I headed off on the seven bridges ride with the Sydney University Bicycle club. Luckily I was early as I went to the wrong place. I had read that the first bridge was the Pyrmont Bridge, and rode there. But the ride actually started in the University. I made it there in the time with a 15 minute ride. In the end there were 5 of us riding.
We headed out of the university and up towards the first bridge, the Pyrmont Bridge. We went through ultimo and approached the bridge from the west rather than go the way one might expect via Chinatown. On the way the last bit of my old chain broke, the second of the SRAM quick links. So I had to ride a link short for the rest of the ride and could not use the large cog at the front with the larger cogs at the back. There were not too many people on the Pyrmont Bridge.
Leaving the bridge we went along the narrow shared cycleway to King Street, and then down Sussex, before returning through Darling Harbour. On the way I passed some other tricycles, these ones looked like they were on sale and were meant for carrying children.
We did a quick stop in Pyrmont, so I could wash my grease covered hands, and then continued onto the Anzac Bridge.
Once over the ANZAC bridge we headed up Victoria Road to the Iron Cove Bridge. Here the cycle route uses the footpath and it is quite an obstacle course. The Iron Cove Bridge is narrow and there is clearly no love lost between the pedestrians and the cyclists. It was some of the most obstructive behaviour I have seen in Sydney between the two. The fact that the path is too narrow to start with does not help.
After this we headed to the next of the big bridges, the Gladesville Bridge. You get some good views from the top of this bridge. But the approaches are not very good for cyclists. I know there are many unhappy people in the cycling community that want this situation corrected.
There are a few bridges after this in quick succession. The first is the Tarban Creek Bridge. To get from the Gladesville bridge to here I had to get of the trike a few times.
And then the Fig Tree Bridge over the Lane Cove River.
.jpg)
Heading up Burnes Bay Road, the track is very very narrow and at some places I had to squeeze onto the dirt to fit between the power poles and the cliff face. I also had to go onto the top of the gutter to get past an oncoming pram.
.jpg)
After riding along Centennial Avenue we got up to Epping Road and onto the good quality and quite new cycleways. First along Epping Road, and then along the side of the M1.
.jpg)
We stopped in Naremburn for some food. We ended up at the Delicious cafe. The man there was a bit of a Nazi. One of the girls, and most were only students, could not afford the more expensive food. However, he was very inflexible. He would not make her anything that was not on the menu and when she bought something at the takeaway price, he would not let her eat at our table. I certainly will not go there again.
After this unfortunate experience we crossed over a bridge with a spongy surface, for runners, and then headed down through Cammeray to the bridge. We missed a turn and ended up riding down the shoulder of the freeway. At this point I hit my highest speed ever on the GT3 of 66 kmh.
We now reached the base of the fabled steps on the Harbour Bridge. I wanted to carry the trike up on my own. I got half way up when one of the others came down to help me with the second half. He then rode down and back up the ramp.
We now road across the seventh bridge, the Sydney Harbour Bridge. At the end we split up and went our own ways. I rode back to Marrickville.
To Pyrmont Bridge
To Anzac Bridge
To Iron Cove Bridge
To Gladesville Bridge
To Tarban Creek Bridge
To Fig Tree Bridge
To Sydney Harbour Bridge Bridge