bobby c

Good day all,

My wife and I (she's a rider as well) will be visiting Australia for a few weeks in March of '09 and we'd like to get some riding in. We have rellies scattered around, but most are in either Brisbane or Melbourne. The trip is not a biking vacation, but we'd like to do some side rides between other activities and visits. We mostly ride the road, but we also do some mountain biking, though my wife isn't keen on anything too extreme.

We fly into Brisbane and will stay there for a couple of days before flying up to Cairns (gotta see the reef and then to Kuranda). We then return to Brisbane, we're not sure for how long but we'd like to get some riding in at that time. If road riding, I'd love to get some riding in a more natural spot. Even if it isn't a hardcore ride, something where we might see some wildlife, birds, trees, etc. would be fine.

We will then fly down to Melbourne - most likely we'll be there for 3-4 days, though maybe more. Again, that type of riding would be great. One option for us would be go rent a car and drive to ride the Great Ocean Road, I've heard that's nice. Any suggestions along those lines would be appreciated.

From Melbourne we'll probably be flying to Sydney, we're going to meet up with some mates and probably spend several days in the Blue Mountains. The husband of the couple we're meeting is a mountain bike freak, I'm sure we'll be doing some of that, though my wife will probably not partake if it is too rough.

So can anyone give me some suggestions to routes or places to bike in general in these areas? Are rentals readily available? And how about the Great Ocean Road - since we will start at one point and have to come back to pick up the car, is there a good route for that?

Thanks for any suggestions & hope to see you on the road (or in the mountains)!

bob

531Aussie

I haven't been there for a long time, but I wouldn't ride on the Great Ocean Road for a million bucks.
Although 'legendary' for its scenery, it's mostly a narrow, winding country road with high speed limits. Lots of motorcyclists kill themsleves along there. But it's a very nice drive

The road scene is massive in Melbourne, and even if you're only here for a few days, you'll be able to find a couple smashfest group rides not too far from the city.

There are apparently stacks of MTB tracks, but I don't ride them.

We have a very small mountain 'range' (tiny by the standards of the other continents ) about 30 miles east-south-east of the city, which has some fantastic and quite roads to ride on, particularly at that time of year.

Jono L

My suggestion. Go for a ride in the Yarra Valley just outta melbourne to the east. You can drive out to Healesville do a nice ride for a couple of hours with some decent 30min-60 min climbs (or not if you prefer) and finish your ride at one of the local wineries and have a top notch lunch with some wine tastings.

The Great Ocean Road is ok for riding just I'd wanna be departing as soon as the sun is up, around 6:00-6:30 at that time of year and probably be off by 8:00-8:30.

531Aussie

^ Oh yeah, the thought of a 6am ride never occurred to me

Recumbent_Guy

Hi, Im from Brisbane and can give you some pointers to places with more information;
If youre staying in Brisbane, you can do the ever popular Mt Cootha ride, a longer ride to Mt Nebo or Mt Glorious. If you are prepared to travel a little bit, you could go and see Mt Mee which has some lovely views out to Moreton bay if the weather is good. You could also ride down to the Gold Coast though its not a quiet route, or if youre heading south, Mt Tamborine has some lovely views of the hinterland.

Nearly all of those suggestions are within/near national parks, and though the roads can sometimes be pretty narrow, they're not particularly busy. You can see lots of flora and fauna with any of the mountain routes.

Check out the 'Brisbane' rides in bikely.com( https://www.bikely.com/listpaths/srch...ane/country/14 ) to see what else is about. If you need to hire bikes, I only know of one major place, and they tend to rent out only cheap mountain bikes/cruisers. Disclaimer: Ive been out of the country for a year and have only recently returned, so my knowledge of the local rental scene is scant.

Cheers.

classic1

What Jono said. Also, you could head west from Melbourne and check out Daylesford, Hepburn Springs and do all that foodie stuff. It's less than an hour or so by car.

