Dulwich Hill Bicycle Club

Hi all,

Just read in my local rag (Bankstown Torch) that the Handle Bar Tavern is to close on May 3.

Due to "economic downturn" and that the Bankstown Sports Club who operates the HBT and DGV has to cut costs. The BSC subsidises the DGV precinct to the tune of $500 000 per annum.

Hope this doesnt mean anything for DGV.

I love a beer after RAW!!

Beanzy

I, for one, will miss their unique take on the classic Chicken Parma.

ripped, must not be popular enough as a pub :S

Should of spent my $10 Handlebar voucher

I think this song is fitting

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS-zK1S5Dws

Maybe, if they'd actually learnt how to cook half decent pasta instead of the cr*p they served up week after week more people would buy, stay and drink and therefore more profit? Seriously though the only thing keeping that place afloat besides BSC was the gamblers / horse racing punters and obviously there aren't enough of them. The NSW government should confirm funding of the velodrome - pity they didn't build it where it should have been built - at Homebush along with all the other venues that are supported by taxes.

The comment about dunc gray velodrome's poor location is an interesting one. Some time ago I was there at a world champs round, and someone in the food queue was rueing the location as the crowd turnout was poor and apparently the location was all to blame. I assumed he was suggesting it should be somewhere around fox studios or the north shore. My personal opinion at the time was that even if it were located in Pitt st Mall, the punters wouldn't necessaroiy turn up as track cycling is a fringe sport.

Why is bankstown such a poor location, taking into account that track cycling has it's roots in the working class?

Track Cycling may well have had it's roots in the "working class", but lets face facts that in 2010 it's a predominantly middle class sport - especially if you add in road and MTB. Besides that, my comment was specifically directed at location vis a vie the funding from the NSW government - Homebush Olympic Precinct has a political and media profile - sadly, Bass Hill does not.

Not surprised at all by its closure. Located in the middle of nowhere, there just isn't sufficient patronage to keep a business of that scale in the black.

It might be the middle of nowhere for your average inner west hipster/yuppy, but I'm sure for Bankstown-ites it's not! Maybe the locals need to be encouraged to take up track cycling.

Having bike commuted many a time from Chatswood to Dunc Grey to race, I can assure you that despite the excellent commuting roads, virtually no one out there rides a bike

It might be the middle of nowhere for your average inner west hipster/yuppy, but I'm sure for Bankstown-ites it's not! Maybe the locals need to be encouraged to take up track cycling.

I think the issue is more about spectators and competitors getting there easily. Not close to trains or buses - and it's not like you can cycle there with a track bike. It's an olympic track - and the crowds we get are pretty poor in comparison to Melbourne - especially when you have World Masters and other events of that calibre. Crikey - at TEmpe we even get walk by spectators that sit and watch us train.

Anyway - there goes having a beer after the track.

Perhaps we should visit the Tavern before it shuts

DGV was built where it was as an ALP boondoggle, pre-Olympics, to drag some more sports facilities out that way.
Before the games it was identified as anomalously located, given the concentration of other venues at Homebush. It's not as if cycling needed to be out Bankstown way, like other sports that needed more land - canoeing or horsey things for example. And I'm sure it would have been possible to create a multi-purpose design that made it possible for the track to be closed during the Easter Show etc.
I reckon that if it had been built at Homebush, track cycling would be a bigger sport today.

I think the issue is more about spectators and competitors getting there easily.

I couldn't agree more. After my first meet on Saturday, I'm surprised anyone can be bothered going there. I'd rather drive to Perth - at least it's not a meandering debacle through suburban streets.
In my opinion, the effort to get there is not what stops people from track riding. I know first hand as many of my friends are 'inner west hipsters' who do not have $255 to fork out for a racing license, to find out they don't like it. Many of them are keen but little is advertised from Cycling NSW about day licenses etc, that it makes the sport really inaccessible.

Day licences are way over priced due to insurance etc, they aren't worth it.
We have had a heap of couriers turn up to the track that only last a few months, get fastish, then disapear.
(Though peter mcdonald was a courier)