Bike only path in Sydney



ca6leguy

New Member
Oct 31, 2007
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I'm new to cycling and I'm getting myself a mountain bike. I'm not confident enough to cycle on the road yet as there are far to many crazy drivers in Sydney. I know about the Sydney Olympic Park and the Centenial Park but I'm also looking for some in the Hills area near where I live. Is there a good map that shows all the available bike only path in Sydney?
 
ca6leguy said:
I'm new to cycling and I'm getting myself a mountain bike. I'm not confident enough to cycle on the road yet as there are far to many crazy drivers in Sydney. I know about the Sydney Olympic Park and the Centenial Park but I'm also looking for some in the Hills area near where I live. Is there a good map that shows all the available bike only path in Sydney?
The RTA has downloadable maps which are quite reasonable. From the Hills district you should take a look at the M7.

//k
 
ca6leguy said:
Thanks for that. The M7 cyclepath looks good. Which access point do you recommend. ie a place where I can park my car.
I'll leave this to someone else - I live at Georges Hall which is about 15k from the Southern end of the M7 - I don't know the northern end well enough to know what's the best entry for where you are.

I'm sure someone else will chip in with advice.

/k
 
I don't think there's any bike only paths in Sydney. You'll always find pedestrians on them.
 
ca6leguy said:
Thanks for that. The M7 cyclepath looks good. Which access point do you recommend. ie a place where I can park my car. I also found this posted on bikely. http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Bike-Paths-Only-Winston-Hills-Crestwood-loop Has anyone tried this route?

Have a look at the M7 phamplet at http://www.westlinkm7.com.au/documents/brochures/Westlink_Cycleway_Pamphlet.pdf

Access no 61 Gavin Pl Kings Langly has a big park and lots of on street parking. The M7 is a great bike facility with 40km of no cars and no intersectons, but there are some pedestrians and some tight corners.
 
There is also the Roxborough Park Rd path near Baulkham Hills Pool which takes you through to the toongabbie cycleway which will flick you near the end of M2... just go up Tway Windsor Rd cycleway onto M7 from there.

Happy to show you if you're confused on what talking about.
 
scotty72 said:
The Harbour Bridge is about it.

Scotty
Unfortunately I have seen pedestrians using the cycleway on the bridge during my commute; including one group of three walking side by side. Very annoying!:mad:
Security eventually ushered them off.
 
sogood said:
I don't think there's any bike only paths in Sydney. You'll always find pedestrians on them.
Sorry, what I meant was bike and pedestrain shared path.
 
robalert said:
There is also the Roxborough Park Rd path near Baulkham Hills Pool which takes you through to the toongabbie cycleway which will flick you near the end of M2... just go up Tway Windsor Rd cycleway onto M7 from there.

Happy to show you if you're confused on what talking about.
Is this what you are taking about? The track goes through the bush. How's the quality of the track? I could actually do a loop from Roxborough Park Rd down to Seven Hills Rd then up to Merindah Rd, Creswood, Delaney Dr, then down Windsor Rd to the start point. Is this a pedestrain path only or shared path?

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Bike-Paths-Only-Winston-Hills-Crestwood-loop
 
So many bike paths in Canberra, I am spoilt for choice!

Anyway ... have you considered going along to some of the weekend group rides? Bikenorth has many organized rides on the weekend, and its a good introduction to riding in a group, getting to know popular riding routes (as they are generally relatively safe), and building up confidence riding on the roads.

M7 is very safe, but its pretty boring. Having said that I knew someone who went and did 50 laps of parramatta park.
 
there is a bike only path around Wolli Creek area, near the park just opposite the train station. unfortunately, it just a short bike only path for about 5KM, when it connect to the Botany Bay, you have to either choose to cycle on the share path with pedestrians or on the road.:(
 
The Cooks river bike path takes you all the way to Captain Cook bridge and then you can ride a reasonably good route all the way to Kernell.
 
Congratulations on taking the first step! You'll quickly find it fun, enjoyable and quite addictive. It's a great low-impact way to get fit. :D For starting out you're wise to ride off road until you get used to gear selection, braking and turning, and judging braking and closing distances.

Once you've got these basic skills automated after a month or two and you're riding a bit faster, you'll probably find like I did that it's actually a lot less nerve-wracking riding on the road, even when there is traffic.

The trick is reasonably simple. If you're licenced and used to driving in traffic, just ride your bike the same way: occupy the lane, ride defensively of course, but be assertive and above all predictable.

The little issue I have with bike paths is the pedestrians who co-use them seem to have bovine spongiform encephalitis. They wander unpredictably like Brown's Cows and your arrival is uniformly greeted with surprise.

You'll be perfectly fine using these paths to ride on while you establish your skills, so long as you use your judgement around other users and assume that they're likely to do the thing you least expect.

Oh, one last thing: enjoy yourself.

That's an order! :D