Brisbane Cyclist

Cycling in Brisbane Australia

Where to ride South East Qld Book

Does anybody have this book and would they recommend it? Looking specifically for interesting cycling rides to explore with the wife.

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Permalink Reply by DamianM on January 17, 2012 at 11:51am

I have a couple of them here Shaun courtesy of BA Press / Bicycling Australia.

How about this, I'll send you a copy and you can write up a review for the site.

Shoot me your address if you'd like to do that :)

Permalink Reply by Shaun Moran on January 17, 2012 at 12:02pm

Sounds good to me :-)

I'll PM you my address - I also plan to be at the CBDBUG next wed if you are going - save you postage.

Permalink Reply by Damien Wool on January 27, 2012 at 8:44pm

I saw this book today - let me know your thoughts.  I also think it would be good to take my kids to new places for family casual riding as I don't know of many places.

Permalink Reply by Shaun Moran on January 27, 2012 at 9:01pm

I was planning to go for one of the rides before doing a review - but with all the wet weather it might be a while :-)

I'll post a more detailed review in the next day or so but in summary the book is pretty good. Lots of rides to choose from - the book is separated into four Sections: Brisbane Rides, Gold Coast Rides, Sunshine Coast Rides and Kids rides. Each ride has a difficulty level based on the distance, number/type of hills and the road conditions.

Permalink Reply by Shaun Moran on January 29, 2012 at 3:06pm

As mentioned before - I was hoping to actually do one of these rides proper before the review. Unfortunately the rain lately has knocked that idea on its head and I've done some of the rides in the past anyway before (River Loop).

The book is broken up into a number of sections:

- Brisbane Rides

- Gold Coast Rides

- Sunshine Coast Rides

- Kids Rides

It also has a section at the beginning which goes over how to use the book, what to take when your riding and public transport ideas for your bike in SE Qld. Things are covered here such as fares, transport network map, train/bus/ferry bike options, etc. Interesting info but all available on the web and of course the book can't keep up to date on fares & routes. It also has some inf on flying with your bike and what each carrier will charge.

For the rides itself, there are a mixture of both on road and off road (Mountain Bike) rides covered. Some of the road rides do use paths and this is indicated. Each ride has a number of pages describing the terrain, expected traffic, how to get to the ride start, food and drink options along the way, wide trips and the overall ride difficulty scale.

The ride difficulty scale is based on a combination of trip distance, overall climbing distance (e.g.: 300 metres) and the type of surface (smooth, rough, etc). These are used to add up a certain number of points which gives a ride scale between 1 to 5 - 5 being for the experienced cyclist. I found this ride scale good to determining which ride would be suitable for myself and my wife.

The ride is then described in detail with a number of paragraphs telling you to turn. There is also a more brief 'ride log' with bullet point type directions with kilometre distance markings. A map of the overall ride is shown along with a graph showing the overall elevation. From what I can see there is enough detail given here to follow a course without getting too lost though I would have liked the author to provide links to the courses pre done on a site like mapmyride or bikely.

The Kids rides are less detailed - about half a page per ride and covers distance, terrain, how to get there, amenities / things to do and a map of the course. Most of the kids rides looks to be around 1-3 kms in length.

What I wanted out of the book was to get ideas about different places to ride and it certainly does give me some ideas. Its kind of comforting to know that if its in this book then a fair number of other cyclists have done the course and this hopefully translates into the traffic at the time being more aware of cyclists.

Below is a list of all the rides listed in the book. In general I would recommend purchasing it if you like me were struggling for ideas. Though I'm sure looking on the common websites (like likely) you could find all of these already.

If you have any questions or want some more detail on something specific just let me know.

Brisbane Rides

  • Mt Mee
  • Brighton to Scarborough
  • Boondall to Kendron Brook
  • Samford to Bunya Loop
  • Mt Glorious
  • Gap Creek MTB 1
  • Gap Creek MTB 2
  • Rosalie to Mt Cootha Loop
  • Riverside Loop (Long)
  • Riverside Loop (Short)
  • River Loop (Long)
  • River Loop (Short)
  • Manly
  • Cleveland
  • North Stradbroke Island
  • Bulimba Creek
  • Mt Cotton
  • Daisy Hill MTB 1
  • Daisy Hill MTB 2

Gold Coast Rides

  • Jacobs Well
  • Mt Tamborine
  • Nerang Forest MTB (Easy)
  • Nerang Forest MTB (Hard)
  • Oceanway Cycle Path 1
  • Oceanway Cycle Path 2
  • Oceanway Cycle Path 3
  • Little Nerang Dam to Springbrook
  • Hinze Dam
  • Currumbin Valley
  • Tomewin Mountain
  • Coolangatta Beach Cruise
  • Tweed Coast
  • Kingscliffe
  • Murwillumbah
  • Moooball

Sunshine Coast Rides

  • Kin Kin MTB
  • Tewantin to Pomona to Cooroy
  • Mt Tinbeerwah
  • Noosa Bikeways
  • Noosa to Coolum
  • Cooray (Sunrise Road) Loop
  • Eumundi Loop
  • Hinterland Loop
  • Mapleton State Forest MTB
  • Maroochy River
  • Maroochydore to Mooloolaba
  • Glass House Mountains Lookout
  • Caloundra Coastal Pathway 1
  • Caloundra Coastal Pathway 2
  • Caloundra Coastal Pathway 3
  • Pineapple Fields

Brisbane Kids Rides

  • Third Lagoon Reserve (Brighton)
  • Dowse Lagoon Reseve Sandgate)
  • Marchant Park (Chermside)
  • 7th Brigade Park (Geebung)
  • Downfall Creek (Chermside)
  • Raven Street Reserve (Chermside West)
  • Ballymore (Kelvin Grove)
  • St Johns Wood (Ashgrove)
  • Nundah
  • Murrarie Reserve
  • Minnippi Parklands (Carina)
  • Simpsons Playground (Graceville)
  • Yeronga Park
  • Greenslopes Park
  • White Hill Reserve
  • FR Caterson Park (Wishart)
  • Holemead Park (Wishart)
  • Masie Dixon Park (Eight Mile Plains)
  • DM Henderson Reserve (Macgregor)
  • Slacks Creek Bikeway
  • Hyde Park (Regents Park)
  • Botanical Gardens

Gold Coast Kids Rides

  • Broadwater to Anzac Park
  • Nerage (Road)
Permalink Reply by Paul Martin on January 29, 2012 at 6:02pm

When you both get your new wheels I'll take you for a ride out to Nudgee Beach for fish & chips! :)

Permalink Reply by Shaun Moran on January 29, 2012 at 6:32pm

Sounds great :-)

Permalink Reply by Big Steve on January 30, 2012 at 6:22pm

For the photo competition Sammy sent me one... thanks guys!

I haven't had a chance to read it because I don't catch the bus anymore (hehe) but in the quick gloss over it all was good.  Sure there were many that I knew, but the MTB stuff was interesting as well as the kids rides. :)

Permalink Reply by CycleMumma on March 20, 2012 at 11:56am

Is there a website to buy the book froom? Or does BQ have copies to buy?

 

Permalink Reply by Shaun Moran on March 20, 2012 at 1:02pm

Hi - I know you can buy it online at the RACQ website https://shop.racq.com.au/Category/Books/Books - I'm sure there are others as well.

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