Circuit break ... a rider on an Electric Velocity bike tour.Credit: Katrina Lobley
Katrina Lobley sees the harbour city through fresh eyes on electric bike.
'Just assume it will try to kill you," jokes Claudette Ichayagouri as I go to straddle my electric bike. Ichayagouri, our guide, is explaining the mechanics of these somewhat exotic two-wheelers, which cost about $1400 if you want to buy one new.
It's important to cut the power before climbing on and off the thing, she says, because cyclists standing beside their bikes can absent-mindedly twist the throttle - and if the power's on that's disastrous. "It turns into a monster," she says. "If it takes off, you don't want to be standing beside it or in front of it because people's first instinct is to hold on."
It's a hair-raising introduction but there are a few other rules before we set off from The Rocks on a cool, sunny morning. Squeeze both brakes to stop - we're less likely to tip over the handlebars. We should try to stay close together in single file instead of leaving gaps so motorists notice us. Oh, and no overtaking Ichayagouri.
"If anyone opens their car doors, it'll be me in front who gets killed," she says in her overly dramatic but amusing way. But who tries to overtake - guys? "Mm-hmm. I keep saying I should do a girls' day out," says Ichayagouri, who tells us to call her Claude as she leads off from outside the historic Lord Nelson Brewery Hotel towards the ramp that funnels us onto the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
This is Electric Velocity's Sydney Classic half-day route. The route is open to negotiation - it doesn't always start with the bridge so feel free to tell Claude where you'd like to go first.
After 13 years in Sydney, I've still never crossed the bridge on the western cyclists' side so it's thrilling to zoom towards Kirribilli. I'm heavy on the throttle, light on the pedalling - telling myself I'm just getting used to the bike. Actually it's pleasant to just cruise and check the harbour view.
My biggest surprise is that electric bikes are silent - you have to peer closely and clock the battery to realise this bike is different from most. At the end of the bridge, we U-turn towards The Rocks and bump into a disoriented couple from Montreal trying to use the bridge cycle path.
Claude, risking a major pile-up, pulls up, tells them there's a guard ahead and they need to find their way back onto the eastern pedestrian path.
"Oh, we just got off the plane - our IQs are, like, really small this morning," says the chap in his fetching Quebecois accent. "Zank you!"
Back on land, there's a stop at Sydney Observatory. It's here that Claude mentions for the first time her love of NSW Governor Lachlan Macquarie - a colonial visionary whose town-planning decisions still resonate throughout modern central Sydney.
From Observatory Hill, we weave among the redeveloped Walsh Bay piers, zip under the Harbour Bridge, pass the Overseas Passenger Terminal and confront our first major challenge - the pedestrians milling around Circular Quay.
We ding our bells to clear a path and pull up for a breather round the front of the Sydney Opera House, where we can see into the northern windows and admire Jorn Utzon's architectural brilliance.
It's another chance for Claude to divulge a little history - although when she says the opera house contains more than 1000 rooms, I find it hard to believe (I later check with opera house staff; they confirm it's true).
We nip around the opera house, up Macquarie Street and onto the Circular Quay overpass - a little viewing spot I never knew existed.
This vantage takes in every spectacular sight in the immediate vicinity: the ferries chugging to and from the quay, the bridge, the harbour, the opera house.
From here, it's into the Royal Botanic Gardens where we must dismount and push the bikes.
That's OK - it gives us time to appreciate the grey-headed flying foxes dangling from treetops, the sulphur-crested cockatoos squawking on the grass and the pair of tawny frogmouth owls perched quietly in branches above our heads.
I gobble an apple - riders bring their own snacks - before we come across Japanese newlyweds posing for harbourside photos at Mrs Macquarie's Chair.
We jump back on our bikes, whiz past the Art Gallery of NSW, linger in front of St Mary's Cathedral and enjoy a happy lap around Hyde Park teeming with buskers and office workers downing lunch.
From here, the tour usually heads to Darling Harbour but with our stomachs grumbling and time pushing on, we return to The Rocks via the street named for Claude's favourite guy. In Macquarie Street, we rub the snout of the bronze boar for luck. Two placard-wavers outside NSW Parliament declare there are devils and demons inside.
