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 Left: Pictured: Colin Freestone doing some mandatory enroute yoga, Coal and Candle Creek Ride PHOTO GALLERIES Photo Gallery 1 Riding and BF Club of Sydney Photo Gallery 2 A bit of a personal tour of my return to my roots Photo Gallery 3 Can you stand more photos of joyous Bike Friday folks on their bikes? Photo Gallery 4 Presenting Gal movies at CBD Bicycles, The Apple Academy Store and BikeEast, Chinese New Year, poledancing shoes, riding with the Wooly's Wheels guys ... and preparing to return to Eugene, Oregon! The worst city in the world for cycling? In 2003 I publicly proclaimed Sydney the worst place in the world to ride a bicycle. I was on my book tour, and tried to plot a route from the eastern suburbs to Sydney University to meet Bike Friday folk for lunch. My route, through alleys, back streets, and on illegal footpaths was so convoluted I had to stop at virtually every dog leg and turn the map round and round, as directionally challenged people do. An hour and several 'where the @#$% are you/am I?' calls later, I rolled into the cafe, just long enough to eat the uneaten breadroll off someone's plate before everyone had to go back to work. Pretty inauspicious showing from supposedly a world traveler! Three years later, I'm back, and I have to take back every syllable. True, pedaling the Sydney CBD is still an episode worthy of Didn't Survivor, even though there's now a helpful little map book called Bike-It! by Bruce Ashley to take you by the handlebar and lead the way. But thanks to the Bike Friday Club of Sydney funsters, I've experienced some of the most fantastic beach, bay and beyond cycling since nearly falling off my bike sideways gawping at Loch Lomond, Scotland, in 1997 - and that's saying something. And all within super easy reach of wherever, thanks to Sydney's great rail system. A metric century's enough! For a start, everything in the populated eastern seaboard of Australia seems closer together. You can cover a lot of interesting places in a short distance. Second, Aussies measure all their rides in kilometers. For some reason, a 60 mile day ride on the USA would correspond to a respectable 60 km day ride downunder. Less miles, more stops, and more time back and the ranch for beers and carousing. Here is a sampler of the rides I've done in just under a month: ADRIAN'S CONSTITUTIONAL (24 km, Eastern Suburbs): The Pro Petite's first foray out of the suitcase was led by Bike Friday owner Adrian Boss, a prime mover of advocacy group BikeEast. Adrian is responsible for the increasing number of bicycle lanes and ramps you see popping up all over Sydney's eastern suburbs. Maybe it's just because I ride a bike, but there is something heartwarming and secure about spotting a little bicycle symbol sprayed on the road in the blur of peak hour traffic. BikeEast also hosts The Bike Friday Club of Sydney ride calendar on its message board. Adrian's 'constitutional', otherwise known as a 'use it or lose it' ride is a thrice-weekly spin from Bondi Junction skirting Rose Bay, Bondi Beach, Tamarama, Bronte, Clovelly, Coogee for coffee, then back to Bondi. On Wednesdays it goes a different way, frm Bondi down to La Perouse. The views from this easy and occasionally hilly spin are spectacular - the Sydney Harbour bridge and city skyline popping up all the time between millionares' houses and hilltop parks. This ride started out a little inauspiciously for me. One of the riders could not get his foot out of his cleat as he rolled up to the meeting place and created a slo-mo domino roll with me at the bottom. My knee and elbow were bruised for days, but that's no excuse to stop riding ... On another day I was invited to join Adrian's monthly 'Investor's Ride' - basically, a brace of older gentleman who ride to La Perouse for lunch and to compare their stock performances. Their usual eatery was closed, so the group proceeded to an upstairs restaurant where fish and chips were priced at $A30. Once upon a time, when I was a yuppie rather than a lowly bicycle industry employee, I'd have ordered without batting an an eyelid, include the caviar please - as these gentleman did. I had to excuse myself quietly to go downstairs to the cheap seats and partake of the $7.50 two-pieces-of-fish-and salad deal. My choice was superb - in fact, I sat on a concrete slab by the bikes and experienced a few moments of that fleeting 'life is good' feeling. The pedaling investors emerged a couple of hours later, grumbling about the steepness of the bill. 