Another alternative would be head down to Phillip Island. Nice roads (the main one is too busy but the back roads are ok), sea views, beaches (March in Victoria is the best month weather wise - warm but not stifling hot), penguin parade, historic homes etc.

51kg2date

Whilst in Cairns there is a pleasant ride from Cairns to Palm Cove along the highway and back a lazy flat 50k all up to make it more interesting slip down to each of the beaches on the way, adds about 20-30k and well worth it. There is a group that rides form Cairns to Kuranda. Its a little steep in places and watch the cars it will be memorable.

Cyclist0383

Central Tilba, between Melbourne and Sydney (closer to Sydney) is stunningly beautiful and chock full of wildlife.

https://www.tilba.com.au/location.htm

bobby c

Thanks for the great suggestions mates!

Cave

Cairns:
- Dan the Mountain Bike guy does nice day or 1/2 day MTB rides inc. bike hire

Melbourne: Get a copy of the Bike Paths book (or have a look in a library and photocopy the maps; make sure it is recent, there have been a lot of road changes recently).
1. ~100 km day ride, loop on bike tracks then road:
Starting in the city, take the Main Yarra Trail and Gardiners Creek path to Jells Park; Dandenong Creek trail to Seaford / Pattersons Lakes; sunset ride along Beach Road. It is a full day ride, and there is usually a strong head wind from Dandenong to Pattersons Lakes but otherwise a pretty good ride.
2. Visit CERES environmental park, starting from the city, I think along Merri Creek.
3. Take a train to the Dandenongs (eg. Ferntree Gully or Belgrave station); or to Lilydale for a Yarra Valley ride; or to Frankston (or ride there) for Mornington Peninsula.
4. Take a train to Geelong, then explore the Bellarine peninsula either by road or Dunsford rail trail. You can sleep in Queenscliff, take the ferry to Sorrento, then cycle the 100km back to Melbourne the next day.
5. Train to Kyneton. Cycle to Daylseford (steep; roads are OK but slow tarmac), via Trentham (for morning tea or lunch; there is a great bakery-cafe there). Spend a night or two. Cycle via Creswick then the Creswick forest and via Dean (the town, not me) to Ballarat. If interested check out the Sovereign Hill historic village. Train back to Melbourne.
6. Train to Wangaratta. Cycle to Milawa, Beechworth, Yackandandah, Albury, Rutherglen, back to Wang then train to Melbourne. 3-5 days.
7. Train to Ararat. Cycle to/through the Grampians. Not sure how long; prob. 3-7 days depending how you do it.
8. Ride around Lysterfield Park (MTB or rugged hybrid / tourer / cyclocross bike). See the lake and the kangaroos. 1/2 day is fine.
9. Hire a tandem from Beach Road Cycles (the Pegasus Crew) - better bikes and location but harder to get to; or from the trailer on the south bank of the Yarra (in the city; south bank of the river, east of Swanston St). Ride along Beach road, or along the river, depending where you start.
10. St Kilda foreshore.

Cave

PS its called autumn

bobby c

Thanks Cave, I'll pick up the Bike Paths book when I'm down under. We'll be staying in St Kilda so that looks interesting. I just looked it up, looks like the foreshore would be a nice, easy ride, maybe we can take some rellies on it.

As for my language, I'll be making plenty of mistakes. I'm trying to pick up a bit of Australian. So far I got a few essential phrases down, like 'on the turps', 'snogging', 'scrunting' and 'pashing'. That may get me through the 3 weeks.

Cyclist0383

Does your wife know about this?

jstava

In the Brisbane area and Northeast of Melbourne (and other places) are networks of railtrails. these make nice day trips and alternatives to road travel where covering the big distances is not the priority. I have travelled some of these in the Ovens valley area - Wangaratta, Beechworth, Bright, area mentioned by other posters. Being disused railway lines, these have been resurfaced to suit bicycle traffic and being railways, have no steep climbs. Try this for a national perspective. www.railtrails.org.au

Cave

Just don't root for any sports teams while you're over here.

