M7 expedition ... and BNA group ride?

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trailgumby
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M7 expedition ... and BNA group ride?

Postby trailgumby » Tue May 13, 2014 10:32 am

AUBicycles has dropped off a set of Swiss Side Hadron wheels for me to do a write-up on, and reading a forum post planted the seed of maybe trying out a few firsts.

I thought I'd try the M7 and see what everybody has been talking about, and being relatively flat compared to my usual haunts, have a crack at doing a first metric century.

And while we're at it, why not a BNA group ride?

I'm thinking this Sunday morning. Where would be an appropriate place to start? Would anyone like to tag along?

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Re: M7 expedition ... and BNA group ride?

Postby trailgumby » Tue May 13, 2014 10:38 am

Oh, forgot to mention I'll likely be starting close to the eastern/southern end as I live about 5km from Manly but happy to be flexible to accomodate others.

sankari
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Re: M7 expedition ... and BNA group ride?

Postby sankari » Tue May 13, 2014 11:03 am

I think you mean the north eastern end, at Old Windsor Rd in Kings Langley.

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Re: M7 expedition ... and BNA group ride?

Postby Alycat » Tue May 13, 2014 12:44 pm

Yep, count me in. I live about 6k from the Old Windsor Rd end. From my place to the other end of the M7C and return is about 90k.
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Re: M7 expedition ... and BNA group ride?

Postby westab » Tue May 13, 2014 12:55 pm

TG good idea - Sunday mornings would most likely suit most people (not myself).

About staring from one end or the other - thats OK for most riders but you may consider starting in the middle some where so that those that can't ride the whole length and back may start go to one end and return. For those riding with kids this may be OK allowing more to be involved and still alowing those who can ride further / faster to do so.

My suggested start points (others please feel free to offer other or better suggestions)

1. The M7 office location near the M4 (you might need to find out how much parking there is available to the public)
2. Western Sydney Parkland (park in Lizard log anda short ride to the M7)
3. Rooty Hill - park in Eastern road (south side) near the soccer fields - just behind the synthetic one would be the best place I think. Please note that some of this carpark and the other side of the road is sometimes locked.

As I don't travel the southern end of the shared path I am not sure of the best places to start for those wishing to drive there.

Just a thought - hope this helps. :D
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Re: M7 expedition ... and BNA group ride?

Postby trailgumby » Tue May 13, 2014 1:09 pm

Eastern end, yes.

Meeting somewhere in the middle would work for me.

The idea of bringing kids along hadn't really occurred to me as I was kind of expecting the pace to be moderate to brisk. 30km/hr is easily achieved on the flat on thus particular bike (drop bar roadie) and a group would be quicker.

Not that they're unwelcome, I was just proceeding on the assumption that a metric ton ride would be done more at endurance training pace than social pace.

Or is this the wrong venue for this kind of thing?

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Re: M7 expedition ... and BNA group ride?

Postby minhyy » Tue May 13, 2014 1:45 pm

Sunday morning is gretaboy's celebration ride is it not?
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Re: M7 expedition ... and BNA group ride?

Postby westab » Tue May 13, 2014 1:47 pm

TG - no not the wrong place at all IMHO if you ride to the conditions.

You are right about the metric ton at that pace and for most kids 35+/- ave would be too quick, (my youngest two for sure for any time) but I think about my no.1 kid she can and will do that kind of speed if in the mood (she turns 14 in Aug.) for about 1 hour. Then usually she will drop into a heap.

If it is for those who can do that kind of kms at speed then I would simply go for it - those of us with kids (especially who live 730m from the path) can do our own group ride anytime.
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Re: M7 expedition ... and BNA group ride?

Postby westab » Tue May 13, 2014 1:50 pm

minhyy wrote:Sunday morning is gretaboy's celebration ride is it not?
OOPS sure is - TG you should test there. :oops:
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Re: M7 expedition ... and BNA group ride?

Postby find_bruce » Tue May 13, 2014 3:14 pm

My only objection to your proposed ride is that it means you are not attending gretaboys party at 9:30 this Sunday when you said ...
trailgumby wrote:18th May duly marked. :)

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Re: M7 expedition ... and BNA group ride?

