Brisbane Valley Rail Trail

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foo on patrol
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Brisbane Valley Rail Trail

Postby foo on patrol » Fri Apr 27, 2018 5:57 pm

Won't be long and you will be able to ride from Ipswich to Kingaroy on this. They are working on the Toogoolawah to More section now. 8)

Then add in the Murgon to Gympie section and you will have almost/around 300klms one way of Rail Trails. :D

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Re: Brisbane Valley Rail Trail

Postby Usernoname » Sun Apr 29, 2018 8:58 am

Didn't know that a section from Yarraman to Kingaroy was planned, thought that was back roads only. But what bike to take - MTB is best for some, with Kingaroy to Murgon paved and fine on a roadie. Me thinks I need to get a 29 set of wheels with 2.2's for my 27.5+ HT.
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Re: Brisbane Valley Rail Trail

Postby foo on patrol » Sun Apr 29, 2018 10:37 am

Love my Aldi 29er on these trails. :mrgreen:

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Re: Brisbane Valley Rail Trail

Postby cancan64 » Mon Apr 30, 2018 10:33 am

I cycled Kilkivan to Ipswich on my CX bike with gravel tyres... a bit rough Kilkivan section overwise a nice ride... did have to go by road between Kingaroy and Yarraman and would have been nice to have started at Gympie but maybe another holiday
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Re: Brisbane Valley Rail Trail

Postby Abby » Tue May 08, 2018 11:40 am

Rode the Lowood-Coominya section yesterday. Did it with my wife (who is an occasional cyclist), and the 24km return journey at a lesiurely pace took us about 2 hours.

The BVRT really is a sensational piece of cycling infrastructure. Loved every minute of it... :-)
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Re: Brisbane Valley Rail Trail

Postby PiratePete » Sat Jun 16, 2018 4:09 pm

What is the southern most starting point now? Last time I was out there was in 2016 and it started at Wanora Rd. Now I see cyclists crossing the Bne Valley Hwy on the southern side of Wanora Rd. Assume it's now open from Blacksoil? or has it reached the railway at Wulkuraka?

Also what is it like south of Fernvale and around Coominya? My last experience was lots of ballast (50mm aggregate) north of Wanora and on either side of Coominya, hoping with all the work that this has been topped with road base...

Noted last week too that theres lots of fresh road base and new bridges on the section north of Harlin. Big Thumbs UP!
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foo on patrol
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Re: Brisbane Valley Rail Trail

Postby foo on patrol » Sun Jun 17, 2018 2:00 pm

You can ride from Ipswich itself on the bikeways and when you get to Brassall you get onto the BVRT and head to Wanora Fernval Lowood and beyond. All in pretty good condition. :wink:

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Re: Brisbane Valley Rail Trail

Postby Lukeyboy » Sun Jun 17, 2018 10:09 pm

Wulkuraka-Toogoolawah Moore-Yarraman are the official open sections.

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Re: Brisbane Valley Rail Trail

Postby foo on patrol » Fri Jun 22, 2018 6:56 pm

They are still working on Harlin to Linville but not far off finishing. :wink:

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Re: Brisbane Valley Rail Trail

Postby RonK » Fri Jun 22, 2018 8:28 pm

I will ride through in just over a week. Hope it's finished.
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Re: Brisbane Valley Rail Trail

Postby singlespeedscott » Sat Jun 23, 2018 2:30 pm

Have plans in the back of my mind for the full 300km nonstop
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Re: Brisbane Valley Rail Trail

Postby foo on patrol » Sat Jun 23, 2018 9:32 pm

singlespeedscott wrote:Have plans in the back of my mind for the full 300km nonstop
What the............... :shock:

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Re: Brisbane Valley Rail Trail

Postby Jash Rider » Mon Jul 23, 2018 6:25 pm

A mate and I are planning a two day trek on the 15th-16th of September with an overnight stop somewhere along the way.

What’s the best place to start from for a two day return trip? Want the best views and the most isolation.

