Bicycling in Melbourne

When I left France for Melbourne one month and a half ago, I already had in mind to buy a bicycle when I would arrive in the city. I had been told it was very flat and consequently I packed my U-lock in my luggage. At first I wanted a “fixie” bike. Also known as fixed-gear or single-speed bike, they are quite popular among the youth all around the world. Originally used by couriers in NYC to have light weight and very reactive bikes, their use expanded to the multi-cultural cities such as Tokyo, Melbourne, Paris and many others.

1000$ dream bike

Sadly, the price for one of this bike is very important. Even if it has less component than your regular mountain bike (they removed the brakes, the gears and all the accessories), you won’t find one for less than 500$ new because of the famous brand constructing them and the design process involved.

I went on Gumtree, a famous English website to trade goods/find accommodation or a job. I found an advertisement about a 110$ Apollo bike (about 80€), very vintage, looking pretty much like my father old bicycle stocked in the Point du Jour. When I called the guy selling it, it happened to be a French guy living in Melbourne since 4 years, so he explained me how he had found it in a recycling bin and rebuilding it from scratch, and then sold it to me after a quick try.

My bike

I can now ride to school in less than 10 minutes if the weather allow me, and move around the city very quickly from point A to point B. However red lights in Australia are really badly tuned and I catch huge headaches having to wait sometimes more than 2 minutes (trust me it’s a lot) to cross a road. Also, wearing a helmet was a first a burden and I felt quite ridiculous with it but everybody has one and I feel a bit safer with it so it’s not a problem for me to carry it around anymore.

 I already had one flat tire but I found a shop next to my house which repair it rapidly for about 10$, a very reasonable price. (By the way Sergio if you read me, you have to go repair my French bike to Decathlon, thanks!)

On the other hand, trams  are practical for long journey, for example to St Kilda beach, 5km away from the city center, but stop at every street crossing and are overall quite slow. Furthermore, their cost is huge: 3.70$ for a 2 hour ticket (2-3 times Lyon TCL prices), provided you don’t have the concession card. I try to avoid taking them unless I really need to.

St Kilda beach