Three riders rolled out of a laneway off Fraser Avenue near Kings Park last Saturday morning, spaced out across a good fifty metres before they'd even hit the first roundabout. That's a small thing, but it told me most of what I needed to know about the guided cycling tours they'd booked into, whether the operator actually rides with the group or just points everyone at a map and hopes for the best.
I've been dragged along on more of these than I can honestly count, work does that to you in this job, and the gap between a well-run operation and a shonky one usually shows up in the first ten minutes. Good guides check tyre pressure before rolling out. Bad ones are still fiddling with the eftpos machine while the group stands around getting cold.
What separates good guided cycling tours from the rest
The best guided cycling tours around Perth share a few habits. Small groups, usually under ten. A guide who actually rides, not just drives the support vehicle and waves from a distance. And routes chosen for the terrain and the season, not lifted wholesale off a generic map and run the same way in February as in July.
Here's my one real gripe with a chunk of the industry, and I'll say it plainly, too many operators charge a premium for the word
