Cycling/Gravel in Melbourne

Training
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Melbourne locals help me out! All input in greatly appreciated.

My A-event for the year hasn’t happened yet, but we got the exciting news that my girlfriend needs to go to Melbourne for work for a week. And we are planning a holiday after this.

This means I have 5 days of free time to ride my bike in and around Melbourne!

So, my questions:

  1. This will be in February 2025. Is the temperature bearable to cycle during the day?
  2. What are the best options for bike hire (preferably a decent gravel bike with tubeless tires)? What are some good bike shops that might be willing to rent out a bike? I found some bigger stores online, but not yet convinced.
  3. For routes, I love off-road riding (XCM, gravel) and would be looking to rent a gravel bike. Can you link me some mixed gravel routes in the area?
  4. My eye also fell on a bike-packing route “The Otway Rip”. Anyone have some experience with this area? Would be looking to ride it in 2 days/1 night.

All input is appreciated.

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I’ve only been to Melbourne once, years ago and it was a road bike I rented from these guys BikeNOW Rental Bikes - bikeNOW. It looks like they do a shuttle bus to the trails which I guess are in Yarra Park just east of the city.

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Yeah, BikeNOW was the best option I found so far online. But I’m open to other options aswell.

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I only used them because they were right opposite my hotel (I hadn’t done any prior research) but they were pretty good and reasonable IIRC.

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5

Weather wise feb is usually fine however there is the occasional hot day 2024 Feb temp

If your after an easy bike path ride around the city itself there is the Capital City trail

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6

Mt Dandenong is pretty close to the city. something like the below.
Last year, I went up via a gravel route and descend on the main road. Very popular with cyclists but most roadies use the main road to go up/down.

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7

Thanks!

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Yeah, in the meantime, I found Adventure Cycling Victoria aswell. Great recourse for some easier (and some harder) rides!

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These guys do social gravel rides every weekend

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