29 January 2013

Best 30 min Bike Ride in the ACT?

| frankie
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I’ve been bragging to relatives for months about how fun it is to ride a bike around Canberra and surrounds, and they’ve decided to visit the ACT and see it for themselves.

My relatives are older adults who probably couldn’t ride more than 30 minutes or so, so I wanted to ask readers of the Riot Act the following question: What is your favourite 30 minute bike ride in the ACT?

Mine is from Aranda south of Telstra Tower along William Hovell Drive to Lake Burley Griffin, a mostly downhill affair that lets you see famous buildings, bush and of couse, the lake itself.

Just wondering if there were any better tracks I could offer the rellies.

Thanks for the feedback 🙂

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Lake Tuggeranong is quite nice for those on the southside. Takes me about 25 minutes to ride all the way around, and I take a fairly slow and steady pace. Not quite as picturesque as LBG though.

Jethro said :

North even

I kinda liked the idea of riding down into the inner oath.

North even

If out at lake G, the ride over Bruce ridge and down into the inner oath is also really nice.

Another + for Lake Ginninderra. No famous buildings but a good mixture of parks and bushland with great views of the lake – especially on a nice calm day.

The ride from the top of the dam along Ginninderra Creek out to Latham is a nice ride as well. Lots of wildlife, particularly in Umbagong Park area in Latham – just keep an eye out for the brown snakes.

Aside from central basin LBG, there is Lake Ginninderra with loverly 7.4km ride around foreshores with some nice parks and a couple of coffee cafe spots which are easier than LBG

Best 30 min Bike Ride in the ACT?

From the office to my house (possibly a biased opinion).

Governor generals residence, along scriv. dam is very nice. Good on you for showing them Canberra this way. You miss a lot driving in a car,

It would be easier with a car bike carrier. I’ve highlighted the areas which I think would look nice, and are not too difficult. Essentially, the west part of LBG, particularly the southern part. Then a detour into Yarralumla, where the houses are nice. Or maybe start from Deakin. The path towards Woden is quite nice, skirting suburbs (Curtin), and horse paddocks and waterways (Yarralumla Creek?).

http://i.imgur.com/ZxoEqdZ.jpg

There are many options: going further west, you could get to the zoo/Scrivener Dam. Going further east, to get to Kingston area. Cross Commonwealth Bridge to the city. Or enter Weston Park towards the Siev X Memorial where there is a nice view. There’s also a path up to Parliament House. They could ride along the road surrounding it.

I also think that these sites aren’t worth a drive to (except the zoo maybe), so might as well make a day of riding to them.

There are some pause points at Yarralumla shops, Yarralumla nursery, Yacht Club and Woden. Woden is on the route for the Blue Rapid, which will carry bikes all the way up to Belconnen. Otherwise, Curtin and Yarralumla are served by Bus #2 to Civic. Carry a puncture kit & water. HTH.

I’ll throw in my support for the very flat central basin ride and the more hilly west basin ride. The Central Basin ride is great: start at either Regatta Point or National Library, ride along the shoreline and over two bridges, with ample opportunity for architectural sightseeing. The West Basin ride is great for access to Black Mountain Peninsula, National Museum, Scrivener Dam, Weston Park and the GG’s residence.

Other options could include anCentral/North Canberra ride through Ainslie and Turner. Visit Glebe Park, Haig Park, and that lovely stretch of green space between David Street and Wattle Street, crossing MacArthur Avenue, heading up past the schools to Mouat Street.

West basin of LBG. Great veiws, lots of trees & is only about 18km long.

G-Fresh said :

Strava.

You are doing it wrong……..

“STRAVA RUN, GTF OUTAA MY WAY!!!!”

Gungahlin Al11:14 am 29 Jan 13

Straight up Black Mountain. They’ll either love their sense of achievement, or you’ll solve the whole visiting relatives problem for good. 🙂
The cruise back down is sweet too—as long as you have outstanding brakes.

Seriously, the spin around Lake Ginninderra is pretty good too.

Well my favourite is from O’Connor to Civic to Braddon, stop for a coffee then back. You could start at Tilleys and so a coffee crawl. I like the bike path past the back of the houses and flats and the cockatoos. (Sounds a bit 100 things to like about Canberra, but it’s true.) I don’t go on the road much at all, which may be a factor if your relatives are not used to bikes. That is a quintessentially Canberra ride, though not spectacular in any way.

Or through ANU to the lake, or instead, going to the Botanic Gardens. It looks like they have fixed the bike path up along the road to the Gardens. That may be getting just a little long though.

It might be good to offer your relatives a rest halfway through. But it might depend on where exactly you live.

The short lake loop….very flat and easy (between Commonwealth Ave and Kings Ave Bridges). won’t take longer than 1/2 hour and very easy riding…plus a lot of landmarks

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