Mtb Rides near Sydney CBD?

[kjaslow]

I just moved to Sydney from the US. Had to ship the entire household, including a bike that I'm simply not worthy of riding. It's a really nice Yeti 575... I'm in terrible shape, but hoping to change that...

I have no idea where to find trails near Sydney. Anyone know if there are any organized mountain rides anywhere close to the city? Ideally, I'd take the train to meet up. I do have a car, but don't have a rack quite yet...

Thanks for any pointers.

Cheers.

[Bnej]

There's the Manly Dam track:

http://www.mwmtb.com/cms/index.php?page=manly-dam

This course is not! used for mountain bike racing.

[simonn]

http://nobmob.com/

[leximack]

There's the Manly Dam track:

http://www.mwmtb.com/cms/index.php?page=manly-dam

This course is used for mountain bike racing.

Manly Dam would be the closest, not used for racing though. Dont ride there during rain or just after rain as it will demolish the track. Lots of trailsup northern beaches way. Check the nobmob site for heaps of details.

[Streetsweeper]

Didn't George Bush do some rding around West Pymble when he was over here for APEC?

[Bnej]

Manly Dam would be the closest, not used for racing though...

I presumed it was, ty for correcting me.

[alchemist]

Didn't George Bush do some rding around West Pymble when he was over here for APEC?

Bush rode some trails that are inside the drive training centre at St Ives.

[alchemist]

There's the Manly Dam track:

http://www.mwmtb.com/cms/index.php?page=manly-dam

This course is used for mountain bike racing.

We wish!

[Bnej]

If you want just the right trails for your 575, get a train to Wentworth falls, and ride Andersons, then the Oaks. It's two hours on the train, but a good 60km+ of mostly downhill (some steep & some technical) trails back to Glenbrook, then take the train home. A short ride through some streets in Woodford links the two trails together.

Andersons is fantastic at the moment, the top part of the trail has narrowed with vegetation and fallen leaves to the point that it's basically a singletrack. But you will get wet feet as there are two creek crossings.

See here

[timbo]

The annual NRMA Careflight Woodford to Glenbrook Classic MTB ride/race is on June 29th, so perhaps you could pencil in that ride.

[nila]

If you want just the right trails for your 575, get a train to Wentworth falls, and ride Andersons, then the Oaks. It's two hours on the train, but a good 60km+ of mostly downhill (some steep & some technical) trails back to Glenbrook, then take the train home. A short ride through some streets in Woodford links the two trails together.

Andersons is fantastic at the moment, the top part of the trail has narrowed with vegetation and fallen leaves to the point that it's basically a singletrack. But you will get wet feet as there are two creek crossings.

See here

How hard a ride is this?
I'm not that confident an offroader and have a hardtail (Trek 6700).
I do manly Dam sometimes but have even wimped out on a few of the drops there on days when I'm feeling paranoid (hides his head in shame!).

I dont mind hard in terms of tiring, just dont want any 1m drops that I'm expected to go off type thing

It sounds like a pretty cool ride!

[alchemist]

No drops. In some parts the road is very rough, but at low speed nothing that will present a problem. Bnej seems to have forgotten the big climb out of Bedford creek in his description of "mostly down hill"

[nila]

Is that the 3 km uphill that I read about in that linked article? lol

[ShanDog]

If you want just the right trails for your 575, get a train to Wentworth falls, and ride Andersons, then the Oaks. It's two hours on the train, but a good 60km+ of mostly downhill (some steep & some technical) trails back to Glenbrook, then take the train home. A short ride through some streets in Woodford links the two trails together.

Andersons is fantastic at the moment, the top part of the trail has narrowed with vegetation and fallen leaves to the point that it's basically a singletrack. But you will get wet feet as there are two creek crossings.

See here

How hard a ride is this?
I'm not that confident an offroader and have a hardtail (Trek 6700).
I do manly Dam sometimes but have even wimped out on a few of the drops there on days when I'm feeling paranoid (hides his head in shame!).

I dont mind hard in terms of tiring, just dont want any 1m drops that I'm expected to go off type thing

It sounds like a pretty cool ride!

it can be 'tiring' hard but thats about it. A bit over a year ago I went down anderson with a mate who hadn't ridden in years and didn't even have a bike. He borrowed our $100 kmart woman's hybrid (it even had a kick stand and grip shifters ffs). We were both fine by the time we finished, just a little tired.

