I'm not sure if its faster but once reaching Swanston follow it to the last gate of the University and then follow footpath around the back of the university past the colleges until you come to the crossing with Princes Park on one side and the cemetary on the other. You can then ride on bike lane or bike path up either side of Princes Park until you reach the Park St bike path running across it. This is built on the old rail circle line. (NB if you elect the Western side the Park St path runs under the old rail bridge and you turn off onto it just before the bridge) You can ride this down to, I think its Clifton Hill railway station, and from there you can either cut through Fitzroy's Edinburgh gardens or better yet go through the underpass and onto the Merri creek trail, which will of course take you to the old Convent. This time of year keep the eye open for the odd snake sunning itself on the Merri trail.

This sounds more complex than it is so consult or take some photocopies of Melways when you first do it.

A slightly speedier route would be to go down to Lygon a the end of Swanston and ride up Lygon to Newry St, turn right and then first left and go up some very bike friendly streets to the Park St path.

Also remember that bikes travel free in off peak so a city train to Clifton Hill may be a happy medium for warmer or unexpectedly rainy days. (whoever thought the phrase "unexpectedly rainy" would ever apply to Melbourne, ah greenhouse days..)

I think you mean Franklin St, not Frankston St!

wot cw why not try olivers hill ?it would be too steep for me too . goodluck graeme...

Layout works and the ads seem to impact in the right places. The font size and kerning etc are better in the old blog. Have you thought about san serif which, without the wiggly bits, is a better read onscreen? Serif is very paper. Having said that, it's academic what I think as I tend to read everything via feeds in Safari.

G'Day Charles,
I'm an old cylist from way back, I used to live in Alphington and work in King St. Prahran I would basically go the opposite direction to what you're doing and a similar distance. I went from Heidelberg Rd. to Yarra Bend Rd. past Fairfield Hospital (before BLOODY JEFF closed it), across Kanes Bridge, then on the Kew Boulevard to the footbridge at the end of Gipps St. Abbotsford then left into Victoria Cr., around into Church St.-Chapel St. it's an easy ride, took me 15-25 minutes depending on the wind.
As for bike components I much prefer Campagnolo, which Cecil Walker Cycles also stock, that's where I always bought them.

Hello CW,

Why?

would you want to take so long and expend so much effort tooing and frooing from work?

Sounds like NASA introducing a "Duck" take off for its astronaughts. There are better ways.

You need to exercise, justify your bike, show off to the wife? Ride the beach bike track before and after you catch public transport to work.

Combine pleasure with pleasure and work with pleasure. If this is not suitable then I suggest that strapping a bomb to your chest is a shorter route to martyrdom.

Steven