The Best Cycling City In Australia?

Wade I'll have to get Brad to help educate on riding in Sydney. If you are lucky enough to live on the North Shore (as I do) then cycling is superb. Lots of national parks with excellent climbs, and even the rides up to the Central Coast have good quality roads (many recently re-surfaced) with wide shoulders and/or designated bike lanes.
The South, East and West of Sydney? Well I wouldn't ride there, that's for sure - too many red necks and bad roads

It's sad the Perth seems to always be over looked by every other state. Yes, we are further away than many overseas countries, but we are still part of this country. Oh and many forget that Western Australia contributes significantly more to the Australian economy than any other state. It's funny how everyone always forgets that one... But that's not the debate here.

So as a local can I provide some insight into what it's like to be out on a bike way over here in the West? I'll do my best:

The Good:
Perth is built on a coastal plain. This means for the most part, the terrain is fairly flat. We do have some hills that are very popular with weekend riders. Lots of groups out there mean the locals are used to large groups of riders. Then you have the coastal rides; West Coast Hwy is one of the best. Expensive houses on one side, magnificent ocean views on the other. Low speed limit (50km/h) and nothing that classes as a hill (bit like Beach Rd in Melbourne), but the best bit is taking in the "sights" as they walk, run, or jog past! Finally, most of the major roads (well the newer ones anyway) in Perth either have a cycle-lane or cycle-way as part of their design.

The Bad:
The Wind. The famous Freo Doctor blows very strongly. This is good if your heading away from it, but if not you'll hate being out on your bike. Locals learn to plan their trips around the time of day and wind direction. As mentioned above, Perth is built on a coastal plain, so you can't hide from the wind! The other bad aspect is that unless you live in certain areas you'll have to drive to find a decent calibre of cycling group. You either have to live on the coast, in the hills, or near the city. Anywhere else and you'll be faced with idiot drivers and/or poor roads.

The Ugly:
"Red Neck Drivers". Yes, every city has them, but Perth seems to have more than our fair share. Now these drivers aren't the typical sort that just yells abuse at you. No, these are the sods who throw stuff at you (bottles, beer cans, bricks, etc...) or try to drive so close and literally push you off the road. Fortuantly I haven't experienced this too much and it IS improving, but you do hear of another close call from fellow riders each week.

So is Perth a great place to be out on a bike? Hell yeah, and it's getting better with each passing month. We don't have a strong cycling culture here, but that is rapidly changing. We may be a bit slow and backward over here in the West, but we do catch on and when we do, we do things quickly. The growth rate of Cycling as a sport is increasing every year.

Verdict: Watch this space. :)

Re cycling cities
As illuminating as you selection for cycling cities is – you’ve missed the capital of cycling in Australia – Bendigo. The following highlights some of the reasons I put Bendigo forward:
Roads
Within a few minutes from the Sternberg roundabout ( the popular gathering spot) you have a series of roads that include undulating hills, long straight flat sections, a mountain to climb, a few tight pinches and all in low traffic country surroundings. No picking your way through traffic and stopping at lights. Bendigo riders can choose famous local rides including the gooseneck, the Turdberg, Ball Biter or Five Ways.
Bunches
Bendigo prides itself on catering to all abilities. From 7am on a Saturday, bunches head off at 15 min intervals with the last at 7.45.am During the week there is also a variety of rides. The earliest bunches are a mixture of long efforts and a series of sprints. Later bunches cater to the beginning cyclists and are always accompanied by riders passionate in sharing their skills and knowledge with beginning riders.
The Company
In an earlier bulletin you acknowledged the Bendigo Cycling Club being the nursery of champions. It is not unusual on a Sat ride to find yourself swapping turns with notable riders past and present from all disciplines of cycling including: Zac Dempster, Glenn O’Shea, Darren Lapthorne, Kristian House, Tom Southam, Rohan Dennis, Steve Flood, Chris White, Tim Decker, Phil Sawyer, Tony Hughes, Andy Stirling, Matt Wallace, Jess Berry, Jo Wall, Peta Mullins, Jarrod Moroni and the list goes on. Everyone one of them ready to chat or offer advice. No class distinctions in our bunches!!
The Clubs
Bendigo marshals the fanatical cycling community through a variety of clubs. There’s plenty of road action through the VETS and Bendigo and District Cycling Club, track racing on Thurs night and of course the world famous Maddison. The Bendigo Mountain Bike Club (www.mtbbendigo.com) host club races and recently the National MTB Marathon Championships. If you cant find a club to suit your cycling needs you’re not trying.
Keeping in Touch
We enjoy a phenomena called Eddie’s email. Eddie , a keen local rider and networker keeps the local cycling community in touch with each other through his weekly email. I believe the email group is in excess of 500 currently. This email offers news on rides, community fundraising, cycling events, cycling tips, bikes for sale and Eddie’s own reflections to nourish the soul.

