Cooks river Cycleway

[Stickybeak]

I need to get from the east to Strathfiled on Saturday morning - I have planned out a route that will give me about 50ks there - watch kids sport - ride back.
The easiest (meaning simplest) route seems to be Cooks River Cycleway but the guidebook suggests its difficult to maintain speed on the path - i want to average about 23-25 km/h.
Any thoughts on whether this is doable on the cycleway? I need to be in Strathfield by 8am.
Cheers for the input.

[Strawburger]

depending on how fit you are you can maintain just above your normal cruising speed for chunks of it. I usually get from Dulwich Hill to homebush in just on 1/2 hr using the path - averaging 25km/hr (stops at intersections/red lights inclusive)

[Stickybeak]

so its not necessarily for dawdling along

[Strawburger]

at that time of morning you may encounter the odd walker or dog owner but generally you can get some speed up if you have it. I had 8 stops in my last trip at the same time on a saturday and so as long as you ride safely you shouldn't have a problem with 25km/hr (if you can manage that currently)

[Stickybeak]

Thanks for your help....whether I can manage it or not will depend on my "mood": the impression the book gave was that it was so winding that you wouldn't be able to maintain your pace.

[queequeg]

It's a pretty flat course, though some sections are a bit bumpy.

Also, watch out for the Canterbury Rd Underpass. You'll know it when you see it!

[Stickybeak]

Is that the low one? they mentioned that!

[Strawburger]

... and narrow to boot!

[Stickybeak]

thanks for the tip

[Stickybeak]

You call that an underpass???????? You'd be safer riding blindfolded straight out onto Canterbury Road.
apart from that: what a great track!!!!
Its fantastic being away from the cars for most of it - I loved it.

[recumbenteer]

yeh.... THAT underpass!!.... obviously recumbent trikes weren't considered in its construction LOL

... gotta run the gauntlet crossing Canterbury Rd



Come to think of it..... 'bent trike riders... yeh..we're a breed of our own.....Sooooo
where's OUR special dispensation LOL

[queequeg]

You call that an underpass???????? You'd be safer riding blindfolded straight out onto Canterbury Road.

See, I told you that you would know it when you saw it

[AndrewBurns]

I especially like the half exposed pipe sticking out there, it's not enough that it's absurdly low and narrow but they couldn't even keep the ground flat and smooth under there

I have no problems keeping around 30kph on the cooks river path when commuting, average is lower because of road crossings but it's fairly wide and direct.

[find_bruce]

Scary thing is that some kind soul has bent the railing out a bit to give you some more room. Made me glad that I had cut my bars down so they were 480mm wide

[mikesbytes]

When the path is clear, you can get a good pace on it, but when there's traffic, you need to ride slower

http://app.strava.com/rides/8230814#150819746

[wombatK]

Scary thing is that some kind soul has bent the railing out a bit to give you some more room. Made me glad that I had cut my bars down so they were 480mm wide

You've got around 20 km of good quality shared path, and this ridiculous choking point. It's not just the width - the height is problematic for taller peeps - even without the pipe intrusion.

In terms of bang for your buck, I couldn't think of a better way to spend cycling infrastructure dollars.

[Nobody]

Scary thing is that some kind soul has bent the railing out a bit to give you some more room. Made me glad that I had cut my bars down so they were 480mm wide

I believe it is ~85cm wide at the top. I can get through there with 68cm bars on the MTB, so it's just perception that it's very narrow.

[AndrewBurns]

680mm bars my road bike bars are 400mm and even then it feels a bit squeezy, I always unclip a foot for the first bit just in case.

[Strawburger]

When the path is clear, you can get a good pace on it, but when there's traffic, you need to ride slower

http://app.strava.com/rides/8230814#150819746

Sounds like a challenge there Mike!

[fenn_paddler]

It's a shared use path. I think anything over 28 kmh is foolhardy (and that speed only on the open straights).

It's pretty common to come upon three abreast walkers around blind corners. If you treat it like a race it'll eventually end badly - even if you don't hit someone, it pisses off the other path users to see cyclists tearing along a narrow path. Much as I see on the bay run on a regular basis.

[Nobody]

It's a shared use path. I think anything over 28 kmh is foolhardy (and that speed only on the open straights).

It's pretty common to come upon three abreast walkers around blind corners. If you treat it like a race it'll eventually end badly - even if you don't hit someone, it pisses off the other path users to see cyclists tearing along a narrow path. Much as I see on the bay run on a regular basis.

I agree with the warning. However, it depends on the day of the week, the time of day and the part of the path. There are many blind corners and you need to know where they are. It is obviously foolhardy to go fast on a path you don't know well. As for three abreast walkers, that's just rude on a narrow, shared, two way path. But then there are often grass areas to pass if necessary. Another problem is two abreast recreational MTBs taking up most of the path width.

[Strawburger]

Sorry guys, i forgot to add the I ride that path regularly, i know how much foot traffic there is. My comment was tongue in cheek

[Stickybeak]

I had a bit better look at it - I liked the path so much I did it on Sunday early: I realise there is a river flowing past, its tidal and half of Sydney drains into it so it may weel be prone to a risk of flooding - not that I can remember Canterbury Road ever being at risk of being cut from flooding.
Allowing for all that surely it would cost very little to drop the path a little and make it wider - or even just to make it wider: if that were solved it would be hard to fault the track. I hope its well used by commuters.
I wish there were more like it.
Its connection with Homebush is a bit iffy but the Strathfield streets between the 2 would be perfect for cycle lanes so I'm a bit bemused at their absence: i think bike riders are still seen by most as the enemy.

[wombatK]

I had a bit better look at it - I liked the path so much I did it on Sunday early: I realise there is a river flowing past, its tidal and half of Sydney drains into it so it may weel be prone to a risk of flooding - not that I can remember Canterbury Road ever being at risk of being cut from flooding.
Allowing for all that surely it would cost very little to drop the path a little and make it wider - or even just to make it wider: if that were solved it would be hard to fault the track.

I can remember that Canterbury Rd has been flooded on very rare occasions - not due to the river rising, but rather drains being blocked on the road. In our recent very heavy rain, the floodwaters came nowhere near to the pathway level. Dropping it 30 cm or so and installing some Al decking over the river, like that on the Parramatta River at Melrose Park, would give a pretty good result.

You're right about the Strathfield end. Some improvements there would be easy to achieve. One I'd like to see is to replace the chicanes on the M4 overpass bridge with something that's not nigh on impossible to get through without scraping your derailleur's against the posts.

Cheers

[queequeg]

I had a bit better look at it - I liked the path so much I did it on Sunday early: I realise there is a river flowing past, its tidal and half of Sydney drains into it so it may weel be prone to a risk of flooding - not that I can remember Canterbury Road ever being at risk of being cut from flooding.

The underpass at Tempe (under the rail bridge) is prone to Tidal flooding. You don't really want to be riding your bike through all that salt water, especially in a King Tide!