The freedom of the open road

Rode my bike into work today. I had promised myself that when the Tonkin extension work had completed I'd get back on me bike again. It'd gotten a little too scary along Tonkin and Albany Hwy to ride. Playing "Dodge Traffic" is never a fun game, and to add "Dodge Potholes, Unsealed Roads and Graders" was just a bit too much. It's a pity. Although I hadn't lost any weight I had nicely firmed up. Oh well. I'll probably ride 2-3 times a week for a bit and see how it all goes.

The new bikepaths along Tonkin are a dream! They are gentle and safe, and get rid of some of the worst bits of road that I had to navigate. Pity about the bit between the new intersection and Kelvin road...

For those interested, my current ride is as follows:
Start at Natasha Way, ride down an access path to Camillo. Ride to Lake Road. Ride to Albany Highway. (Only hairy bit here is crossing the railway tracks without any path.)
Ride down Albany Highway on the footpath until I get to the new Tonkin intersection and ride down it all the way to Gosnells Road. Take Gosnells Road East around to Reservoir Road. Turn off at Staniland Road and ride till the end. Turn down Maddington Road and under the Tonkin Highway flyover. Turn down the Access path and ride to the end of Bickley Road. I am now at work.

Scary bits: Anything after Tonkin. All badly sealed. No footpaths. Soft shoulders. My only accidents so far were both on the same day. One was caused by rolling off a soft shoulder (it flipped the bike) and the other was caused by some idiot unrolling some of the fencing wire down the final access path. (It wrapped around my foot and pulled me off backwards.)

But it is about 45-60 minutes with some gentle hills and gives a GREAT workout!