Repairing, building and maintaining bikes for people across the city was in his blood.

Recreational and commuter cyclists across Ballarat have been remembering William "Bill" Gove as the hard-working and generous man who would always help them with their bikes.

Mr Gove died on April 14, 2024, about one month shy of his 93^rd birthday.

Gove was a name historians have claimed was synonymous with bicycles in Ballarat. Gove Cycles had been the city's oldest bike shop until about five years ago when the heritage space that had been the Bike Rack Cafe was transformed into restaurant Food Seduction.

Mr Gove moved into the family bicycle business as a young man to work for his father Jack in the original shop, which had been on the west side of Doveton Street, a little closer to Macarthur Street.

This job became a passion that kept him working in the store into his 70s.

Gove Cycles was renowned for the lines of bikes in the racks out the front of the store, usually all repair jobs waiting to be picked up. Mr Gove used to put a piece of cardboard with the customer's name in the spokes to tell the bikes apart.

His son Lachlan said there were often people telling him they had worked for his dad, spending about an hour each day putting out the bikes then packing them up again.

Each Christmas, Lachlan said it was not uncommon for his father to be up all night painting bikes then delivering these to Ballarat families, sometimes at four or 5am on Christmas Day.

His father then used to enjoy the city's traditional Christmas morning bike races, a tradition dating back to the late 1800s that Ballarat-Sebastopol Cycling Club continues in late December.

Gove Cycles would manufacture their own bikes until frames became available from Adelaide, but they would keep assembling their own bikes and gradually selling other brands.

Mr Gove rarely took a holiday, other than to visit Warrnambool for the Grand Annual Steeplechase in May.

He loved racing and when young had helped his father as a bookie at greyhound meets. Mr Gove later became a member with Ballarat Trotting Club.

Lachlan said there was a nurse at James Thomas Court aged care home, where Mr Gove spent his final years, who enjoyed popping in outside her shifts to watch the races with his dad.

"He was very caring and you could see that persona spilling out in the home," Lachlan said.

Golf was Mr Gove's other sporting passion and, a long-time member of Mount Xavier Golf Club, he was often known for hitting the greens when shops shut strictly at noon on Saturdays - offering enough time to fit 18 holes into the afternoon.

Mr Gove grew up in Brougham Street in Soldiers Hill where his mum had an impressive market garden in the backyard. He never smoked but enjoyed a couple of beers

Mr Gove met his wife Lesley, who did not dance much, at a dance in Ballarat and she became a well-known children's and school librarian in the city.

Cycling culture greatly changed in Mr Gove's time, transforming from a largely a commuter tool which was popular with workers for the nearby Myer and Morley mills and the Ronaldson and Tippett machinery factory. Mr Gove experienced a shift to bikes being used more for recreation and fitness.

The Gove family sold the business in 2011 to Arthur and Sharine Shaw, who undertook a heritage restoration of the building to continue the Gove legacy.