Cyclist0383

There's a netball player or two worth rooting for.......

bobby c

Well I know I have to be careful about rooting for the wrong team I think. Since I got some rellies in Queensland, some in NSW, some in South Australia and some in Victoria, I'll be careful to change my colors like a chameleon. To be honest, I've only seen a few Australian Rules Football games and seen cricket only a couple of times so mostly I'll be clueless. To be in the know I'll bring up Shane Ware on occasion....

Cave

Yep, definitely tell people you root for Shane Warne. (Warne, not Ware). Definitely, definitely tell everyone you meet you love Aussies (say it with an "s" sound, not a "z") and that you root for Warnie. And definitely tell those Queenslanders and New South Welshmen that Aussie Rules (remember to use an "s" sound, not a "z") is the only code for real men, and that any other type of footy is for *******.

Tell them you're going to "Warne, the Musical" (I'm not kidding, it is currently playing in Melbourne) and that you're going to go backstage and root for Warnie.

mattlavallee

I'd recommend the Great Ocean Rd even with the traffic. You could probably avoid a lot of traffic and most motorcyclists by riding it during the week. You can catch a train back to Geelong or Melbourne from Warrnambool, but check the schedule as there's not that many per day. Plenty of hostels or hotels to stay at along the way. The climb from Apollo Bay to Lavers Hill is pretty tough, btw.

Mornington Peninsula to the SE of Melbourne is a good day ride, and the beaches in that area are really pretty. I haven't ridden Bright/Beechworth yet, but it would be a gorgeous area for a ride.

Psychel

While you're in the Blue Mts with your friends, grab a road bike and do the Megalong Valley descent. About 8km down, 4km of brand new hotmix through a rainforest. Worry about looking at the rainforest on the way up -- this is 70+ country. There is a cafe a couple of km along the valley.

Only bad bit .. the way up.

RogerTully

Cave, you'll love OZ but don't come north right now because the monsoons are on and the place is flooded out and don't go to Victoria as the place is in cinders. Our wonderful land of extremes! I reckon you'll Love Toowoomba if they've lifted their water restrictions.
Cycling in the country is quite safe as long as you keep over to the left. The cities scare me to death as we have a high proportion of cycle phobic pscho drivers who think the own all the roads. Our pedestrians are litigious.
rt

Cave

I know its in cinders, I could see smoke from work last week.

bobby c is the OP who wants to root for Warnie.

Johnny_Monkey

Sally Ironmonger?

bobby c

All,

Thanks for the replies, since my first post our plans are now set. We arrive in Oz on March 7th in Brisbane and depart from Sydney on the 28th. In between we'll be in Cairns, Daintree, Melbourne and the GOR. There's lots of family activity planned so not a lot of biking, but there will be some time to get a ride or two in. One ride will be in the Brisbane area (we're staying at a home in Tarragindi), a rellie there said she could find only 1 bike hire place - probably the same one you found Recumbent Guy. I'll dig around more (I found the following link and just emailed them to see if they know of any others: https://www.bq.org.au/cycle-info/bike...hops_bne.shtml). Thanks for the suggested routes and to yours jstava.

There'll be no biking in the north, the next opportunity will be in Melbourne (we're staying in St. Kilda). I haven't checked out the hire scene there, I'll do so shortly. The idea of riding in the Yarra Valley sounds very appealing, however I don't know if we'll have a vehicle to get there. Same with Phillips Island and the rest, might not be accessible. Looks like your suggestions Cave are mostly city based so that is very appealing.

As for Sydney, we might have more time to bike there than any other place. As it turns out we won't be staying in the Blue Mts. with our friends, we're meeting them in city and staying there (Darling Harbour area). They will be tied up with their 2 young kids for a couple of days but after they leave we'll have many more options and more time.

Our first trip to Oz - can't wait. There'll be lots of food, drink and music - sounds like Paradise to me.

Bob