In light of Youth Fest, September’s month-long celebration of the state’s youngest movers, shakers, or in Sunday’s case, BMX risk-takers, Kilmore’s Wheel House Bikes hosted a Bike Bonanza, featuring bicycle related games, competitions, giveaways, and a free sausage sizzle lunch.
Drawing a sizeable crowd to Broadford’s BMX Park located at The Parade, little kids, big kids, and kids at heart joined in on the fun, racing around the bike track and flying over the jumps, much to the delight of dare-devil riders and perhaps to a lesser extent, anxious, but nevertheless supportive parents.
Donning helmets and smiles, the small but mighty turnout tackled each jump and trick with boldness and fearless courage to cheers and words of encouragement—a truly welcoming community to those new to the world of BMX, though a pleasantly familiar one to the more experienced riders.
Though the event was not Wheel House Bike’s first rodeo, having run a similar event last year, it was the first such event for new owners Robert Jackson and Melissa Sveticic, who were keen to continue what they hoped would become a lasting tradition.
“We want to be a part of the community, so we did our best to try and make it all work,” Mr Jackson said.
And making it work they did, with a last minute approval from Mitchell Shire Council even seeing the exciting inclusion of a DD Air Bag on the day, an inflatable ramp that allows riders to attempt tricks safely or, as DD Air Bags Australia says, ‘Send it safer, progress faster.’
“We just got approval for [the DD Air Bag] at the last minute,” Mr Jackson said.
“That’s an excellent piece of equipment because it allows all the kids to do jumps safely, and if they do crash, it’s just like landing on a jumping castle, so it was good of the council to give us approval for that.
“I think we got a pretty good turnout in the end, and a good group of kids all riding pretty hard.”
Gift vouchers and a custom BMX bike, built by Wheel House Bike’s bicycle mechanic Paul Bereza, were up for grabs through competitions and a raffle, truly giving back to the local riding community in a generous and selfless way.
Speaking to future and community-based events, Mr Jackson noted that Wheel House Bikes would continue to hold their regular group rides, and would be looking to use the DD Air Bag again.
“We do gravel rides at 7.30 on a Saturday morning, and we hold other rides for the kids regularly,” he said.
“We did a community night ride … in Kilmore about two weeks ago. So all the kids came in, put lights on their bars and we took them around, up the hill, and then down on the bike path. About 40 people turned up to that, which was pretty good.
“Now that we’ve got the bag approved, I might use it a bit more in other places, so when we do the pump track, hopefully later this year or early next year, we’ll do an opening and take the bag out there again.”
