Riding Albany Highway

[Red Rider]

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

[Baalzamon]

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

[just4tehhalibut]

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.

[HLC]

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.

[Aushiker]

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

[jasonlheath]

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?

[Baalzamon]

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

[chuckchunder]

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

[Pravda]

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?

[Baalzamon]

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

[toofat]

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

[jasonlheath]

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)

[Rex]

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.

[Pravda]

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.