Postby HLC » Tue May 13, 2014 4:09 pm

Start on the corner of Norwest Boulevard and Greenhill drive. Plenty of parking around there. End to end is close enough to a hunge then go the bubbler and back twice!

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Re: M7 expedition ... and BNA group ride?

Postby leximack » Tue May 13, 2014 4:18 pm

m7 cycleway is 40km each way, you will need to tack on 20km somewhere if you want to do a century.
Above 30 avg is pretty fast for the cycleway, lots of twists and turns, lots of people about and its not as flat as you may think.
Since your coming from Manly way your best bet is to start at the tway (basically where the cycleway meets old Windsor rd), park our car at the shopping centre at the corner of norbrik dr/circa blvd, bella vista, basically take the exit off the m2/m7 for old Windsor rd, turn right and then right again, very easy and will save you driving another 20km to the middle of the cycleway. Its only a minute or 2 ride from there to the cycleway.
Other people can meet along the way.
Depending on day and time I will try and come along.

Don

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Re: M7 expedition ... and BNA group ride?

Postby trailgumby » Tue May 13, 2014 6:05 pm

find_bruce wrote:My only objection to your proposed ride is that it means you are not attending gretaboys party at 9:30 this Sunday when you said ...
trailgumby wrote:18th May duly marked. :)
Oops. Thanks for reminding me. :oops: Can't miss that, can I?

Where are we meeting?

That scratches this particular ride, we'll do it another time.

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Re: M7 expedition ... and BNA group ride?

Postby Rockford » Tue May 13, 2014 8:16 pm

Well I've bought a set of Swiss Sides on the tester program so am happy to do the ride on the M7 and write up on them if you lend them to me for day :P :) :mrgreen:

Although my reports/write-ups tend to be of a wine nature, I promise I won't smell or taste them :shock:
http://forum.auswine.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=13898" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: M7 expedition ... and BNA group ride?

Postby g-boaf » Wed May 14, 2014 8:23 am

If you could do a saturday morning ride and meet up at the M7 Service Centre, that would work - meet there at around 8am.

Otherwise - Western Sydney Regional Park and then ride up the Elizabeth Drive hill to the Lizzy Drive rest point on the M7, that would also work. And it's a nice gentle hill to get you going.

Depending on when you do this ride, I'll join in. I'm always on the M7 both weekend days.
leximack wrote:Above 30 avg is pretty fast for the cycleway, lots of twists and turns, lots of people about and its not as flat as you may think.
Listen to Don - he's right! :) It's easy to go fast at night, but not so easy on weekend mornings. Seems to be a lot more traffic on the cycleway.
westab wrote:TG - no not the wrong place at all IMHO if you ride to the conditions.

You are right about the metric ton at that pace and for most kids 35+/- ave would be too quick, (my youngest two for sure for any time) but I think about my no.1 kid she can and will do that kind of speed if in the mood (she turns 14 in Aug.) for about 1 hour. Then usually she will drop into a heap.

If it is for those who can do that kind of kms at speed then I would simply go for it - those of us with kids (especially who live 730m from the path) can do our own group ride anytime.
35 average will have you right up near the pointy end of the Strava leaderboards on the end-to-end segments. 35 average will have you riding really, really quick. I've done a 34.1 (going south) and that was bad enough:

http://www.strava.com/segments/824435?filter=overall" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: M7 expedition ... and BNA group ride?

Postby westab » Wed May 14, 2014 3:28 pm

Don is right - couldn't agree more.
When "we" average 35km/h it is generally the speed on the very straight sections with good visability like between Sunnyholt road and the railway bridge.

Most the time for me back and forward to work the ave is 22km/h (including the trafic lights on Sunnyholt road) or when on a longer M7 run withthe work gear on the way home about 27 km/h.

My no.1 kid always tries to see what speed she can maintain on the above mentioned flat sections as she hates hills - especially the down part. She will get to about 45 km/h and be reaching for her brakes; not great bike skills I know but if she feels thats fast enough then it is.
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Re: M7 expedition ... and BNA group ride?

Postby Alycat » Thu May 15, 2014 1:38 pm

Probably just as well for me it is not on. If I am fit I can average by myself about 27-28kph, so 35kph would leave me behind. A few weeks ago I measured the climbing, it is over 1,050 metres, so I guess you would need to be sitting on 37-38 kph on most of the flats.
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Re: M7 expedition ... and BNA group ride?

