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Melbourne
measures business cycles in lycra
6
January 2006
Getting on your bike has become the new way to network and keep fit, writes Mathew Dunckley.
Every Saturday about 10,000 people swap their business suits for lycra shorts and take to Melbourne's bayside roads on their bicycles.
City professionals are well represented in their ranks, and organisers' mailing lists are dripping with heavy hitters from the property, legal, finance and political worlds.
The organisers of the groups, which can include upwards of 60 cyclists, say it has taken over from golf as the corporate sport of choice. Cycling is deemed a great way to keep fit, network and socialise. The rule of thumb is that an hour on the bike entitles you to an hour in the coffee shop afterwards.
But to others, particularly local motorists, the cyclists are a menace with little regard for road rules, and new laws have been proposed to curb their perceived excesses.
"Lawyers are the worst riders. There is a group of judges, federal court judges, and they ride through red lights and all sorts," one Bayside regular says. Wherever the argument lies, both sides would agree that cycling has taken off in the city, particularly on the so-called Beach Road.
In reality, Beach Road makes up only a short section of a wide, gently winding and largely flat strip of bitumen that stretches more than 100 kilometres from Port Melbourne to Point Nepean.
The cycling groups have names such as Deals on Wheels, the Bay Riders and Hell Riders. They swarm to Beach Road in their thousands every Saturday from dawn.
The ranks of cycle enthusiasts include ANZ chief executive John McFarlane, BHP Billiton's Chip Goodyear, National Australia Bank boss John Stewart, the president of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, judge Stuart Morris, and Patrick Corporation chief Chris Corrigan.
Knight Frank's Victorian chief executive, Paul Burns, who rides with the Deals on Wheels group, says cycling appeals for a number of reasons.
Some people who might have once been runners find their bodies, particularly their knees, are no longer willing to put up with the same stress, and cycling offers a low-impact alternative.
He also says it is a distinctly Melbourne phenomenon because of the access to the bay, its gentle contours and wide roads.
A partner at Deacons' commercial dispute resolution division, Tony Elder, says networking is part and parcel of the experience.
"At the informal level you come across people riding or they ride with you or you run into them at the Cafe Racer [a popular post-ride haunt in St Kilda]," he says.
"There are other networking opportunities. We as a firm have clients who are interested in cycling and we have occasional networking rides where we invite them to come and participate."
Every Friday, Elder sends an email to the firm's riders, their friends and clients informing them of the start time and location of the weekly rides.
"I started this Deacons riding group about five or six years ago and in those days there were two or three of us who used to ride," he says. "These days I have a distribution list of 14 or 15."
"It has surpassed golf in terms of participation. It is not as time-consuming and a bit more collegiate and social," he says.
"I think Melbourne is very, very lucky. I rode in Sydney recently and the great problem is the infrastructure isn't as well suited to having cyclists as Melbourne."
Bingham, who does most of his riding in the Yarra Ranges where he lives, says his firm has signed a three-year sponsorship deal for the Around the Bay in a Day cycle race. This year it invited clients and employees to participate. "It was great to get our clients and financial advisers along," he says. "We had a target of 75 [and] we finished up with 225 people riding in our team."
The teams fielded in the 200-kilometre event indicate the sport's growing popularity.
BHP Billiton's team was 80-strong, General Motors Holden had 69 members, Powercorp 49, Nestle{aac} Toyota 41, PricewaterhouseCoopers 40, Multiplex 38, Esso Mobil 37, Macquarie Bank 37 and Telstra 37. Team members are often sponsored to raise money for charities such as the race's designated beneficiary, The Smith Family.
Becton Property Group founder and chairman Max Beck says his group, The Bay Riders, started nine years ago with three members. It now has more than 110.
"Our members are right across business but everybody riding is just a Bay Rider. There is no one special out there; you still have to flog yourself on the hills," he says.
Beck says the beauty of cycling is that people can conduct conversations while they are riding and different abilities can be accommodated.
Former Australian racing champion and world record holder John Kennedy now runs a cycling shop in the heart of Melbourne's favourite circuit.
He specialises in custom-fitting bikes to riders - he claims to have outfitted more than 15,000 cyclists - and says most riders can be kitted out for about $4,000, although some want to spend considerably more.
"Bikes haven't really changed in a hundred years," he says. "You can't buy a real bike until [you spend] about $3,500 but it's a waste of money spending $6000 [and more]. Everyone is getting brainwashed with carbon fibre [but] if you fall off it, you have to throw the bike in the bin."
Although cyclists come from all walks of life there has been a noticeable increase in the number of middle-aged professionals looking for bikes, he says.
"People get to 45 years old and say 'I want to ride a bike'. Running is good for you but a lot of people can't run, their legs are buggered, their back hurts or they are overweight," he says. "The alternative is to get on a bike . . . [and] it is the strongest thing you can do for your heart."
His list of clients includes BHP's Chip Goodyear and former federal opposition leader Simon Crean.
Business has boomed over the past few years but that has also caused some tension on the roads between cyclists and motorists, something Kennedy says is the fault of both sides.
He believes better education about road safety is needed, particularly for school children. He also advocates stiff penalties for those who break the rules and tougher laws that would ban groups of cyclists larger than 20 members.
Brighton police traffic management unit sergeant Herb Lonsing has proposed a number of such law changes aimed at controlling groups and cutting down the number of accidents on the Beach Road.
His proposals come after years of working with the local councils and cycling groups and have been submitted to the police hierarchy.
Some of his suggestions include demerit points on a rider's car driver's licence for offences committed while cycling, and tightening the laws so that riders would have to ride single file on public roads.