RIDE BRISBBANE TO SYDNEY

tvjw
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RIDE BRISBBANE TO SYDNEY

Postby tvjw » Tue Jun 16, 2009 5:37 pm

Hi,

My sister and i are going to ride from Brisbane to Sydney for charity. We are wondering what is the best way to get down to Sydney from Brisbane. We both have road bikes and are currently training so we can ride down in the September school hols.

Please reply with any help

Thanks

Jack

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elantra
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Re: RIDE BRISBBANE TO SYDNEY

Postby elantra » Tue Jun 16, 2009 11:15 pm

Hi Jack.

Have not done it myself but it has been a vague ambition of mine for almost 30 yrs.
About 20 yr ago a book was published, Pacific Bicycle Route
However since then some of the roads on this route might have changed, possibly for the worse
And in that time the Pacific HWY has been massively upgraded, but i doubt if it is safe to cycle on, let alone pleasant.
I stumbled across this website recently,
Wellsy's and Greg's cycling adventure
They have a recent and comprehensive description of their route in the opposite direction
Good luck, and in september watch out for magpies :evil: and perhaps even snakes :?:
My preference would probably be to put 700x28 or 35 tyres on and do some of the distance on less-trafficked but unsealed roads.

Dial
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Re: RIDE BRISBBANE TO SYDNEY

Postby Dial » Tue Jun 16, 2009 11:52 pm

I'd go the New England Highway, It's longer but flatter and the motorists out that way aren't in such a hurry.

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goneriding
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Re: RIDE BRISBBANE TO SYDNEY

Postby goneriding » Wed Jun 17, 2009 8:55 am

New England Highway has a big hill at the beginning/end of it. Near Stanthorpe?
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drubie
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Re: RIDE BRISBBANE TO SYDNEY

Postby drubie » Wed Jun 17, 2009 9:37 am

New England highway - I don't think there are any worse hills on it than the Pacific highway (maybe the Moombies near Tamworth and the steeper parts of it between Glen Innes and Tenterfield) - it's the trucks and the totally missing shoulder I would worry about. The local club uses a section of it between Uralla and Armidale on the regular sunday training ride and the trucks are lethal, even on that bit of highway which is relatively open, well maintained and has a substantial shoulder.

It gets much worse the closer you get to the QLD border too. I'm not saying I wouldn't use it, just that I think there are far longer stretches of dual lane highway on the Pacific route that might make for a more comfortable trip.

Plus the magpies up here are the size of wedge tailed eagles, are zombified and have a thirst for human brainzzzzzzz....

(OK, I exaggerated the last bit)
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elantra
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Re: RIDE BRISBBANE TO SYDNEY

Postby elantra » Wed Jun 17, 2009 11:16 am

drubie wrote:New England highway - I don't think there are any worse hills on it than the Pacific highway (maybe the Moombies near Tamworth and the steeper parts of it between Glen Innes and Tenterfield) - it's the trucks and the totally missing shoulder I would worry about. The local club uses a section of it between Uralla and Armidale on the regular sunday training ride and the trucks are lethal, even on that bit of highway which is relatively open, well maintained and has a substantial shoulder.

It gets much worse the closer you get to the QLD border too. I'm not saying I wouldn't use it, just that I think there are far longer stretches of dual lane highway on the Pacific route that might make for a more comfortable trip.

Plus the magpies up here are the size of wedge tailed eagles, are zombified and have a thirst for human brainzzzzzzz....

(OK, I exaggerated the last bit)
You can get from Brissie to Tenterfield on secondary roads with few if any trucks. Need some local knowledge and some of these roads are unsealed but usually "reasonable" quality - unless it rained a lot or had a recent grader over it, which sometimes leaves a lot of annoying rocks or gravel on the surface.
But i am not aware of any good alternatives to the HWY between Tenterfield and Uralla.
From Uralla you could cut back to the coast on "Thunderbolts Way". I doubt if there would be many trucks on it, and even if there were it is mostly downhill and most of it you would be flying or braking or both.

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justD
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Re: RIDE BRISBBANE TO SYDNEY

Postby justD » Wed Jun 17, 2009 12:31 pm

I'm doing it in the opposite direction in August or September, but I'll stick to the Pacific Highway - also for charity.

Where's il padrone? I think he's done the route previously.

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Re: RIDE BRISBBANE TO SYDNEY

Postby butty » Thu Jun 18, 2009 10:30 am

Hi

I did it the other way too as part of an around Oz trip in 2006.

I caught the ferry to Manly and then cycled up to Palm Beach where I then caught the ferry to Ettalong. I then carried on up the coast road to the east of Lake Macquarie (The Entrance, Swansea) to Newcastle where I took the little ferry trip across to Stockton. Then on to Nelson Bay, Hawks Nest, Mango Brush road and up to Buladelah on the Pacific Hwy. All of this was a beautiful ride.

From then on it was a pretty easy ride up the Pacific Hwy, turning off at Tweed Heads to take the coast road past Surfer's Paradise to Southport and then back inland a little bit to find a way into Brisbane- this was the worst part, not being able to take a bike on the Hwy into Brisbane. You will probably know all the bike routes around Brizzy though so should be OK.

Enjoy!

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il padrone
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Re: RIDE BRISBBANE TO SYDNEY

Postby il padrone » Thu Jun 18, 2009 7:38 pm

justD wrote:I'm doing it in the opposite direction in August or September, but I'll stick to the Pacific Highway - also for charity.

Where's il padrone? I think he's done the route previously.
Hey there! Been very busy, heavy workload. Better now.

