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Hearing you talk about all these factors actually made me wanna ride less, and I'm a cycling advocate, lol

i commented on one of your videos of when you were in bathurst about 6 months ago, i mentioned i was more pedestrian and driver than cyclist. have bought a bike since then, really enjoying it, but i basically do everything i can to not be anywhere near cars if i can help it! i was always respectful and patient with bikes beforehand, but it's good to see how it really is from a cyclist perspective now too.

Nice one. I will be moving to Sydney car free so this was quite helpful

If I'm getting showered at work anyway, I might as well get changed too so I can wear more comfortable sweat-wicking clothes on the bike, so the sweat patch caused by a backpack isn't as much of an issue. You can also get backpacks designed specifically for cycling/other exercise which have a mesh that sits against your back, while the bag itself curves back providing ventilation.

As mentioned elsewhere ponchos ("cloaks" in Chris-speak) are the way to go. I have a Peoples Poncho and my partner has a Cleverhood. Both are very good, People's is a little bulkier/ heavier but less expensive. They have changed how I feel about how I ride in the rain. When I first got mine, I hoped it would rain as I loved testing out how good it is. The brilliant thing is they keep your legs/ bottom half dry from rain above, and I don't sweat like in a rainjacket either. There is still some wet from below to worry about (feet wet) so I keep a pair of shoes at the office and take spare socks.

Weather: Less is more, you'll warm up as you ride. For anything 10ºC and up, a T-shirt and shorts is fine. Getting wet: It's going to happen, just accept it. Depending on your commute, sometimes you can bring the speed or intensity down to avoid sweat, sometimes you can't. Bag: For rain, invest in a good bag to keep your belongings dry. Don't wear your bag while riding, install a rear rack and milk crate to put it in. Hygiene: If you need to be fresh for work, get a few pairs of riding clothes, bring a towel and change of clothes, then shower and change at the end. If work doesn't have a shower, join a nearby gym. You have a bike, you can ride between them. Hills: Largely a skill issue, they get easier as you ride. The one thing I will say is to pay attention to knee pain, that usually means your seat is too low, or you're in too high a gear and you're mashing. Use your gears, and get a more hill-friendly cassette if needed. Bike value: Don't buy a $3k e-bike and leave it unlocked on the street. Get a cheap commuter bike from Trek and a good lock. Leave your bike in secured storage or in places you can see it from indoors. Take valuable non-screwed accessories such as lights with you. Yes, even at work. Remember: Cycling is largely a casual activity, don't stress the details too much. The most important thing is to get on your bike and start practicing, it'll get easier the more you ride.

Geat video Chris! Looking forward to the rest of the series. The bike i'm riding most at the moment came off the council clean up. Good luck to the person who steals that!

I think this advise is incomplete without a focus on reducing friction. This can be having panniers that are permanently on your bike. Foregoing gloves most of the time for poggies that are always on your bike. Reducing maintenance and how often you need a service. Recommending mobile bike mechanics that come to your home. Put jacket hangers right next to your bike. Also the summer thing is a bit more complex. You wouldn't really sweat as much if you didn't have cars behind you. You would sweat less if your city has a good summer cycling network. You sweat a lot less of you paced yourself. If you want to know more about summer networks and how trees are involved: th-cam.com/video/-gOX8vCehGk/w-d-xo.html

the path between kingston and fish sticks is garbage lol. Theres random turns for no good reason, and root bumps, heaps of road crossings, and after KFC it just disappears.

no bical! bical bad becaude ob the economy and clutter and condestion and stuff! and dey dont follow dah woad wules! 😤 no tree! no 15 minot city! no bical! no walk! only car!! 😤😡😠🤬😤😡

10:30 unfortunately out at tallawong there have been complaints of peoples expensive E-Bikes being stolen from the secure bike parking there

I've often seen at stations or when people ride to the beach, they have an old clapper of a bike so if it gets stolen, it's not such an expense and often some of the ones I see, nobody would touch them. I think that those who focus to steal a bike with cable cutters or angle grinders know a bit about bikes enough to know which ones would fetch the highest dollars to buy their drugs.....many buy a Kmart girls bike or something worth about $200, they are heavy, clunky, not great for hilly areas but are not likely to attract a thief. Leave the good bike at home and ride a cheapie......so many i've seen outside pubs.....mostly by those who've already lost their licenses for DUI's. lol.

