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Help - where can I ride with a 'roadie'?
OK - I don't need to hear about how I'm lowering my standards or something by riding with a roadie or wasting my time or whatever! What I need is to be told where we can go for a decent-length cycle-path ride?? Something we can do for a few hours which is a pleasant area to ride and maybe somewhere to stop for food/drinks etc. Can anyone suggest anywhere? Happy to do a drive to get somewhere but I live in Mona Vale...so probably an hour drive max to go where we wanna ride.
The other option is to rent him an off-road bike but I have tried a couple of stores and not having much luck...more suggestions? (Will work on getting him to buy a decent bike..ha, ha. He has one of those high performance ittybitty tyres racing road bikes, so really, no bumps are friendly).
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It is a good way to get the miles in, improve your fitness and maintain a good cadence.
There are lots of road rides around Mona Vale/St Ives but none that I know of that are on cycle paths. You did mention cycle paths (and not main roads like Mona Vale Road) in your original post.
For route suggestions, check out
http://www.bikenorth.org.au/cycling/rides/calend...
And if you did mean real roads then the hills near Akuna Bay and Church Point are fantastic.
Yes, I know Akuna bay/Church Point but I currently have to avoid mammoth hills due to a back injury...and Mona Vale road is not all that pleasant with the amount of traffic. I want to avoid busy roads because I don't have a death wish. I checked out that site, thanks - I may try the Hornsby to Pie in the Sky on the Old Pacific Hwy.
The westlink M7 has a cycle path it makes for a nice long flat round trip of 80k without cars.
www.westlinkm7.com.au
If you don't mind dodging pedestrians, the Cooks River Cycleway is OK. Start at Homebush (or even Parramatta) and ride to Brighton Le Sands for Ice Cream, Cronulla for fish and chips or even Kurnell for a bit of history and return.
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~dnoble/rides/Cook...
For shorter trips there's plenty of cyclepaths around Homebush to spend a couple of hours pootling around. There's also a path around Iron Cove (~8km) and of course there is always Centennial Park.
Sorry to hear about your back injury soon. Get well soon so you can do hills!
Mona Vale Road is OK early in the morning. Well, once you get past the St Ives shops anyway. And there is safety in numbers.
The Hornsby to the Pie in the Sky ride is a pleasant ride. Doable in a big roadie ring. Just remember to turn right into the Pie in the Sky instead of descending into Brooklyn if you want to avoid hills.
It may not get your partners heart ticking but it fits the bill for everything you want.
Hornsby to Pie is a very nice ride if you have confidence on the road. Not a lot of traffic but what is there is normally fast and very close. Plenty of motor bikes too which use all the road. The cycle lane in that area isn't all that wide for most parts so not really idea for socialising, and there are hills, not all that big but some can be steep.
I would suggest you go to the Homebush bay website and have a look, lots and lots of dedicated cycle ways as well as lots of wide roads so you can venture onto them to build up confidence for other more adventurous journeys in the future.
Either way, just remember to ride on the gutter side and let someone else ride outside of you.
Stuart