A new bike shop has opened in Sydney full of very old fashioned looking bicycles. It’s called ‘Omafiets’ (pronounced ‘O-ma-fee-etts’) which means ‘grandma bike’ in Dutch.
But despite the old name and old bikes, business is brisk, with typically young, new customers.
We recently visited Omafiets and met with co-owner Oliver Cashman, to find out more.
Omafiets is tucked away in a relatively small, old block of shops in the inner south western Sydney suburb of Marrickville. This is an old working class suburb, made famous nationally by former World Champion boxer Jeff Fenech, the ‘Marrickville Mauler’. But times are changing in Marrickville. Like so many other old inner city working class suburbs around Australia, younger people and the café lifestyle are moving in, and urban cycling is part of that mix.
Bicycling Trade: When did you open Omafiets?
Oliver Cashman: We’ve been open for just over a year now, so October last year.
BT: And you started just opening weekends?
OC: Yes. Initially we were open Saturday and Sunday, which suits the movements of people in this sort of area. But we’ve lately been open four days a week and looking to expand our hours in the New Year.
BT: If I remember rightly from your website, you and your mates are from the University of New South Wales, is that how you got going?
Oliver: We actually came from the University of New South Wales and the University of Sydney. The three of us (Oliver, Maurice and Chris) who started this shop all had a background in a community bike building project, working with people who might not have access to the money to buy a bike. Essentially we were doing popular education work about building and maintaining bikes, which gave us a fairly good grounding in working with second hand bikes and also working with people who are using bikes as everyday modes of transport rather than recreational cyclists.
I think the direction of cycling has to go into the urban and commuter cyclists area. So that’s what got us into selling Dutch bikes as they are bikes that are designed for city riding. They’re not road bikes and they’re not mountain bikes, they’re city cycling bikes.
BT: I read on your website that the taxation treatment of bicycles in Holland is different to Australia and that gives you a supply of bikes?
Oliver: I’m by no means an expert on the Dutch tax scheme, but I do know that there is a heavy incentive for people to buy new bicycles there, in the sense that they essentially become an asset that then over a couple of years you’re given a tax rebate on. This not only encourages people to buy bicycles in the first place, but to buy new ones every couple of years. This essentially causes a glut in the second hand market that we then allows us to ship bikes out to Australia.
BT: Is someone on the Dutch equivalent of the ‘Trading Post’ scouring the market for bikes, or do you have some sort of consolidation company that’s filling containers for you?
Oliver: Without going into too much detail, we have a buying agent who buys for us primarily from large bike shops that do trade ins, which allows us to get the scale we need.
BT: So the Dutch bike shops do trade-ins as a matter of course, just like we do with cars in Australia?
Oliver: Yes, exactly. Understanding that people want to upgrade and as a retailer, offering trade-ins on bikes can be a good way of securing a sale.
BT: What is the typical price of a second hand three year old Dutch bike that you’re selling here?
Oliver: The pricing on our second hand Dutch bikes range from about the $400 to $1,000 mark. Typically, we are selling bikes for a little bit under 50% of their new recommended retail value. Your average new Gazelle in Australia is retailing for around $1,300 to $1,800, and those equivalent bikes a couple of years old are about less than half that.
BT: Are you putting new tyres on them or anything like that?
Oliver: We do a bunch of work on the bikes to essentially help guarantee that they’ll continue to work well into the future, whether that be replacing chains, replacing tyres, brake pads etc, etc. The reality of these bikes is that they are built to last in a way that a lot of other new bikes aren’t. So we actually find that we have to do relatively little work on the bikes and hopefully that translates into our customers having little to no maintenance in the long run. Many Dutch bikes are also built, I think, in a way that reflects an emphasis on long term maintenance in terms of having things like fully enclosed chain cases, hub gears, hub brakes, dynamo systems etc, where you have an emphasis on long term durability rather than just replacing a part.
BT: So, how has business been since you’ve opened? What’s your experience been?
Oliver: It’s been good! It’s been definitely growing I think as cycling in Sydney has changed over the last year. We’re finding it excellent. We’re moving into the new bike market as well, which has been excellent as well, which makes it a bit easier as a retailer.
BT: Looking around your shop, they’re not all second hand Dutch bikes…
Oliver: We also sell a range of locally sourced second hand bikes, reflecting the fact that importing bikes is a time consuming process and often you need bikes faster than that to suit demand.
We also sell a line of new Gazelle Bikes that are imported through Gazelle Bikes Australia. And then a whole bunch of city riding accessories, mudguards, racks, dynamo lights, helmets, bells etc.