Find a weekend to come and join us for a ride. I’m sure you’ll be amazed at what happens on two wheels in Bendigo. Check on moronisbikes.com.au for information on rides.

bendigo : great list of champions there BUT on beach road there is a guy awith a yellow pinarelo ... beat that !

Ridden in most of the cities nominated above - my money is on Adelaide - not just the variety of roads - hills and wineries to the east, beaches and flat fast esplanades to the west - but the atmosphere that comes from participation - Saturday morning Cobwebs, Coast to Coast, Grand Slam Series, Mutual Community Challenge. All coordinated nicely by the ever active BIKE SA.

We need to formalise this a get some kind of grading system created based on some common variables.
Roads, climbs, type of riding (Road, MTB) etc .. either way the reading this post has got me inspired to go interstate and experience some new terrain.

Adelaide for sure.............the route from Magill through to Norton Summit, to Lobethal back down the Torrens Gorge hasn't changed much since I started riding 45 years ago. However, they decided that the ride along the Torrens was too easy, so they built the Kangaroo Creek dam in 1967 and gave us a nice hill to bypass it. Magic!!

Brisbane.

1. It's warm but not too warm. In the darkest mornings of winter all you really need is a baselayer and arm warmers.
2. It's got a great cycing 'scene', with post ride cafes to rival (they don't quite beat) Melbourne.
3.. No off season. Muzz and Nundahdrome every weekend every week of the year.
4. It rained once.
5. Motivation - everyone is healthy and outside running, swimming and making you feel guilty if your not training.

6. Great rides close to the city.
7. Friendly group rides to join everymorning.

NORTHERN SYDNEY - There are lots of great bunch rides in the northern Sydney area starting near Turramurra. Bobbin head loop through national park. 3 gorges ride including Galston gorge, Berowra Waters and Bobbin Head making a fantastic 60k loop with plenty of climbing. Akuna Bay loop & West head (more national park). Head north up the old pacific highway towards Calga (90k return or 145k if you throw in a loop of mooney mooney, plenty of climbing). Of course there is Dawn Patrol every Wednesday morning leaving Roseville at 6am, heading up pacific hwy to hornsby then through bobbin head then out to the norther beaches through church point and down to manly. Lots of racing too, Northern Sydney Cycling club run crits at Beaumont Road on sundays with some other midweek crits around. Great cycling community with some large clubs in the area. Come up for a ride sometime CT there's stacks of great riding. Contact Northern Sydney Cycling Club, bunches every morning at 6:10am.

Started riding while living in Perth during the 80's, unless it has changed a LOT, one of the best cycling places anywhere.
Great hill rides, beach rides, Kings Park ( what views ) quality riders and a great cycling scene
If you are over there and need a GREAT bike shop,or need to find a bunch / ride, go see Hilton ( a top bloke) at Glenn Parker Cycles on Sterling Highway Nedlands, opposite the Rose Gardens.

Perth is still good! Most rides are loops rather than out and backs, so if riders get dropped then that is the last you see of them, that is no missing half the ride and being fresh for the sprint like you can get with Beach Rd. Chris Sutton named the Perth river loop as his favourite ride anywhere, an overstatement but it is really nice. I make sure I take anyone who comes over for my work on it as it is the best way to see the city whole city, beaches and river. Old Papas rdie on public holiday is just awesome to do too, I can't recommend this enough if you are in Perth over public holiday. The hills are very small but very accessable and easy to link up to create a good day out.

