ campaigns as an effective way to reach cyclists with messaging and elicit feedback from the cycling (and non-cycling) public
● Supported Ride to Work Day in Hyde Park and Newtown Festival with pop up route planning and mobile mechanics
● Got famous with media appearances On Sydney Weekender with Mike Whitney!
● We trained NSW Bike Police to deliver the Junior Cycling Courses Waverly, Australia Post train-the-trainers course for in-house Postie Instructors.

2011
2012

2012

● BikeWise wins City of Sydney business award
● We open up the Sydney Cycling Centre to host bicycle recycling volunteer community groups: Bicycle Garden and Chain Lynx
● More media appearances, this time Jo features at Sydney Business Month (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxMimhFNFHs)
● We win ‘Try2Wheels’ tender, a pop-up initiative to encourage people to give cycling a go and includes info stand, bike repairs; Try-a-Bike; Instructors and Displays.

2012
2013-15

2013-15

Try2Wheels pops-up at over 30 Bike Fairs across 2 years in various locations in and around the Sydney CBD
● We introduce a Rusty Riders course for people who are self-declared wobblers and needs more confidence in their bike handling skills
● Balance Bike Clinics are launched at Sydney Park for kids from 3 years up (and even their parents) to have a go at learning to ride for the first on a balance bike
● We taught an actor working with the ABC to ride a Penny Farthing for the TV series ‘My Place’
● At the end of this busy period of constant work BikeWise appointed day-to-day managers so the Founders could take a rest

2013-15
2017-19

2017-19

● BikeWise establishes itself in Perth as well as Sydney
● We accumulate a whole host of new clients in WA including: City of Gosnells, City of Cockburn, Town of Vincent, Munda Biddi Trail Foundation, MainRoads WA, City of Belmont, City of South Perth
● BikeWise are the first Cycling Advocacy Business to collaborate with Transport for NSW on the critical MacQuarie Park Project https://youtu.be/KxMimhFNFHs?si=AgQ99gGJsrGTN3Nu

2017-19
2019-2022

2019-2022

● COVID 19 caused a big interruption to most businesses across Australia including ours, curtailing many activities at the Cycling Centre. With the help of City of Sydney we pivoted to a custom 1:1 instruction ‘Ride to Work’ lessons as well as offering a ‘Bike Helpline’
● BikeWise produce Check & Tune video for WA department of Transport

2019-2022
2023

2023

BikeWise transitioned from a sole-business employer to a Workers Cooperative with the specific purpose to empower and diversify the Leadership Team.
● BikeWise appeared on Channel 7 ‘Sydney Weekender’ program (again)!

2023
TODAY

TODAY

We continue today with our original vision to bring the considerable benefits that cycling culture brings
to individuals and society as a whole and Aencourage, empower and support urban cycling as a preferred choice

TODAY

Special Thanks goes to

The BikeWise story has the fingerprints of involvement from many different individuals and organizations and below are a few we’d like to mention:

01
Adam Hogan of Cheeky Monkey Cycle Company (who bought transport cycling into the commercial market selling mudguards, racks, panniers and transport style hybrids), he offered valuable moral and material support from our inception
02
Fiona Campbell who back in the 90’s was well loved encouraging champion of the oft maligned Bicycle Courier Community who influenced many in planting the seeds of advocacy for a better City through bikes
03
Blind Dog and Chris Virtue, the founders of the first Bicycle User Group in NSW (SYDBUG)
04
Len Woodman
05
CTUK in London
06
56aBikeCooperative at Elephant & Castle ( a group of anarchist squatters who accepted a school teacher’s to help them organise their chaos and who in turn gained valuable experience wrangling feisty volunteer cooperatives)
07
London’s Wheels for WellBeing (a cycling charity designed to get people living with disability up and riding) that also gave us valuable experience not available in Australia at that time.

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