Brisbane suburbs for biking

Whorl
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Brisbane suburbs for biking

Postby Whorl » Sun Dec 30, 2012 5:23 pm

Hi all

Looking to make the move to Brisbane in mid Feb for my new job and trying to suss out suburbs close to decent facilities etc. I'll be working in the CBD and intend to ride to work most days, so somewhere reasonable central would be best. I also dabble in both road and MTB. Any suggestions on suburbs to keep an eye out on?

Cheers!

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RonK
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Re: Brisbane suburbs for biking

Postby RonK » Sun Dec 30, 2012 6:14 pm

You are in luck - you are coming to a place that has great rides close to the city centre.

The Brisbane River loop and Mt Coot-tha are the iconic rides and both are close to the CBD. Mt Coot-tha offers challenges for both roadies and mtbers.

The best suburbs to gain access to the rides would be Paddington, Toowong, Auchenflower, Bardon, St Lucia, Taringa, Indooroopilly, Kenmore on the northside, or Chelmer, Graceville, Yeronga, Fairfield, West End on the southside.

In fact any of the inner city suburbs will give access to these rides and easy commute to the CBD. And on weekends there are plenty of rides further afield.

Get used to going to bed early though, local tradition is to ride early all year round. Most bunch rides start around 6am, which means a 5am wakeup for most of us.

The great thing is you can get a 40km river loop in and have a coffee and brekky and still get to work by 8am (did I mention we start work early too).

Forgot to say that there if your building does not have bike facilities the King George Square bike station had all you need.
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marinmomma
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Re: Brisbane suburbs for biking

Postby marinmomma » Sun Dec 30, 2012 7:29 pm

For commuting any of the suburbs that are near the South East Freeway are good as you have great access to the V1 bike path/roads...a new section looks like its nearly completed through Greenslopes/Tarragindi.
Also the western suburbs are well catered for with a bike path that runs next to the Western Freeway.

The north side commute is a bit trickier, as there isn't a dedicated bikepath but small sections connected by roads, some with decent levels of traffic...hopefully a north sider will jump in with their 2cents worth :wink:

Hth and good luck with your move.
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Wal42
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Re: Brisbane suburbs for biking

Postby Wal42 » Sun Dec 30, 2012 7:45 pm

I don't live at either but Wynnum/Manly (Southside) or Sandgate/Redcliffe (Northside) area, both are bayside areas, nice & flat, some hills close by if you want, close enough to commute to the CBD & lovely waterfront pathways for cool breezy rides.

Whorl
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Re: Brisbane suburbs for biking

Postby Whorl » Sun Dec 30, 2012 8:38 pm

Thanks for the replies! I'll keep it all in mind! :)

Rhubarb
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Re: Brisbane suburbs for biking

Postby Rhubarb » Sun Dec 30, 2012 8:43 pm

The Centenary bikepath is the best suburban commuting bikepath in Brisbane - FACT. It basically runs the length of the western freeway and joins up with the bikepath along the river from Toowong to city. A snippet of the path is shown here, but this is largely representative: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=p ... S-2nXEN0UE" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Via the western suburbs, you also have better access to Mt Coot-tha (biggest hill/mtn in Brisbane - for road and MTB) and also Gap Creek Rd (MTBing) and Mt Glorious / Mt Nebo.

The Centenary bikepath follows the western freeway out past many family oriented suburbs for about 30kms. If you're young and single, go for an inner suburb like Toowong or maybe West End or New Farm. The Southside also has a bikepath but its crap (narrow, bumpy, floods, always covered in debris etc) for a large section of it. The northside has a nice recreational path (Kedron Brook bikepath) but it runs east-west, not north-south like you need for commuting, so you need to do a fair bit of on-road riding, with some hairy bits in places. Coming in from the east is sort of ok (but not really) and is largely all via on-road bike lanes / shoulders which have a tendency to dissappear on you, just when you need them.

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Lukeyboy
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Re: Brisbane suburbs for biking

Postby Lukeyboy » Mon Dec 31, 2012 5:01 am

From the Northside there's mostly shared bike lanes on the road - the yellow bike symbol and not dedicated seperate bike lanes. Every once and a while you'll come across the dedicated bike lanes and sections bike paths. The biggest bike path would be the Moreton Bay Cycleway (Deception Bay to Redland Bay or something). While not fully complete its already quite a long pathway that is made up of a majority of seperate bikeways such as the Redcliffe Cycleway/Boondall Wetlands Cycleway/Jim Soorley Bikeway (Can get some ripper speeds along there)/Shorncliffe-Sandgate Bikeway/Bramble Bay bikeway etc that are all connected together or via short sections of running on roads.

