BikeWise

About Us.

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WEBSITE CHECK1 about

Competent and safe cycling

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

FROM 1998 - 2008

FROM 1998 - 2008

BIKEWISE TIMELINE

● Patrick and Jo (original co-founders) 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 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.
● 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 and Australia Post to train their staff

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 
● 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 

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 brought 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 and has 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
56a BikeCooperative at Elephant & Castle (a group of anarchist squatters who accepted a school teacher 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.