Bromptoneering or bust

I am pleased to report that the three Ms of the previous day were replaced with a single M. That is the big M7! Details about the route are available from Cycle Sydney. This was the biggest day of our ride and our deviations made it a touch longer. My stats from our ride are available in Strava.

Our ride however started in Casula on a trail to Glenfield. We could have turned the other direction for a much short ride to Parramatta on the Rail Trail. But that’s not what this adventure is about. On the trail towards Glenfield we did come across the Liverpool Powerhouse. If we riding on a Saturday, I know we would have had breakfast at the Powerhouse Artisan and Growers Market rather than at our budget Ibis! As we left the rail trail and crossed the train tracks at Casula Station we admired the tiled wall mural.

There is a bit of suburb hopping to get from the Glenfield Trail to the M7. Rather than take the more direct route included in the official route we deviated into the newer suburbs of Glenfield to investigate. The M7 cycleway should be the minimum standard for any non-stop transport corridor. Non stop for pedestrians, bikes and cars – something Adelaide could learn from. While our Southern Expressway achieved this outcome the Government was clearly cost cutting on the Northern Expressway providing no safe connections for pedestrians and cyclists to the suburbs on the western side and requiring cyclists to cross every major entry/exit onto the expressway unaided along to Stuart O’Grady cycleway.

Near the M7 in Prestons is St Dreux coffee roasters. About three weeks ago they have opened up a nook in their shed for the tradies. I would have prepared the obligatory coffee photos but the guy in charge seemed very keen to talk about our Bromptons. We were happy to oblige. It is arguably the best coffee of the tour – so good I bought some beans to take home. If someone in Sydney would like to lobby, the path from the M7 to Ash Road in Prestons needs to be converted from mud to something more rideable – that would make Ste Dreux the perfect stop.

We continued our journey along to M7.

**Update – I forgot to mention that the route deviates into the Western Sydney Parklands for a bit. This gave Andrew an opportunity to test out his drone again. I’ve included some of that video here for you.

We appreciated the cycle path that was intended to connect to the M7 but for some reason there is a wire fence in the way. Perhaps its for some citizen action? Lunch was at T Spoon Cafe Eastern Creek – also a good spot if you are in need of some bike parts.

After lunch we continued on our ride along the M7. Stopped at the Kings Park Tavern for a coldie. The design of the place reveals a lot about the area. There was nos bicycle parks and “footpath” was painted path in the gutter of the road – bad luck if it’s raining and you don’t want to get your feet wet while entering the venue. After our refreshment stop it was time to scoot into Parramatta. I did enjoy, however, that at peak hour it seemed that our Bromptons went faster than cars on the M7! A note to my Adelaide readers, a good bus priority system doesn’t need concrete tracks like the O-Bahn a simple Transit Way is just as effective and lower cost. There appears to be a new bikeway on the way to Parramatta which is not on the GSBT route we took that instead – we were impressed by its quality. A quick lap around Parramatta Park and the on to our accomodation for total of 68.8kms completed

Today was a day the three Ms – Moisture, Mechanicals and Manoush! Fortunately, the fourth M was missing there were no Magpie strikes despite the warnings we received last night. Our route from Cronulla to Casula follows the Greater Sydney Bike Trail. Follow the link to get those details. To find out the stats about our ride check out my Strava activity.

The day started out with a very pleasant sunrise. I enjoyed the view from my oceanside room balcony before heading done for some breakfast with Andrew and Lizzie at Little’s. The Barista had never visited South Australia – but he seemed keen to find out more. Hopefully, I’ve steered him away from Hahndorf and Glenelg… he also seemed quite interested in the Great Australian Bight and the Flinders Ranges. Returning back to the hotel the weather was still looking great. Boy, we were wrong!

The first 10km or so went pretty well. Some great scenery with perfect weather. A bunch of bakeries and coffee shops along the route tempting us for an early stop. But one just screamed at us to stop and that was Flour Coffee and Doughroom. Its screaming was backed up by deeds. Nobody left disappointed – but as we did leave we noticed the first bit of moisture a few drops of rain. Now, the forecast leading up to our tour had been promising rain on this day – but the morning forecast had become a bit more optimistic. It was, however, just a confidence trick. Those few drops turned into a steady drizzle for the next six or so hours of riding. That’s the first M. Fortunately, we were mostly prepared for that.

We persisted with our regular riding gear and few drops of moisture. We were optimistic, based on the BoM forecast, that this was just going to clear up. The next section featured some impressive scenery and certainly the most impressive bit of bike and walking infrastructure that we’ve seen in Syndey thus far – the Woronora River Walk. Just so you get the full experience, I’ve included some drone footage from Andrew (if you are reading the e-mail newsletter you’ll need to go to our website to view the video). One thing to be mindful of, is that the path leading the Woronora River Walk has some metal grates that form part of the path, which are very slippery – at least in mildly wet conditions – so please be careful!

There was a bit of climbing in the first part of the ride. So there was an impromptu stop at Menai for a protein boost for Lizzie (yummy chicken) and carbs for the rest from Sonoma Bakery. We were kindly provided with some food suggestions in Gymea and Revesby on Facebook with the previous night – but they didn’t quite fit with our immediate body needs! We certainly agree that there are good options there. As we continued on Lizzie was concerned about some wobbliness in here steering. At first glance Andrew concluded that there as nothing wrong …. but at closer inspection of the wheel he found that most of the spokes unexplainably had loosened – the wheel was like jelly! That was the start of our second M – mechanicals. But things like these go in threes don’t they?

Fortunately, we were close to our planned lunch stop. Our third M in our trilogy Manoush and Co. So Lizzie and I ordered while Andrew got has hands dirty fixing the spokes. Brompton’s special toolkit is a modern miracle it has every tool you need to fix a Brompton on the road including a spoke tool geniusly integrated into the tyre lever. Andrew fixing the wheel wasn’t bad entertainment while I ate lunch.

I guess one shouldn’t enjoy others misfortunes. We made good progress in the wet weather. But it was going to be my turn to have a mechanical issue. This time mine was a little more ordinary – a flat tyre on Riverside Drive in Chipping Norton (I just had to get that suburb name in!) – also not that surprising given the waste recovery industry located along that road. I thought I had expertly changed the tube and checked for the debris that caused the flat. But it wasn’t so. The third mechanical was a second flat tyre less than 1 kilometre down the road – this time I found a chunk of glass embedded in the tyre – I am pretty sure it was there the first time. But who knows eh?

We rolled into Liverpool a little wet and through with fixing bikes. A beer was in order at the Railway Hotel – an unreconstructed working pub. My usual riding partner is hard at work back in South Australia. But as an homage to her we all visited the Liverpool City Library a fantastic service that the community should be very proud of. A few more kilometres to Casula to the Budget Ibis – our cheap a cheerful accomodation for the night – that when combined with the previous night ensured that I was meeting my accomodation budget. We banqueted on Lebanse food at Larouche Restaurant and Bakehouse in the back streets of Liverpool South. It claims it has best felafel – I agree it was pretty good!

I am looking forward to the biggest ride of the tour tomorrow and hoping for a little less moisture.