The second Babyldn x Brooks Bike Jumble was hosted at the end of April in the sun-warmed courtyard outside the Bespoked handmade bike show in Peckham.

With this second instalment, we decided to take a similar approach to the first: a flea market–style setup paired with coffee. This time, though, we added something new. Fresh melon sprinkled with tajín. A small addition that took a winning formula from good to great.

While we’d never claim that a piece of fruit sprinkled with chilli and salt could upstage the glittering handmade bicycles on display inside the expo, that melon sure gave it a shot.

Babyldn’s events always draw a wonderfully mixed crowd. All of London cycling is there: students, collectors, old heads, people for whom the courier era never ended, and folks just hunting for that final piece of kit to complete a parts-bin chimera build.

Somehow, it all blends together without friction into something that can only be described with that oft-overused word: community. One person turned up with a pair of prototype Vans sneakers made exclusively for the Chinese market. Where else does that happen?

This three-way meeting of the minds originally came about when Petor Georgallou – who runs Bespoked – attended one of Babyldn’s jumbles. He approached Marlon Plein about bringing the anarchic, bring-and-buy aesthetic to one of his shows in the future.

Plein was only too happy to say yes. And Brooks was even happier to support the endeavour when it finally became reality at this year’s Bespoked UK.

“I think the Babyldn Bike Jumble at Bespoked has been a great success story for the London scene,” he says. “There’s the fixie guys, there’s the lycra boys, the klunker guys, it’s one of the few events where they all co-exist very peacefully. It’s great that there are people in the scene like Petor and Joergen [Trepp, from Brooks] who want to support that.”

Marlon jokes that the jumbles got started from a non-altruistic motivation.

“I was just thinking about it earlier, it’s quite a selfish thing – I bring the jumble to my doorstep and I kinda just get ‘pickings’! I get to go through everyone else’s gold treasures, so I don’t have to go out and find them.”

So good is the vibe, so relaxed, so clearly popular, you would be forgiven for thinking that Babyldn was a business solely about putting on bike jumbles. Not so! In fact, with lots going on, it can be hard to pin down exactly what Babyldn is about.

“We do custom-builds. We do community bike shop workshops on certain days of the week, so members of the community can come and get bike help for cheap, or free if it’s kids. And then yeah, on Sundays we’re kinda here, there and everywhere – we might do a ride or put a jumble on. Our next idea for a Sunday is a cook-out, where everyone brings some food and you kinda show off your bike.”

The unifying purpose, though, is Plein’s passion for the pedal.

“I love the bike and what it has done to me personally. It’s been great for personal development, health, it’s given me a purpose. I still remember discovering the bike truly, in person, here in London – and that’s somewhat a driving force for me: to create that eureka moment for someone else.

“One of the tenets is to make people fall in love with cycling. If it can feel welcoming, if it can feel ‘diverse’, if it can feel relaxed, and educational… then we’ve done a good job. Oh, and it has to be beautiful.”

Enjoy the photos of the day, captured by Simon Weller.