You should be fine mate.

[nila]

If you want just the right trails for your 575, get a train to Wentworth falls, and ride Andersons, then the Oaks. It's two hours on the train, but a good 60km+ of mostly downhill (some steep & some technical) trails back to Glenbrook, then take the train home. A short ride through some streets in Woodford links the two trails together.

Andersons is fantastic at the moment, the top part of the trail has narrowed with vegetation and fallen leaves to the point that it's basically a singletrack. But you will get wet feet as there are two creek crossings.

See here

How hard a ride is this?
I'm not that confident an offroader and have a hardtail (Trek 6700).
I do manly Dam sometimes but have even wimped out on a few of the drops there on days when I'm feeling paranoid (hides his head in shame!).

I dont mind hard in terms of tiring, just dont want any 1m drops that I'm expected to go off type thing

It sounds like a pretty cool ride!

it can be 'tiring' hard but thats about it. A bit over a year ago I went down anderson with a mate who hadn't ridden in years and didn't even have a bike. He borrowed our $100 kmart woman's hybrid (it even had a kick stand and grip shifters ffs). We were both fine by the time we finished, just a little tired.

You should be fine mate.

Now you've just shamed me into it - if he can do it on a womans k-mart bike, if I dont complete it I'm going to feel like poo! lol.

[ShanDog]

Hahaha nice... lemme know how you go

[Bnej]

No drops. In some parts the road is very rough, but at low speed nothing that will present a problem. Bnej seems to have forgotten the big climb out of Bedford creek in his description of "mostly down hill"

It is mostly down hill. You descend nearly 1000m! Without doubt, there is much more down hill than up!

It may be that there are one or two little roll-over climbs on it tho'

Seriously though, there's enough in it that you can have some fun with a longer travel dual suspension, especially the final descents in Andersons and the "Little Moab" at the end of the Oaks, but it can be ridden on nearly any bike.

[MountGower]

Has anyone ridden this backwards? How long did it take? Can you ride it up hill and then down hill in a day?

[Bnej]

Has anyone ridden this backwards? How long did it take? Can you ride it up hill and then down hill in a day?

Oaks yes you could, I've seen people doing it.
Andersons you'd have to be bloody fit, it's significantly steeper. Lot of steep, loose surface climbing. Could try going up via Ingar instead I guess.

Both, I think you'd want to allow yourself at least 10-12 hours and a lot of food & water - it would be ~ 140km, huge amount of granny gear climbing and a fair bit of walking. And you'd want to be really fit.

[leximack]

Has anyone ridden this backwards? How long did it take? Can you ride it up hill and then down hill in a day?

Oaks yes you could, I've seen people doing it.
Andersons you'd have to be bloody fit, it's significantly steeper. Lot of steep, loose surface climbing. Could try going up via Ingar instead I guess.

Both, I think you'd want to allow yourself at least 10-12 hours and a lot of food & water - it would be ~ 140km, huge amount of granny gear climbing and a fair bit of walking. And you'd want to be really fit.

it would be a seriously long day to do oaks/anderson all up and then all down again.
Oaks is ok up and down. About 1hr 45-2hrs up and then 1hr 15-1hr 30 back again. 55km with about 1600m climbing and 1600m descending. Its actually a good ride.
I wouldnt even attempt andersons backwards. That would seriously suck and only needed to be done by extreme weirdos/freaks

[alchemist]

Up and back is not too bad, it's only 120km and that's if you go all the way into Wentworth falls. If you turn around at the end of the dirt it's closer to 100km (so allow 4.5 hours if you're an elite XC races, 7.5 for an average rider, 10 hours if you're slow) and if you go via the Ingar Fire Trail one way it's a little shorter. You can always bail out at both Wentworth Falls and Woodford.

[Bnej]

Up and back is not too bad, it's only 120km and that's if you go all the way into Wentworth falls.

Ah, I was going by my Garmin trips which include riding to & from Katoomba as well.

I know on Andersons there is no way I could ride the steep climb from Bedford creek backwards. It would be a long walk followed by a long climb.