The Great Northern Pub Tour of 2021 Part 3

 DAY 3

Today was going to be a bit more of a relaxed affair as Doug hadn't really made a route plan for today, and after 2 big days in the saddle I think most people were looking for a bit more of a relaxed ride. Flyboy put together a route at the drop of a hat that would take in some twisty tarmac that would only be about 300kms or so. Sounds great to me.

So after a bit of a late start and long breakfast we were fuelled up and ready to roll out. I swapped onto Dave's Africa twin to ride up Summerland way and he rode my R1.

That was quite a shock to the system swapping from the  R1 to the Africa Twin. Geez its a big heavy bastard just getting it off the side stand. I could just touch the ground, it has a very tall seat.

Riding the AT along it had plenty of go in it, it was a bit heavy going in the twisties up to Mt Lyndsay requiring a lot of effort to get it turned but nothing I couldn't manage. I waved the faster guys by so not to hold them up whilst I got used to the AT, don't wanna throw Flyboys new bike down the road and hurt myself either and plus the fact he has knobbies on it. 

The NSW side of the border the road is a well kept smooth twisting piece of tarmac that is satisfying to open the throttle on, however the contrast when you cross the border into Queensland where the road is rough, narrow and bumpy and is not as much fun. Still the views are spectacular at the Mt Lindsay lookout where we stopped  so everyone could catch up.

Flyboy and Mt Lindsay

Doug noticed his bike wasn't handling too well and checked his tyre pressure. It was down to 18psi on the front. Rick decided to let off a few canisters of CO2 for fun, no tyre filling happened just some more environmental destruction. We were going to get fuel in Beaudesert so he said he will fill it up when we get there.

An attempt was made in Rathdowney with Brett's air compressor but it had a blown fuse, so got packed away again. Sadly, Bushpig had a compressor under his seat but didn't bother to offer it up until we got to the pub later on.

I also swapped to Geoff's Africa Twin whilst he rode Flyboys. The difference in the two Africa Twins was like chalk and cheese. Geoff's I could flat foot it and it was much easier to ride, maybe due to the different tyres. He has road oriented tyres where Dave's has the knobbies.

From this point Flyboy took us down to Canungra and down the Beechmont road. Riding past the gates of Canungra Military base I could hear Redgum's 'I was only 19' song in my head. It was quite busy today being Sunday and just on the outskirts of the Gold Coast.

We got pulled over by the rozzers for a random breath test. 10-15 police for a random breath test, I think not. They were letting every car go but only pulling in bikes. I thought this might turn into a exhaust/tail tidy reflector stop but they let us go without harassing us any further. Maybe they noticed our ages(mostly 50-60) and took pity on us. 

We stopped in at the Flying Been Cafe for lunch. I tried the brisket sandwich and it was fantastic. We relaxed and chatted whilst looking at the views over the valley. A couple of hang gliders took off whilst we were there. One came oh so close to clipping some tree tops.

Numinbah Valley

The cafe is at the top of the ridge line on the Numinbah Valley. The above view is right across from the cafe down towards mount Warning. We will be riding down through that valley back towards our accommodation for tonight.

The ride down through the Numinbah Valley was quite good, perfect conditions for riding but a little bit busy. The views from the road over the back of the gold coast are incredible. Wish I had of stopped for a photo. At least most of the traffic was now going the other way heading back to Brisbane/Gold Coast.

There was a little bit of a mix up at Chillingham and Flyboy turned off, but the main group didn't follow. He chased me down but Dave was just in front rode off into the distance. So we took the back road through Tyalgum and did and extra 28kms of twisty bits whilst the others went through to Murwillumbah. I caught up to Geoff just out of town as we then headed into Uki and the Mt Warning Hotel for a cold beer. and to get out of a passing rain shower.

Most of the guys quickly finished their drinks and headed off. There was no rush, so Dave, Scotty, myself and flyboy stayed on a bit to let the road dry out a bit more. So we slowly had our drinks and left about 15 -20 minutes later. The road had dried out quite well by the time we headed off. 

The run up and over the mountain on the Kyogle road was a fantastic run. I stopped to catch a quick pic of the guys coming up the hill. Would have been better if I had some time to get out my camera instead of phone.

I could hear Dave's Tuono firing up and around the hill above me whilst I waited for Scotty and Flyboy to come past.

Kyogle Road

Time to put the phone away and get to the pub. Looks like we just made it in time as the pub was closing at 5.30pm. That's quite odd, both pubs in town were closed on Sundays after 5. The girl did manage to stay open a little longer for us. So we bought some takeaways and headed to the local Chinese restaurant for diner. I've never seen a place in Australia where all the pubs were closed by 6pm on a Sunday. Really strange. 

Day 3 Map Reference

The Great Northern Pub Tour of 2021 Part 2

 

DAY 2

After a nice bacon & egg roll breakfast we hauled the bikes out into the carpark behind the pub ready to head off. It took a bit for everyone to get their shit together this morning but we were soon filling up with fuel ready for the trip up waterfall way.

