Sydney-Newcastle

boardfreedave said:

Hi all. can anyone tell me whether or not there is a cycle path alongside the Sydney to Newcastle Freeway? I'm not cycling, but skateboarding across Australia and have one final leg between Sydney and Brisbane to complete. Check out www.boardfree.org.au if you're interested, but I really need some advice on travelling north from Sydney! Thanks!

You may run into a problem here, I think you qualify as a pedestrian and pedestrians are not allowed on the freeway.

There is no cyclepath running alongside the freeway. If you want to ride a bike on the freeway you do it in the emergency stopping lane and I believe bicycles are only permitted on the section of freeway north of the Mooney Mooney Bridge. South of the bridge, you use the Old Pacific Highway.

I could be wrong about all this, hopefully someone with more knowledge will chime in.

Cheers mate. I'm not on a typical skateboard and all the way across Australia the police have agreed to classify me as a cyclist rather than a pedestrian. Saying that, sounds like the Pacific Highway route is the way to go - if anyone has any other reccomendations for the route between Sydney and Newcastle I'd appreciate your advice.

boardfreedave said:

Cheers mate. I'm not on a typical skateboard and all the way across Australia the police have agreed to classify me as a cyclist rather than a pedestrian. Saying that, sounds like the Pacific Highway route is the way to go - if anyone has any other reccomendations for the route between Sydney and Newcastle I'd appreciate your advice.

Hi

I read about you in the paper the other week. Good on you.

The freeway between Brooklyn Bridge and Monney Mooney bridge is a bit hairy for cyclists. I have ridden over the Mooney Mooney Bridge once and would never, ever contemplate is again.

I've never even considered what it would be like on a skate board. The old Hwy is not too bad (but has some steep grades) and once you're at the Gosford turn off, there is a good shoulder on the freeway.

Good luck. (you're mad) 🙂

Scotty

Bikes can use the freeway from the Pearces Corner onramp to the Berowra offramp. There's a small hill called the Big Dipper about 3km into the freeway that is a real killer on a bike.

After that it's too dangerous to ride the freeway until Calga, where there's a short section between Calga and Mount White that can be ridden. It's very rare to see a bike on the freeway there though, as the old road is much more pleasant.

From Mount White to the Gosford exit is too dangerous for bicycles. After that is pretty good shoulder as pointed out by others.

The shoulder is full of debris ranging from little stones and bits of rubber to nuts and bolts, bits of pipe, and other bits of vehicles, rubbish, and lost loads. On the other hand the old road is pretty bumpy but traffic is very light except on weekends when the motorbikes are out.

Further north on the freeway near Cooranbong there's a 300m section of the freeway crossing Dora Creek that has no shoulder, and to make things worse there's no way out of danger as they've erected soundproofing along the leng of the bridge. There are a couple of other little bridges between there and the Freemans Waterhole / Cessnock exit where the shoulder narrows to a couple of feet.

jock.c said:

Bikes can use the freeway from the Pearces Corner onramp to the Berowra offramp. There's a small hill called the Big Dipper about 3km into the freeway that is a real killer on a bike.

After that it's too dangerous to ride the freeway until Calga, where there's a short section between Calga and Mount White that can be ridden. It's very rare to see a bike on the freeway there though, as the old road is much more pleasant.

From Mount White to the Gosford exit is too dangerous for bicycles. After that is pretty good shoulder as pointed out by others.

The shoulder is full of debris ranging from little stones and bits of rubber to nuts and bolts, bits of pipe, and other bits of vehicles, rubbish, and lost loads. On the other hand the old road is pretty bumpy but traffic is very light except on weekends when the motorbikes are out.

Further north on the freeway near Cooranbong there's a 300m section of the freeway crossing Dora Creek that has no shoulder, and to make things worse there's no way out of danger as they've erected soundproofing along the leng of the bridge. There are a couple of other little bridges between there and the Freemans Waterhole / Cessnock exit where the shoulder narrows to a couple of feet.

Jock is on the money.

boardfreedave said:

Hi all. can anyone tell me whether or not there is a cycle path alongside the Sydney to Newcastle Freeway? I'm not cycling, but skateboarding across Australia and have one final leg between Sydney and Brisbane to complete. Check out www.boardfree.org.au if you're interested, but I really need some advice on travelling north from Sydney! Thanks!

hey man, I read about you in the paper! You are insane!!! GOod job mate!

Have you considered alternatives of either along the northern beaches of Sydney to Palm beach and catching the ferry across Broken Bay to Ettalong or Woy Woy and on to and beyond Gosford, OR via the Old Northern Road to Wisemans Ferry and beyond.

Mike

[FONT= calibri]Hi all, [/FONT]

[FONT= calibri]I've just moved from Adelaide to Sydney and I’m keen to do the Sydney to Newcastle ride, and was after some advice from fellow cyclists that have already completed it. [/FONT][FONT= 'Calibri']Specifically, the level of fitness needed, any issues you had with the ride and is it worth my time staying overnight in Newcastle or is the train home a better idea? [/FONT]

[FONT= calibri]Also any lessons learnt in terms of preparation, the route and anything else in general that you would do differently a second time would help me out a lot![/FONT]

[FONT= calibri]Cheers, [/FONT]
[FONT= calibri]Jesse[/FONT]