The day that my exams finished in Year 2, I bought a second hand bike from Facebook marketplace. I had been thinking of buying a bike for almost two years now, but I never had the chance to buy one – I didn’t want just another bike from Kmart as all my previous ones had been, and buying a new bike otherwise would’ve been two expensive. I ended up getting a bike for $50 from a gentleman residing in Canterbury, who no longer rode his bike. The bike had originally been advertised for $80 but I got it down to $50 due to its condition – the handlebars and chain were mostly rusted and there was a lot of fest on it.

Cleaning the bike took a couple of hours. I had been planning to ride it to Brunswick to meet up with some friends but decided against it given the recent inclement weather (my friend told me that the Main Yarra Trail at the city end of the Eastern Freeway bike path had been flooded over recently). Getting rid of the rust was a matter of getting some vinegar and foil and just scraping. I also wiped the whole frame down several times and oiled the parts.

I had a read into some bike laws as well. It was important to become accustomed to riding on the road, I think, because, even though I probably wouldn’t ride on the road most of the time, but rather on trails, if I were to get to the trails I would need to ride on the roads. This is because, in Victoria, it is illegal to ride along the footpath if you are over the age of 13, unless you are accompanying someone under the age of 13 or have a medical condition.

Riding on the footpath is, I find, almost as dangerous as riding on the road, anyway. There are pedestrians – the rider is expected to veer onto the nature-script, as they should – and there are cars backing out of driveways as well. Given the speed at which a bike travels (compared to say, a pedestrian), they would have to keep an even more careful watch for these vehicles.

Other hazards when cycling include

  • Car dooring, especially in inner Melbourne
  • Lane splitting while cars are stopped at intersections

When road cycling, there are a couple of important considerations. These include using the bike box at the front of the intersection, using bus lanes unless prohibited, swerving out of a parked car’s way, using a hook turn to make a right turn and managing termination of bike lanes.
Having said that, there are so many trails in Melbourne such that riding on roads is not as necessary. From my suburb of residence, I can use Melway Online to easily view bike paths in my area.

  1. Park Trails – these primarily follow a natural landmark, such as a river. The Main Yarra trail follows a series of parks and reserves surrounding the Yarra River from its origin on Mount Baw Baw to the city. In general, the river’s change in gradient will not be as great as, say, a mountain, and would therefore be easier to ride along. Riders can follow the Yarra River to where it joins both the Eastern Freeway and Citylink, and finally to Southbank.
  2. Rail Trails – by the same principle, rail trails are relatively flat. There are several rail trails in the area, including the Box Hill to Ringwood rail trail and the Anniversary trail along the Alamein line. The Anniversary trail is so called because parts of it were opened 100 years after the Outer Circle train line opened in 1891.
  3. Freeways, in general, are lined by bike paths – so it’s not exactly true that you can’t ride on freeways. The areas around freeways are generally more spacey, making it easier to construct these.

How good it would be if Melbourne were dug up and rebuilt. In 2022, roads and freeways are being rebuilt with more lanes (for example, the Monash Freeway having an extra lane in each direction), railway crossings are being removed, trams are being extended, at massive cost and disruption. If only, when these had been first built, urban planners had had the foresight of Melbourne’s phenomenal population growth.

Interestingly, one of the reasons Melbourne is relatively accessible for cyclists (say, compared to Sydney), is because of our relatively flat topography. That is also a reason we have lots of railway crossings, many, many more than Sydney.