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It's fairly flat around here in Hertfordshire UK and I have no trouble leading my buddies on their fully geared and fully suspended bikes. But a quick look at TrailFlix.com.au and I'm wondering if I'm wasting the shipping costs? I'm already taking a road bike and a full suss, will I use a singlespeed, even with a ratio change? (We will be based in Menai, Sutherland initially). At the moment I use the singlespeed for local rides from my door after work. I only take gears and suspension when I head further afield looking for hills. I'm hoping to carry on this philosophy over there, is that realistic? I really haven't had a chance to explore on previous holidays to the area. Thanks.
No, everyone will laugh at you for being a fashion victim. Plus the snakes and spiders with find you very easy to catch on a ss....
Maybe, but IME there's more fashion around full sussers 😉 Many more over-biked full suss victims around than singlespeeders - surely they just give up when they realise it's difficult! I would really miss riding the SS, but I have to be rational (ish).
It is not flat in the Southern suburbs of Sydney, and Sydney is very big compared to London.
Hills are where singlespeeds are at their best - they're crap when everywhere's flat.
I've only ridden the mountains round Sydney (Blue Mountains) on a unicycle, and it was great on that. Nothing crazy steep in either direction.
It was very dry when I was there though, so I guess you might not get the advantages of lower maintenance, it wasn't like gears were going to get clogged up with mud.
Joe
Sydney is very big compared to London.
I didn't believe that, so I Googled it, and found this -
[i]London, England is bigger than Sydney, Australia both population wise (7+ million vs 4+ million) and area wise (12,000+ square miles vs 5,000+ square miles).[/i]
Which having been there, sounds about right. 🙂
Andy R - Member
Hills are where singlespeeds are at their best - they're crap when everywhere's flat.
This is the thing about single speeds that non SS riders don't understand. We love hills.
You can buy one of these in Oz - [u][b][url= http://www.avantibikes.com/29ers/kiss-29.aspx?bid=243 ]Avanti KISS 29er[/url][/b][/u]. I have one over there. It's a good bike and relatively cheap. To make it perfect I'd add a carbon fork. To pimp it up I'd use Hope hubs etc.
If I was going over permanently I'd just take a bag full of Hope components and On-One forks. Velocity rims are made in Oz so you can build up a good wheel. Everything else is readily available.
London, England is bigger than Sydney, Australia both population wise (7+ million vs 4+ million) and area wise (12,000+ square miles vs 5,000+ square miles).
London is 12000 square miles???? That's a square 120 by 100 miles!! What's the reference?
Singlespeed will be fine- most of Sydney's not particularly flat, but it's not mountainous either- it'll do your legs good. As said above, the stuff a singlespeed is made for.
Yes, granted, that does sound a bit wrong when you put it like that! I checked the source, who seems to have got the info from Wiki, but imagined a figure for London, from what I can see there!
I'll see if i can get better info..... Sorry..... 😳
EDIT
[url= http://www.citymayors.com/statistics/largest-cities-area-125.html ]THIS[/url] ranks Sydney as very slightly bigger, but with less than half the population...
It could go either way depending on how you measure it I think! 🙂
I grew up around 5 miles from Menai. Good riding between there and around Sutherland.
I think if you took it there's certainly the trails very near you that it would be perfect for. Having said that there are trails as near that would perhaps be more fun on a gear full sus bike.
On the trailflix site, Loftus is about a flat mile from Sutherland and Lucas Heights is about the same from Menai.
I might be moving back there later in the year so if you do move give me a shout as I'll need a new riding buddy! Another good website it rotorburn.
Good luck and have fun,
Jason
Cronulla to Palm Beach seems a lot further than say Watford to Croydon!
If we are willy waving about who has got the biggest city, you're all wrong.
Two of the biggest are in Oz, Kalgoorlie in WA and Mt Isa in Queensland Australia. [b][u][url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_by_surface_area ]Wikipedia[/url]
[/u][/b]
Just ignore the population figures though 🙂
I moved from the UK to Australia this time last year, at the time I rationalised my bike collection from 4 + lots of bits down to 2 to save the hassle of shipping.
I now wish i had taken advantage of the chance for cheap shipping as a job lot and brought everything i had as stuff is pretty expensive here.
Depends on what deal you are getting on shipping I suppose.
Perfect, thanks Jason. It all seemed good on the limited walks around there I've managed. I was just having a few last minute doubts. Waiting for approval before I can post on Trailflix. I'll have a look at rotorburn too. Hope to see you over there!
Ishouldbeworking: that's kind of what I was thinking. I got a shock when I checked prices. OK it was a Sydney bike shop I was in, but $240 for a camelbak Mule and $80 for Maxxis tyres!
whats the trail riding in Oz like these days?
I was there 13 years ago with my Klien and found only mainly fire roads with a few bits of singletrack but nothing like we have here in terms of sinewy singletrack and trail centres. I guess things may have changed a little though? One place I did ride in sydney was the Ku-ring-gai chase park.
And yes take the SS....
[url= http://www.trailflix.com.au/tfx_new/index.php ]Have a look here[/url]
wiggle and crc are your friend when you move here, free postage and no VAT either so you're laughing unless they get stopped for duty, i've been lucky so far....
but yes, bring everything,
Whatever you take, it needs to be quick enough to outrun a Backpacker asking you inane questions about living in there.
Oh the irony 😆