Visitor - hire, routes and suggestions

[Navrig]

Hi, this is my first post so please be gentle

My wife and I are scheduled for a 7 week trip to Australia from Scotland in December, January and February (2022/23). Our time will be split Sydney/Brisbane- Cairns road trip/Sydney. Whilst in Sydney we are likely to be making some "local" trips - Blue Mountains and other places. For these trips I am considering hiring a road bike and cycling to and from our destination. I need to keep my cycle legs/fitness because at the start of April I am off on a long tour in Europe.

I may also be able to steal some free time for day or morning cycles from Sydney. Our son lives in the Randwick area so I would be cycling from somewhere near there.

I am looking for:

• suggested bike hire
  routes to the Blue Mountains (final destination not yet known)
  day/morning routes

Typically I cycle 80-100km with an average speed 23-25km/h. I am used to climbing and am used to hot weather cyclingm(25+ degrees but struggle beyond 35 degrees).

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Retrobyte]

For quality road bike hire it is hard to beat Livelo ... https://www.livelo.cc/collections/road- ... tal-sydney

From Randwick there are some good loops around the eastern suburbs and Botany Bay to Kurnell as well as some options to take you over the harbour bridge to the northern beaches. If you are on Strava look at the global heatmaps to see where locals ride. To get to the Blue Mountains from Randwick is a solid ride, over 100km one way. Google maps gives you some options if you choose cycling as the mode of transport.

[thedrover]

The Blue Mountains is a solid ride, as Retrobyte says, but keep in mind you can easily take the bike on trains part way (apart from CityLink regional trains that require boxing). There will be no issues as long as you aren't going with the peak flow.

If you're in Randwick, Centennial Park will be your local. There's a nice 3.5 km circuit with various side roads with some rises that are good for intervals. Weekends are busy, but weekday mornings will be quiet. Some groups will ride there early morning or late afternoon.

After exploring Centennial Park, I would recommend something like dropping down to Clovelly along Clovelly Road and then following the coast through Bronte, Tamarama, Bondi, up to Watson's Bay, and Vaucluse, past Nielsen Park is a nice ride. Then turn left up New South Head Road and do a reverse of the outbound route. It's certainly a good route to reflect on global inequality while enjoying the view You can also drop down New South Head Road and up again through Cranbrook and Victoria Roads but a bit of navigation through Bondi Junction is required, so best to get the lay of the land first.

The main thing will all of these routes is that there will be many sections with parked cars, so make the call to claim the lane, or drop to jogging pace and scan every parked car to make sure they aren't about to throw open the door.

And as a day ride, have a look at the World Champs course around Wollongong. You could do something like catch the train to Thirroul, ride the shared path along the coast, up Mt Keira, go up to the Mt Keira lookout, around to Mt Kembla, and down, plus a bit of the race course through the bottom of the escapement at Wollongong, and back to Thirroul. My only advice would be to avoid Princes Hwy/Crown Street as much as possible due to there not being any shoulder. A few minutes extra zigzagging on back streets is much more pleasant. There are enough options for looping to make it as hard as you want.

Enjoy!

[AndrewCowley]

If you can travel north of the harbour, then West Head is worth a look too. Great view.

[robbo mcs]

If you want to go Central Sydney to the Blue mountains then the following would probably be my preferred route. Not ideal, as some of this is on the verge of a major freeway, although a designated cycling route.

Sydney over harbour bridge and make way to cycleway along gore hill freeway, then cycleway on epping rd to M2
M2 full length to old Windsor rd
Cycleway and/or road Old Windsor rd, Windsor rd to Windsor
Hawkesbury valley way to Richmond, then Castlereagh rd and Springwood rd via Hawkesbury heights to Springwood which is the lower Blue mountains

There are variations on this, but you can use Strava heat maps to work it out.

There are a lot nicer rides around Sydney though.

[hunch]

Typically I cycle 80-100km with an average speed 23-25km/h. I am used to climbing and am used to hot weather cyclingm(25+ degrees but struggle beyond 35 degrees).

Done much in humidity? Jan-Feb in particular will be muggy, especially if the 3rd La Nina event they're predicting eventuates. Seemed to be thunderstorms on the ranges every other day this past summer with that in play. If it's 25 on the coast, likely to be low to mid 30s in the western foothills if you intend to ride out there.....hydration and sunblock might be handy.

Morning rides, if Centennial doesn't appeal, La Perouse and Darlinghurst to Royal National Park still seem to be popular with the groups.

[Navrig]

Typically I cycle 80-100km with an average speed 23-25km/h. I am used to climbing and am used to hot weather cyclingm(25+ degrees but struggle beyond 35 degrees).

Done much in humidity? Jan-Feb in particular will be muggy, especially if the 3rd La Nina event they're predicting eventuates. Seemed to be thunderstorms on the ranges every other day this past summer with that in play. If it's 25 on the coast, likely to be low to mid 30s in the western foothills if you intend to ride out there.....hydration and sunblock might be handy.

Morning rides, if Centennial doesn't appeal, La Perouse and Darlinghurst to Royal National Park still seem to be popular with the groups.

Thanks for the replies folks.

I did a bit of riding in Saigon and, prior to that, Bahrain. Obviously the humidity in Saigon is pretty high, Bahrain has the highest humidity for most of the Middle East although it didn't feel that bad.

If I do a Blue Mountains day ride the plan would be to start early and ahead of the rest of the family getting there by car. If I get into difficulties I could stop and get a pick up as they pass me (assuming I can get the bike in the car).

I'll have a look at other ride suggestions using Google maps and Strava.

[caneye]

This route is what RobboMCS described but instead of starting from the city, this starts midway. You can either ride from Parramatta or Castle Hill. Still a solid 60-70km to Springwood (lower Blue Mountains).

If you start from the CBD, you will easily double this distance, but at least the first section is flat

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/18723826

Dec-Feb is generally the warmest months. Not much shelter on this route too.