Waiting for the start can be a little tricky when we are predicting the best place to line up the bikes and not be in anyone’s way for a decent photo.  The number of bikes/people lined up put off potential street parkers from the front of the Hotel.  

Following the briefing, we were off winding our way under bridges and through the backstreets to the hillier section of lower Mitcham.  Here is where the lovely manicured laws, security fences and a lack of footpaths tells you that it’s Springfield. By this stage I managed to get Lizzie to take the P line to see how it compared to her original Brompton.  There were certainly many positive comments on its handling up the hills. We continued to cycle slowly up joining a dirt path called ‘Government Road’, I’m sure its got another name (.. and I’m not joking about the name), but the view over Adelaide was pretty impressive. 

After a brief stop to admire the view of Adelaide we were quickly heading downhill again (did I hear right that someone managed over 60km ?$%!?), zipping in-between the buildings at the Waite Arboretum, avoiding getting stuck in the drainage grate and downwards.  However, this was followed by the disappointment of Cross Road and Fullarton Road intersection.  At least there are lights to cross safely.

Traversing the quiet back roads of Unley we stopped for another photo opportunity in front of the under construction Unley Museum… thankfully Heywood Park was not too far away for the “coffee outside” stop. Oh! The biscuits were a true delight – thank you to everyone who contributed biscuits/slice to the coffee outside – it’s very much appreciated.

Leaving the park behind and crossing Cross Road again, we proceeded to zig zag through the back streets, and thin paths next to the railway line and creek. Quite a few of us at the back weren’t quite sure we knew which direction we were facing, but we could definitely tell it was very much a Kym cycling route.  Even I managed to get lost on part of the ride, due to the Beeline being on the loan bike and be being separated from me and my phone.   The next section through the back streets of Colonel Light Gardens was certainly interesting experience given the rain – I was just pleased to get through the sections without falling over. I didn’t take any photos in this section, but here are some photos taken from other rides. 

Just as we were heading under the train line I thought the turn into the road didn’t feel quite right.  Inspecting the tyre on the other side of the train line, sure enough it was flat as.  Sigh!  Is there nothing more annoying than being so close to the end of your ride and getting a flat.  No….. what about my Strava activity and kms!  At this point Michelle suggested her partner, Anthony, collect us and drop us at the Ed for lunch.  While we patiently waited we attempted to remove the quick release pedal.  At this point I was recalling being informed how easy these were to remove! Well if they are easy, I’m definitely not their target user.  I will happily take the left-hand flip folding pedal any day, regardless of age or style.

Not long after the ride Ingo posted to Facebook a great video of the ride, which covers the route and some of the locations for which I have no photos. Check it out below.

Woo-hoo!  Here’s hoping for the next ride being another blue sky day!  Huge thanks to Treadly for supporting Adelaide Bromptoneering and lending us the P line to try.

• Brompton’s ridden other than my own: 5
• Riders start: 16
• Riders at Hazelwood Park coffee stop: 17
• Riders getting lift in the last 2km: 2
• Riders completed the full distance: 15 

The next ride is on 19 July 2026 leaving from The Ed in Mitcham.

*** Reminder *** we are again having “Coffee Outside” please bring a warm drink of your preference.

We will be bringing some sweets and a few spare cups of coffee. If you’d like bake something let us know.

Remembering good times

Vanessa posted some great photos on Facebook of her Brompton along the Torrens recounting some of June 2026 Social Ride. Please keep the submissions coming.

If you’d like to re-ride an Adelaide Bromptoneering route, then head over to the Adelaide Urban Adventures page where we have more than 24 months of Adelaide Bromptoneering rides.

Helen and I recently re-rode the Coopers Brewery route and had a great time. We noticed a few minor improvements that could be made. We will make those improvements so that the next person who rides finds it even better.

Let us know that you have re-ridden a route by posting some photos. If you find some issues with the route let us know so we can update and improve the information on the Adelaide Urban Adventures page.

