The first Sunday of every month, a great place to be is St Ives Showgrounds because it hosts mini bikes, RC race cars and markets. As with all stuff that you can enjoy everyday, such a three play parks, BBQ areas, space for picnics, bush walks, dog walking areas, etc, etc. they have three great extras;

• Heritage Markets which meets the first Sunday of every month
• St Ives Radio Control Car Club
• Kuringai Mini Wheels Training Club

Heritage Markets

The Heritage Markets are held on the first Sunday of every month. Along with the usual range of plants and dog treats, there are a number of food stalls. I spied a Danish Coffee stand, African cuisine along with a Malaysian Noodle bar. Funny thing is, it was a small stand that grabbed my interest; a knife sharpener. I know, I’m old. I can still remember a knife sharpener coming around my home town on his bike. Today was a much fancier incarnation with a little Honda generator and sharpening equipment. Point is, it was a really useful market stall, to me. I could turn all those blunt objects in my kitchen back in to scissors and knifes that actually work!

St Ives Radio Control Car Club

I’d seen the track for these little cars at the Showground many times, I’d even seen a few people practising occasionally, but I had never realised how mesmerising Radio Control (RC) cars can be when they are racing. This is a busy club, with drivers arriving and setting up their picnic tables behind their cars, so that they can tune-up and adjust their 1/10th scale racing buggies.

When a race starts the drivers, perched above the crowd go in to a trance like state, concentrating entirely on their own vehicles as they fly around the track at breakneck pace. Several jumps and tight turns provide for some spectacular manoeuvring and a great way to spend some time.

Ku-ring-gai Miniwheels

Right at the back of the showgrounds is the Kuringa Miniwheels motorbike club. I know the track well as my sons used to ride their bicycles around it ten years ago (when they weren’t using it for racing). This place is a hoot! While I was there they really were “mini” people riding around on their dirt bikes. I reckon they’d have all been ten years old and under, although it’s hard to tell under all that race leathers and helmets!

Fantastically supervised by a large contingent of knowledgeable parents, this looks like immense fun.  The riders I witnessed were being let out on to the course one by one in groups of about eight. That meant each rider had someone in front of them to chase and someone behind as well. Meanwhile a group of teenagers were on another area of the club being given a close-quarters riding lesson; what a great way to learn to ride a bike. I’ll bet these riders are really solid and responsible bike riders by the time they’re old enough to ride on the streets of Sydney.