Chappelli Cycles is pumped to be the first Australian bicycle company to team up with the Qantas Accumulate program, so now you can use your points to buy our bikes.
Anyone with Qantas frequent flyer miles and Accumulate points can now use them to buy a Chappelli bicycle from the Qantas store. Simply login to your frequent flyer account and go to look for Cycling in the Qantas store. We have range of our most popular mens and women’s bikes available in modern and vintage styles. So stop saving those points for a trip overseas and use them to upgrade your daily commute! Visit the Qantas Store now
Chappelli Cycles is having a clearance bike sale to make way for its new stock including vintage three speeds, NuVinci’s and new models of women’s vintage bicycles and mens retro bikes. Save on our current range of modern fixies and single speeds and 3 speed internal hub bicycles including vintage single speeds and ladies vintage bicycles.
The Chappelli modern fixies come with a flip/flop hub, straight forks, deep dish rims and are available in four sizes and 5 different colours.
The Chappelli 3 speed fixies or urban bicycles come with the ultra-reliable and versatile Sturmey Archer three speed hub to give a good range of gears for commuting as well as the clean look of a fixie bicycle.
Bicycles are available online from our website www.chappelli.com/au or in store in our Botany (NSW) and Collingwood (Vic) locations. Pop in for a demo-ride and get one today.
Chappelli Cycles is very excited to be participating in the Menske Project this weekend in Melbourne. The event is a celebration of all things men and has been curated from leading Melbourne designers, artists, musicians and of course bicycle designers! The event is running from Friday lunchtime to Sunday evening and will have music, coffee and whisky as well as a bunch of other things. Pop and down to see our newest range of vintage style single speed bicycles and see the other exhibitors.
Its at 84 Rupert Street, Collingwood from 11-7pm Friday to Sunday. See flyer below (image is Berlin’ by @brookeholm)
Ezio Abeni emigrated from Italy to Australia in the 1970s, and started the Europa bicycle shop in Kensington, Sydney in 1973. Ezio was a master bicycle builder in Italy and started selling hand-built road and track bicycles under the Abeni and Europa brands. Today his son John runs the business building custom made bicycles hand built to specifications and his bicycles are sought after by collectors of Australian classic and vintage style bicycles.
This Bicycle:
This bicycle was hand-built in 1978 using Reynolds 531 tubing. It has a full Campagnolo group set – down-tube shifters, brakes, front and rear derailleurs, crankset, bottom bracket and headset from the period.
The word from Ezio on this bicycle:
“I chose the colour of that bike. That pink was a classic 70’s colour. The blue grips and saddle really set it off. You’d never get away with that colour scheme these days!”
Chappelli Cycles is very proud to be supporting Cycle-O-Rama, Sydney’s newest celebration of all thing cycle related. They’ve got a fantastic program this year so get down and be involved.
Cycle-O-Rama, Sydney’s newest celebration of everything bike in its second year, and has an even bigger and better program. Cycle-o-rama is running concurrently with the Sydney Rides Festival which is on from the 11th to 25th of October.
Located at Sydney’s new Protohub space, Cycle-O-Rama starts tonight with a big Launch Party and has nine days of bicycle focused activities including our friends at Knog doing a Night Ride, a day ride and bike market as well as an exhibition of bicycle related art and bicycle design and a bicycle tour of Sydney’s best bike hot spots, so bring along your fixie, vintage bicycle or favourite retro looking bicycle and be part of the action.
Chappelli Cycles is going to have some of its new bicycles on display at ProtoHub including our design award winning NuVinci Platinum and a new collaboration with Helios light bars. For all the information on the event and more details check out the Cycle-O-Rama website or facebook page.
We are going to be open this Easter so if you’re looking for something to do this long weekend, come down to our warehouse in Richmond or Botany to say hi and grab a new bike.
Sydney – Closed Friday, Open Saturday 19th 10 -5pm
Editor’s note: Hey guys, with summer over, so too is our Redfern pop-up store. But fear not, you’ll very soon be able to find us at an awesome new site close by in Botany. Stay tuned for more info, and if you stopped by in Redfern over summer, t’was great to see you!
We’ve opened a pop-up store in Redfern Sydney, in an awesome old mechanics garage.
On Bastille Day in the middle of July, Chappelli Cycles launched its first online store in France.
The online store will complement our Swedish operations, helping us to service the whole European continent.
Earlier this week we caught up with Guillaume Adriansen who explained why the time is ‘parfait’ for Chappelli to bring our new bikes to the old continent.
What makes the time right for Chappelli to launch in Europe now? Two things:
1. First, seeing the progress made by Tom and Pablo in the last 3 years with Chappelli Cycles has been a profound source of motivation in launching the brand in France.