Canberra is a hole. Unfortunately I will have to move back there in 2 months.

Its one redeeming factor is that it has the best off road riding in the country, within minutes of the centre of the 'city'. The road scene is OK too, but my god the trails!

I enjoy Melbourne, but if you want good cycling tracks away from car traffic, then Perth is hard to beat. Many simply allow you to put your head down and commute.
Many of our regional cities offer the best of riding by allowing you to escape city noise, traffic and pollution. I live in Balarat and if it wasn't for the lack of traffic on rural roads, I wouldn't be on the bike again.

How about Athens, Georgia. The best there is. Jelly Belly. Jittery Joes. Boom...

Perth has one of the best bike paths that heads south alongside the Kwinana Fwy. You can ride 75km without even crossing a road.

I get to ride in Melbourne and Sydney regularly, quite often in Perth and because of the TDU, once a year in Adelaide - and I love riding in them all, each has their own special pleasure.

Sydney: on warm, bright morning coming over Old South Head Road on an eastern suburbs group ride, with the harbour left and the Pacific Ocean right makes you feel good to be alive ... drop-dead gorgeous.

Perth: fanging up and down on the tortuous twists turns around the Swan River on the Wednesday Afternoon Ride is pure exhilaration - with a view to match.

Adelaide: can't choose between dropping out of the sky down Greenhill road with Google-earth Adelaide spread out below, or the gentle rise up through scenic Gorge Road, with the winelands beckoning beyond.

Melbourne: Beach Road ... when you get tired of it, you head for the hills, but its always there, the most accommodating 20km of inner-city tarmac for cyclists anywhere in the world, with the waters of the bay as a constant companion.

The great thing that all these cities have in common, along with so many other communities in Australia, is that wherever you go, members of your tribe are there.

Adelaide. Easy. Great Coast, Hills a short distance away and not too much traffic. Great Cafe's and some Pro Tour thingy called the Tour Down Under.

Okay, I know we started talking about cities, but (prepare for post-ending nomination)... Bright.

Bright rates very high. Big fan of Apollo bay as well or anywhere on the GOR for that matter.

What about Bendigo?

Flat on one side, hills on the other. Great club racing - both track on road. Plenty of MTB trails. Very good weather for most of the year. And, pretty easy going traffic..

Sydney isn't too bad but yeah you can get squeezed off the road pretty often. I've done the CBD to Palm Beach ride and its a pretty solid 80km round trip with a good mixture of climbs and good roads - taking the back way through Narabeen past the academy of sport is definitely rewarding - big hills and beautiful bushland.

Also do the regular north bondi ride up to watsons bay - great for getting the climbing legs working

Here is a taste of Brisbane riding, 30 min form home and the same from the CBD:

[url=http://amrcycling.blogspot.com/2009/08/mt-nebo-road.html]Mt Nebo Road [/url]

Hard to beat!!!

Melbourne has many virtues as a cycling city, but the Southern Highlands of NSW is my favourite riding territory - vast numbers of challenging climbs through stunning bush and pastoral settings, quiet well-made roads and a thriving and very friendly cycling community. The Southern Highlands Cycling Club ("Go Hard or Go Home") has bunch rides that leave from Bowral most mornings, and their Sunday "Cardiac" ride with three defibrillating climbs is compelling.

Sydney has some pleasant riding through Ku-ring-gai, and out the back of Noosa is also very nice.

HOBART: for the scenery, proximity to "the countryside", hills & climate (yes I'm serious - I'm quite insulted that a Canuck would call it "cold"!) and all the sweet places for mountain biking so close to the "city"

BRISBANE: for the cycling friendly infrastructure

I spent Christmas of 2006 in Hobart. It was warmer in Calgary at this time than it was in Tassie! Still loved it though. Felt more like Christmas than melting in 40C heat.

That may have been the year we had snow on Christmas day!

