A fab Northern Beaches ride
Learn this and you have the keys to the Northern Beaches
This was on my BikeTrail.blog site before I moved the site to substack.
I hunted the maps of the Sydney northern beaches for two years and gave up on ever finding a half decent trail between the great Manly trail and the super Dee Why/Narrabeen Lake. Then I ran into Richard, the eBikerDiary guy in Gladesville and recognised his bike instantly. A few days later, we decided on a tour of the Northern Beaches, a place where Richard has ridden for 30 years.
See the connecting trail in Google Maps here in my Northern Sydney Maps >>
I arrive in Seaforth, Richard arrives a minute later like the phantom but sitting astride a Shimano electric double shock MTB and all the bells and whistles. It looks very similar to my Cube Reaction MTB and runs the same size battery. We took off on the lovely Seaforth to Manly trail and when we got to Manly golf course we took off up Manly Creek for a couple of kilometres and then joined Pittwater Rd and used the cycle path there for a bit. We then headed to Greendale Creek and at Griffen Rd, we ran out of official track. You then need to ride up the road to Dee Why for a couple of kms or bail out to the footpath if you have teens in tow. Once you get to Dee Why, you have many great kms of riding across to Narrabeen Lake and beyond. We choose the eastern side of the lake which is more interesting in my view. We completed our outward journey thru Warriewood and ended up in Mona Vale.
Our return journey was via the two golf clubs that have been kind enough to allow bike tourists to ride around the perimeter, Mono Vale and Long Reef. The trip down Colloroy Beach on the roads is fine as its mostly shared path with a lot of car driveways. From Long Reef GC we struggled down Pittwater Rd. I suggest using the council bike track which is one street back from Pittwater Rd.
We then returned whence we came back towards Manly and cruised through town and back up the harbour side trail to end up in Balgowlah. A journey of 55km. Both eBikes had 3 bars left out of 5 though I suspect we probably had 40kms left rather than 60 before a recharge was necessary. So a win to both Shimano and Bosch engines and a win to both our wide wheeled MTB ebikes as this setup is suited to an urban backstreet and shared pavement environment. Richard wins with the extra luxury of 2 shocks and a shock soft seat. Thanks to Richard for his detailed knowledge of the great phantom paths of the North Shore.
Trail Notes. Very flat except for around Manly headlands and Mono Vale. This is one area of Sydney where you have to ride back as there are no trams or trains to bring you home.
See more photos here >>
This was written 6 years ago. Nothing much has changed. It is still a great area for exploring.
Here is a link to Richards Archives. He was a writing pioneer for the Sydney Cycling community. He plays pickle ball these days and probably gets around on a smart ebike still.
Covers pretty much all the options in the area. A couple of points to note - the Warriewood Wetland sections are officially no bikes. Doesn't stop a lot of people riding through there (including me), but at least you need to be polite and considerate to any pedestrians in there - often bird photographers. Also, after Long Reef Headland, I find it's better to cut back on the path through the park to Anzac Ave and cross Pittwater Rd at the lights, then up Anzac, Hay and over to Cumberland that way. Maybe a little hillier, but a safer crossing of Pittwater Rd.