A teacher warns her year 7s to keep out of our way (although I almost pile into the near-deaf Julia, who fails to heed her teacher's cries or my bell).
By the time we dismount, I'm a convert to these electric bikes. If you want exercise, then go your hardest and use the pedals. And if you don't, just twist the throttle. As Claude collects our helmets and pops the bikes back into the van, she's got one last pearl of wisdom.
"Whenever I see another bike group now," she says, "I just think, 'Schmucks! Who pedals?"'
Electric Velocity's three-hour Sydney Classic tour departs The Rocks at 9.30am on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, $79.30; Phone 1300 321 225, see electricvelocity.com.au.
Out and about in the Emerald City
Cycle
Sydney Olympic Park in the city's west has more than 35 kilometres of cycling pathways and trails meandering through open parklands, past woodlands and wetlands and along the banks of the Parramatta River. Recreational cyclists can relax on mostly off-road paths, while more serious cyclists can zip along on-road cycle lanes. Visitors can rent a bike in Bicentennial Park (bike hire open daily from 8.30am-5.30pm in summer and 8.30am-5pm in winter; adult mountain and hybrid bikes start from $15 an hour, kids' bikes from $10 an hour), see sydneyolympicpark.com.au.
Circle Centennial Park in Sydney's leafy eastern suburbs on a bike rented from Centennial Park Cycles (just outside the park at 50 Clovelly Road, Randwick, or at the branch inside the park near the intersection of Grand and Hamilton drives). Hire starts from $15 an hour for an adult standard or hybrid bike, kids' bikes from $10 an hour. The most relaxing time to visit is when the park becomes a car-free zone on the last Sunday of every season. See cyclehire.com.au.
Paddle
Explore a quietly beautiful part of Sydney Harbour on Sydney Harbour Kayaks's Middle Harbour eco-tour. The four-hour paddle — departing from The Spit in Mosman every Saturday and Sunday at 8.30am and including morning tea — covers the area's natural and social history. Cost is $99 a person, see sydneyharbourkayaks.com.au.
Take a guided kayak tour of Scotland Island and other parts of Pittwater in Sydney's north such as Lovett Bay and Clareville Beach. Paddlecraft's half-day tour begins at the Bayview Marina at 9am on the second Saturday of each month. Bring a friend and halve the work in a double kayak or go solo in a single. Cost is $75 a person, see paddlecraft.com.au.
Admire the world's second-oldest national park, the Royal National Park, south of Sydney, from the water. Bundeena Kayaks runs 2½-hour Sunday-morning kayak tours that take in the park's beaches, bays and bushland. Departs 9.30am. Cost is $77 adults; $44 children. On Saturdays at 9.30am, the company leads a kayak tour along Port Hacking River from Bundeena to Audley ($150 a person, includes a barbecue lunch) and a three-hour river paddle followed by lunch and guided walk to Aboriginal rock carvings ($129 a person). See bundeenakayaks.com.au.
Walk
City of Sydney has got with the times: among its downloadable walking-tour brochures are a couple of free podcasts to help you explore the city's colourful musical history. The Rock and Roll Walk of Fame and Shame podcasts currently cover Oxford Street (featuring Radio Birdman, Mental as Anything and others) and King Street and Enmore Road in the inner-west (includes Hoodoo Gurus's Brad Shepherd). See cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au.
Artist and nine-time Archibald Prize finalist Henry Mulholland leads walking tours of four key Sydney art gallery precincts — Paddington, Darlinghurst, Woollahra or Waterloo/Redfern — on Saturdays departing at 3pm. His next season runs from October 23 to December 11. Cost is $60 adult, $45 seniors, $30 children, see henrymulholland.com.au.
See the city through the eyes of a nattily dressed and highly opinionated architect. Sydney Architecture Walks feature architects leading groups on two-hour tours of iconic city high-rises (most Wednesdays at 10.30am) and Jorn Utzon's masterpiece (most Saturdays at 10.30am). There are other, less frequent, themed city tours and a bike tour is set to begin from October 31. Cost is $35/$25 a person, see sydneyarchitecture.org.
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