We've just come back after a week on Rottnest Island where there are no private motor vehicles (there is a shuttle bus and a small number of service vehicles, all of whom are bike aware). Transport around the island is essentially by bike. We used the shuttle bus once during the week to take us to dinner.
Twelve adults. Fourteen kids aged 9 to 14. In 6 chalets. With 26 bikes.
(Go to the bottom of this long post if you want to read the executive summary)
Transport to the island took 20 minutes by fast ferry from Fremantle. The majority of people take their own bikes over on the ferry and the ferry crew take reasonable care with the 2-wheeled cargo. (2 minor scratches on my bike on the way over and a little compression of a bottle cage on the way back). Many of the bikes are Rotto bikes that their owners keep especially for visits to the island - basic mountain bikes or hybrids or ancient 10 speed road bikes with racks for surf boards or fishing rods. There were also a fair sprinkling of bike trailers for towing kayaks or surf skis. (Memo to self: need to apply N+1 rule and put together Rotto bike).
Two CF roadies were unloaded among the ancient, rusted and beaten up Rotto bikes. Collected by young blokes who looked to be in their late teens. Didn't see them again all week.
Personal luggage is delivered to your chalet (2 pieces allowed per bed in each chalet). Bikes, fishing rods, surf boards, kayaks are not delivered. So it was a wonderful sight to see people coming off the ferry, collecting their bikes and riding off from the jetty.
Two of our group did not bring their own bikes (one adult did not want to bring his good road bike and one of the kids had grown out of one bike and was waiting on the next size for birthday/Christmas) so they hired them from the Rotto bike shop - basic mountain bikes.
Full points to the bike shop too - they actually fitted bikes to the people who hired them. And they had a tool table outside which was available to anyone who needed to do running adjustments on their own or on hire bikes (more about that later). (Tools were attached to the table by chains so they did not 'disappear'😉.
We stayed at Longreach. Right on the beach. Beautiful.
Days started with an early ride around the island, followed by breakfast (eggs Florentine/mueslii/bacon & eggs/croisants/coffee etc) at Thomson Bay. The circuits were short (16km) but made up of lots of little hills. And windy - one hill which gravity took me down at 32kmh became a 22kmh hill when the wind was blowing.
Then back on the bikes to ride to a swimming spot. Or strapping fins, snorkel and mask on the bike to pedal to a snorkelling spot. Parts of the island are marine sanctuaries so there is plenty of marine life to observe when snorkelling.
The kids were able to just get on their bikes and go wherever they liked. When they got hungry, a group would turn up at a chalet and be fed by whichever parents were there. If no-one was there they would move on to find a chalet where someone would feed them. They played tennis. They swam. They snorkelled. They went to the BMX track on the island and raced against each other*. They pretty much lived the life we lived as kids in the 1960s and 1970s.
(*My 11 year old came back from the BMX track complaining that the stand on her bike was loose. When I had a look, it was not just the stand that was rattling, the nuts on her rear axle were loose and the back wheel was 'floating' in the dropouts. Although I had a miniature 15mm pedal spanner in the multi tool in the bike tools I had brought, I had to borrow something bigger to torque the axle nuts up properly. Concentrating on the loose axle, I rotated the stand and tightened it in the wrong position. 11 year old was not impressed. I no longer had access to the tool I had borrowed and returned. It was only when we were both at the bike shop 3 days later that I was able to borrow a suitable tool and do the job properly).
Everyone gathered for drinks at about 5:00pm every night on someone's balcony. If you were not sure whose turn it was to be the host, you could always tell by the number of bikes parked outside someone's chalet.
There were no 'no shows' at morning rides due to hangovers no matter how long the balcony drinks lasted - must have been the promise of the hearty breakfast at the end of the ride.
Out of 182 person-days of riding on the island, only 2 kids took a minor bit of bark off - I patched 1 up and the island nursing post patched the other one.
Everyone who was there this year has booked again for next year.
A few people re-assessed their old bikes as being just too [censored] even for the island and will be re-building or buying new bikes.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: 1 week on an island with no cars. Went everywhere by bike. Breakfast ride every morning. Hills and windy. Kids could do what they liked and just turned up when hungry. Rode to swimming, snorkelling, BMX track. N+1 needs to be applied - I need to build a Rotto bike.
SteveA