Moving to Sydney

Chris87

Hi All

Me and the Mrs are making the move down under to Sydney next month for at least two years.

Wondering if anyone can recommend clubs, shops, anything bike related that might be useful.

I'm using it as a good excuse to buy somthing new, light and shiny when I get there as well, as prices look pretty good!

anyway any info would be ace!

Cheers

Wheelspinner

Chris87 wrote:

Hi All

Me and the Mrs are making the move down under to Sydney next month for at least two years.

Wondering if anyone can recommend clubs, shops, anything bike related that might be useful.

I'm using it as a good excuse to buy somthing new, light and shiny when I get there as well, as prices look pretty good!

anyway any info would be ace!

Cheers

I'm a local. Where will you be living and working?

papad

If you thought the drivers in the UK were bad... !

Chris87

We're not sure where we will be living yet, probably around chatswood/willoughby

The mrs is working in Hornsby but I'm going to be doing freelance design work so will most likely be working in the centre so we're going to try and get somewhere in the middle.

bill57

Clarence St. Cyclery? Got a nice jersey from there, all I could afford.

mangetout_rodney

I'm from Sydney originally- moving back to Melbourne in a year.
You'll love riding around Sydney and the surrounding areas.
Make sure you get up to the Central Coast- Gosford, Woy Woy area- a fairly short journey from Hornsby.
http://www.cctcc.org.au

Also Kuringai Chase national park.

pippi_langsamer-2

Oh Gawd, try avoid Charswoo if you can!

We used to live just down the road from Hornsby in Westleigh. I used to do a nice short loop out into the Berowra National Park and thru the gorge which offered a decent enough bit of climbing. Some nice roads out the back towards Dural etc.

There's a more demanding three gorges ride too. Plenty of clubs out that way. Traffic is hectic until you get onto the back roads!

Chris87

ha ha cheers for the heads up, any particular reason? Recommendations on where to live are also welcome

We've got one week in a hostel and two weeks living in hospital accom before we need to find somewhere permanent so were hoping find out the best places to look

mangetout_rodney

Where to live?
Wherever you can afford in Sydney these days- it is astonishingly expensive- comparatively more than London.
One of the reasons we're heading to Melbourne when we go back.

Flâneur

I lived in Manly but effort if you are coming into the CBD I guess

Wheelspinner

Pippi has a point. If you move to Chatswood I suggest you start learning Cantonese!

Depends on whether you have to rely on PT too, else northern beaches may be worth a look. Mona Vale, Newport etc. otherwise I'd look at the west half of Killara Gordon Pymble etc. Lane Cove nice too.

Clarence St Cyclery is ok but dear. Turramurra shop not bad. Chatswood shop is a Spesh dealer these days mainly.

Browse bikeexchange.com.au for all the LBS listings, gives you a decent overview of the market here.

My local is excellent, but the other end of town! Bikebug in North Sydney ok, has a website too.

Chris87

Cheers wheelspinner

I'll probably be relying on a combination of PT and bike (I commute 25 miles a day by bike at the moment) the mrs is going to get a car though as she will be working all over that area

pippi_langsamer-2

All I’d say is be prepared for it taking twice as long (maybe more), for you to find rental accommodation. The housing market in Sydney is ridiculous. They operate an “Open House”, style of viewing, whereby any property is quite literally open for prospective tenants to have a look on a specific day (generally weekends).. Expect to see 20+ possible tenants visit in a flurry, and get their applications in quick. Its then basically down to the discression of the landlord/ owners whom gets it. You may find you lose out to those whom may have a big wodge of cash ready (quite literally), in their pockets at the viewing to pay the rental down-payments. I think we were in temp accoms thru work for 4-5 weeks.

We lived in Westleigh for most of our time- just down the road from Hornsby. Nice little place- absolutely bugger all going on, but we liked that. You’ve also got Thornleigh and Cherrybrook which are decent areas close to Hornsby. Cherrybrook is nice- full of bloody Poms LOL. It will make sense for you to maybe look at places not tooo far from the north line rail network. I used to work slap-bang in the centre of the city, and commute from Thornleigh took about 40 mins by train to Wynyward.

Commuting? You take your life in your own hands there im afraid until you get onto the cyclepaths of the city. Traffic is a nightmare in Sydney.

I used to do a decent little ride from Westleigh out towards St Ives, then thru Berowra National Park thru the gorge which has a decent little bit of switchback climbing, before heading out towards the north end of Dural. Theres a decent longer route known as the Three Gorges also.

Yeah, Chatswoo(d), is a big satellite CBD on the north shore of Sydney- big shopping centre, home to a lot of multi-national companies/ high-rises……rail interchange. Almost exclusively Chinese in populous.

Before we left, we were in more temp accoms in Milsons Point (first stop after the Harbour Bridge going north). I really liked it there, though $$$.

Make the effort to hire a car (and a satnav)- drive around some of the suburbs and try get a feeling yourself. Careful with road tolls.