Not sure about how you ride or how you feel riding in traffic so I can't say much. Chermside/Wavell Heights is a great but okay suburb if you don't feel comftable around traffic going to and from the city - I think its great and any traffic Chermside-Kedron Brook bikeway is minimal due to the backstreets in a surburban area (no dedicated bikeway from Kedron Brook bikeway or the Sandagate Road corridor from Toombul to the Northern Bikeway in the city compared to other areas mentioned that have routes all the way to the city). That being said the area has changed these last few years with more dedicated bike lanes going through around Westfield and wider shared pathways. It has the biggest shopping centre in Brisbane, plenty of restaurants, there's a few schools near by, there's a 99 bike store across the road from Westfield so picking up tires, tubes, a quick service etc is easy. Great place to live and its got good public transport options for rainy days or those nights where there's been a few drinks after work with mates. Off peak its about a 15 min drive by car to the CBD or about 25-30 minutes on one of the 12 buses every hour from 6am to midnight. On a bike it can be done in about 30 minutes-45 mins with the thickest of traffic. If your fast it can be done in less than 30 mins. It has easy access to the Kedron Brook bikeway/Nundha Crit circuit, bike paths to other bikeways/bike lanes like Sandgate Road corridor but what really lets it down is the lack of proper bike routes to the city. Basically you either battle it out along Gympie Road in traffic or make your way to the Kedron Brook bikeway and then sort out a corridor you like to the city. I live in Aspley which is the next suburb along. If I'm heading to the City via Chermside I'd either ride the streets opposite Gympie Road to the Kedron Brook bikeway then make my way along very quiet surban streets to Kedron Brook road (dedicated bike lane - use the car lane for the downhill run :P and shared bikelane futher on after passing a very nice bike store) and pathways to the northern bikeway to the CBD. There is also a similar route via shared pathways through the Kedron/Wavel Heights area but speeds won't be as fast due to some sections being shared with other users. Its also an easy area to access the roads to Samford/Mt Nebo/Mt Glorious/Dayboro and Mt Mee.

Nundah is good too. Its next to the railway line so you have quick access to trains if you want to spend a day riding around the coast or if you get into trouble/need quick access home. Its near the Nundah Critt track. Its also close to the Boondall wetlands so you can take your mtb off road and cruse around there. Not many hills but its muddy :P

trainedmonkey
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Re: Brisbane suburbs for biking

Postby trainedmonkey » Mon Dec 31, 2012 10:16 am

As a northside suggestion, how about The Gap or Ferny Grove? They're close to both Gap Creek and Bunyaville for mountain biking and also to Mt Nebo and the Samford valley for road rides. There are regular group rides that depart from The Gap.

Rhubarb
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Re: Brisbane suburbs for biking

Postby Rhubarb » Mon Dec 31, 2012 4:49 pm

As I read it, the OP is asking about commuting facitlities primarily.

For recreational / sport riding, virtually any suburb has somewhere nearby and virtually every trail is rideable from every suburb if you're committed.

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vaeske
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Re: Brisbane suburbs for biking

Postby vaeske » Mon Dec 31, 2012 5:17 pm

OP check with work, usually most offices in CBD will have bike lockup areas and showers. if no luck check with bike lockup facility in king george square, that has lockup, showers, lockers/ironing facilities, usually a membership fee as well.

most suburbs are good and depends also on how far you're okay to commute in as well. inner north/south are always easy to get on and takes roughly 15-30 to get in. Plenty of bike paths though so totally up to you.

Whorl
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Re: Brisbane suburbs for biking

Postby Whorl » Mon Dec 31, 2012 7:25 pm

vaeske wrote:OP check with work, usually most offices in CBD will have bike lockup areas and showers. if no luck check with bike lockup facility in king george square, that has lockup, showers, lockers/ironing facilities, usually a membership fee as well.

most suburbs are good and depends also on how far you're okay to commute in as well. inner north/south are always easy to get on and takes roughly 15-30 to get in. Plenty of bike paths though so totally up to you.
Will check work biking facilities when I start, otherwise I had been looking at that facility as it's only a few blocks from where I'll be working. I was looking at 10-15km ride max for the commute, so that seems to give me quite a range of places to look at. :)

themerlin
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Re: Brisbane suburbs for biking

Postby themerlin » Thu Jan 17, 2013 10:08 pm

Sandgate road/ kingsford smith drive are my bike paths. Such a shame they allow cars on them :(

BrisVegas
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Re: Brisbane suburbs for biking

Postby BrisVegas » Fri Jan 18, 2013 10:58 am

Rhubarb wrote:The Centenary bikepath is the best suburban commuting bikepath in Brisbane - FACT. It basically runs the length of the western freeway and joins up with the bikepath along the river from Toowong to city. A snippet of the path is shown here, but this is largely representative: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=p ... S-2nXEN0UE" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Via the western suburbs, you also have better access to Mt Coot-tha (biggest hill/mtn in Brisbane - for road and MTB) and also Gap Creek Rd (MTBing) and Mt Glorious / Mt Nebo.

The Centenary bikepath follows the western freeway out past many family oriented suburbs for about 30kms. If you're young and single, go for an inner suburb like Toowong or maybe West End or New Farm. The Southside also has a bikepath but its crap (narrow, bumpy, floods, always covered in debris etc) for a large section of it. The northside has a nice recreational path (Kedron Brook bikepath) but it runs east-west, not north-south like you need for commuting, so you need to do a fair bit of on-road riding, with some hairy bits in places. Coming in from the east is sort of ok (but not really) and is largely all via on-road bike lanes / shoulders which have a tendency to dissappear on you, just when you need them.

^^^ yep, what he said. If you want to sail past the traffic jams on a dedicated bike path, the Centenary path is the best. I used to ride in from Wacol and it was pretty much 25kms of path. Any suburb from Darra, Middle Park, Westlake, Jindalee, Sinnamon Park, Fig Tree Pocket, Kenmore etc etc is an easy safe commute via the path. The bikepath was meant to go all the way out to Springfield Central, but Campbell Newman killed it off to fastrack the widening of the roads.... :-(

I live in Bardon now, but I actually backtrack a bit to get onto the bikepath near Toowong, rather than dealing with the cars in peak hour. Anywhere around Toowong and St Lucia is well catered for commuting paths and close to MT Cootha and Gap Creek for hills.

Sandgate/Redcliffe is a nice area for cycling too. Pretty flat, but lots of nice scenery by the water and a breeze all year round.
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