Women are doing the heavy lifting when it comes to cycling advocacy in this town. That's a fact that is impossible to deny! The Woolloongabba Substation is located 100 metres from the end of the recently completed Woolloongabba Bikeway The inspiration for this event came after Useful's Mike had been in regular conversation with the tireless Belinda Ward from Space for Cycling Brisbane and the notoriously forthright Anne Savage who only recently departed Bicycle Queensland. Though opinions sometimes differ about the 'optics' of how to go about supporting women to engage more with cycling, all the advocates we speak to say that overall improvement in cycling infrastructure in positive consultation with the community will not only benefit women, but all members of the community who would like to safely travel by bicycle. At Useful we believe that positive growth in cycling is a cultural challenge. We value the dialogues facilitated by advocates and active c
Hellos and Goodbyes As we started our new social enterprise we were saddened by the closing of Ridgways Cycles after more than 45 years. Ridgways was a place where, if you put some time aside when you visited the store, you could find that very thing that you couldn't find with confidence anywhere else. While ordering stuff online can be a wondrous and miraculous adventure, the joy of finding what you want and more in a bricks and mortar store while talking to people who are brimming with knowledge and experience transcends the short-lived thrills of buying off the internet. We made a couple of visits to Ridgways before they closed. We said “goodbye” and in our final chats with Simon and Graham we were reminded of what was ending – the old fashioned bike shop where breadth and depth knowledge can be found. The old fashioned bike shop has been slowly disappearing, and while the range and availability of tools has increased, the range of durable bikes and access