Also, what tyres do y’all recommend? Was thinking of some slight knobby stuff, but if a pair of Maxxis 26x1.75 Overdrives will work I’ll just leave them on the bike.

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Re: Brisbane Valley Rail Trail

Postby RonK » Mon Jul 23, 2018 7:38 pm

I did the full ride two weeks ago over three days. When you say a two day ride do you mean for the full distance?

Contact Out There Cycling on FB for a shuttle from Wulkuraka Station to Yarraman ($50 p.p.) which is the best place to start as you get to ride the Blackbutt Range downhill, otherwise you'll have a 17km climb.

The Blackbutt to Moore and the new Moore-Toogoolawah sections are by far the most scenic.

If you want to do the full distance in two days it may be best to overnight at Toogoolawah. They are gonna be long days.

Otherwise ride Yarraman - Esk overnighting at Linville. The pub has nice rooms for $45 and good meals. Be sure to call and book. Or you can camp across the road from the pub and use their showers for a few dollars.

Get the shuttle back to Wulkuraka. Or drive to Esk and get the shuttle to Yarraman from there.

You could ride the trail on those tyres. Knobby is not essential but something wider will be more comfortable. South from Toogoolawah there is a lot of exposed ballast which makes for a rough ride.
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Re: Brisbane Valley Rail Trail

Postby ldrcycles » Mon Jul 23, 2018 8:43 pm

RonK wrote:South from Toogoolawah there is a lot of exposed ballast which makes for a rough ride.
Have you done the SBRT between Goomeri and Murgon? I haven't got the photo handy but there's a section at Manyung with horrendous ballast, I'd be very interested to know how that compares to the stuff on the BVRT.
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Re: Brisbane Valley Rail Trail

Postby RonK » Mon Jul 23, 2018 9:11 pm

No, have not done the SBRT (KKRT?) yet.

I wouldn't call the BVRT exposed ballast horrendous. I did have sore hands and wrists after riding it on my rigid carbon-fork Fargo with 2.1 inch tyres.
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Re: Brisbane Valley Rail Trail

Postby singlespeedscott » Thu Jul 26, 2018 12:43 pm

ldrcycles wrote:
RonK wrote:South from Toogoolawah there is a lot of exposed ballast which makes for a rough ride.
Have you done the SBRT between Goomeri and Murgon? I haven't got the photo handy but there's a section at Manyung with horrendous ballast, I'd be very interested to know how that compares to the stuff on the BVRT.
Honestly I didn't think it was to bad LDR. There is worst stuff laid down by the forestry out my way.
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Re: Brisbane Valley Rail Trail

Postby cancan64 » Thu Jul 26, 2018 1:21 pm

BVRT is so smooth compared to SBRT but I done them on a loaded CX bike which is less forgiving... but still better than corrugations
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Re: Brisbane Valley Rail Trail

Postby ldrcycles » Thu Jul 26, 2018 2:55 pm

RonK wrote:No, have not done the SBRT (KKRT?) yet.
I prefer to call it the SBRT as the South Burnett council have done such a good job with their half of it, and Gympie council appear to have done as little as possible, like a teenager being forced to do an unpleasant chore. I wonder what could be achieved if the SBRT had it's own Paul Heymans and the like (please note I'm not volunteering to be that person just yet! :lol: )

singlespeedscott wrote: Honestly I didn't think it was to bad LDR. There is worst stuff laid down by the forestry out my way.
True, it could be worse (it was a hell of a lot worse less than 12 months ago) but it could also be 100 times better, and I still think it's unacceptable for a rail trail. I'm coming from the direction that a rail trail should be reasonably hard packed gravel (like the surface at the Kilkivan station, and for maybe a couple of hundred metres here and there afterwards), I know there are some who like them to be more like MTB tracks but that's not my cup of tea. The entire reason for the existence of the trail is to get tourists out there, and the glaring lack of traffic on the Kilkivan-Murgon section compared to Murgon-Kingaroy shows that I'm not alone in avoiding it where possible.
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Re: Brisbane Valley Rail Trail

