From the coast to the mountains, Margot McGovern seeks the nation’s top routes for picturesque pedalling. Australia is home to some of the world’s most spectacular and diverse landscapes: sunbaked ochre desert, lush tropical rainforest, snowcapped alpine ranges and pristine coastline. Our diverse native flora and fauna makes Australia unlike any other place in the
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There’s a reason why Mount Baw Baw is so feared, Iain Treloar discovers. Noojee – Mt Baw Baw return 97km Vertical elevation gain 2,553m Some climbs are worse than others, and in Australia there are few worse than Mount Baw Baw. This isn’t hyperbole; it’s a statement of cold, hard fact. Baw Baw doesn’t care
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Like your body language says as much as your words in a conversation, your riding language —where you ride on the road—tells others what you’re doing. Simon Vincett suggests strategies for communicating to the traffic. Whether you are blessed with bountiful bike lanes or you have to mix it with the traffic for all your
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This “built-to-tilt” machine transforms how you ride a tricycle. Adding an automatic transmission and electric motor creates a new paradigm of cargo bike. Simon Vincett reports. In three key ways the Butchers and Bicycles Mk1-E with NuVinci HSync is a great leap forward in cargo bikes, providing the most viable car-alternative on the Australian market: it is
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With a deadline for dinner drawing them on, Peter Foot recounts a beguiling journey through a surprising landscape. Mouldy carpet and body spray. I pull open the door and it hits me—full-bodied, tangy, evocative. It is the smell of the end carriage of a V/Line train. The smell of a thousand trips into the countryside.
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Limiting global warming and defining sustainable development have both been recently negotiated at the global level. Simon Vincett asks Australia’s leaders how bike riding can play a role in our national commitments. In November 2015, the Paris Conference on Climate Change reached, for the first time since the inaugural Conference of Parties (COP) in
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Iain Treloar reflects on a lifetime spent riding up the same hill. Up at the reservoir, the golden hills roll down to the sea. The air is hot and arid, and other than the distant howl of a truck’s engine brakes as it descends the Main South Road, it’s peaceful. A breeze sends a shiver
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With multi-party interest at the federal level in making our cities more liveable and productive, will governments embrace bike riding for all it can offer? Simon Vincett investigates. Advocates of active transport in Australia could heave a sigh of relief when Malcolm Turnbull replaced Tony Abbott as Prime Minister in September 2015. Gone was a head of government ideologically committed to more roads for cars as the sole solution to transport
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Too busy to get as much time on the bike as you’d like? Don’t worry—Lee Rodgers explains that the secret to improving your performance is to train smarter, not longer. “If only I had more time to train, I’d be so much quicker!” It’s a common refrain of the time-constrained cyclist, bemoaning the lack of
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Bart Sbeghen reports on the growing phenomenon of premium end-of-trip facilities in some of the nation’s most progressive commercial buildings and offices. Photos: Karl Hilzinger, Hormuzd Khodaiji. The phenomenon may not be obvious to most people, probably because of the movement’s quite literally underground nature. That was until a front page article in The Financial
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