180km "offroad" adventure on a Tern GSD e-cargo bike - Richmond to Warburton

Melbourne's got a bunch of trails for bikes and pedestrians that traverse the city. Although they're frequently narrow, hilly and almost never take the direct route from anywhere to anywhere, they frequently go through some nice bushland and are technically "off road". With some judicious navigation, it should be possible to connect a bunch of them together and get all the way out to Warburton... if you're willing to ride that far.
Because I still need to work on my bike, but I need some practice for Around The Bay, I'm doing this on an e-bike I've hired - a Tern GSD cargo bike. Which will totally be fun...
Apologies for the sometimes chaotic camera work here. I had a GoPro mounted on my helmet, and as you'll know, you tend to need to look in about 6 directions at once while riding. Never realised quite how much I look up and down, either...

[@robzyb]

What a great video, and a fun adventure! It reminds me of a few years ago where I read a blog post (or maybe it was a video?) if someone who attempted to get from Tokyo to the island of Kyushu only using commuter trains (i.e. no bullet trains) using the cheap "student" ticket. It looks like a fun day out! I'm going to look into electric bike hire and trails around Melbourne.

[@DropTableAdventures]

Now that sounds like a fun (and very lengthy) adventure... if you find it, link me to it!

[@danx7143]

Great video, Pretty much all of the trails you went along I have ridden at some point either on my ebike or more recently on my road bike and it's been good times. One thing I would suggest though is if going through the Aqueduct trail in Mount Evelyn again that you don't follow the downhill bit onto Joy Avenue but instead go along the narrow part of the Aqueduct trail that cuts through the bush between Joy Avenue and the Rail Trail instead, it's easier and no potholes, though for getting to the Rail Trail coming from the wetlands you are probably still better off with a similar route to the other option you showed when you had 2 options. There's a bike path alongside Bellbird Avenue from the Hull road wetlands, and from there you can go through Lillydale Lake's path network, following one of about 3 ways out going past the skate park or along the fenceline of the Marketplace, then crossing into Lions Park, crossing Maroondah Hwy/Main Street and going past the ovals and onto the Rail trail from there. There's no onroad parts needed still (but does follow some paths next to roads) and it's far less steep than going up the path on Birmingham Road and the Steep parts of the Aqueduct Trail so would likely use less battery despite the longer distance.

[@DropTableAdventures]

Thanks for the comment and guidance on the tracks! I did realise that later about the track from Joy Avenue going alongside it - at the time I wasn't sure exactly where it went (it didn't appear on my map, so I had the road marked out instead). I think you're right about the other path - I've done the ride from Lilydale Station, and also that seems fine.

[@jethrocarrnz]

Nice vid but I had to laugh each time you mentioned a "steep" hill - come for a ride around Welly at some point :-D

[@DropTableAdventures]

Sounds like it'd be fun - though maybe I'd pick a lighter bike :)

[@JBthePAdashC]

I am considering buying a GSD and I have 2 questions: 1) how is the comfort for such a long ride? I was originally looking for something a little more Dutch style with swept back handlebars, but I like the carrying capacity of this and want to make sure it is comfy. 2) how did it handle on the gravel? If I get this, I’ll be giving up my gravel bike for it. I don’t do gravel often and I stay away from highly technical routes, but was wondering how stable it felt. Thanks!

[@DropTableAdventures]

1) It was reasonably comfortable on the ride, though I'm somewhat used to riding a fairly upright bike (I also have a Gazelle CityZen C8, seen at the start - the GSD was being rented). If you're used to drop bars, it might be quite a different experience. I think by default the saddle's a bit far back to put a huge amount of power into the pedals (but fine if you're just "leaning" on the electric assist) but it can shift forward to a position you can really pedal hard. At the end of the day, if you don't like the handlebars or the saddle, you could always change them. If the bike's a bit too hard-framed for your liking, you could use something like the Cane Creek Thudbuster for a seat post. 2) It handled pretty well on the gravel, it felt quite stable. Due to the smaller wheels, you certainly feel any potholes you hit, but the front suspension also means they're not incredibly jarring. It's heavy, it has a very low centre of gravity, and it has wide tyres, so it wants to track pretty straight - it's not an amazingly agile bike. But it feels like there's decent grip. I was tempted to take it down one of the easier MTB trails, but there's only so far I want to go on a bike that doesn't belong to me :)

[@shannonparker7404]

Who did you hire the bike with? Would you recommend them?

[@DropTableAdventures]

Hired it with Lug+Carrie as getting it for a month with them was about the same cost as hiring it for a few days with anyone else - but they're intended for longer term than that (minimum is a month), I basically had to sign up and then call them to cancel the day it was delivered. "No, the bike's fine, you didn't do anything wrong... I just only want it for one month!". Can definitely recommend them - they dropped it off to my place, and picked it up from there when the hire was complete - both at an agreed time and date, for no added cost. If I'd have hired it for longer, I'd have got them to fix the chain issue (they will come out and do it) - instead I just got my partner to notify them of what happened when I returned it. You can also pick what accessories you want on it, and hire it configured exactly how you want it (I picked a pretty bare bones config, as I was really just wanting to hire two Bosch PowerPack batteries for a single event - see the Around The Bay video!). They offer hire in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. (also no this isn't sponsored, I paid the normal rate for the hire out of my own pocket, and they had no knowledge or involvement in the video).

[@shannonparker7404]

@@DropTableAdventures Thank you! I will certainly contact them. Sounds excellent. I have two young children to take to school and want to ditch the money pit second car.

[@DropTableAdventures]

If you can determine a decent cycle route between your home and the school (note: not always the most direct route - look for bike paths, quiet backstreets and which main roads have / don't have a bike lane) I'd say it would do that job pretty well.

[@onenexia]

Did you think about turning the assistance level down?

[@DropTableAdventures]

I actually did turn it all the way down to "Tour" (100% assistance) as opposed to "Turbo" (255% assistance) part of the way into the ride back, but it didn't seem to affect the range much as for a lot of it I was sitting on or above 25km/h while coasting downhill and only really using the power assistance for the uphill bits - which with the reduced power assistance I was ascending much slower as my legs were starting to get a bit tired at the 150km mark... Could probably have saved a bit of power by doing this on the way out, but at that point I thought I'd make it, and there was no need to conserve energy. I didn't exactly know what to expect as it was only my second time riding that bike - I reckon I'd have made it on the Gazelle.

[@onenexia]

@@DropTableAdventures I have a Gazelle (Active line plus) and can do 80km switching between tour and sport on a single 500Wh battery. I'll save turbo for when I'm closer to home and know I can get away with it. I think Turbo is actually 400% assistance on the Tern GSD using the cargo line motor, but I'm not 400% sure about that.

[@DropTableAdventures]

@@onenexia Ahh actually yes, it might be 400% on the CargoLine. It certainly flies... enough to snap a chain, as I found out. I tend to ride in Turbo because it's the most fun, but that does of course impact battery life.

[@injuredtabletennisplayer1474]

Longest ride I’ve seen on a tern.

[@DropTableAdventures]

I wonder what the longest single ride on one is... it certainly wasn't previously on that one - when I got my hands on that one it had done 44km and the charger was still wrapped up!