Rhino-x said:
Sigh......."informed' by management that I am to be relocated to Brisbane....
Need some cheering up, so what training rides am I up for, what is the local road and mtb racing scene like, what are the clubs to join, what are the best bike stores.
AND if your really nice, can you please tell me the best suburb to be living in to ride....I hear Toowong is the place?
Thats dedication, asking waht suburb to live in to ride bikes....BRILLIANT.
Don't worry Rhino, Brisbane is a pretty good place for riding and the weather is much better than melbourne.
Check out the archives for BNE or brisbane you should be able to get a good idea.
Andrew von Berky's site:
www.members.optusnet.com.au/vonberky
is the duck's guts for local races,training rides, and club links etc.
The Toowong area would be good, it's close to the city via a bikeway, close to where a lot of training rides start (Milton/South Brisbane/West End) and within easy riding distance of some good mountain biking areas. It depends on where you are working as well I guess. Anywhere within a 10km radius of the city would be ok.
The common training rides on the northern suburbs are the river loop (about 40km around the river suburbs), the airport, the northern bay suburbs like Sangate & Redcliffe, and the mountains Mt Nebo,Mt Glorious & Mt Mee. Southern side of the city it's the bay suburbs like Cleveland, Wynnum, the Brisbane Sea Port, Carbrook Redland Bay/Mt Cotton.
Clubs wise, there are too many I reckon, a lot who don't really do much except put on maybe one event a year. The club a couple of us on here are with is HPRW ( www.hamiltonwheelers.com ) pretty friendly and has a really good road racing season, which is good if you like hills and get bored going round and round crit tracks. Abby and a few others are with Balmoral.
if you're a trackie there are 'dromes at Chandler and Caboolture.
Bike stores, I can't really think of a bad one, it depends on what you are after and everyone will have good and bad experiences. Close to the city, you've got Velo at the Grange - a good store for hardcore roadies, Victors in the CBD are good, as are Planet bikes at the gabba.
Don't know much about the mtb racing scene only done the epic a couple of times, but check out www.mtbdirt.com.au. Maybe Lotte and Paulie can fill you in on that.
Adam