'I have a investment tip to offer,' I chimed in. 'Just don't spend it!' COAL AND CANDLE CREEK RIDE (52km, north): Indonesiaphile Colin Freestone led a ride from Pymble Station to Akuna Bay and back. This was a 'northern exposure' Sydney style - lots of serpentine rolling hills through bushland suburbia ringing with cicadas, the Australian sound of summer, bottoming out in Akuna Bay for a cafe stop. On this trip we had two tandems going hell for leather ... these older people ride like maniacs ... Colin has scoped out a Sulawesi bike trip that promises to be an amazing cycling expedition. Keep an eye on this place for more, or email him at indocc@ozemail.com.au. MANLY-KURINGAI NATIONAL PARK/NARRABEEN LAKES (35km): This ride, again led by Adrian, started out extremely pleasantly with a ferry ride across the famous Sydney Harbor to Manly. We skirted all the famous northern beaches and followed a hard packed forest trail through the National Park for several kilometers, popping out at the coast. SUTHERLAND-ROYAL NATIONAL PARK (40 km): Bike Friday Club of Sydney leaders Christine and George Floyd are prolific when it comes to organizing interesting day and multi-day trips. Avid skiers and former windsurfers, they say "the Bike Fridays have opened up a whole new world of travel and activity for us." You don't know Sydney til you've ridden with this club. This ride started with a 1 hour train trip to Sutherland in Sydney's south, then a 9 km offroad trail through Lady Carrington Drive in the Royal National Park. My 1" Primo Champ tires fared well, in fact, I was literally bombing along the rocky trail towards the end. "It's all about confidence," says Alan Scholz, regarding skinny tires on gravel. "Just pedal and steer." Then followed lunch at a bayside holiday house in Bundeena, a ferry crossing to Cronulla, then more riding to Tempe and train back to the Bondi Junction. MY CHRISTMAS DAY RIDE: I got up at 7am and scooted down to the Rose Bay/O'Sullivan meeting place but due to slight drizzle no one showed up. Unlike in the American northwest, 'Sydney's weather is so good we don't need to ride when it rains - we wait a day.' says Adrian. So I took myself on a loiter through the nooks and crannies of the exclusive peninsula area of Vaucluse, and discovered parks, hidden beaches and scenic spots I'd never visited in all my years in Sydney. Viva la bici! TURRAMURRA TO BOBBIN HEAD RIDE (35 km): Notice how these distances are all incredibly short and friendly? None of this riding for miles and miles before you get anywhere in Sydney - it's an intricate labyrinth of inlets and bays and waterways, with established scenic bike routes that double as commutes, so there's a lot packed into to short distances. The Tandem Traveler Q couple, John and Rosemary Gilpin, led this extremely well attended ride of close to 20 people - ALL Bike Friday riders save for one big wheeler Robert, who can only be described as a Bike Friday groupie. The ride ended with a wonderful potluck BBQ and a showing of my Route66 and Peru movies. It was almost like an Amway convention, substituting Amway for Bike Friday ... see Photo Gallery 3. BLACKHEATH TO LITHGOW RIDE (50km): It goes on and on! A two hour train ride to Blackheath allowed us to meander along a ridge with a single steep climb that left us all gasping and reaching for imaginary heart tablets. See Photo Gallery 3. +++ In summary, don't take Sydney's trafficky throughways and choked manic CBD as an indication of Sydney riding. Ride with the Bike Friday Club of Sydney/BikeEast and you'll want to be in the saddle all the time. In fact, I'm off to ride now! |
RELATED LINKS More Australia on a Friday tales from the Fold PushOn Website All the bike clubs associated with Bicycle NSW and ride calendars are listed here |