The Knights of Suburbia are a nationwide riding collective going strong in WA after starting out in Melbourne in 2015 with a strong focus on mental health.

“We don’t call ourselves a club, we call ourselves a community,” said leading WA Chapter Knight, Tracy Rainford, when we sat down with her recently.

“We are definitely not the biggest or the fastest but we like to think of ourselves as the friendliest. It’s grown in popularity in WA in the last few years.”

The Knights have a schedule of five road and gravel social rides each week that encourage dialogue of life’s issues including any mental health issues people might be struggling with – during or post-ride on forums like the Knights’ highly active Facebook group.

Turning pedals for mental health gains 

“So for instance we do a Wednesday ‘Wellness Post’ where we share information on mental health, and we see how cycling really contributes to people’s positive mental health,” Tracy said.

“Cycling and exercise is obviously great for mental health but also connection throughout our community. When you bring people together over coffee, and also cycling side-by-side, particularly males, they might be more willing to open up because they are in a safe place and might be willing to share things that are going on.”

“People tell us how Knights of Suburbia friends will consistently reach out to them and make sure they are ok, so it’s that real sense of community – people can turn up for a friendly ride but if they need it there is an informal support network as well.”

“We are looking at doing a Blue Tree ride in the near future and we have hosted first aid/mental health events in the past.”

About 40% of Australians have a mental health disorder at some point in their lives, with anxiety being the most common form.

A movement movement 

The Knights are also an inclusive bunch and always reaching out to have more people – including women – riding in their bunches.

“As with most cycling groups there are more males than females, but that is changing and we are growing the number of females that come along to our rides,” she said.

“We did a survey and found some people thought some of our rides were too fast, so we eased up our Saturday rides by a couple of kilometres per hour, and we attracted another group of people who were keen.”

While the Knights aren’t really in it for the racing, their members are often at events testing themselves and building community.

“We don’t have a strong focus on racing, but we have members who set their own goals and when they do that our community is right behind them and we have good numbers at events like Seven, Bike it to Ballidu Gravel, Backroads Gravel, the Canola Classic, the Brigadoon Super Challenge – and that helps us be seen and heard more in the community.”

Find out more about the Knights of Suburbia Western Australia via their Facebook page.