The EcoMatters Bike Hub is open!

Posted: 2nd June 2017

EcoMatters’ community bike hub has been up and running for a couple of months since our big launch on EcoDay on 9 April.

Whau Local Board Chair, Tracy Mulholland, EcoMatters CEO Damon Birchfield, and Bike Hub coordinator/Visitors Centre Co-Manager, Meg Liptrot spoke at the launch and an upcycled fabric ‘ribbon’ was ceremonially cut.

The day was a huge success, with a range of bike activities on offer, from maintenance workshops, to advice from a certified bike mechanic and ebike stalls. Auckland Transport were present and had information available, a mechanic, plus interactive cycle art.

Thanks to All Good Bananas for the organic, Fairtrade bananas and Tommy and James for the coconut milk used in our fundraising bike smoothies on the day, and to the awesome volunteers from the University of Auckland who ran the smoothie-making operation – it was a hit!

24hr bike repair stand being used by passers-by keen to pump a tyre or do a quick tune-up after hours.

Our resident bike mechanic/ambassador and all round good guy Brent has been joined by Josca who has perfect experience having worked as a Shimano qualified mechanic for T Whites Bikes and Adventure Cycles, and also with Whangarei-based social enterprise, Ridecycle. Josca has a creative background and on days he’s not at the hub he might be working on a film/tv set or a sculpture studio, installing community engagement works with Pop or helping activate sites like Wynyard Quarter with Fresh Concept.

Rescue bikes

During the next few months when the days shorten and things get a bit quieter the guys are going to start working on the bikes we’ve rescued from the waste stream. Fortunately these unloved bikes are able to be picked by registered community groups from a hopeful line-up at the Waste Management resource recovery depot in Mt Wellington.

We have a nice selection of bikes in a range of sizes with heaps of potential, some of which will be retained for use in our bike library. We will be setting up a loan system and getting a stable of bikes together over the winter period in time for spring.

We’d also love members of the community to nominate someone they know in need of a bike who may not be able to afford one. We are keen to show the recipient how to fix/maintain their own bike, ultimately getting to take their refurbished bike home. If you know of someone who might fit the bill, do let us know.

Pick-me-ups

Josca and Brent would love to talk bikes with you, and put their coffee making skills to good use – just the thing for a weekend outing and to blow out the cobwebs on the weekend.

If you’ve been for a ride in the New Lynn area, maybe you’re a cycling commuter or visiting Olympic Park with the kids on the weekend and in need of refreshments, we have Phoenix Drinks and delish Nice Blocks for sale. Our coffee is ‘New York style’ organic filter coffee from Kokako. All proceeds go towards keeping the hub operational.

We are also investigating membership options for the hub, for individuals and organisations. Watch this space!

In case you missed it, I’ve included my thank you speech below, from the EcoMatters Bike Hub launch day. There are a bunch of great businesses, organisations and indviduals who have given their support in the year it took to build the hub, we couldn’t have achieved what we did without them.

Get in touch: [email protected] or [email protected]

Meg’s thank you speech at the bike hub launch

Kia ora

I’m Meg Liptrot, co-manager of EcoMatters Visitors Centre and project manager of the EcoMatters Bike Hub.

Thanks all for being here – this has been a project long in the making – we had visions of a cycle hub many years ago at EcoMatters and even collected a bunch of steel frame bikes from the Transfer Station to ride around the velodrome during our lunch breaks.
It is really exciting to finally get this project launched.

I would like to recognise those who have contributed to the hub. Without this support we wouldn’t have got off the ground.

Thanks firstly to the Whau Local Board for funding this project and having the vision to support a community cycling hub, which will complement all the fantastic cycling infrastructure happening around town. And to the vision of Parks staff and the Council Lease team for giving us the go ahead.

Thanks also to the Waitakere Ranges Local Board who have funded our Pop Up Love Your Bike initiative encouraging the wider west Auckland community to get into different set of wheels.

We couldn’t have achieved this result without the generous support of a number of businesses and suppliers.

Thank you to Dan at Precise Drainage and Landscapes for donating time and machinery to dig out our courtyard – and to Justin at Natural Paving for the huge discount on the permeable geogrid under our feet – allows us a permeable, pebbly solution which cyclists won’t bury their tyres in!

Thanks to Graeme at Addis Containers for the Council project discount and awesome modified container – we love it.

Thanks to Charles and team at AVD who discounted their grunty Gladiator workbench and tool storage and have given a garage storage system as a prize for those who sign up to our cycle hub database.

Thanks to Sport Waitakere for supporting our first kids bike workshops and contributing to the repair of our first rescue bikes.

Thank you to Dean and Colleen Jamieson from The Bike Maintenance Shop in Glendene who have provided support and expertise from the start, and a really great rate for work on any bikes we can’t fix.

Thanks also to Pack n’ Pedal Newmarket who have given us a community group discount on our bike maintenance tool kit.

Thanks to Simon Vincent, Walking and Cycling Coordinator, West, (Auckland Transport) who has given excellent advice and support and will provide ongoing seasonal cycling workshops here at the hub.

A big thanks to our (almost resident) builder Adrian Jones who has persevered with this project despite health issues earlier in the year, and has provided excellent quality work both inside and out.

Thanks to Elliott at Nice Blocks for the enthusiasm and discounted product, and Richard at Better Drinks and Zoe at Kokako for training us up on creating perfect filter coffee. All refreshment proceeds will go towards the ongoing operational costs of the hub.

Thanks heaps to our volunteers who have lightened the load and kept the project humming along.

And finally, thanks to Damon and Brent who have injected this project with energy and enthusiasm – they’re clearly chanelling teenage dreams here – music, bikes, treats, a cool hangout spot. What more could you want?

We are really looking forward to engaging with the community and sharing a love of cycling with visitors. There are too many sad bikes languishing in garages around the town – now is the time to dust them off and love them again!