Beach road in the late afternoon / evening

crazney

A friend of mine wants to get into cycling a bit, and is actually keen to come along on tour with me..

Anyhow, I figured it would be prudent to take him on at least 1 100km+ ride before we go, so I'm thinking Beach road down to Frankston..

However, because of timing, we can't get out of the city until about 4:30pm on Tuesday. Does anyone know what Beach road is like at this time? We'll be going fairly slow - cause he is new and I'll be training with at least two (heavy) panniers, so it's likely we'll be turning back around 7ish, hopefully getting to Brighton on the way back by 8:30 so we can hit the bike path before it gets too dark.

So, what's the traffic like? I guess we'll have to deal with peak hour, which will suck..

Cheers

David

Marx SS

4:30pm+ from St Kilda to Frankston will suck badly.
Especally that bit through Brighton with no bike lane.

I would suggest the weekend maybe at that time, but it looks like you're only looking at one ride on Tuesday evening so I suppose you;re not intrested in looked at riding other times.

I must admit, St Kilda to Frankston is pretty dead flat, almost like riding a trainer if there's no wind. It's pretty popular I know, but it's not the stuff that makes turning the crank an experience.

crazney

Marx,

Thanks for the advice..

I'm actually going on tour on Saturday, and don't have any other free days.. And I desperately need to test this guys fitness before I feel happy with him tagging along on part of the tour, ya know . Well I also need to give him an idea of what riding 100km+ is like.

I might try and get someone to fill in for me on tuesday arvo and then we can go around midday, which would be nicer.

It's popular because it's a fairly long stretch without having to worry too much about insane traffic and lights and all that. Also nice views .

Shame he isn't here today, think I might head down there now for a quick ride.

David.

531Aussie

The traffic doesn't really hot up 'til after 5:00pm.

Many people (me included), during busy times, take a left up either Glen Huntly Rd, or anywhere around there, and get onto New St, which goes all the way down to the beach. This means you bypass the "nasties" between Glen Huntly Rd and South Rd.

The next couple of kms are 'reasonable', especially if you're there before 5:30pm, then once you get past Bay Rd in Sandringham, peak hour parking restrictions end, so the occasional parked car means the traffic is mostly forced out of the left lane.

If you take a left once you pass Mordialloc, you get about 8km of bike lane on Station St.

During peak hour, the remaining 8km to Frankston is a bit dicey, but coming back is a breeze.

HANG ON!!! It's less than 40km from St Kilda to Frankston!!