River ride
The river ride is a popular circuit about 33km long, crossing the Brisbane River at Indooroopilly and in the CBD. Most of it is on the road, but only a few spots usually involve interaction with motor traffic.
The description below details the route in terms of both street names and landmarks so you can follow it easily both on a map and when cycling. The general rule is just to keep the river as close as possible on one side and you can't go far wrong at all. A map of the route is available on Bikely here.
Route
The river ride is a complete loop so it can be started and finished anywhere on it, but the description below starts at the Jack Pesch Bridge in Indooroopilly and proceeds in an anticlockwise direction. From the bridge, turn left into Rosebery Tce (at the strange contra flow cycle traffic island), then the first and only right (Luxford St, immediately after the construction on the site of the old bowls club) and left at the end (onto Queenscroft St). Follow this along the edge of the river for about two kilometres (during which it becomes Nadine St) until you reach the stop sign at Graceville Ave. Turn left there and follow it over the bridge (where it becomes King Arthur Tce) towards the old Tennyson power station. Now that the roadworks associated with the Tennyson Riverside Development are finished you can proceed straight ahead at the new roundabout and connect directly from King Arthur Tce to the back streets of Yeronga, avoiding Fairfield Road.
There are a variety of routes through the streets of Yeronga, but generally the idea is to stick close to the river. To start with, proceed past the new tennis centre, turn left at the next roundabout and then left again onto the fairly short Ortive Street and then the first (only) right onto Stevens Street. Continue straight across and onto the short section of path before Stevens Street resumes. Follow it all the way along until you hit Yeronga Street, at which you should continue almost straight ahead (offset slightly to the left) onto Feez Street and, at the end of that, turn left onto Kadumba Street. Follow Kadumba Street for the best part of a kilometre until, at a right corner, Anita Street continues on more or less straight ahead (technically a left turn). Follow it down the hill (past the church on the right) and take the third right onto Diane Street. It's at the bottom of a second, short bit of downward slope so you'll want to keep your hands on the brake levers here, particularly as you won't get much warning if there's a car coming the other way around the corner. Another option is to continue on the last bit of Anita Street right down to the river, turn right onto the short section of Esplanade, and then double back onto Diane Street. From Diane Street, take the second right (or first left if you're coming from the Esplanade) onto Ormadale Road and continue to the end. Turn left onto Orlando Road and then immediately right onto Brisbane Corso. This is a fairly pleasant stretch of about 3km along the river, although there is some motor traffic along it as well, and aggressive magpies have been known to patrol it.
At the South Brisbane (Dutton Park) Cemetery, go to the left (T.J. Doyle Memorial Park Drive) and follow the road up through the park, under the new Eleanor Schonell Bridge. This is an opportunity to cut the loop short and head over to the University of Queensland, but otherwise just stay on the road. There's a short but steep hill to get you warmed you up for Gladstone Rd at the top, where there is moderate to heavy motor traffic but at least reasonably wide lanes. Turn left onto Gladstone Rd and follow it a bit over a kilometre right up to the top of the hill. Where the road narrows a little part way up the hill there's some green paint to indicate a ramp that gives an opportunity to get off the road, but it's not obligatory and road cyclists will prefer to stay on the road. At the lights at the top of the hill, turn left onto Dornoch Tce.
From here you have a nice cruise down for a bit over a kilometre until you need to take another "technical left" (effectively straight ahead) to Ganges St. Go easy on the speed down the hill here, because you need to follow the road around to the left (where it becomes Hoogley St) and through a roundabout down to the West End CityCat stop. As you follow the road around to the right (onto Orleigh St) watch out for cars, buses, ferry passengers and ruts in the bitumen.