Brisbane Takeover 2027

The dates have been set for the Brisbane Takeover. They are Monday 19 to Friday 23 July.

Like Canberra there will be 5 days of riding Adelaide Bromptoneering style. I have just returned from doing the reccy. I am very happy with the routes. If you are interested in joining us please register on Brisbane Takeover page. There is a cap on the number of riders that can participate and this will be determined by the date a person registers interest.

Change to the venue for the October 2026 Adventure Ride

The original plan was to visit Gawler River Brewing near Angle Vale. I do recommend visiting this brewery as it has good beer, food and vibe! But, I cannot recommend it as a ride.

I was planning to ride in the local area and the eastern side of the Northern Expressway where the older suburbs and public transport is located. Despite there being an off-road cycle path in Angle Vale, I could not find a single safe cycling or pedestrian route to cross the Northern Expressway. It is only about 600 metres from Angle Vales off-road cycle path to the Stuart O’Grady Bikeway. It seems to me that the State and Local Governments are denying autonomy to young adults and are locking the north into a car only future. Surely, this is not a good outcome.

We will move our adventure ride to Onkaparinga, which in my opinion has some of the best riding in Adelaide. We will visit Unit Three Collective and do a loop around the Souther Suburbs.

It had been a week of continuous rain… well as much as we’d had in a very long time by Adelaide’s standards. The Sunday ride was the only day that week to be clear.. and by the early morning light it certainly indicated we were going to be in luck – in more ways than one.

Given the perfect sky we cycled to the start of the ride at Brightstar Brewing…nothing like additional KMs in your legs. We arrived at 10:40am, just minutes before others started to roll up, and parked the bikes in front of the local mural. 

Kym’s overview of the ride was pretty short on the description. Admittedly following the River Torrens towards the hills is pretty easy for navigation with limited opportunities to go off the path. Just as we were rolling out one more rider joined on the end – in the nick of time.

We headed north east through parklands, Bonython Park and through towards Elder Park avoiding walkers, dogs, scooters and stopped briefly for that classic Adelaide photo shot.

Back on the bikes again (more thin paths… maybe one day these will be widened), following the path under a number of road and busway bridges.  Given the weather, there was certainly a lot of people enjoying the sun. I nearly missed the right turn over the bridge to Lochiel Park stop for “coffee outside”.

At the “coffee outside” stop there were three different snacks people had brought to share. Two different types of cookies (chocolate chip.. and something else I can’t remember – this is why I need to write these posts quickly after the ride) and Dutch spice honey cake (peperkoek).  Thanks to Michelle, Gail and Ingo (thanks Ingo’s wife!).. they provided the fuel for the remainder of the ride.

After the break leaving behind the structured paths of the River Torrens we winded our way back through house lined streets, thin lanes, public parks (what was that crazy loop in the park..?) where being behind resulted in being briefly lost. 

Finally we made it back to the parklands, past the new aquatic centre, through the golf course (or what is remaining) crossing the train line following the path back under Port Road to Brightstar brewing.  Locking up the bikes outside.. we even made it in time to see the kick off in the Socceroos vs Turkiye World cup game.  What a ride! What a game! Thanks to everyone who came out – and especially to those who baked!

Not long after the ride Ingo posted to Facebook a great video of the ride, which covers the route and some of the locations for which I have no photos. Check it out below.

Riders started :15… 1 missed the original photo line up

Riders ended 15

Apologies for this report being late… so many things to blame.

The June 2026 Adelaide Bromptoneering Social Ride is leaving from Brightstar Brewing at 11:00am on Sunday 14 June. The weather is looking good. The coffee stop will be “Coffee Outside” please bring your preferred hot drink in a thermos. If you’d like to bake some goodies for us please let me know.

For route and other details visit the June 2026 Brightstar x Coffee Outside post. Please let us know if you intend to go (so there is enough space on the table at the end!).

