‘It’s very rewarding’: Meet the men behind Waterloo’s ‘Cycle Re-Cycle Club’ bike repair workshop

Retiree Dean Croughan is one of a dozen volunteers sprucing up pre-loved kids’ bikes and giving them out for free. Go inside the humble Waterloo garage dubbed the ‘Cycle Re-Cycle Club’.

Volunteers working to restore bikes at the Cycle Re-cycle Club, a volunteer-run workshop beneath twin public housing towers in Waterloo. Picture: Julian Andrews

Tucked beneath Turanga tower as the sun slips behind the surrounding terraces, 67-year-old Dean Croughan tinkers with a tiny camera mounted on the handlebars of an orange bicycle.

The inner Sydney retiree is processing a new donation at the small garage that is home to the Cycle Re-cycle Club, a volunteer-run bike repair workshop set between the twin public housing towers at 1 Phillip Street in Waterloo.

For nearly a decade Dean has run the garage-turned-second-hand store where twice a week, he and his dozen regular volunteers fix up broken bike chains and brake pads and sell spare parts and refurbished bicycles to locals.

Pre-loved kids’ bikes are spruced up and scattered around the block with a sheet of paper sticky-taped to the front declaring them “free” to their next owner.

Every so often, Dean will spot kids who live in the towers above playing in the streets riding one of the bikes he repaired, or run into his past “customers” all grown up at the grocery store.

Waterloo’s Cycle Re-cycle Club team leader Dean Croughan and volunteer bike mechanic Mark Mitchell with one of their recently refurbished kids’ bikes. Picture: Julian Andrews

“Giving kids bikes is very rewarding, especially if their parents weren’t expecting it – you can see the gratitude on their face,” he said.

“You see them come back one day and they’ve got jobs, and they’ll still recognise me, they’ll say ‘you’re the guy that fixed my bike years ago.’”

Dean has been been volunteering with the 20-year-old community organisation for nearly half its existence. Picture: Julian Andrews

Among his fondest interactions with customers is the work he did for a young girl who brought down a “dusty old relic” that had belonged to her grandmother.

“Two hours later she rode off on it,” Dean said, proudly.

Cyclists come and go, from office-dwelling commuters to international students living off meagre incomes as food delivery drivers, all raking through bins and buckets for replacement parts. Those who can’t afford to pay the small fee are allowed to take items for free.

The ‘pay what you can’ philosophy also applies to donated bikes, handed over to the Cycle Re-cycle Club when their owner no longer wants or needs them, and bicycles salvaged from the scrap heap.

The Cycle Re-Cycle Club operates out of a garage beneath Turanga tower at 1 Phillip Street. Picture: Julian Andrews

It’s not only broken bikes the amateur mechanics have turned their attention to, either, with a rack of spare seats and rubber tyres hidden in the back of the garage ready to roll out for any wheelchair users that need a repair.

“Anything with tyres, spokes, and tubes we can fix. Electric scooters, prams, and walking frames – because they have the same kind of brakes,” Dean said.

The CRC tries to encourage cyclists to use their facilities to repair their own bikes ‘autonomously’ to free up volunteers to fix up and sell the donations, or strip for parts the ones that are beyond repair.

Un-fixable bikes are stripped for parts, which are themselves restored and added to the stockpile. Picture: Julian Andrews

Redfern GP Nick Jones was helping a regular customer, Craig, find a replacement part when The Daily Telegraph visited the garage.

“It’s important, what Craig is doing by engaging. Sometimes people step back – there may be language barriers, there’s multiple factors, but I think because we are outside and not hidden hopefully it’s a bit more approachable to the local community,” Nick said.

Nick Jones with customer Craig. Picture: Julian Andrews

“We’re hopefully empowering and engaging people in this area of low basic income, and helping people get their primary mode of transport (working).”

28-year-old accountant David Le was the youngest volunteer that day, and has been donating his Saturdays and Monday nights to the club since benefiting from its services himself.

He said the diverse mix of people makes the garage feel “like a social group” as well as a way to do good in the local community.

Nick tightens up a bike chain. Picture: Julian Andrews

“The cheapest way to get around the city is on a bike, so for people that need it to get around, it feels good (to help them out),” he said.

“A lot of people have old bikes in the apartments and they’re looking to clean them out, they’re just sitting there gathering dust.

“The easiest thing to do is throw them away, but if they drop them off here we can fix them up and … give them a bike at a reasonable price.”
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