Postby singlespeedscott » Thu Jul 26, 2018 8:26 pm

I think it still need to have a link to its history. Something the Murgon - Kingaroy section has clearly lost. I’m not complaining when it’s nice and smooth but it just doesn’t seem right.
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Re: Brisbane Valley Rail Trail

Postby Lukeyboy » Sun Jul 29, 2018 5:24 pm

As someone that lives in a railway family it shouldn't be named after councils or stations but rather their intended branch line name given to them.
ldrcycles wrote:
RonK wrote:South from Toogoolawah there is a lot of exposed ballast which makes for a rough ride.
Have you done the SBRT between Goomeri and Murgon? I haven't got the photo handy but there's a section at Manyung with horrendous ballast, I'd be very interested to know how that compares to the stuff on the BVRT.
There is hardly any ballast on both railtrails. Its just the distance/roughness from riding off road that does people in. I rode around Brisbane Airport today and there were sections that was rougher than the two rail trails.

Here's that short section of ballast that you are referring to on the current KKRT.
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And this is some of the left over/crushed ballast that remains on the BVRT.
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singlespeedscott wrote:I think it still need to have a link to its history. Something the Murgon - Kingaroy section has clearly lost. I’m not complaining when it’s nice and smooth but it just doesn’t seem right.
Some of the best sections were from Kilkivan to Murgon. Just how the railway line went. No earthworks done. Just how the line was. No resurfacing. Straight through the valleys with no one else or anything else in sight for kilometers.
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Same thing when you are going up the Blackbutt climb or in various other sections where there is no one else around for yonks.
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Even better when doing it at night when its just the glows of the towns in the distances that provides any light with Pink Floyds Dark Side of the Moon playing.
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Murgon-Kingaroy was just like riding along a bike path with a few barriers at the roads with the odd car parked there that people on TT bikes actually use. If I wanted to negotiate barriers, tt riders and parked cars I'd ride around on the Jim Soorley and Kedron Brook bikeways in Brisbane.
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Re: Brisbane Valley Rail Trail

Postby ldrcycles » Sun Jul 29, 2018 9:52 pm

Nice pics, shame it's not so green out there at the moment.
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Re: Brisbane Valley Rail Trail

Postby Waccofozzy » Thu Aug 02, 2018 5:04 pm

My 2 cents.

I did Wulkuraka to Lowood and return a weekend or two ago, did Wanora to Lowood and back 4 or so years ago.

The biggest improvement? Small cattle grids beside each gate. There are a lot of gates and when you're by yourself it was a chore, opening and closing. To be able to just cruise through was great, a really nice touch in my opinion.
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Re: Brisbane Valley Rail Trail

Postby Scintilla » Sat Aug 04, 2018 1:51 pm

singlespeedscott wrote:I think it still need to have a link to its history. Something the Murgon - Kingaroy section has clearly lost. I’m not complaining when it’s nice and smooth but it just doesn’t seem right.
Any rail trail that aims to provide a bicycle facility should not have lousy surfaces, bicycle-deterring gates, nor 20% grades. The Kilkivan-Murgon trail fails in this regard, as does most of the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail.

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Re: Brisbane Valley Rail Trail

Postby singlespeedscott » Sat Aug 04, 2018 3:47 pm

Scintilla wrote:
singlespeedscott wrote:I think it still need to have a link to its history. Something the Murgon - Kingaroy section has clearly lost. I’m not complaining when it’s nice and smooth but it just doesn’t seem right.
Any rail trail that aims to provide a bicycle facility should not have lousy surfaces, bicycle-deterring gates, nor 20% grades. The Kilkivan-Murgon trail fails in this regard, as does most of the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail.
I never saw any 20% grades on the Kilkivan-Murgon line. Trains don’t climb grades over 4%.

The gates are not bicycle detering, every second one is easily bumped open with the front wheel. You have to remember that these lines are still used for grazing. Gates are a nessesity.

As stated before, I don’t think they are rough at all.
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