We want your photos!

We would love to see your photos of your Brompton (and maybe you!).

Treadly Bikeshop has kindly donated two t-shirts (a size S and size M) which will be handed out our Christmas lunch to the people who sends us the two best photos in the second half of this year (subjectively selected by Helen and me).

The photo doesn’t have to be from one of our rides, just any photo that you love and have taken that has a Brompton in it.

If you are on Facebook send it to the Adelaide Bromptoneering Group. If you are not, you can e-mail it to ride@bromptoneering.blog.

Throwback Thursday

Throwback Thursday is the day when I choose one Adelaide Bromptoneering’s Social Rides from the vault and re-ride it! The purpose is to have a bit of fun and to update the route (which is now on the Adelaide Urban Adventures page) for current circumstances.

The next Throwback Thursday ride will be the Lady Burra ride. Adelaide Bromptoneering last rode this ride in March 2025. Anyone who attended this ride last time will agree with me that a Lady Burra is definitely a better place to visit on Thursday Lunch than Saturday Night on a bike ride. No need to RSVP just be out front of Lady Burra at 10:30am on Thursday 18 June.

The last Throwback Thursday ride had two participants. Gordon from Sydney and I re-traced the steps of the March 2024 Mismatch Brewing ride. The ride is still great even if Mismatch Brewing is no longer at that site.

The route is flexible and you can chose to start it from the Prince Albert Hotel (like I did), or Little Bang, Bowden Brewing or Brightstar Brewing.

It felt like an eon since the March Adelaide Bromptoneering… but here we were again. Based on the number of people who were already at the meeting point it was clear the enthusiasm for the ride was high. The ride summary was delivered by our leader Kym. He really needs to work on delivering more than those ‘We are going on a ride’ statements. Following traditional line-up pictures we were off. Well at least we thought we were until there was a flat… and then someone from the final four jumped in with a pump to get the Brompton ready to roll.

The first part of the route involved winding our way past the new murals near the bike paths near the Port Dock museum and railway station towards Rosewater where we went along the new Rosewater Loop walking/cycling path along a disused rail line. Thankfully the gravel was compact enough not to be a problem – but watch out for road crossings. This was not Canberra (yes only those who have cycled in Canberra will get the reference).

Cycling through Pennington, our destination was St Clair, and the local parks certainly provided connection to different parts of the suburbs. We came across some very character defining public art (Pennington Gardens Reserve – should anyone want to find it again), and more unusual path work which sent us in circles, and a cool short video.

St Clair (yes the old Cheltenham racecourse… much better use of space) has some great paths alongside the wetlands – perfect for running into an additional Brompton rider. Just when everyone was comfortable crusing along the paths and looking at the different housing types we took a 180 and headed back towards Alberton and paused at ‘Any Given Sunday’ for the coffee stop. It’s a fabulous place to stop if you ever in the Alberton area, its just far enough away from the standard cycle way, and probably not a good place to go prior to a footy match at the local oval if your not a Port supporter.

Back on the bikes again after coffee, we weaved through the backstreets, used traffic lights to cross main roads (cause Government’s don’t think about how cyclists and pedestrians move through the burbs), passed the modern developments, criss-crossing Pt River, over to Birkinhead, along Pt Dock and over the new pedestrian and cycle bridge to where the City of Adelaide clipper ship is moored. Surprisingly next to it on the water is one of the new KI Ferries. Plenty of photo opportunities here for boat and Brompton lovers alike. The remainder of the ride was short to Pirate Life through some more historical industrial parts of the port.

The ride was truly a stunner, made better only by those attending and an enjoyable lunch (once it turned up) and a drink or two.

Shout-out to James for securing a nifty looking light blue Brompton and joining your first Adelaide Bromptoneering ride – we hope you’ll come back!

Started: 12 Finished: 13

Bag left behind: 1 – don’t worry it got back to the owner by the end of the day.