Once you clear that corner it's another generally pleasant stretch along the river as you follow the road around the edge of the river through its changes of name to Hill End Tce and then Riverside Tce. Keep following the road even where it's signed as a no through road. You'll reach a cul-de-sac at one point where you need to go more or less straight ahead and slightly to the right onto a shared path around the back of some rowing sheds. At the far side of the sheds you can drop straight back onto the road at the corner of the car park entrance on the left, but you'll need to look in several directions for cars. Shortly after this you'll reach the Riverside Drive sewerage works with temporary traffic lights that many cyclists choose to ignore (illegally, obviously) due to their long cycle time. The remaining section of road has little through traffic but has a few factories with many workers arriving early in the morning and parking along that section of road.
The road turns off to the right at the Pauls factory near the railway bridge, and you want another "technical left" straight on to the narrow shared path that goes under the William Jolly (Grey St) Bridge. There's sometimes broken glass around there, so keep an eye out to avoid a puncture. Keep following the path to the boardwalk along the edge of the river, and then along that to the Victoria (Queen St) Bridge. Take the curved ramp up to the western (closer) side of the bridge and cross it, slowing down and looking out for pedestrians as there are usually a lot of them and it's a narrow path. When you get to the north end of the bridge take an immediate left and go down the ramp to the path underneath. There's a hairpin corner half way down the ramp, so take particular care there too.
At the bottom of the ramp turn right onto the path under the Riverside Expressway, and follow the Bicentennial Bikeway all the way along Coronation Drive to Toowong. In the first few hundred metres the path changes between separated and shared with pedestrians a few times, so look out for the signage as well as for other confused path users.
At Toowong, keep following the path up past the ABC studios along Benson St, looking out again for the change to a separated pathway and the couple of spots where the pedestrian and cycle paths actually cross each other. Look out for cars when crossing Archer St, and again at the intersection at the end of the path. From there, continue on the main road (Benson St) past the bus stop and down the hill (where it becomes Brisbane St). If you prefer to avoid the traffic, turn left onto Archer St and down Glen Rd. Where it rejoins Brisbane St, turn left onto the shared path.
Whether you're on the road or the path, take the first left after Glen Rd onto Sandford St as you approach the bottom of Sir Fred Schonell Drive. From here you wind through a bunch of back streets, but you can't go too far wrong and there are blue signs to guide you through. At the end of Sandford St turn left onto Austral St, then right onto Jerdanefield Rd, left onto Ryans Rd, right onto Hiron St and then along to Guyatt Park at the end. Take the path into the park that starts on the right about twenty metres before the end of the road, and follow it straight across to the nearest bit of road, Macquarie St. Go the full length of Macquarie St, which is almost a kilometre, broken about two thirds of the way down and joined by a short section of path.
At the end of Macquarie St keep going straight ahead onto another section of path and you'll be in the University of Queensland. At the end of this path you'll have some boat sheds on your left, a pedestrian-only continuation of the path straight ahead across the road, and a roundabout on your right. Turn right to the roundabout and then left down Sir William Macgregor Drive, which goes along the river around the edge of the university. Follow it all the way around (under the Eleanor Schonell Bridge again), and turn left onto Upland Rd as you leave the UQ grounds. The officially designated cycle route here is to continue straight ahead along the Esplanade (which becomes Hillside Tce as it passes St Lucia Golf Links), but many cyclists avoid it due to small shoulders, semi-blind corners and hills, preferring to take the first right from Upland Rd onto Boomerang St and then left at the roundabout onto Hawken Dr, through the shops at St Lucia. If you do this, you need to turn left at the next roundabout (about 1.5km later) onto Highland Tce, which comes down to meet the end of Hillside Tce. Many cyclists take this intersection at speed (to get up the subsequent short rise easily), but traffic in both directions is a hazard.
From here, the road past the golf course becomes Carawa St and then Iona Tce, from which you should turn left at the first roundabout onto Indooroopilly Rd, and then right at the next roundabout onto Lambert Rd. After travelling the length of Lambert Rd (about 1.5km) you'll be at the Jack Pesch Bridge, ready to go again!
