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New Ride category - City HotSpots
I'm new around here, but let me know what you think of this...
We can't always get to one of those sweet locations (like Manly) as often as we would all like. If you're like me I like to ride a couple of nights a week after work. After all it is Daylight savings and a great way to keep fit for those epic weekend rides.
I live in Chatswood and the idea of riding on the road (BORING) just isn't that appealing. So about two months ago I opened google earth and started looking for green patches/parks in my area. After getting a rough idea of where they were I jumped on my bike and went exploring.
I was amazed at how many little hot spots I discovered... everything from challenging downhill sections with nice rocks to drop off to HUGE rolling grass jumps not for the faint hearted and everything in between. I started plotting them with my GPS and taking photos. Over the last two months I have been slowly refining the circuit as I find new hot spots and I think I've got it just about perfect. An 11km circuit that leaves you grinning from ear to ear and your legs burning from the workout.
Anyhow my idea is to record all those little secret hot spots around Sydney so that if you have a spare hour or two you can jump on your bike and ride the local ones. Or if you are keen to exploring further afield you can check out the hot spots in surrounding suburbs.
Anyhow let me know what you think...
Baxide
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That may not have come out correctly... but what I mean is since an mtb can pretty much tackle anything you're inclined to ride, then all of us should just pretend we're kids again and get out there and ride anywhere you like, as long as it's legal.
I think it's a great idea what you're doing, for what it represents. I know a lot of people don't ride their bikes other than off the road on the usual trails, and I think that's a real shame. Just exploring in your local area you're bound to find things to ride in parks and the like that you can launch off etc. and you don't have to be out on the trails to practice a lot of cool stuff.
Just turn the box off, chuck the car keys away and get out there and ride people ;@)
Hey - mapping of these spots sounds like a top idea... so long as they are legal of course! Be sure to check out a topo map to make sure the land is crown/NP/public/etc. If you don't have topo maps of the area one can view them electronically on the Lands NSW SIX portal. Actually, that site is very cool and has very detailed aerial photos of most of Sydney too.
When you find an area and feel like sharing would love to hear, you can create a report with the add ride story page. After moderation these appear automatically in the rides page.
Well Bax, whenever you want to take the lead and invite us along to your improvised city trail, just drop us the line. Maybe best for a new forum topic though.
And let me know if any armour is required on the ride, in order to do any jumps and stuff. But it does sound like cool fun to me.
We are waiting! : )
Your welcome to come along if you like... but probably best to let me put together a proper ride profile and organise it a bit better. Armour is not essential... but there is some sections where I can see it's benefits. I never wear armour, but I ain't that crazy though.
Thanks Baxside. I still think I would be wearing leg and elbow armour, just to be on the safe side.
Let me know when you would go out for a weekend ride then. I'll be in that.
Interesting thread. I presume your more refering to riding reserves, parks & whatnot around the burbs/city and not "street"? I've been riding urban/street for a while (now on my new street MTB) and i find its an absolute blast! Its like being a kid again. Probably not quite what you guys were refering to though as it involves more pavement and concrete than dirt and grass, but anyway its a great skills & fitness building exercise. It means i can ride after work during the week (this time of year at least) along with offroad on the weekends. Can't complain about that! There are also literally unlimited places to ride/muck around in the urban and city jungle.
Cheers,
Hey Baxide,
That's a solid idea.
I'm in Wollstonecraft and keen to find exactly this sort of riding. I have some small local spots but nothing amazing.
Would be interested in reading through your ride write-up...
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Demonine
05 Demo 9
Hi there,
sounds like great fun! I am in Randwick so I have only explored the area here and done some riding near the airport which was great fun.
. -I haven't learned how to get up the obstacles yet but down works fine
Lot's of stairs
If you want to do a ride sometime on a weekend, like Liam said, sounds great!
Caro
Will,
I would still be keen for you to come along irrespective of what type of riding we do. If we were able to fit in some basic trial stuff and some tricks, I would be a keen listener to whatever info you could pass along to the group.
After all, this stuff isn't just useful on the street. You would still use it out in the bush - particularly single trails where bike manoeuverability is at a premium. It's all good.
Cheers mate.
Ok I have added a ride profile but I have a few of problems...
1, No idea how to upload my google earth kmz file
2, I notice some of your rides have nice pictures added to the google earth link, how do you do that... I'm such a noob at this...
3, I blew my 1 meg size photo limit... any chance of an increase? I have another 5 photos to upload ideally I want to add these to the google earth link.
Please help...
Great stuff - moderated the ride write up - sounds good.
Sorry - we really should have stuff explaining more about how things work. The idea is to place the pictures in photo gallery, with the add image content type. This works well because it places them in a gallery (guess you'd put yours in 'Sydney' for now) and also makes thumbnails and preview size shots.
Then, at the mo KMZ files have to be added manually, can you please email it to me (address is on the profile).
What do you mean about photos in KMZ? You mean adding the little photo icons which show the picture at that location when clicked? Ah - you have to put some HTML in the placemark description... if you want to put 'pins' with the photo name around the KMZ I can sort that for you also.
Sorry about the first part, if you can just put those pictures in the gallery I'll also add links to them from the ride write up.
Thanks again for the work
Great stuff Bax, good explanations. That will be a nice "ride" link once the photos get up there.
So. The sooner you get the availability to go again, you let me know and I am there. Post a topic when you can.
Waiting patiently... Liam.
I checked the 'top' end of the Flat Rock Gully park out on Saturday morning as it's close to home. This is the section between Brooks St and Willoughby Rd, also known as Hallstrom Park/reserve and is adjacent to the Willoughby Leisure centre.
Although there are plenty of rock ledges and drop-offs around the kids playground, that's probably not kosher if the park is busy
There were lots of little league baseball games on too, so I didn't try the grassy jumps Baxide mentioned, they looked like fun.
Further down under the Brooks St underpass there were some interesting sections of single track, though lots of early morning joggers so *take care* with speed as the tracks are narrow and twisty limiting visibility. I didn't go far down these trails.
I spoke to a chap while at the park and he mentioned that there was a link between this park and Artarmon Reserve, through all the way to Chatswood. Didn't check this out as it was time to head for home.
On the return journey I found a nice (though short) section of trail running along the eastern side of the rail line to St Leonards and through Tallus Reserve.
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Demonine
05 Demo 9
I am still interested in checking out this ride and learning some new skills. Are you interested in doing this ride this Sunday 4th? Preferably the morning? Please post your availability. Cheers.
Bump