Bike hire Queensland, Australia in April?

Questions about bike hire abroad and everything light bike related. No off-topic chat please

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the_marsbar
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by the_marsbar

I am going to a conference in Brisbane in the middle of April.

Are there any good places for bike hire? I mainly ride mountain bike, but I wouldn't mind logging some hours on the road while I'm there.

genesis692
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by genesis692

I'm not sure about MTB hire but I know you can hire road bikes from Chain Gang Cycles.

They're about 15 minutes from the CBD.

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campbellrae
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by campbellrae

Bike Obsession also hire road bikes, they are in the CBD, on Mary Street.

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the_marsbar
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by the_marsbar

Thanks for your suggestions. I will make sure we check them out :) After the conference we will be going north for 10 days before we go back.

Are there any places in particular that would be worth visiting (both on and off bike)?

Illuminate
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by Illuminate

What style of riding are you in to? Do you prefer mountains with views, or flattish coastal or...

When you say you're heading north, how far north are you going? Are you looking for places to visit/stay along the way? Are you driving back to Brisbane to fly out or are you flying out from Cairns?

Re places to visit, you might be best to wait 3 days for an answer - there's a large cyclone about to cross the coast 700km North of Brisbane which might make a mess (www.bom.gov.au) :)

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the_marsbar
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by the_marsbar

The hillier the better (Denmark is flat as a pan cake) :)

The route is not all set just yet, but we were planning on driving (in a rented car) along the coast, and stopping at the interesting places. We haven't really decided how far up we're going, maybe we can get to Cairns or even further? We are driving back to Brisbane to fly out.

Recommendations for places to visit and stay along the way would certainly be of great help.

Question: Is it sensible to drive north of Brisbane, or would it be more interesting south of Brisbane? We just talked about driving north, because everyone seems to be going to Sydney, and we didn't necessarily want to do the same as everyone else.

Thanks for the heads up regarding the cyclone, I will keep an eye on the news. And thanks for replying, it is greatly appreciated :)

raisinberry777
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by raisinberry777

http://cyclingtips.com.au/2015/02/roadtripping-cairns/

Worth a read about riding in Cairns. Looks amazing.

CulBaire
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by CulBaire

Can’t help with the bike hire but…

If you are staying in Brisbane for a few days there are plenty of road rides you can get in. To the south you have the Gold Coast Hinterland, the ride up to Mount Tamborine which is best ridden from the Tamborine or Canungra side. From Canungra you have O’Riellys Plateau in the Lamington National Park both good rides. There is also the roads out though Mount Cotton and Redlands towards Victoria Point nice ride, certainly no climbs like those above but good riding all the same.

Just north of Brisbane you have Mt Coot-tha, further out is Nebo, Mt Glorious, etc… An hour north of Brisbane you have the Sunshine Coast Hinterland with a fair bit of riding around there, admittedly I am not too familiar with the Northside so probably not much help.

MTB riding, you have Gap Creek (Back of Mt Coot-tha), Daisy Hill / Rochedale, Cornubia,(south of Brisbane) Nerang (Gold Coast), a lot of trail work has been done at Daisy Hill / Rochedale and Nerang the last few years and all these offer some pretty cool trails that can be made into loops.


I have travelled north of Brisbane to Townsville and Cairns quite a few times but never with a bike, if you’ve never been up that way it is well worth a trip though and will give you a good idea of not only how vast the country (it’s a 19hr drive) is but also how vastly different the environment is. Heading south isn’t bad but I probably wouldn’t bother with going as far as Sydney (personal preference). April is generally a good time of year in QLD, usually the summer rains have died off and the sun is out.

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the_marsbar
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by the_marsbar

Great! Thanks a lot for your replies. I can't wait to go :)

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the_marsbar
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by the_marsbar

So the trip overall was great. The World Cup track in Cairns also looked very nice. However, the bikes we rented from Cairns MTB Tours were so crappy, it ruined the whole experience. We rented "high-end 29er hardtail". The only high end thing about those bikes, however, was the rental price (70 AUD for half a day for each bike). If I had known this I would have not have bothered (it would have been incredible with my own bike, I'm sure).

Aluminum frames, 1 x 9 speed setup, my bike's free hub was totally worn out, low-end Deore brakes, and crappy Rock Shox RC30 forks.

I would not recommend this place to anyone.

In Noosa, however, we rented a couple of nice Trek road bikes through Bike On.

Thanks for all the recommendations in this thread :)

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