RR's: Perth riding

[MikeyOz]

Well... been over here working for 2 weeks and decided to rent a bike this time and try to get out for some riding.... First ride was last saturday, found a ride starting @ 6am from Barrack St, had hired a Avanti Kona Pro series from All About Bike Hire (Excellent people!!), so im waiting for people to rock up, and a few start to turn up, Aero Bars, Carbon Kestrels, hmmmmm this could be interesting I have 1 water bottle and some jelly babies..... about 10 guys rocked up all Ironman competitors in at least 3 events! ohhh man... one of them the brother of Oliver Bernard, Swiss Ironman champion and 2 guys just back from Hawaii...... but turned out to be a fantastic ride, down to Wei Ki Ki, Rockingham for top up food and back via Fremantle, Cottsloe etc

But yesterdays ride was much better, weather looked a bit dodgy, but still 6 turned up for perfect weather, for a ride out to the hills to Kalamunda, a nice 10km climb up, and I am pumping my heavy aluminium steed up the hills, dreaming of doing it again on my Carbon baby, resting back home... oh well.... still a fantastic climb up, a few nice descents and some more nice ups, until we reach Kalamunda and Jam donut time at the Brumbys bakery. In that Brumbys the people actually greet you with, "Welcome to Brumbys. How may I help you ?" I was stunned for about 5 seconds.

Back on the bikes and a burn down the hills, I think I remember seeing Canning Hwy and also Welshpool road, and I finished back at Barrack St, it was a sensational ride, great hills, scenery and a great bunch of guys to ride with..... never heard so much jibbing, mockery, put downs and general fun on a ride in all my rides, pick up some good tips for my next up-coming half Ironman as well.

Also managed to fit in a Narrows bridge, Thursday morning ride, had a quick Hello to Byron, took me by surprise, but by that stage, I was doing my hardest to keep that heavy bike going forward, amazing the difference a bike makes, very much looking forward to getting back and riding my bike again, going to be amazing!

So great rides, great people and so glad I decided to hire a bike and get out for some rides this time.

All About Bike Hire (near the causeway behind the Hyatt, operating out of a shipping container) fantastic service, highly recommend them.

Almost, going to be a shame to head back to Melbourne.

 

[Dave]

MikeyOz wrote of his riding in Perth:

>........, for a ride out to the hills to
> Kalamunda, a nice 10km climb up, and I am pumping my heavy aluminium
> steed up the hills, dreaming of doing it again on my Carbon baby,
> resting back home... oh well.... still a fantastic climb up, a few nice
> descents and some more nice ups, until we reach Kalamunda and Jam donut
> time at the Brumbys bakery. In that Brumbys the people actually greet
> you with, "Welcome to Brumbys. How may I help you ?" I was stunned for
> about 5 seconds.

Yes Big fan of that Brumby's. Full of Goodness.
Since when is Kalamunda a 10km climb? Between 3 or 4 klicks up
Kalamunda Rd & about the same for Lesmurdie hill.

Perhaps going up the Great Eastern Highway and cutting across is
longer?

Cheers,
Dave - newish to Perth

 

[Dave]

MikeyOz wrote of his riding in Perth:

>........, for a ride out to the hills to
> Kalamunda, a nice 10km climb up, and I am pumping my heavy aluminium
> steed up the hills, dreaming of doing it again on my Carbon baby,
> resting back home... oh well.... still a fantastic climb up, a few nice
> descents and some more nice ups, until we reach Kalamunda and Jam donut
> time at the Brumbys bakery. In that Brumbys the people actually greet
> you with, "Welcome to Brumbys. How may I help you ?" I was stunned for
> about 5 seconds.

Yes Big fan of that Brumby's. Full of Goodness.
Since when is Kalamunda a 10km climb? Between 3 or 4 klicks up
Kalamunda Rd & about the same for Lesmurdie hill.

Perhaps going up the Great Eastern Highway and cutting across is
longer?

Cheers,
Dave - newish to Perth

 

[MikeyOz]

MikeyOz wrote of his riding in Perth:

>........, for a ride out to the hills to
> Kalamunda, a nice 10km climb up, and I am pumping my heavy aluminium
> steed up the hills, dreaming of doing it again on my Carbon baby,
> resting back home... oh well.... still a fantastic climb up, a few nice
> descents and some more nice ups, until we reach Kalamunda and Jam donut
> time at the Brumbys bakery. In that Brumbys the people actually greet
> you with, "Welcome to Brumbys. How may I help you ?" I was stunned for
> about 5 seconds.

Yes Big fan of that Brumby's. Full of Goodness.
Since when is Kalamunda a 10km climb? Between 3 or 4 klicks up
Kalamunda Rd & about the same for Lesmurdie hill.

Perhaps going up the Great Eastern Highway and cutting across is
longer?

Cheers,
Dave - newish to Perth

well seen as I really had no idea where in the hell I was going, hard for me to say, but I asked while we were doing the climb, how far was it and they said about 10km. I think you got me a bit confused though, we did not ride up into Kalamunda, we rode up through another road, nowhere near Kalamunda, it was into a national park, after doing that climb and then riding for a while longer, we came to a mobil service station where we turned right and it was a 18km stretch to Kalamunda from there, I just said we rode up to Kalamunda because that is where we stopped, all I know it was a great ride, sorry I cant come up with more names for you, the only thing they did say it was the old "raffles hotel ride, started by a few triathletes quite a number of years ago" I will do some map searching a see if I can find some names I recognized, maybe Byron might have a bit more of an idea.

the 3-4 km bit you mean, would be the descent we did out of Kalamunda, that was a nice descent....