They have proven Chappelli Cycles is not only a strong trendy, brand that can sell a lot of fixies and single speeds, but is also a brand with a long-term strategy of diversification. Already we’ve seen 3-speed bikes, men’s and women’s multi speed bikes, and the award-winning NuVinci, and there are many more in the pipeline. In short, Chappelli is more than a fashionable brand of fixies; it’s a fashionable bicycle manufacturer.
2. Second, the context in Europe is very favourable to city bikes right now. A combination of factors has contributed to an increasing demand for city bikes:
– Free or cheap rental bikes in main cities such as the Vélib in Paris have pushed people back on to bikes,
– the price of gas is skyrocketing,
– society is under pressure to exercise more,
– and bikes are definitely back in fashion as a cool way of commuting (- just so long as the bike itself is cool!)
Why set up in France in particular?
France is the 4th market worldwide for bicycles. This is where the Tour De France started in 1903. France is also the home country of classic brand of bikes such as Mercier or Peugeot.
The country has a love affair with fashion, as long as it is classy and understated. France is made of many cities with most people commuting every day to work making short-distance trips on public transport.
For all of these reasons it is obvious to us that Chappelli Cycles will one day be successful in France.
How can people in Europe buy a Chappelli bicycle?
We will be selling a range of Chappelli Cycles bicycles via our online store at www.chappelli.eu, and also distributing them at a few targeted retailers (both bike stores and fashion stores).
Thieves don’t take holidays – but as British London2012 gold medal cyclist Philip Hindes recently found out, they certainly do take bicycles.
The Guardian reportedthat a bicycle belonging to the team sprint medalist was stolen when thieves ransacked his Manchester home over a weekend in late August. They also stole his car, which was found burnt out on a local highway.
Philip Hindes (photo The Guardian)
Not wanting to be the next Philip Hindes, one European Chappelli customer in Sweden took extra precautions when he went on holiday. As he told Christian from our European office:
“I was worried someone would break into my apartment while I was on summer holiday. So I locked my Chappelli to my dirty washing basket so that it would be harder to steal.”
Christian posted the message on the Chappelli Cycles Swedish Facebook page, noting afterwards: “Luckily there was no break-in; but incidentally we love that the Chappelli bicycle was his most precious possession.”
The issue of helmet law reform is gaining momentum.
Following our efforts to pay this cyclist’s fine(still unsuccessful, but we live in eternal hope) to raise awareness about bike helmets and cycle safety, we were contacted by the Freestyle Cyclists.
Australians abroad cycle helmet-free with impunity (picture via hubalabike.com)
We spoke to Kathy Francis about her motivations for getting started with the group, and what she thinks it can achieve.
What made you decide to pursue helmet reform as an issue?
I grew up without helmets in a country town where it was very safe to ride. I thought the helmet law was a crock and was fined repeatedly. I refused to pay, and was eventually was put in jail, pregnant, for 24 hours. After that I thought the fight wasn’t worth it so I gave it up.
Now that my kids are older now, they are facing the same issue, and so I have decided to fight it again.
What has changed between 1990 when the laws were introduced and now?
Back in the 1990s we felt we weren’t going to get anywhere, and that the rest of the world would follow us (by introducing helmet laws). This hasn’t been the case.
There is so much more research out there now that is showing that Australia has made a mistake. Bike share schemes worldwide have also been influential things, as has also Sue Abbott, who has challenged the laws in court. But getting politicians to listen is frustrating for us.
What level of reform are you hoping to achieve?
We’re hoping that politicians start to take this seriously. We don’t think the (safe cycling) infrastructure will ever be completed. We’re quite desperate in Victoria because fines are upwards of $146 dollars and police have zero tolerance.
Any reform would be good, even if it’s just for adults only.
The Freestyle Cyclists will officially launch their campaign on October 6 in Victoria, with a helmet-optional ride along the Yarra. In the meantime, you can visit their site and sign their petition here.
In case you’ve been relying on Channel Nine to watch the Olympic Games in London this week, you may not realise that there are more sports involved than variations on swimming.
But you also might not be aware that one of those other sports is fixed-gear bike riding.
To wit, this week at London’s purpose-built velodrome, track cyclists are pushing their cutting-edge fixed gear bikes to faster and faster speeds. (Australia’s Anna Meares being just one of many to have suffered having Australia’s hopes for gold riding on her.)
The original fixed-gear bicycle
Sure there are differences between track bikes and fixies such as Chappelli’s. For one, track cyclists can reach speeds well in excess of 100 kmh, which you’re unlikely to attain you’re completely out of control going down one of Sydney’s hills.
Then there’s the gear ratio, which on an Olympic track bike is about 60 teeth on the front cog to 12 on the back (we stand to be corrected). This is 5 times the ratio of a Chappelli, which is 44/18.
Another thing, track cyclists typically have enormous muscles; though these tree-trunk thighs seem excessive even by Olympic standards.
If you’re more interested in seeing less competitive and body-punishing fixie riding at the Games then perhaps you could consider attending – or participating in – Berlin’s Hipster Olympics. See the slideshow.
