Good rides in Melbourne

why dont you create your own circuit/s... chase the hills and throw in some challenges

Are you in FTG? (just wondering about your name)
Head up to Belgrave, go through Selby and on to Emerald. From there either go left to Monbulk and back through Belgrave, or go out through Cockatoo/Nangana/Woori Yallock/Lilydale etc
I do both of these fairly often (the Woori Yallock ride's nice for endurance) and they're both pretty moderate.

Where do you usually ride?

flipper said:

Are you in FTG? (just wondering about your name)
Head up to Belgrave, go through Selby and on to Emerald. From there either go left to Monbulk and back through Belgrave, or go out through Cockatoo/Nangana/Woori Yallock/Lilydale etc
I do both of these fairly often (the Woori Yallock ride's nice for endurance) and they're both pretty moderate.

Where do you usually ride?

Hey flipper, you guessed right about the name. Currently riding around FTG, Upwey and Lysterfield. I still lack experience on the bigger/longer hills and want to work up to the sort of rides you are talking about.

Are you in the FTG area?

Yeah, I'm in Belgrave. Have you come up this way yet?
I think tzama's advice was really good... make up your own circuits and throw in some harder stuff. That's pretty much what I do.
There are so many good roads up here... half the fun is just going out and exploring. It's all downhill back to FTG 😉 ...almost. 😄

I havent braved the climb from my place to belgrave yet...like I said I am a bit week on the hills. I was looking up some old threads on double/triple chainrings and noticed one of your messages. Did I read right... you ride a 53/39 and 12-25 around the dandenongs? That doesnt sound like a real easy climbing set up to me. I am using the same up front and have a 12-27 to make life a bit easier, I must be a bit of a [censored].

My gearing was chosen by a friend whos opinion I trusted (he's an A-grader that has owned a bike shop, so i thought who better to ask) Problem is that he's a bit on the 'macho' side... he uses an 11-23 cassette for climbing and just assumes that everyones got years of climbing in their legs. I struggled quite a bit when i first got my bike as I can't really go anywhere without lots of hills, but i must've become stronger as I'm quite happy with it now (although there are some hills around here that have me screaming for my MTB gearing 🙂 )

Quoted post said:

I must be a bit of a [censored].

I wouldn't say that, everyone's at their own level, and like they say, if you want to get better at hills, do more hills. Go on, give the 'mad mile' a go... we might even bump into each other once you get up here 😎

flipper said:

Yeah, I'm in Belgrave. Have you come up this way yet?
I think tzama's advice was really good... make up your own circuits and throw in some harder stuff. That's pretty much what I do.
There are so many good roads up here... half the fun is just going out and exploring. It's all downhill back to FTG 😉 ...almost. 😄

I'm not far away, I'm in Rowville. How are the roads up there on weekends in terms of traffic. I'm also fairly new to riding (had a 20 year break), and having heard many horror stories, am a little wary of roads that I have to share with volumes of traffic.
Having said that, I wouldn't mind a bit of a hill climb, and by some freak of nature, I just happen to have a triple to help me through..

The main tourist roads can get pretty busy on the weekends... nothing like peak hour, but I hardly use them.
I've found that heading out early-ish beats the weekend traffic too as the roads get a lot busier up here around lunchtime.

SEGFTG said:

Anyone have suggestions for some good road bike rides in outer east Melbourne with moderate hills. I am a bit bored with my current rides...

Not quite the outer eastern suburbs, but I like this one, especially with a northerly as I come home with a tail wind. The route is undulating rather than hilly.

Richmond-Kew-Alphington (via Chandler Highway)-Bundoora to Keilor East (using the western ring road bike path which is good for road bikes) - Keilor East via Millera Rd-Buckley St to Essendon- Mt Alexander road to the City-Richmond.
If I want to make the ride a bit longer I can head out further along Plenty Rd to South Morang or on to Whittlesea.

Cheers flipper, i will be giving the made mile a go soon, thanks for your thoughts on all this. Think I will give it a go early am now the suns up sooner and, like you say, there is a fair bit of traffic.

Also, wrightstuff, I used to live in Alphington and I know the ride you mentioned. Its a good area.

Quoted post said:

i will be giving the mad mile a go soon

Great to hear. You'll wonder why you didn't do it sooner as it probably looks worse than it is.
There's a bike track along the low side but I wouldn't recommend it cos it's bumpy as hell on a road bike.
Once you're happy with it, head for Kallista along Monbulk Rd (about the same gradient as the Mad Mile) then to Monbulk. From there through Silvan/Mt Evelyn to Lilydale is a really nice undulating ride, and come back along Swansea Rd. From here it's about a 60km loop. Let me know if you need any more details. 🙂

flipper said:

Go on, give the 'mad mile' a go...

Did I miss something? Where's the 'Mad Mile'???

Sorry mate, it's the bit of Burwood Hwy from FTG National Park to Upwey.
Cars tend to fly up it but I've never had any close calls.

From Vermont.

Belgrave/Emerald/Beaconsfield/Cranbourne/Frankston/Melbourne/Vermont

Warrandyte/Kinglake/Whittlesea/Hurstbridge/Vermont

Warrandyte/Kangaroo Ground/Yarra Glen/Healesville/Vermont

Lilydale/Gembrook/Launching Place/Healesville/Yarra Glen/Kangaroo Ground/Vermont

Lilydale/Warburton/Mt Donna Buang/Vermont

Basin/Sassafras/Monbulk/Olinda/Mt Dandenong/Montrose/Ringwood/Vermont

These are some of the rides you can do. Look in the Melways or go to aus.bicycle forums, there are a lot of Melbourne people on that site.

Sounds like a good circuit. I will aim towards that eventually. I have checked out the bike track and like you say, lumpy as hell on a road bike. Also it was closed off down the bottom when i looked a few weeks ago. Have you ridden Glenfern road down to Napoleon road before? Its a alot quieter than the mad mile but has a 90k limit along the middle section, not sure if this would be a good one.

Yes, I have used Glenfern Rd a few times but I try to avoid it as there's very little shoulder and everyone seems to think that 90km/h=100km/h+...a bit like Wellington Rd between Lysterfield and Emerald.

Nice looking rides Dancier, I've done bits and pieces of quite a few of those. A mate that I ride with just moved out to Watsons Creek/Christmas Hills so we've only just started exploring that area a few weeks back. Thanks.

There's a list of rides out this way on the BikeNow website.
I'm sure I've seen a similar list for rides north-east of Melb too but can't find it yet... it was a year or so back so it might take me a while. 🙂

flipper said:

There's a list of rides out this way on the BikeNow website.
I'm sure I've seen a similar list for rides north-east of Melb too but can't find it yet... it was a year or so back so it might take me a while. 🙂

Good link, I love a map. Might have to tackle "the wall".

Great minds think alike flipper, I was just looking at the bike now site last night and was going to post same today. It is a good set up with the maps, some simpler versions of the type of ride you were mentioning a while back. i will give some of these a go soon