This is the first in CycleHub’s new series of stories about Australia's favourite local bike shops. It's not a sponsored post. Have a bike shop you want to see reviewed? Email us at inbox@cyclehub.com.au.

Jordan Wilson works every day in an unheated, un-airconditioned, open warehouse, gets grease on his hands, and loves every minute of it.

He founded the Ride-In Workshop, now located in Brookvale, to repair bikes (with no retail) on Sydney's Northern Beaches in 2011.

“I worked in bike shops for years, then tried corporate, working in multiple different industries,” he said. “I enjoyed this too much not to do it again.”

Jordan says it only took him a week to decide to ditch the corporate world and start his own bike repair shop.

He said, “My prior job at a goggles and swimwear company fell apart. I was given a shop under someone else’s lease, and I decided to give it a go.

"Within three days, I needed four mates to help me with all the work. And since then, it's never stopped being busy.”

Riding Is Work, Play, and Family for Jordan

Jordan says his wife loves the shop.

“We were three months into our first kid when we started the shop, and now we've got two. One rides; one definitely doesn't. My wife is awesome. She is a big supporter. She rides, but she can't fix a punctured tube, so I'm still useful for something.”

What Jordan loves most about having a bike repair shop is that every day is different. New products come out all the time, and he has to learn them.

“The main thing is we all love bikes. It’s our social life, it’s our work, and it’s our sport. And most people don’t spend enough time working with their hands.

Regarding his own cycling collection, Jordan says he has five bikes. When asked which is his favourite, he said, “Oh, I can’t say. They all are. It’s impossible to choose.”

He rides both road and mountain bikes, cross-country, free riding, downhill, and on the trails around the Northern Beaches, which have some excellent mountain bike riding at Manly Dam and in Narrabeen. He says the Northern Beaches have both excellent roads and trails for riding.

The Northern Beaches Is Bike Shop Nirvana

Jordan describes the Northern Beaches as a sort of bike-shop nirvana.

“Every household has not one, but four bikes. Even if they don't ride much, there's always a bike in the house. And at the workshop, we don't turn any bike away.

“Here, riding is easily accessible to a population that's wealthy and likes the outdoors. You've got hundreds of thousands of people in the Northern Beaches with the resources to ride and the free time to do it. And they get their kids into it as well.”

Before we finished up the interview, Jordan pointed out to me two bikes on his workshop floor. One was a Dirodi electric bike whose young owner had smashed off the pedals, chain, and derailleur. He just rides it with the wrist throttle. While that's not legal, it's also not uncommon.

(Check out the hit song "Dirodi" by Northern Beaches band, Ghazza.)

The other bike he showed me is a custom bike they were assembling for a local 14-year-old who had bought the parts online.

“He knows what he's doing,” said Jordan. “He's got all the right parts, including a rear wheel hub motor that can go close to 100 km/h.”