My biggest advice for riding in summer is to drink plenty of water, being double what you need and bring insulated drink bottles, CamelBak sells plastic ones which I use because they fit in my bottle cage. And wear sunscreen! The tops of your arms will get sunburnt.

As an experienced city commuter infrastructure would be my largest pain point. Theres a handful of intersections and roads that I have to cross or interact with where you need to be comfortable with a bdouble blasting past you. Or where the only way to safely cross is to break the law. I jump on a footpath I’ve never seen a pedestrian use rather than run the gauntlet on a particularly fast, already noted black spot intersection. I could see a new rider either planning, seeing that this is necessary and then not even attempt it. Or they try and commute, come up against this and get terrified and then just never do it again.

2:27 you need his HWAT?!

ahhh theft, the one reason i ain't riding rn. still haven't been bothered to buy another bike atm, (especially with the 2 hour commute if i were to cycle). still looking forward to getting back into cycling though, thanks for the lock tips.

Absolutely incredible how you can upload videos AND cast bicycle spells simultaneously!

As an E-Bike rider I've invested in a pair of heated gloves for cold weather riding, they were a bit expensive but they heat the fingers as well as the palms, cheers...Doug

Thanks Chris, I found your videos practical and very helpful. I appreciate your videos very much. Looking forward to part 2. Hey, a cloak is often called a poncho.

I hate when my feet are exposed to my hands :(

Cool video! The animation is great; alot of effort must have gone into researching when and where each cycleway was rolled out. It's also interesting to see the effort that has gone into creating a connected and legible network across the CoS, no matter how hard fought for each little peice of infrastructure must be. I'm currently writing my Master of Urban Planning thesis on Sydney's cycling infrastructure, so this video was excellent and informative procrastination.

They aren't human rights activists... They're hardcore Boomer NIMBYs.

I have two children who own wheelchairs. I have found that good cycleways are also great for mobility scooters and wheelchairs. It is the refusal, the protests of this decent infrastructure that is actually ageist and ableist!

No no wait a minute you can't be stating the obvious to the Super Powers at the Transport Ministry that would mean they would have to acknowledge that something that should have been done 40 years ago still hasn't been taken care of by the ministry of shiny asses oops I mean transportation 😅 💯 great video thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences 😊

Well funny I should catch your great video after watching just last night the disappointment of a chap who like me thought it would be easy to hook up from Olympic Park Cycleway to the start of the Cook river Cycleway to mascot. What a joke they should be ashamed of themselves oh sure we should think ourselves lucky that there's any infrastructure whatsoever but alas it's the government who have supplied a band-aid solution to take ourselves and our family along for a safe ride around Sydney without being threatened by the mostly unskilled drivers who traverse Sydney Metro on a daily basis not to mention the poor old truckers who have to navigate a poor infrastructure for a living. Boy would I like to give it too the minister in charge of cycling infrastructure obviously the liberals didn't prioritise it and it just gets blamed on the following government in power there's no easy solution to this but as you say we'll take it whatever the allocation 😊

I was very enthralled by this video Can we please get more content like this in the near future keep up the good work, peace brother ✌️!!

Putting more tolls (whatever you call it) on public roads will only drive more traffic to smaller and alternate routes. Actually the worst part of traffic are caused by trucks using public roads to get around tolled roads. The stretch of Pennant Hills Road between the M2 and M1 used to be really congested, but since the trucks were forced to take the Northconnex, it made it much more driveable. Of course forcing trucks to always take toll roads might drive up inflation due to increased transport costs, so the trucks need to be helped with a rebate scheme. Doing so will in fact be better for most trucks since they can drive more efficiently without having to constantly stop,and have faster delivery times too because they are using motorways.

You’re making an incorrect assumption that giving better access to Epping station would make people ditch their cars. The problem is that most of the traffic going through Epping are only passing through from either the Carlingford side or the Beecroft side. Having better bike and pedestrian infrastructure without widening the bridge means taking lanes away from the through traffic, leading to even longer traffic jams. The problem is that Epping Road is a choke point, with the only other option either an expensive toll trip on the M2 or a long detour down at Eastwood. If they could open up another through road from Cheltenham to North Epping, that would cut the car traffic by half as the cars from the North will have an alternative route to get past Epping. People who actually drive to Epping station from the Carlingford side rarely cross the bridge anyway as they know the traffic is bad, so they normally park around the residential streets South of Epping and walk across the overhead bridge instead of taking the road bridge.

Chris Topher, I yelled at you on the street today near the Warren View. I love your content!!!