Some old cycling blog posts

I'm posting up a couple of old blog entries that I did a while back. This site got shut down, so I thought I'd repost them here. The first one is about the "new" bike lanes in the City of Sydney from 2010.

Posted by Edward Re on September 9, 2010 at 12:16am

We finally got round to trying out the new bike lanes last Sunday, and they were great! 

Saturday night, we were returning from a 4y.o.'s birthday party, and got to check out the southern end of Bourke St by car. IMO, the main reason for the John Mahoney and David Hannan lawsuit is the speed humps restricting the car/truck traffic, not the fact that there's a green stripe down the side.

So on Sunday, we decided to go for a spur of the moment ride from the Woolloomoolloo end. All I had to do was get the wife's bike down from upstairs, inflate both tyres, swap out the old saddle, fit the kid seat, get no.1's helmet out, and pack some food and water. Then get mine out, and fit a child seat. We plan to train it from St Leonards to Wynyard but there's trackwork today, much to the disappointment of boy no. 1 and massive rail enthusiast, Ollie. So after 10 mins explaining that the trains are broken, we do plan B. 

St. Leonards to the city is easy but winds like a goat track. Trying to get across the city, and down from the domain is hard. We can't take the stairs carrying about 30kgs of bike + kikd, so we scout the top of some stairs, and finally see a path with a "no bike" symbol on it, which leads to the lift. Is there an easier way?

Seeing the path makes all the effort worthwhile. It's like reaching the promised land. After spending all this time reading plans, seeing concrete results is amazing. Not sure how to get across intersection no. 1. The lights show a red bike permanently, so after waiting for one change, we go on the green for cars/bike red signal. Cars speed down towards us as we cross at the entrance to the Eastern distributor. It's not a nice crossing. We head up William, and are pleasantly surprised again by more green paint. The missus was caught by a red light, so I got to take a snap of the missus, and boy no. 2.

I think some green dashed guidelines across the intersection here would make me feel that touch more safe.

The bike lane just disappears, but bus lanes make excellent bike lanes, as you get the whole thing to yourself. Seems like the city bus drivers are used to having bikes in their lane. We let one past on George St, and then continue as slowly as you please. Unfortunately the boys started going mental on the way home, but all in all, what a great ride! Next time I'll check the train website. Clover, top work! We will definitely return, and be spending more money.

And now for some bonus shots from the era: a Tweed ride in the city; heaps of fun. Lou got pipped for the youngest rider by a month.

A good time had by all?

It's easy to chuck the balance bike on the train and cruise around the city. It's a nice time.

Plenty of space and the sights are wonderful.