Not a single bike for sale on the main floor at Off Course – they’re all either outside or upstairs.
Off Course
As we reported here earlier this year, after 16 years trading as Commuter Cycles, the inner city Melbourne store rebranded as Off Course to reflect the much wider range of bikes that it now sells and services, including to gravel and adventure riding markets.
After a long gap between visits, I recently dropped in on the store, which is located in a light industrial strip in the inner northern suburb of Brunswick. There had certainly been a lot of changes and upgrades since my previous visit perhaps five years before.
These custom made hangars are a great way to display bikepacking frame bagsWhy have three or four car parks in front of your shop if you can put in a roof and display 40 or so bikes instead?This gold lettering suits the building perfectly and looks a century old, but I don’t think any of those brands were available then…Wedged between two much larger concrete warehouses, Off Course exudes some retro style.
Other Store Changes
Sparque
Sparque recently moved from a more basic, draughty premises in North Melbourne to this larger, newly renovated former industrial building located even closer to the CBD in Ireland Street, West Melbourne.Sparque is not a typical bike shop. A large portion of their business is novated leasing of e-bikes to employees. They hadn’t quite finished the fit-out of this new premises when these photos were taken but it was already looking very inviting for customers.
Trek Sydney
Downstairs in Trek Sydney (formerly Clarence St Cyclery) most of the apparel department is now devoted to Rapha, which Trek has stocked in their company stores worldwide.
Jet Cycles
Here’s something few shops would risk, but Jet Cycles in Sydney’s CBD had multiple examples of across road bikes and mtb – stocking top of the range bikes such as this Specialized S-Works Turbo Levo.
Awesome article Phil. Just a bit of trivia re the Gold Lettering on Off Courses shop. Nitto was founded in 1923.They just squeeze into a century :).