I hadn't paid much attention to todays route plan I didn't really know where I was and when we were coming into Bellingen I finally realised where I was. It was only about 15 minutes into Bellingen then out on the Waterfall way to Dorrigo. Last time we had a lot of traffic up here but today was quite good I though as we blasted the twisties up the mountain.

The waterfalls were raging today.

Stopped for the obligatory picture at the first waterfall, but let a huge truck get past, damn. Still he was easily dispatched up the mountainside.

From here we made our way into Dorrigo and then turned down Tyringham Road. Stu decided to stop as he wanted to do another different road. We then got accosted by an elderly woman walking her dog. She stood in front of our bikes and began to tell us the history of something from the war. Couldn't quite hear her with helmets and ear plugs in luckily. Stu fired up the Tuono and roared off but she then stood in front of me and Dave. Took longer than it should as we were trying to be polite, but eventually we had to just roar off as well, otherwise we'd still be there now.

A quick stop just out of town. This area is so green and lush the scenery was amazing. They obviously must get lots of rainfall to be that green. So we watered the grass for good measure just incase of impending drought.

It's a decent enough ride along through here, just need to be careful as most bends are un-sign posted and the road can be narrow and a bit rough, but not that much traffic on it so all good.

We stopped at the Ebor-Armidale road turn off as the other guys were waiting for us, probably wondering what happened thinking something untoward may have happened, but just granny attack.

Brothers in arms

The ride along the Ebor-Armidale road was pretty good for the most part until we hit a bit of road works and it got a bit rough from there and was hard to tell how fast you could go as there was plenty of potholes right in the middle of your line. We got split up along here but just out of Grafton the guys pulled over so that we can regroup.

South Grafton

From Grafton we took the Gwydir Highway out towards Glen Innes. The ride up the range was a real highlight. I have driven up here before with the family but hadn't ridden it. The ride was superb coming into the first 45er and letting the revs rise, cracking the throttle, sheer riding pleasure. The surface was in fantastic condition the entire length of the run up the mountain. Then after that it was some fairly flowing road that you could see some big numbers on. All great fun.

We stopped at the intersection of Bald Knob road, which Stu took affection to. I took the opportunity to take out my camera to take some shots of the lads ride in here. You can tell the difference between the phone photos and the camera photos. Chalk and cheese really even though I've compressed them heaps.

The surface on Bald Knob road was pretty dire and I had to slow down to 80-90kmh and was getting kicked out of the set like riding a rodeo bull.

It was only a short 20 minute trip to Deepwater from here where we are going to have lunch at the pub, except when we got there the pub was closed for lunch today. There wasn't much in this town either but the bakery was still open, they were just about to close. An apple turnover and iced coffee hit the spot for a smallish lunch. Bushpig couldn't help but make a mess of himself as usual.

GRUB

From here we travelled up to Tenterfield where we were going to pick up my brother. I saw him ride into a petrol station on the right hand side not looking at me coming the other way, too busy looking at all the other adventure bikes in there. So I continued down the road to the petrol station on the other side of town and rang him from there. He soon came back for the ride to Kyogle.

The ride down the Bruxner twisties was quite enjoyable, Flyboy came up behind when I wasn't looking and the lights on his Africa twin make it look a bit like a police bike.

We stopped for a cold beer in Drake, so forgot to take any photos here as was busy chatting with my older bro. Troy came in after we had finished and he had busted his number plate holder and indicators off the back of his Fazer. Quite an unusual thing to happen really. 

We were soon in Kyogle at the bar having some ice cold beers. Another great day out on the bikes. One thing about group rides is it can be a bit difficult trying to get photos, by the time I stop get out camera the others have long gone, so I just get them when and where I can.

Day 2 Map Reference

Riding the QLD Hinterland Part 4

Today was our last day of riding as I had to fly home today. But that didn't mean the fun was over far from it. We packed our gear ready to go then headed out for breakfast then fueled up before leaving town. The route plan was a fairly short one today, but involved a lot of twisties on the way back to Flyboys place.

First up was the ride out of Kyogle up to Uki on the Kyogle Rd - Uki Rd. The road just out of town rises up and over 2 mountain passes and is an awesome ride. Some bits can be a bit rough but it was a lot of fun.

Kyogle Road

We stopped at a look out over the valley below, the mountain that was out in front of us was covered in cloud. The road here had recently had new chip seal put down and still had a bit of gravel on it, just enough to give you that uneasy feeling all though there wasn't any slips or slides.

The ride into Uki was quite enjoyable, lots of hills, rain forest, and the Tweed rivers flows along next to the road all the while the road sweeps along through valleys and over hills. The only downer was that the council was out doing maintenance on the road in a few spots leaving gravel on a few corners.

 Turning left before Murwillumbah we headed down the the Tyalgum road another nice flowing road through beautiful green countryside.

The road took us up the Numinbah Valley with a steep ascent we went up the range to the NSW-QLD border crossing where stopped for some pictures.

There were 4 bikes parked in the lookout bay so we pulled in. We spoke to one of the guys that were out on a day loop ride from Tweed heads. We took a few obligatory photos before getting moving again.

