Hi,

I am off to Sydney on wednesday and staying to the West of Sydney (Penrith) whilst the Mrs is on her medical elective. I have got 4 daytimes to do what I want so thought I might get a day of riding in.

Any trail centres or anyone know of any where to hire a decent bike from?

Alex

Have a look on MTB Dirt for a local group ride and see if you can tag along.

Theres bound to be a centre nearish to Sydney. I lived in Brisbane and thers lots of riding very close to the centre of the city so I can only assume Sydney is similar.

Whotto mate:

I did 5 weeks riding in Oz last year but had the benefit of a friend who lived over there and he organised a big road trip.

In Sydney there's only really the marked route at Manly Dam. Quite a nice route with a couple of techy bits. I was told that it suffers in the rain but I was lucky while I was over there as it only rained the day I was wandering around the zoo.

http://nobmob.com/rides/manlydam

From Sydney's city district you need to take the ferry to get to Manly. It's no stress with a bike and pretty cheap too. You also get fantastic views of the bridge and the opera house – saves spending out on the tourist boats which take the same route.

You could also take the train out to the Blue Mountains where I did a couple of nice rides.

I took the train to Katooma and did this ride to start:
http://www.users.on.net/~fathers/narrneck.htm

It's an out and back with fantastic views and the odd short, steep climb but mainly fireroad.

I then hopped back on the train returning to Sydney, stopped off at Woodford and did this ride:

http://www.users.on.net/~fathers/sthelena.htm

Really nice ride with lots of singletrack and a bit of get off and walk as the flying doctor can't reach you there. Basically drops you off at the next railway station along to Sydney so you hop on the train back to Sydney and job's a good un. We did both on the same day by starting out fairly early. Again bikes on train are stress free and pretty cheap.

Worth noting that with the rides in the Blue Mountains you really don't want to be taking a wrong turn.

To be honest though, the best riding both quality and quantity wise was in Canberra by far.

Notice from your profile that you're South East London based. I've got some mtbing mates based in Bexley but I'm in NE London, right on top of Epping Forest.

Let me know if you need any more info.

Cheers,

Mark

As above go to the blue mountains, also a bit south you have the Royal National Park (station Sutherland), there's plenty of good riding, mix of fire-road, singletrack, some hand built obstacles and cheeky trails. (it's where I lived for a while)

Cheers for the help. I was looking at the Blue mountains more as is close to where I am staying but we are spending next weekend in Manly just not sure if I am allowed out to play.

I live in Bexley as well. Normally just ride on my own tho as I can be slow and I can be a miserable git.