Brisbane Rides

Just sent this one by Terry.

Looks like a nice ride up Mt Mee, through Woodford up to Kilcoy, down past the dams and back home over Glorious.

Ride Map HERE

• Have a leg rest at mt-mee lookout,
• pie for breakfast at woodford
• brunch near kilcoy
• bum rest near somerset
• lunch at mt glorious
• afternoon coffee at maccas albany crk.

Ok, so a weekend ride down to Lennox Head is on the cards, and I'm trying to find a couple of routes to go there and back that will be more fun than the motorway.

Looking through other people's ride suggestions, and peering at the maps, I think the ride down through Rathdowney and Kyogle would be nice, then coming back through Uki and Mt Tamborine. Time permitting, we could also head down to Beechmont and come into Mt Tamborine the back way. Last part of the ride would get onto the motorway to chug home through town or along the gateway.

Anyhow, going down through Augustine Heights, Boonah, Rathdowney Kyogle, Koonorigan, onto Lennox Head. Map Here

Returning through Nimbin, Uki, Numinbah, Mt Tamborine, Tamborine. Map Here (Advantage of this route is an easy pop out to the motorway and home before we hit Mt tamborine if time runs short)

These two rides estimate on Google Maps to about 5 hours each way. I may have to wait until I get a rebuilt seat before trying this one

Well, after a couple of rides up to Mt Mee, and then onto Woodford for a morning coffee, we've been wondering how to get back in an interesting way without a) backtracking or b) chugging down the highway through roadworks and dodging fools.

Looking at a couple of maps, and playing with google maps, I have come up with a proposed route. The other provisor we have is no dirt. I just don't want to go there :) The preferece is for few built up areas, few intersections and not too many houses along the route. What I have come up with is a bit convoluted, but I think the best way to check out if it's nice is to give it a shot. Next time we go up that way, I'll take the route and give it a go and post the feedback.

A link to the route is HERE

If anyone else knows these roads and has advice, shoot it through.

Brett.

Just a quick note on a ride I'm looking at. Medium size, from the northside to Nerang, down through Beechmont, up through Mt Tamborine and Wolffdene and back up the highway to home.

Calcs are:

Taigum to Nerang - 94km ( 61 min)

Nerang to Beechmont - 25km (21min)

Beechmont to Mt Tamborine - 25km (21 min)

Mt Tamborine to Wolffdene - 32km (23 min)

Wolffdene to Taigum - 66km (44 min)

Ride Total: 236km ( 2hrs 50min)

Fuel Stops : 2 x 5 min ( I wee bigger than my fuel tank)

Breakfast : 45 min

Allow about 4hrs.

We liked it so much, we had to go again. The next of the sunday morning rides was a fairly quick one to Dayboro. We weren't sure of the weather this time, but it cleared up nicely for us. We were also joined this time by my Brother-in-law, Simon on his Honda CB1300. Again, left at 7am from the BP at Albany Creek, heading north this time. Left into Eatons Crossing Rd, being careful of the fool roadworks just between the corner and the first set of lights. Up to 80 after the lights and scoot up to turn right onto Lilly Rd, where we picked up Simon. We headed up Lilly (which turns into Ira Buckby Rd) and then turned left onto Samsonvale Road at the end.

If you keep going along this road, it will take you through Mt Samson, and you will end up on the Samford/Dayboro Road. We decided to try an alternative and headed right onto Forgan Road. This takes you past Lake Samsonvale and you meet up with Young's Crossing Road. Turn left here, then left at the end of this road and you are on Dayboro Road heading to, surpirse surprise, Dayboro.

Now you need to be careful here. We stopped in Dayboro at the Bakery for a coffee and, if you are like me and trying to reign in an expanding waist line, get one of your mates to buy your coffee for you, because the display cabinets inside will be your undoing:) I managed to hold onto a shred of self control and got out of there with only a small iced bun and my coffee. It's a good place to sit at that time of the day, because it is right across from the turn off to Mt Mee, so on a sunday morning, you can watch the endless stream of machinery and riders heading up the mountain. More than a few of them had the same idea about the coffee and (evil) food, so it's a good place for a chat with other riders too.

Back on the bikes, we headed south out of Dayboro on the road to Samford. More than a few riders comming in the opposite direction gave us some frantic hand signals to slow down, and sure enough, about 5km south of Dayboro, we passed Mr Plod on the side of the road with his cash register flashing the unsuspecting speeders. Of which there were few given the amount of warnings everyone was getting. Anyhow, instead of heading into Samford, we turned left (sharply) onto Winn Rd, then a sharp right onto Clear Mountain Rd. Watch this one, it's not well signed and I would have missed it completely if Simon hadn't taken the lead for this bit. The road over clear mountain is simply fantastic, with incredible scenery and a road surface in quite good condition. It's well worth a run over if you've not done it before. When this road ends at Eatons Crossing Rd, we turned right and headed back in the direction of Samford again. Before getting too far along though, another left into Bunya Rd took us along another one of those roads you just can't believe is so close to the center of Brisbane. I turned off at Ferny Hills, but once you get into the Ferny Hills/Arana Hills area, a left onto the Jinker Track will take you back to Old Northern Rd and you are back at your starting point.

This one all up was only about 70km, and with a reasonable stay at Dayboro, I was back home before 9am. And yes, again I have a 1984 Virago, so this is good time for me:) I'll put a rant in the "Brett on Bikes" section about Good Time vs a Good Time. Anyway, this was a great ride, and made even better by doing it with good company who don't want to set records.  

Ok, first of the Sunday rides today since I've had the Virago up and running. I've been commuting on it, but this is the first chance I've had to actually go for a ride. I probably wouldn't have gone, but a mate (Terry) has a new Z750 and he basically dragged me out of the house to go for a run. I'm damn glad he did. 

Of course, simple run, up Mt Nebo and Mt Glorious. It is Sooooo done, but when you do it right, still a nice ride. We left the BP at Albany Creek, along Old Northern Rd until we hit Samford Rd, a right there, a left at Keperra onto Settlement Rd, then right onto Waterworks Rd and we were away. We left at 7am, so minimal traffic (ie fools in cars and fools on bikes trying to set land speed records) but the roads were still damp in places. We took it pretty easy, but then again, you don't have much choice on a 22 year old virago. When we got to the top of Mt Glorious, we pulled up at the Cafe to find the Lotus club had beat us there, so got a nice look at about 10-15 very nice cars. After a coffee and a chat, back on the bikes, back down home through Samford villiage and we were done by 9am with the whole day ahead of us.

I didn't manage to pull up and take any pics, so I'll just have to do the run again for that