Cycle options in Brisbane

[surreylanes]

Hey up guys, a bunch of questions as I'm a 'visiting academic' to UQ Feb to June and want some tips on riding options. I'm based at St Lucia ( job) but accommodation may be elsewhere as I also need to spend a day in Ipswich each week. Heres' what I'm looking for:
Some regular weekly riding and racing, at the moment I do UK vets(2/3rd cat) road races and some MTB races. I can only have one bike in Oz so :

What's the best riding scene - road or MTB
Advice on any club(s) to casually tag along with whilst I'm over
Bike buying advice 1) good shops to look for or what is the 2nd hand market like in Brisbane?

All replies, even the sarky ones, gratefully recieved ( well sort of).

[beauyboy]

Well go to www.brisbane.qld.gov.au and do a search for bikeways this should bring up a link to a page showing a map of all the offical off and onroad bike provisions. All routes shown in the maps are sealled so no problem there. These maps go to the boundry of Brisbane City and as Brisbane City Council in one of the largest City Councils in terms of land area the maps cover a fair bit of land.

Donald

[ggundersen]

Try looking at:
http://roadgrime.com.au/home/index.php

Bike shops - Yellow Jersey in Ipswich is ok:
http://www.yellowjersey.com.au/

And remember take a helmet.

[MountGower]

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[surreylanes]

Thanks guys for the info, very helpful, I'll follow up your links. Looks like I will have to buy a bike once in Brisbane though as airline want to charge me around £250 one-way to bring a bike out!
MountGower - where did you get that horses head and legs from - brilliant.
I'm now more a roadie than MTB ( but back in the days MTB was my first choice) so I like the sound of the crits plus rides. I've got stupid 120 miles Sportive in the UK in June, so I'll need to train for that. Suspect I'll then hire or borrow a MTB for a few days as I definitely want to go and have some days out on the bumps.

Anyone know what the situation is about racing in AUS, I'll have a British Cycling licence, but will I need to join you lot as well, or is there an international link-up for this sort of thing?

[MountGower]

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[ggundersen]

Don't know if you have been in oz before but I returned to oz last year after about 40 years in europa.
My first impressions were:

1 - Australian car drivers are the worst in the world - certainly the worst I have seen.

2 - I hate having to use a helmet

3 - (Kanga)roos are as silly as bats. They hop out in front of you for no reason and without warning. Out and about at dusk and dawn.

4 - I'd like to kill every bloody magpie in the country.

I sent my bikes from Europa with a shipping company. It is a hell of a lot cheaper and only took my things (130 kg) about 2 weeks. Check it out.

You can ride from Brisbane to Ipswich. Done it many times but it is a bit tricky getting into Ipswich as 3 motorways/highways join outside the city. The blokes at Yellow Jersey (behind Booval shopping centre) will tell you how to do it. Also Totally Spoked in Ipswich city has a bike group. ( http://totallyspoked.com.au/about_us.htm )

Feb is a hot time. Remember suncream.