Yes I rode from Sydney to Qld then back to Murwillumbah and used lovely country roads. Only cycled ~30kms on the Pacific Hwy (that was more than enough)

The route is here... then here.... damn bikely has decided it won't play with my routes :evil:

Well the route was basically Sydney - Manly - Palm Beach - Patonga - Umina Beach - Terrigal - The Entrance - Budgewoi - Freemans Waterhole to Maitland - Dungog - Gloucester - Wingham - Comboyne - Laurieton - Port Maquarie - ferry over to North Shore - Point Plomer/Crescent Head - Kempsey - Stuarts Point - Scotts Head - Macksville - Bellingen - backroads to Sawtell & Coffs Harbour, then took the Summerland Way north via Cusino :roll: , Grafton & Kyogle to the Mt Lindsay Hwy to cross the border and ride into Qld at Rathdowney. Mostly low-moderate traffic and very enjoyable scenery.
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paulsmithnt
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Re: RIDE BRISBBANE TO SYDNEY

Postby paulsmithnt » Sat Jul 28, 2018 2:19 pm

None of this is of much current use, but felt I just had to brag.

I found 'Pacific Bicycle Route' in Paddy Palin's in Katoomba in 1978 (give or take a year) and decided to do it. Our son was 11 and daughter 8 at the time. He had a $180 Repco Tracer and I had a more sophisticated MTB model ($1500 worth I think, but cannot remember the brand). We bought a $500 tandem with MTB wheels and that weighed about a tonne. But it was amazingly comfortable and very fast downhill. Our daughter was consigned to the back seat of the tandem and my wife, our son and I switched around from the Repco (a real bottom breaker as you can imagine) to the front of the tandem to the good MTB.

We bussed to Brisbane (we were living in the Blue Mountains), spent the week before Christmas cycling round locally (and going to our first ever Sizzler) and set out on Boxing Day. As we crossed the Storey Bridge people would ask our destination and when we replied 'Sydney' they would nearly fall over.

Out to Ipswich, to Boonah, to Rathdowney and up the Lions Road to the NSW border (seemed really steep then, but have driven up since, and guess what - it was really easy).

Camped up the top there somewhere (this had taken about 3 days or so to reach), didn't put up our tents because it was lovely and sunny, but as you might expect, it began to rain about midnight. When we woke it was misty and some cows were standing round looking at us as though we were crazy.

Next night we treated ourselves to a night in a pub in Casino and dried our stuff out.

And so on. It was mostly reasonably cool for Dec/Jan, except for some really hot (40+) days down around Dungog/Gloucester way.

The next year we cycled on Yorke peninsular onto the Barossa and Adelaide Hills. But the tandem was sold and my wife and my daughter got their own bikes. Our daughter's comment was:

"Dad, do you know what it's like to have umpteen people say: 'The one on the back's not pushing' all the way from Brisbane to Sydney and also to have Robert (her brother) put his feet on the handle bars and tell me to 'push' when you weren't looking?"

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Re: RIDE BRISBBANE TO SYDNEY

Postby GregLR » Mon Jul 30, 2018 3:41 pm

As well as the suggestions by other posters, the detailed mapping provided on the NSW Coastal Cycle Trail site ('nswcoastcycle.com') would also be helpful. It says this on the home page: "Where possible, cycle paths and rail trails have been incorporated along the route. Our aim has been to get you away from the busy highways."

The 2001 edition of the Lonely Planet "Cycling Australia" guidebook included maps & detailed information for a 31-day / 2320km "East Coast Explorer" route from near Melbourne (Cowes) to the Gold Coast via Sydney (pp 380-448). This doesn't seem to have survived for the most recent edition (2009, I think), judging from the table of contents in the preview pages that can be accessed in the Amazon listing for the book.

On a solo tour in 1994 from Brisbane to Canberra I also followed most of the 'Pacific Bicycle Route' from the book published by Bicycle Australia in 1986, as referred to by Jack in his original post (I couldn't open the link to 'woa.com.au/ba' provided in elantra's post - see the listing in the National Library's trove system: 'trove.nla.gov.au').

Greg

BarryLewis
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Re: RIDE BRISBBANE TO SYDNEY

Postby BarryLewis » Mon Nov 05, 2018 5:38 am

I cycled from Sydney to Brisbane in 1993! I still have the guidebook I bought "The Pacific Bicycle Route" first edition Oct 1985. It was published by ' Bicycle Australia' and I bought it from Dymocks Bookstore in Sydney for 14.95.

If anyone wants it get in touch

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Last edited by find_bruce on Mon Nov 05, 2018 7:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: remove email address

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find_bruce
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Re: RIDE BRISBBANE TO SYDNEY

Postby find_bruce » Mon Nov 05, 2018 7:50 am

Hi Barry,

for privacy, email addresses and phone numbers generally should not be published. As a member however, you can send others a PM (Private Message) which is a forum internal messaging service and through that, contact details can be shared.

It would be great to hear details of how your ride went, highlights, challenges etc

Hogg24
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Re: RIDE BRISBBANE TO SYDNEY

Postby Hogg24 » Sun Dec 02, 2018 4:49 pm

I'm on a solo ride between the two right now. Taking a day off in Kempsey.

I used komoot to plan my trip. One of the days I planned my route to take a path and make it shorter, when I got to the path is was overgrown and a sign that said private property do not enter. So I should of used the route it suggested instead of trying to make it shorter.

The Pacific Hwy is nice to ride on, nice big shoulder some vehicles move over but not all. You are in the sun most of the day, and the hills on it seem to be a shallow slope so not difficult to climb. I have only done two days on the Pacific so far, tomorrow will be a third and that is about it for the rest of the trip.

But komoot is a great site and very helpful for planning.

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