Bromptoneering or bust

For those who have been following daily, I’ve added some drone footage to the blog post about Sydney: Day 3 Casula to Parramatta. According to Google Maps it is a 29km bike ride from Parramatta to Sydney. But that is not the way us intrepid explorers like to roll – we prefer the 57km route. I’ve been sharing our plans on a number of Facebook Groups. On day 4 we had two takers – Gordon a fellow Brompton rider who has previously visited us in Adelaide and Winston a person we have never met before except through Greater Sydney Bike Trail Facebook Group. You can find my ride details on Strava and the offical route on Cycle Sydney.

Andrew, Lizzie and I started in Parramatta and decided to take a small deviation to visit the Auburn Sakura Festival. We were well supported by coffee and breakfast from Circa near Parramatta Station. We took some back streets from our hotel until we arrived at the M4 – we followed that trail for less than 1km or so – but we did manage to see a large police presence at an incident between a delivery bike and car on(or near) a pedestrian crossing! We then followed the path next to Duck River to the Auburn Botanic Gardens. We arrived soon after opening and it got busier and busier. It certainly must be heaving on a weekend. The only problem is that you can’t plan nature and the cherry trees were not at full blossom. I reckon next week (when there is no festival or entry fee?) will probably be better viewing.

Gordon joined us with his steel framed Brompton with super special rear heel engaged low geared chainring. This will come into its own later. We returned down duck river and followed the mostly quiet back streets at least until we got to the crazy crossing over the train line that gave no space to pedestrians or cyclists. We managed that ok – but I would definitely follow a different way to cross next time. After getting through the industrial area we enjoyed the sublime paths and scenery of Sydney Olympic Park (Newington and Blaxland Riverside Park) before crossing the Silverwater Bridge.

The four of us returned to the original GSBT route following the northern shore of the Parramatta River (at least while construction allowed us). This part was relatively easy and joyful – we weren’t aware what was coming. We stopped for lunch at Fork and Spoon. After lunch Winston joined us and Lizzie left us – the RiverCat was an excellent option. Winston was sporting a retrieved and repaired mountain bike – something he was going to value on his most epic ride today! As we rode we tackled a few hills and beautiful trails before heading into Lane Cove National Park. The road through the national park with its 30 km/h limit is some of the best scenery and cycling on the trail. BUT after that! All I can say is that hill should come with a mandatory warning. It had a hit rate of 75% – 3 of us walked at least part of it – but Gordon is a dead set legend he clicked his heel like Dorothy and the magic happened – his Brompton turned into the ultimate hill climber. We had a few more hills like that before we started the “on average” downward run towards the Harbour.

More beautiful trails, places so isolated that is it hard to believe they are in a big international city and then the classic tourist photos. It was an absolute pleasure to use the new ramp onto the Sydney Harbour Bridge and an even greater pleasure to roll of the Bridge on the other side in to the warm embrace of the Lord Nelson. Lizzie rejoined us for a beer and pork pie, no better way to reward such an epic ride. Winston complete his longest and biggest ride ever and this makes him a dead set legend too. I hope he keeps up and finds some riding buddies to try out other Cycle Sydney routes.

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.

I’ve been keen to do the Greater Sydney Bike Trail for some time. It is a ready made tour of Sydney – the sort of thing I have done in Canberra, Brisbane and Melbourne but with all the route planning done by someone else! Day 1 of the ride was around 28km from Mascot to Cronulla. This ride is a plane lovers special! The ride results are available on Strava.

This morning I woke up in Adelaide! The 8:50am flight to Sydney meant that I arrived late morning. With my big bike bag, the easiest thing for me to do, once I had arrived in Sydney, was to catch the train one stop (yes it’s quiet expensive) and deliver my bag to the phone store that was offering storage online through Radical Storage. I’ve been encouraging others to join my ride. Thus far Andrew and Lizzie from Adelaide are riding with me. They met me at Mascot.

If you know me, you know that I appreciate Japanese food and culture. One of those cultural things is ”Asadora”, Japanese morning tv with 15 minute episodes. One show in particular that I like is Manpuku. A story about the inventor of instant ramen. If there is a ramen shop called Manpuku in Mascot what do you think I am going to do? I had Tsukemen and a beer. It was very good – so unfortunately for you there are no photos.

We headed along the route on a range of paths of varying quality. But, they were all certainly better than dicing with the traffic. We rode around the north-western side of Sydney Airport tootling along quite a good quality path. As we rounded the bend we had the awesome site of a Qantas A380 taking off directly over us. Plus two A380s one the tarmac – that’s 30% of the Qantas A380 fleet in on view!! Oh yeah, we didn’t get a photo for you! Our real goal was to get coffee from Where’s Wolli? But there was a coffee snob preventing me from sampling it…. Instead we had seaside coffee in Brighton-le-sands and a beer and snacks at the St George Sailing Club.

After the beer, we were on the home leg towards Cronulla. To get there we had to climb up to and cross the Captain Cook Bridge. Let me tell you the “cycling” path is a little narrow – be prepared to stop and let other cyclists pass! The Woolooware Shared Pathway, which is quite delightful. As a note to regular Adelaide Bromptoneers, there is, if you a riding Wednesday to Sunday, a microbrewery option at the Hairyman Brewery. The final run into Cronulla was along the foreshore path. A few too many of the Fatboy Bikes (apparently Australia’s favourite electric bike) being used around here! I am writing this post from a room with a lovely view of the beach.

Tomorrow looks there will be some rain later in the afternoon. So we will make an early break from Cronulla to try and avoid most the rain. Until tomorrow.