Australian Cycling Forums - Bicycles Network Australia

by **Red Rider** » Fri Feb 01, 2013 10:06 pm

I am thinking of riding to Williams down the Albany Highway. What are your experiences of this road? What's the surface like, road users, etc? Am I crazy?

Ta

by **BNA** » Fri Feb 01, 2013 10:27 pm

by **Baalzamon** » Fri Feb 01, 2013 10:27 pm

I would rather ride to Pinjarra and then out the Pinjarra - Williams RD

by **just4tehhalibut** » Fri Feb 01, 2013 11:45 pm

My usual way to the Albany Hwy is via Jarrahdale. It avoids the traffic on the Bedfordale Hill climb, 10km up to the Canning Dam turnoff and after that the road surface heading out of Perth is often brutal, a little smoother on the way back. After the Jarrahdale turnoff the highway narrows but traffic is better, if you like rolling hills then you can get quite a bit of speed.

by **HLC** » Sun Feb 03, 2013 6:56 pm

I would never ride Albany Highway.

Enough crucifix's on the side of the road between Perth / Albany that makes me despise to driving down it for work. (50+ at last count). Says it all really.

by **Aushiker** » Sun Feb 03, 2013 8:04 pm

Baalzamon wrote:I would rather ride to Pinjarra and then out the Pinjarra - Williams RD

I would be inclined to take a similar option as suggested by Baalzamon. Plenty of nice backroad riding to be found I am sure in the area. Even maybe some dirt if you are so inclined

Also you could consider crossing over and riding to the east of Albany Highway for example at North Bannister.

Andrew

by **jlh** » Mon Feb 04, 2013 10:23 am

Concur with previous comments about the risk of riding down an active main highway without a pilot vehicle our dedicated cycle lanes. Have you considered going down the kwinana fwy psp until mandurah then cutting across to pinjarra and going from there?

by **Baalzamon** » Mon Feb 04, 2013 12:32 pm

jasonlheath wrote:Concur with previous comments about the risk of riding down an active main highway without a pilot vehicle our dedicated cycle lanes. Have you considered going down the kwinana fwy psp until mandurah then cutting across to pinjarra and going from there?

Basically what I said :roll:

by **chuckchunder** » Mon Feb 04, 2013 9:26 pm

Hi redrider

I'd echo jut4tehhalibut. I rode the Audax Dawn Service ride a couple of years ago, that was an evening start and i arrived in Williams at about 1am (and 3deg!!) if I recall correctly. We rode Perth to Albany on that ride, on the highway from Armadale to Albany. I've also ridden shorter rides on the highway. You can get a bit of speed up on the hills. The rumble strips are a pain in the part of your anatomy that normally points to the ground. The shoulders are often more like chipseal than the main road surface.

I usually use daylight be seen lights on that kind of road, and I use a mirror to have some idea of what's coming up behind. In my experience the traffic will generally move wide overtaking, but I ride a trike so YMMV.

cheers

by **Pravda** » Mon Feb 18, 2013 2:27 pm

Looking at heading down Albany highway from Canning Dam Road to Jarrahdale Road as part of the Strava imperial century challenge this weekend. Would only be spending about 12-14km on it but I don't see another option getting from Canning Dam to Jarrahdale. Any suggestions welcome. By my calculations we'd be heading through there at around 8-9:30am on Saturday.
Any suggestions on an alternate route?

by **Baalzamon** » Mon Feb 18, 2013 2:38 pm

Go for it. It's the only way and I've done that before as well.

by **toofat** » Mon Feb 18, 2013 4:20 pm

I have ridden armadale to Pinjarra a few times, reasonably wide shoulder most of the way, headwind was more of a problem than the traffic

by **jlh** » Mon Feb 18, 2013 7:53 pm

Speaking of that 100 mile challenge, does anyone have a plan to start near the city and head out, and won't mind additional company? I will prob avg around 26 to 27 kph given the distance (my max distance to date is only 110km)

by **Rex** » Mon Feb 18, 2013 10:07 pm

Pravda wrote:Looking at heading down Albany highway from Canning Dam Road to Jarrahdale Road as part of the Strava imperial century challenge this weekend. Would only be spending about 12-14km on it but I don't see another option getting from Canning Dam to Jarrahdale. Any suggestions welcome. By my calculations we'd be heading through there at around 8-9:30am on Saturday.
Any suggestions on an alternate route?

Wear your best bibs, it's a horrible bumpy road but undulating with little traffic makes up for it.
Road down Albany Hwy from Canning Dam into Armadale at about 5pm this afternoon... next to no traffic. Bliss.

by **Pravda** » Mon Feb 25, 2013 12:41 pm

Rex wrote:Wear your best bibs, it's a horrible bumpy road but undulating with little traffic makes up for it.
Road down Albany Hwy from Canning Dam into Armadale at about 5pm this afternoon... next to no traffic. Bliss.

Did about 17km from Canning Dam road to Jarrahdale Road and I can attest to this, feels like you're riding a jackhammer and heaven forbid you stray onto the 'rumble strip' - Paris Roubaix eat your heart out.
That said while the traffic is flying along there I didn't have any close calls, all the drivers were giving me and my riding partner a wide berth.
However the number of crosses along that small section is very disconcerting.