Home / Blogs / dshee's blog
Cycling in Perth Australia
Last Saturday I cycled with Ben and Sam(my other son) to University WA. We rode from our residence in South Perth, cruised along the scenic Swan river, went round the Uni campus and back. We covered a bit over 30km.
 |
 |
 |
Cycling experience here in Perth WA is quite different from Penang. As it's almost winter, the wind can be chilly and sometimes uncomfortable. The chill on the face and hands against the cold wind can slow you down (or on the contrary make you crank faster !) Bringing extra layers like a jacket in your backpack is almost a necessity. Helmet is compulsory.
 |
| I'm quite impressed by this double deckered bridge over the river. Directly above this shared cyclist/pedestrain path is the carriageway for motor vehicle. |
It's nice and clean bicycle lanes; certain parts shared with pedestrians. As expected, it's law and order, safe and tourist friendly.
I noticed that most cyclists are on racers or the least road bikes with slim tyres. MTBs are like non existence !
Cheers & Gday !
- dshee's blog
- Login or register to post comments
Email this page
quote:"I noticed that most cyclists are on racers or the least road bikes with slim tyres. MTBs are like non existence "
That's how they differenciate the locals from the tourists lah Hahaha!
Michael and I rode MTBs, borrowed from Michael's brother, around Perth and Swan Valley.
Haha, you right of course ! They can obviously tell that I'm from Penang, either from the look of my bike which looked more like MTB than road bike or from the tan of my skin!
When Ben returned to Perth after his holidays here in Penang, I told him to buy himself an MTB. But instead he ended up with a Merida road bike, a kind of hybrid. I asked him why and he said the shop owner advised him that if he wants to cycle in town or to his uni it has to be slimmer tyres and therefore he recommended a hybrid. Later when I arrived in Perth I paid a couple of visits to 2 local bike shops here and true enough the showrooms display mostly racers and hybrids. I also noticed there are quite a number of high end Giant racers, some costing around 6-7k aud ! Appears like Giant has dominated the Perth bike market, could be whole of Australia for all you know !
Mike so you're back to the real world !! haha !
Yes, it can be cold and cycling in such weather has it's own kind of fun.
I'm using a hybrid bicycle leftover by a friend, not fantastic but ok lah !
I realised that the shops here sell lots of Giant bikes. You can see the whole range of Giant racers and interestingly not many MTBs. There are lots of accessories that our shops in Penang don't carry. Such as loose pants(with padding), detacheable baskets(metal and rattan) and all sorts of gears. I only hope that Giant will soon have a shop like this in Penang, looks like we are missing out a lots of these bicycle goodies...
Cheers & gday !
We were there last week and cycling in the morning is definately a hard chore. Getting up from the warm bed is hard enough! I remember riding along the Canning River at 7:30 am and shivering. But the scenery is beautiful and the Mount Henry Bridge cycle path is a pleasure to ride through. Enjoyed the rest of your stay, we are enjoying the warm weather and the great food in Penang!
I'm wondering whether Penang will become like this with the Penang Bridge ? MAYBE !(after 20 or 50 years). Other countries already done , Malaysia can speak only la...Do ? 30% only
Yeap, sorry to say our infrastructure for bicycles and pedestrians are far behind. And I also nocticed that almost every suburb has like 1 or 2 bicycle shops and each of these shops are well equipped.
But not to worry, we may not have the luxury of nice bicycle lanes and bridges for bicycles, but we have the hills (with great MTB trails!), the great round island ride, the idyllic kampungs and the yummy food ! And more importantly we have enthutiastic cyclists like youself and a very active cycling club like G Club!
We are doing great despite all our shortcoming ! Cheers and happy riding!!