May 2026 – Ride Report from the Rear

Ride day was a stunning blue sky day that followed a wet, stormy night. If you had other plans – I hope you managed to enjoy the blue sky May day as much as we did.

It felt like an eon since the March Adelaide Bromptoneering… but here we were again. Based on the number of people who were already at the meeting point it was clear the enthusiasm for the ride was high. The ride summary was delivered by our leader Kym. He really needs to work on delivering more than those ‘We are going on a ride’ statements. Following traditional line-up pictures we were off. Well at least we thought we were until there was a flat… and then someone from the final four jumped in with a pump to get the Brompton ready to roll.

The first part of the route involved winding our way past the new murals near the bike paths near the Port Dock museum and railway station towards Rosewater where we went along the new Rosewater Loop walking/cycling path along a disused rail line. Thankfully the gravel was compact enough not to be a problem – but watch out for road crossings. This was not Canberra (yes only those who have cycled in Canberra will get the reference).

Cycling through Pennington, our destination was St Clair, and the local parks certainly provided connection to different parts of the suburbs. We came across some very character defining public art (Pennington Gardens Reserve – should anyone want to find it again), and more unusual path work which sent us in circles, and a cool short video.

St Clair (yes the old Cheltenham racecourse… much better use of space) has some great paths alongside the wetlands – perfect for running into an additional Brompton rider. Just when everyone was comfortable crusing along the paths and looking at the different housing types we took a 180 and headed back towards Alberton and paused at ‘Any Given Sunday’ for the coffee stop. It’s a fabulous place to stop if you ever in the Alberton area, its just far enough away from the standard cycle way, and probably not a good place to go prior to a footy match at the local oval if your not a Port supporter.

Back on the bikes again after coffee, we weaved through the backstreets, used traffic lights to cross main roads (cause Government’s don’t think about how cyclists and pedestrians move through the burbs), passed the modern developments, criss-crossing Pt River, over to Birkinhead, along Pt Dock and over the new pedestrian and cycle bridge to where the City of Adelaide clipper ship is moored. Surprisingly next to it on the water is one of the new KI Ferries. Plenty of photo opportunities here for boat and Brompton lovers alike. The remainder of the ride was short to Pirate Life through some more historical industrial parts of the port.