Charity Ride- Central Coast to Alice springs

[3inchride]

Hey all,

I am apart of charity where two brothers are planning to ride from the central coast to Alice springs in 2023 to raise funds for heart disease.

I was looking for information around if it was legal to ride a bike on the motorways? and if not what is an alternative option?

And any general tips on a route we should plan for?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you

[RonK]

Aside from a few rare exemptions you cannot cycle on sections of the highway that are designated as motorways.
However designated motorways usually only extend short distances from major centres. Most will have adjacent service roads or other alternatives that can be used by cyclists.
Route planning tools such as RideWithGPS, Koomoot etc will usually be able to identify bike friendly routes.

[find_bruce]

In NSW it's not so cut and dried - you can ride on most motorways, except for the sections marked as no access - see the bits marked in red on NSW cycleway finder - eg you can't ride on the pacific motorway between Somersby and Calga & between the Hawskbury River and Wahroonga. But as Ron says there are alternatives - in the example use the old pacific highway.

There are actually a few options for getting to Alice Springs, depending on what sort of bikes you're riding - If you want to stay on bitumen, there is north through Mount Isa or south through Broken Hill and Adelaide. Gravel roads opens up options such as north through Longreach and Winton, while much more adventurous rides would be riding fat bikes through Birdsville going the "wrong" way through the Simpson desert (the sand dunes are much steeper on the eastern side) or follow the Oodnadatta track.

What sort of support is planned?

[3inchride]

Aside from a few rare exemptions you cannot cycle on sections of the highway that are designated as motorways.
However designated motorways usually only extend short distances from major centres. Most will have adjacent service roads or other alternatives that can be used by cyclists.
Route planning tools such as RideWithGPS, Koomoot etc will usually be able to identify bike friendly routes.

Okay that's Awesome, I will have a look at one of those options and see if we can find alternative routes

[3inchride]

In NSW it's not so cut and dried - you can ride on most motorways, except for the sections marked as no access - see the bits marked in red on NSW cycleway finder - eg you can't ride on the pacific motorway between Somersby and Calga & between the Hawskbury River and Wahroonga. But as Ron says there are alternatives - in the example use the old pacific highway.

There are actually a few options for getting to Alice Springs, depending on what sort of bikes you're riding - If you want to stay on bitumen, there is north through Mount Isa or south through Broken Hill and Adelaide. Gravel roads opens up options such as north through Longreach and Winton, while much more adventurous rides would be riding fat bikes through Birdsville going the "wrong" way through the Simpson desert (the sand dunes are much steeper on the eastern side) or follow the Oodnadatta track.

What sort of support is planned?

We had a quick look at the map and that's great! it gives us a chance to prepare and plan. We were thinking south through Broken hill and then getting to the Oonadatta track and following that through to Alice springs.

In terms of support? We haven't locked anything it yet but we are thinking of getting a 4WD or van and trailer and following the boys on their adventure or being nearby. But again we are happy to take any advice or suggestions.

Thanks!

[find_bruce]

It's possible to ride the track unsupported, but having a support vehicle to carry extra water, luggage etc means that the pace can be quite a bit higher

There's a good reason why the oodnadatta track is popular, as long as it hasn't rained recently. People have taken a van, but I wouldn't. Plenty of good info on riding the track

On this forum see Re: Planning a zigzagging tour throuh OZ by bohwaz and his blog on crazyguyonabike.com.

GJ Coop is particularly knowledgeable about riding through remote Australia, but I haven't seen him around here for a while and his website is 404

There is also Cycling the Oodnadatta (Leigh Creek to Alice Springs) - track notes