Story of my ride (Go West, pt2): M7 Cycleway a highlight of Sydney's growing cycling infrastructure
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- Опубліковано 3 жов 2024
- If you want hassle-free riding and safe conditions for a few hours on the bike, may I suggest a trip out west of Sydney. The M7 Cycleway offers 40km of protected path, spanning from Baulkham Hills to Preston.
There are plenty who could tell you more about this region, and the cycling on offer around these parts but it was my first taste of the bike path... and only a few hours spent riding it is enough to convince me that it should become a regular part of my route selection.
Great riding, good vibe, plenty of fellow cyclists... and no worries about traffic (most of the time).
Take some water, nourishment and an open mind, and get set to enjoy a good time on the bike.
(This is part two of the #StoryOfMyRide from 15 October 2023.)
- Rob
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I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land where this video was recorded. I pay my respect to all Aboriginal people, elders past and present, and extend that respect to other Indigenous Australians.
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www.ridemedia.com.au
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Related links:
Go West, Part 1 (Sydney to Parramatta):
• Story of my ride: Sydn...
My bike (for this ride) Polygon A9X - see the review series:
Part 1 - the first ride: • Polygon Helios A9X rev...
Part 2 - the unboxing: • Polygon Helios A9X bik...
Part 3 - comments after 2,197km: • Polygon Helios A9X bik...
For more about Polygon: bikesonline-au...
More on the M7 Cycleway: www.westlinkm7.com.au/about/shared-path
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#storyofmyride #cycling #Sydney #WesternSydneyParklands
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Music:
Spoken Word
By Renderings
K4IZED1RJWJYVAKE
Hold Fast
By Aaron Sprinkle
QKRHXOHYHLRDWG5Q
Aggro
By Ivy Bakes
WN1TWVS8MBRUQIRL
Its a great place to ride, im about to take my Son out there with his first road bike.
Western Sydney is packed full of long distance cycleways. All the infrastructure around the new airport is getting integrated cycleways built in. You can ride from Penrith station to Campbelltown station on a cycle path via the Northern Rd, it's a similar ring around Sydney to what the M7 is.
Thats like the Great trail from katoomba too blackheath Some of the Signs are Hidden behind over grown Bushes LOL
I will Have too try some of them out down there , Cheers Bro
Yep, signage writers / installers / designers in Australia seriously need to rethink the approach taken.
If the effort is made to highlight a direction, at least highlight it in a useful way.
It can be laughable... until it gets cyclists (or other road users for that matter) in a dangerous predicament.
- Rob
Excellent work, Rob.Another bonus of the M7 is that it is lit of a night-time and so you can do the ~40k each way ride any time day or night where you are completely separate from the traffic at all times. A mild annoyance is that there is only one water stop at about halfway.
Not only a great ride, but very well captured in a high quality clip, with intelligent narration that really added to it. I've done several bits of the ride, but at 70 doing it in a single stretch is getting optimistic. I've recommended viewing it to a few people overseas, purely to get a better sense of what 'real Sydney' is like (as opposed to the bridge/opera house/Rocks/Manly/Bondi cliche). When they opened the M7 with cycleway I was sceptical about it as 'just another bike path they had to have', but its quite an interesting ride (good luck finding a toilet at times through)
Always amuses me how many people from the 'Eastern Bloc' think of somewhere like Concord or Rhodes as 'Western'. Might have been before the 60s, but culturally they're nothing like true 'Westie'. Parramatta was actually the original government house and the site of our only attempt at a coup d'etat. Being where navigable salty and drinkable fresh water converge is an obvious place for an early settlement. The population centre of Sydney was around Auburn a few years ago, is now at around Rosehill, and with all the current development will probably slink further west of Parramatta. So to me Parramatta is 'the centre of Sydney' and the start of "The West'
gold 👍
M7 has been my go to for years on a Sunday, one can also do the Prospect creek cycleway loop as well. With just a few small patches of road. Its about a 120klm ride for me is that. Only disadvantage is driving to Prestons from the Shire.
My house is only few hundred meters away from the start of the M7 cycleway. While this is not the most scenic cycle path, it's awesome. having 40 km of simply uninterrupted route is awesome. No stress of traffic and bad motorist. I often wonder If I would have ever ridden a bike in Sydney if not for this cycleway. Riding on the road gives me anxiety. Here you are a safe. On the weekends the cycleway is full of cyclists.
Totally agree. The m7 track is around the corner from me and I love it
Welcome to my training ground. 40 kms each way and a 15% midway just off the cycleway. Enjoy.
G'day Rob just resubscribe to your channel and watched with interest pt 1 and 2.great education for a Melbourne rider
Middle Kids Edge of Town song would be appropriate for that location. Enjoy your videos and the commentary has its highlights too i.e.... Man Duck and Lady Duck for instance 😊
Thanks for promoting riding west/in the west. Some great infrastructure, though would be wonderful if they were more consistently joined together. I think this is what discourages many from commuting - the bike paths are great, but the sketchy bits without paths where you have to take on traffic are too intimidating unless you are a confident and experienced cyclist. It is encouraging to see improvements over time. Thanks for these videos!
I've seen a few hearty souls. ride on the M4 motorway In broad daylight. For me rather dangerous, but trip to the M7 Could be done in one awesome ride...yeah
Awesome 2-part series! We ride the m7 on Saturdays, starting from Kings Langley at the Troubadour bus stop at the T-Way. It is the start of the m7 cycleway at North West Sydney.
From there, we can also head to the city via parramatta mostly on cycle paths too! Basically the reverse of what you did.
You can catch the metro from the CBD to Bella Vista station this gets you to the start of the M7
The M7 authority frequently shuts down the path. Sometimes it makes sense if heavy flooding but other times it’s ridiculously small things they close it down. Usually with no signage
The only hassle with the M7, is after any rain when the gate is closed at Prestons and at the other end where you chucked the U turn. As the path may get 5cm of water over it. No real issue but they dont want people to sue Linkt the owner of the M7. I have consistantly sent emails to them asking when they are going to fix the problem. Seems never, always blame adjoining propertys and Liverpool council. So in the meantime there is a detour which is not pleasant but workable.
You go safely from Bi Centennial park to the M7 via parra prk
Where did you get your Rocket Espresso jersey?! ❤
Big white dear out there, big
Which way did you go to head home?
I took the easy solution - the safe option... particularly given that it was later in the day (ie. compared with when I was on my way out), and I got the train home from Blacktown.
This was based largely on my wife's observation that I often say: "Had a great ride, only the trip back into town spoiled my mood."
On this day, however, I got home safely and still in a good mood.
- Rob
the M7 cycleway used to be quite dangerous years ago. there were instances of fishing wire being strewn across the cycleway which hooligans would set up to try and decapitate cyclists. thankfully those days are well and truly gone now.