I lived at Nth. Ryde in those days. Use to ride to Palm Beach & back every Tuesday & Thursday for training. On Sundays, training could be anywhere. Picton, Katoomba, Bulli. One good thing, there wasn't a lot of traffic. Unlike today.
When I got really interested in racing, a bike shop at West Ryde Tollis Cycles built me a road bike with all the good gear. Cost me $200 in today's money. Thank god I had my paper runs to pay for it.
I later found a guy in Bondi who built light weight bike frames. All the Pro's use to buy off him. They were great frames so light & strong. Never knew what they were made out of.
But they worked.
Cheers.