Bike maintenance courses
Your bike looks after you, learn how to care for your bike
Do you know how to look after your chain? Fix a puncture? Tweak your gears? You'll get much more mileage out of your bike if you learn to look after it... plus you'll never be caught out in an emergency.
Melbourne, Victoria
Brunswick
Brunswick Neighbourhood House Cooperative runs a 15 hour hands-on bicycle maintenance course over three sessions, throughout 2008. Includes: brake and gear adjustment, puncture repair, bearing overhaul and adjusting bike fit. Call (03) 9386 9418 or email info@bnhc.vic.edu.au for more details.
Caulfield South
Gran Prix Bicycles, 710 Glenhuntly Rd, runs a women's workshop covering fundamentals from bike set-up to basic maintenance.
Clayton
The Monash Short Courses Centre runs bike maintenance courses for all (not just Monash staff and students), which include puncture repair, gear and brake adjustment, bearing overhaul, and troubleshooting. Returning in 2009.
South Melbourne
The Centre for Adult Education (CAE) runs a five-session course in bicycle maintenance including puncture repair, gear and brake maintenance and fault diagnosis. Bring your own bike or use one of their donated recycled bikes. Their next course runs from October to November, 2008.
St Kilda
St Kilda Cycles, 11 Carlisle St, run evening puncture repair and lubrication classe. Their two-week gear and brake adjustment class and six-week comprehensive maintenance class will return in 2009. Many participants are women, and classes can be tailored specifically for women. For more, phone (03) 9534 3074, or register at info@stkildacycles.com.au.
Sydney, New South Wales
Dulwich Hill
Sydney Community College offers a four-session course in bicycle maintenance covering: fixing punctures, removing wheels, replacing tyres, maintaining brakes, adjusting gears, checking bearings and riding position set-up.
Sydney
Clarence Street Cyclery runs free bike maintenance workshops on Thursdays from 6 to 7pm. Beginner's workshops are on the first Thursday of the month, and advanced are on the last Thursday. While not women-specific, women make up around half the participants.
Adelaide, South Australia
Bicycle SA offers a choice of maintenance courses. The Basic Bike Care course is a three-hour course that teaches you about the parts of your bike, how to set it up and how to look after it. The Bike Gears and Brakes course covers tuning and maintaining brakes. The Comprehensive Bike Care course gives a thorough grounding in overall maintenance that includes lubrication, cleaning, bearings overhaul and tuning.
Perth, Western Australia
Chad Silver runs bicycle maintenance classes at various locations. A basic course covers degreasing, lubrication, tuning of brakes and gears, bike setup and puncture repair. Courses generally run Saturday mornings, however there is some flexibility if you can organise your own group. For more information, email Chad Silver.
Hobart, Tasmania
Bike Ride runs maintenance classes on the second Tuesday of the month. Call 6231 6202 to book.
Tell us what we've missed
If you know of any great bike maintenance courses anywhere in Australia please let us know.