Last week I did my first long bicycle ride, I rode home from Macquarie Uni the long way. I did however forget about the whole dusk thing, and as I don’t have lights on my bicycle yet, I ended up riding the long but safer way and the whole way on the footpath 
Ah well, I’m enjoying this bike business anyway, it is awesome fun and I’m getting fit!
We ended up buying some nice Apollo bikes from a great place in West Ryde.
I bought a very dorky-looking head-mounted light, based on those new LEDs that are all the rage now. Awesome for riding nights. Yeah I look absolutely stupid with it, but when did I ever care about that?
I made that choice for two reasons… one, you know bikes come and go here. Any improvements to the bike itself, would only raise the chance of it being stolen, and I don’t want that (this is already my fourth bike since I’m in Beijing). And two, a head-mounted light, although dorky, always points exactly in the direction I’m looking, which is sometimes much more helpful than straight ahead.
One of my excellent off-the-kerb bikes is an Apollo. The only thing which has ever broken on it (following much abuse) was a chain link. The bike’s light, efficient & came with nice, chunky tyres. Y’all enjoy yours. (-:
and the sore butt goes away pretty quickly if you keep at it
For a long distance ride, try the M2 or M7 (has it own bikepath beside the motorway unlike the M2) for 40Km or so
cheers
Josh