 

[MikeyOz]

well seen as I really had no idea where in the hell I was going, hard for me to say, but I asked while we were doing the climb, how far was it and they said about 10km. I think you got me a bit confused though, we did not ride up into Kalamunda, we rode up through another road, nowhere near Kalamunda, it was into a national park, after doing that climb and then riding for a while longer, we came to a mobil service station where we turned right and it was a 18km stretch to Kalamunda from there, I just said we rode up to Kalamunda because that is where we stopped, all I know it was a great ride, sorry I cant come up with more names for you, the only thing they did say it was the old "raffles hotel ride, started by a few triathletes quite a number of years ago" I will do some map searching a see if I can find some names I recognized, maybe Byron might have a bit more of an idea.

the 3-4 km bit you mean, would be the descent we did out of Kalamunda, that was a nice descent....

I had a brain flash...... I remember we rode past some other rides, who asked if we were heading out via Albany Fwy/Hwy and the guys leading said yes... so im pretty sure we climbed up that road and then at the top we turned left into the national park.... all very hazy from there.

 

[DD]

MikeyOz wrote:

> I had a brain flash...... I remember we rode past some other rides,
> who asked if we were heading out via Albany Fwy/Hwy and the guys
> leading said yes... so im pretty sure we climbed up that road and then
> at the top we turned left into the national park.... all very hazy from
> there.
>
>

They've changed the ride a bit but I used to call it the Tri-brooks Tour
as the rider was full of triathletes and rode through three brooks. They
started at the Raffles Hotel and headed out to Armadale, up the Albany
Hwy then turned into Churchmans Brook (some rides kept going up the
highway and through Canning Dam) across to the Brookton Hwy, left up
Canning Rd to Pickering Brook then out to Piesse Brook and up a short
twisty climb into Kalamunda the back way. After pastries somewhere (some
riders headed to the Le Brest Paris patisserie in Gooseberry Hill for
the extra large coffees) they'd exit via Welshpool Rd and back into Perth.
I also remember that they were polite riders and everyone got a chance
to group up again after the bigger climbs. They could also fly along
Welshpool Rd after all those hills.

 

[MikeyOz]

MikeyOz wrote:

> I had a brain flash...... I remember we rode past some other rides,
> who asked if we were heading out via Albany Fwy/Hwy and the guys
> leading said yes... so im pretty sure we climbed up that road and then
> at the top we turned left into the national park.... all very hazy from
> there.
>
>

They've changed the ride a bit but I used to call it the Tri-brooks Tour
as the rider was full of triathletes and rode through three brooks. They
started at the Raffles Hotel and headed out to Armadale, up the Albany
Hwy then turned into Churchmans Brook (some rides kept going up the
highway and through Canning Dam) across to the Brookton Hwy, left up
Canning Rd to Pickering Brook then out to Piesse Brook and up a short
twisty climb into Kalamunda the back way. After pastries somewhere (some
riders headed to the Le Brest Paris patisserie in Gooseberry Hill for
the extra large coffees) they'd exit via Welshpool Rd and back into Perth.
I also remember that they were polite riders and everyone got a chance
to group up again after the bigger climbs. They could also fly along
Welshpool Rd after all those hills.

thats the one... and yeah it was a very quick stint back to Perth from Kalamunda, was struggling a bit on my hire bike, but managed to just stick with them..... absoluetely the best ride I have done while I have had the bike over here.....

 

[byron27]

Well... been over here working for 2 weeks and decided to rent a bike this time and try to get out for some riding.... First ride was last saturday, found a ride starting @ 6am from Barrack St, had hired a Avanti Kona Pro series from All About Bike Hire (Excellent people!!), so im waiting for people to rock up, and a few start to turn up, Aero Bars, Carbon Kestrels, hmmmmm this could be interesting I have 1 water bottle and some jelly babies..... about 10 guys rocked up all Ironman competitors in at least 3 events! ohhh man... one of them the brother of Oliver Bernard, Swiss Ironman champion and 2 guys just back from Hawaii...... but turned out to be a fantastic ride, down to Wei Ki Ki, Rockingham for top up food and back via Fremantle, Cottsloe etc

But yesterdays ride was much better, weather looked a bit dodgy, but still 6 turned up for perfect weather, for a ride out to the hills to Kalamunda, a nice 10km climb up, and I am pumping my heavy aluminium steed up the hills, dreaming of doing it again on my Carbon baby, resting back home... oh well.... still a fantastic climb up, a few nice descents and some more nice ups, until we reach Kalamunda and Jam donut time at the Brumbys bakery. In that Brumbys the people actually greet you with, "Welcome to Brumbys. How may I help you ?" I was stunned for about 5 seconds.

Back on the bikes and a burn down the hills, I think I remember seeing Canning Hwy and also Welshpool road, and I finished back at Barrack St, it was a sensational ride, great hills, scenery and a great bunch of guys to ride with..... never heard so much jibbing, mockery, put downs and general fun on a ride in all my rides, pick up some good tips for my next up-coming half Ironman as well.

Also managed to fit in a Narrows bridge, Thursday morning ride, had a quick Hello to Byron, took me by surprise, but by that stage, I was doing my hardest to keep that heavy bike going forward, amazing the difference a bike makes, very much looking forward to getting back and riding my bike again, going to be amazing!

So great rides, great people and so glad I decided to hire a bike and get out for some rides this time.

All About Bike Hire (near the causeway behind the Hyatt, operating out of a shipping container) fantastic service, highly recommend them.

Almost, going to be a shame to head back to Melbourne.

Good to hear you enjoyed yourself!

Last Thursday's ride was a good one. Big bunch, good weather, good pace. Actually make that bloody good pace! All i wanted to do was sit in.......

Would have been great for you to do papas on the weekend, thats always good for a laugh.

Good to hear you enjoyed the hills though. I haven't been up there for a while and miss dropping into brumbies in kalamunda for my apricot scroll(s).