The cooler weather is probably why I love it for cycling, screw cycling in 40 degrees.

I lived in Hobart for 3 years and it never got over 25 degrees the whole time I was there. It sucks! probably good for MTB if you can stand the wet and cold.

What about Perth?

I was wondering when Perth was going to wake up to see they had been omitted. Well? Are you going to make a case for Perth as the best riding city?

Damn - I remembered Perth in the map but forgot about them in the post! Well, I haven't ridden there so I would have been talking garbage anyway. It's easy to forget Perth...

give Perth a miss. Havn't ridden over east but compared to overseas its dangerous. Full of brainless drivers and some of the cyclists aren't too bright either (currently recovering from my third car vs bike incident)

If you like some hard efforts into a savage headwind then Perth would be the winner. Good for the bikeshops as all the sand about the place grinds up the running gear like no tomorrow :P

There are overseas countries that are closer than Perth !

Canberra has to win from the point of view of a cycling commuter. The bike lanes are big and the run toward the city along Adelaide avenue is fast and smooth with an awesome view of parliament house ahead of you.

Mountain bikers know what it has to offer. Majura pines, not to mention the Stromlo forest park that has just had the Worlds. Check this out- http://player.sbs.com.au/cycling#/cycling_08/ex...

On the road, there are a few groups, but it is nowhere near the scale of Melbourne in terms of numbers and cafe culture. Still the raw material is pretty awesome. There are not many cities in Australia where you can hold an event that leaves the city and does 3300m climbing in 207km on roads where you don't feel like you are going to die every 5 minutes- http://www.ocf-fitz.com/ Within the city itself, there are 3 short and brutal climbs, joined by lots of smooth, flat road.

I have lived in Melbourne for the last decade, and love the cycling here, but sometimes I long for the city I grew up in. Then I feel the need for a coffee- Melbourne is definitely the best city in Australia for coffee, hands down.

i like how darwin isn't even mentioned. haha.

Actually there is some excellent riding to be had in Darwin too. The road club is very active and the drivers up here are surprisingly courteous. We have open road races all through the dry season, crit racing every thursday night some long hard rides that end at a pub, and some tough mountain biking too.

Not much in the way of good coffee though. Plenty in the way of cold beer.

Wollongong would have to be one of the best places to ride in the country. I know it's not a cap city, but just one hour south of Sydney gives an amazing array of spectacular rides. The roads are wide, there's little traffic, and most road users are polite. The climbs are breathtaking (literally :-)) and you can get to them by heading west for generally no more than 10 minutes. At the top of every climb there are uninterrupted views across miles of ocean and sandy beaches. The scenery is world class.

Oh, and there's Macquarie Pass- a genuine category 1 climb. Sensational... it's only a small one, but if you like 10kms of climbing at 6-8% it's only down the road. Or you can head north through the national park and climb all day along an escarpment overlooking the ocean from a couple of hundred metres of elevation. I honestly don't think there's a better place to ride in all of Australia.

Rode in Brisbane recently. Did the City, Mt-Cootha, University, Yeronga loop which is apparently one of the popular rides up there. Saw literally hundreds of cyclists but thought the ride was highly overrated. Also did a ride to Redland Bay but the roads were terrible and the motorists were agro. That ride was also overrated. So based on two rides I'm sorry but if I lived in Brisbane I'd likely surf more than cycling, even if it means a 60 minute drive to the beach.

Adelaide wins the capital city stakes for me. Two years there, and loved it. The riding's great. But still nowhere near as good as the Gong.

I live in Melbourne and love riding here but Adelaide is probably the best Aussie city I have ridden in and around. You don't have to ride through the burbs for an hour to get to the good roads, the hills are just minutes away. Spectacular views, wineries and great coastal roads too. Plenty of climbing in any direction. Brilliant. Drivers are quite good too and generally respectful. Gotta watch out for the 'genius' bogans at bars and clubs though. They love their footy and they like to fight.

Gentlefolk, prithee, cast your ears toward my gentle admonishment as I administer suitable chastisement upon you, for casting from your minds eyes the most suitable candidate in determining the answer to this most vexful of questions.

