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There's a choice of three rides out of Deloraine but given where where the Great World Heritage Ride ends up it was a no brainer for me.
http://www.greatwesterntiers.net.au/cyc ... itage-ride" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Thought I'd do a quick mini review which hopefully might be useful to someone whether local or otherwise
It's not an overly hard ride (note my time was hampered by a gammy hammy and a return headwind)
But there is a bit of a climb up from the Golden Valley up into the Tiers. The podcast at Golden Valley even warns you to have a rest as it starts to climb steeply
The climb itself isn't that hard. Just a long grind basically and even with the gammy hammy I reckon it's no harder than a lot of the popular runs around Hobart. (note this is Strava derived data not barometric)
Along the way there's marked stops where you listen to corresponding podcasts which give you all sorts of touristy information about that spot. There's 10 of these sprinkled along the route.
(2013 DS 8.4, SDG Bel Air saddle, BBB Ergostik small bar ends, M350 SPD pedals , Topeak Super Tourist DX Rack, Timbuk2 Hunchback bag , couple of Knog Blinder 4 lights
)Traffic wise there's not a lot of traffic. Along the route there's heaps of bicycle warning signs and 1.5m passing signs. Nice to see. There's no dedicated bike lane but the roads are wide and open so there's lots of room for cars to pass and they all kept a good distance away from me when overtaking.
Lots of road kill along the way, so sometimes the smell ain't too good. The road kill even gets a mention in it's own podcast :p Species included everything from Blue Tongues, Brushies, Bennet's up to the bigger macropods.
Being basically the country, I reckon 95% of the cars going the opposite way acknowledge me with a wave or a toot or a headlight flash
There's some great country side on the way and there weren't really any suprises about the scenery. Typical Tasmanian farming/logging countryside.
At the end is Liffey Falls which makes it all worth it
It's about a 40 minute return walk down to the falls proper so I'm glad I had SPDs. It's a well formed track with information signs along the way. If you're riding up with any other exposed cleats I'd definitely be aking some walking shoes with you. Even the SPDs where a bit dodgy at times , especially while rock hopping down the river with the cleat and stiffer sole ( but you don't have to do that if you stay on the track and not the sort of fool who tries to get a "better" photo) It's a pretty busy little place up there. There's a single 4 bike bike rack up there to lock onto and I was the only cyclist (in fact I only actually saw one other cyclist on the way there and back who looked like a local just going to town). There were a few touring cyclists in Deloraine proper however.
Oh and be prepared for any weather. You can see from the pictures I had a fantastic day for it, but it does get a lot colder as you get up into the Tiers and I made sure I had warm gloves, clothes and waterproofs just in case the weather changed. Tasmanian weather (especially in the highlands) can be VERY unpredicatable !
The DS is almost perfect for this sort of ride. Lock off the suspension for the road component and then unlock it for the very bad condition forestry roads into the falls. You've still got road type gearing (48/11) for on the road and yes, it is a bit heavy especially for the hill climb and I'm not sure if I'd have preferred the 26/32 (26/28,26/24) spinning on the heavier DS compared to a 34/28 on my lighter road bike for a hill climb like that one but it's moot point really because the roadie will never get down or up the forestry tracks
A CX would handle the forestry road fine as well.