Postby rogan » Mon May 19, 2014 2:59 pm

By my strava data the end to end elevation is about 700 m. And it definitely doesn't feel like more than that.

And in terms of average, to average above about 35, you'd be looking at doing ~40+ on the flattest sections - ie. from Richmond Rd to GWH, and the last few km down at Prestons. On a really fast run end to end, to get into the top 10 of the leaderboards (say 37-38 km/h overall end to end), you'd be looking at mid 40s on those flat sections. Unless you're an NRS quality rider, that requires a tailwind.
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Re: M7 expedition ... and BNA group ride?

Postby g-boaf » Mon May 19, 2014 5:37 pm

Alycat wrote:Probably just as well for me it is not on. If I am fit I can average by myself about 27-28kph, so 35kph would leave me behind. A few weeks ago I measured the climbing, it is over 1,050 metres, so I guess you would need to be sitting on 37-38 kph on most of the flats.
Try for next Saturday?

Rogan is right in elevation - I don't get much more than 800m-900m elevation on the M7 rides even with the tag on bits I do at the start and end. It isn't too hard if you don't smash yourself. If you want to go faster though... That's when it gets harder. :oops:

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Re: M7 expedition ... and BNA group ride?

Postby Xplora » Thu May 22, 2014 5:18 pm

The whole cycleway is the very definition of a false flat :lol: It's easy to get up and down, going north to Elizabeth Drive can be annoying if you've gotten onto the leaderboard southbound to Prestons, but it's generally flat. You only HAVE to beat the guys on the tri bikes :mrgreen:

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Re: M7 expedition ... and BNA group ride?

Postby Alycat » Sat May 24, 2014 9:36 am

I thought we were talking to end to end and back, not just end to end. My measurement was from my place at Winston Hills, about an extra 15k. and there are a few more climbs, including a 20%. I rode it again yesterday, took note of starting elevation, at top of lots of hills noted total ascent and descent and elevation, checked them for internal consistency - all was good. Got back, and about 1,040 metres (for both ascent and descent) on my Garmin. Load it into SportsTrack and it says 430 ascent and 370 descent.??? I assume that that is total climbing. Above, 700 m is quoted for only one way... I am confused ...
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Re: M7 expedition ... and BNA group ride?

Postby biker jk » Sat May 24, 2014 2:23 pm

Alycat wrote:I thought we were talking to end to end and back, not just end to end. My measurement was from my place at Winston Hills, about an extra 15k. and there are a few more climbs, including a 20%. I rode it again yesterday, took note of starting elevation, at top of lots of hills noted total ascent and descent and elevation, checked them for internal consistency - all was good. Got back, and about 1,040 metres (for both ascent and descent) on my Garmin. Load it into SportsTrack and it says 430 ascent and 370 descent.??? I assume that that is total climbing. Above, 700 m is quoted for only one way... I am confused ...
I did 76km on the M7 today from Glenwood to Prestons and back and total elevation gain was 561m while another in my group recorded 586m. Your numbers sound very high.

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Re: M7 expedition ... and BNA group ride?

Postby g-boaf » Sat May 24, 2014 3:41 pm

Biker jk's numbers are about right.

My 133.9km ride today got me 941m elevation. That was Woodpark to Prestons via Hoxton Park Road, onto the M7 and up to the first of the twin hills, turn around at the top of that hill and back down to Prestons. And then Back to the other end of the M7, turn around and back down to Prestons and then back to Woodpark via the T-way again.

It's not a difficult cycleway to ride, unless you really hammer along and then you can put yourself in a world of pain if you want.

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Re: M7 expedition ... and BNA group ride?

Postby Hergest » Sat May 24, 2014 5:02 pm

If you do a few hill repeats on the old bit of road that goes up to the reservoir and communication tower at (i think) Villiers/Farley Road the back way to the WSRP you can add on the climbing metres and sweat a bit :D
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Re: M7 expedition ... and BNA group ride?

Postby Alycat » Mon May 26, 2014 11:39 am

Measured today, from my place to Glenwood exit on M7C and back is over 300 metres of climbing ... one 20% climb alone is 45 metres ,,,
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