I've adventured far and wide across this dusty brown land, oftimes in the search for the comfort and warmth offered by a Good Woman, and other times in that sad search for the Lord's Golden Metal, and, as I verily traversed high and low, far and wide, I noted many things in my journal.

I've considered this deeply and I happily present unto thee the answer you all seek.

I humbly submit unto you all: Downtown Alice Springs. Where else can you prance along some flat hot roads getting towed by trucks at 100km/h without worrying about the erstwhile constabulary, then walk in bare feet and Stubbies down to the BattleCruiser for 567 stubbies of the local brew of choice, VB.

I'd throw delightful Manangatang in there too, but I afear that many of you would be unable to comprehend the varying delights held in that suggestion.

As always, the pleasure has been yours
Lord Walter Mountbatten: Adventurer

I had to look Manangatang up on the map... And still not sure if I can pronounce it!

Please give us the opportunity of comprehension at least.

You've sold me. Alice Springs here I come!

How about the Nation's Capital?? Canberra has got to be one of the better places in Australia to ride both as a commuter and for weekend warrior stuff. Love it.

I have been to Canberra, Why would people even live there?????

Your comment is precisely why twoee. Those of us who love it, absolutely love it! People who don't like it (yourself included) stay the hell away which means that the place is filled with people who love living here!

I went to canberra for the Fitz's ride this year. You guys dont know how to make roads - your supposed to make them wind gently up the hills, not go straight up the steepest part!!

Great but tough ride.

I've experienced riding/racing in all States and every State have it's own "cachet". I was in Sydney last month for the WMG and I've been riding on M2. M3, M5 and M7 with no problems at all. I really liked the M7 leading towards Newcastle.

After the WMG I headed to Port Macquarie and everyday I was riding to Bonny Hills and back..what a ride..hardly any cars and so many bike riders there...most fo them triathletes. There's the Gordon Street Cycle Shop just before Port Macquarie where everyone gathers for cake and coffee (a bit like Cafe Racer).

Melbourne is still the best.

I'll post some photos next time.

Clearly Adelaide. Why else would the be holding the only non-European protour race here every year? :P
Seriously though.... as far as capital cities go I really think Adelaide has it all. Flat beach riding within 20 mins ride of the cbd, and plenty of hills within 20 mins the other side of the cbd. Oh, and there is a world class velodrome too and a couple of massive mountain biking parks!

Daniel, I'm afraid I tend to agree with you (afraid because I'm a born and raised Melburnian and returned resident). I've been lucky enough to live in Brisbane and Adelaide as well and while all three cities have fantastic riding on offer, it's the accessibility of Adelaide's varied terrain that makes it so appealing. I was living at Hillcrest and we only ever drove to ride with the MTBs. I still daydream about the ride over to Lobethal and back down Gorge Road on a regular basis. With Norton Summit times to beat, an easy warm-up ride to the Norwood CC crits (pre Vic Park), great club (hi to any PACC readers!) and best of all, track training at the Superdrome pretty much any night of the week, it's hard to beat as a total package. That's without even mentioning the TDU. Oh, but I just did...

Haha I'm a PACC member too - would I know you?? I joined about 2 years ago...

Possibly? Although Lee and I (Andy) left Adelaide almost two years ago now. I miss the hills rides and the track nights, but I don't miss getting my arse kicked by Dave Miller that's for sure...

adelaide is definitely great never ridden anywhere else so don't have an experienced opinion but living in lobethal definitely gives me some wicked rides, no easy ones so you gotta love hills, i always feel demoralised when the "pros" from town eat me on hills but when i go into town i swallow people due to the hill training its good and the cars aren't all that bad either

Clearly Melbourne. Why else would they be holding the WORLD championships here in 2010.

Wouldn't that be Geelong? Go Cats!

Starts in Melb CBD crosses the West Gate to Geelong

No Cairns??? You're missing out CT. Australia's best kept riding secret up here

You really should come up to Sydney for a week with your bike CT. It's not half as bad as you might have heard. There's actually great riding up here. You just need to know where not to go!