Flyboy then lead us down towards the Hinze dam before turning off and up and over Pine Creek road to meet up with the Springbrook Rd. Turning down the Springbrook road the surface here was hot mixed race track smooth surface. It was a little damp due to passing showers but it was a fun bit of road. Near the bottom we turned around and came back up the pass and up and over to the Hinze dam and back up the road to Advancetown.

Ahead we turned up the Beechmont road stopping at the beginning of the road and looking back over the Gold Coast. It must have only been 3-4 km in a straight line, you could see all the high rise buildings in the distance. It was a weird feeling standing in the bush with no one around but being able to see one of Australia's big cities in the distance.

The next 4-5 kms along here reminded me of the Oxley highway, it was a good bit of road 35-45 km corners but it was over too soon(5k ish) and it then came out into a dense group of houses along the roadside.

Soon we came along to a cafe which overlooked a paragliders take off point, which went out over this huge valley. You could see all the way down to Mt Warning in NSW. A beautiful spot to stop. There we a few bikes stopped here. I bet this is a popular spot during the weekend.

We ordered a iced coffee and shared a bowl of wedges here whilst we watched the paragliders flying over the valley and bikes passing by. We spoke a couple of local bike riders. One had an immaculate 2010 R1 in the matt black and Gold. 

We continued around through beechmont and towards Canungra where the military base is. We stopped in along the road next to an entry point to the training area. With the bikes off we could here explosions in the forest behind us. They were blowing something up today.

We turned up the Tambourine Mountain Road and went up through some of the Gold Coast Hinterlands most popular tourist spots. We weren't interested in stopping to look at any of this and only stopped one more time at one of the look outs to the west. After this went back down the mountain to Tambourine and back up into Brisbane.

So after 4 days of blood, sweat and beers we managed to rack up 1635 kms over some of southern Queensland's best and twistiest bike roads. No bikes were harmed during the making of this blog post and no licenses were tarnished, but we sure did manage to have a great time.

What are my thoughts on the roads up this way? Well.......To be brutally honest I didn't rate the roads as being some of the best I've ever ridden. I don't mean this to sound negative because we had a ball. Sure there were little pockets of brilliance here and there but as a whole the roads just don't compare to the likes of the roads in the NSW Snowy mountains or Victorian High country, I guess I've been spoiled by the likes of the Omeo Hwy, Jamieson Rd, Bonang and Snowy Mountains Hwy.

There's no doubt that the scenery here is quite spectacular including the whole Scenic Rim area which I quite enjoyed. The twisty bits are never long enough with only a few km's of bends before it turns back into sweeping corners and the road surfaces on a lot of these roads leaves much to be desired. Your never far from civilization which means there are always cars blocking your flow along the road and messing up your rhythm. Again some pockets of good hot mixed sections but in between it was a mix of the good, the bad and the downright ugly and some are too narrow to be of any real fun (Tooloom rd). The best thing about these roads is there are not many straight sections and relative short distances to the next road, unlike NSW which can have big distances to the next bike road. Would I come back and ride them, sure why not but not anytime soon there are much better roads to be ridden.

Special thanks to my older Bro for letting trusting me with his R1 for 4 days of riding through unknown roads. It's been a long time since we had ridden together and it was a great time for memories of past rides. It was a blast bro and maybe we can do it down in the Vic high country one day. Thank you very much for making this happen.

Riding the QLD Hinterland Part 3

After the late night beers, we still managed a reasonable start to the day, leaving by 9am. Flyboy had us riding down through some back roads down through Bonalbo on the Clarence way. It was remote backcountry over hills and sweeping bends and forests, with rough, rough roads.

The scenery was pretty spectacular and the road soon entered an old growth rainforest. We decided to stop to take a few pics of these magnificent tall tree's.

We continued on along the road with varying degrees of surface quality, I was slowing down to 80 km h because I couldn't see properly, my vision was bouncing up and down over the bumps making it difficult to see the road ahead. My new R1 does this so if I was copping this on this old R1 with its more compliant suspension I would have really got a hammering on my new R1 along here. I would never ride this road on a 2015+ R1. It's not made for these roads.

We came out of the forest to be in farmland as far as the eye could see. Off to my right was the forest we emerged from with views out over the land ahead. Beautiful spot.

This road dropped us out on the Bruxner Highway just to the east of Tabulam. Dave was waiting for me at the T intersection. I'd dropped back a bit due to the bumpy road. The bmw's lounge like suspension allowed Flyboy to glide over those bumps which I would find out a little later.

The bridge at Tabulam is being replaced with a huge new concrete structure, we had to wait a little for lights to cycle before we could go.

We continued along into Drake and out the other side where the true twisty goodness begins. In typical fashion on this trip just as we got to the 25kms of twisties the road turned out to be wet, by a passing shower not long before we came up the pass. Damn. Oh well it was still fun and better than being at work

Much of the hills through this bit of road had burnt out tree's from a recent bush fire for many kilometres. We got stopped by a council stop/go man at some road works. He told us that 11 people lost their houses due to the bushfires. I didn't get any snaps of it but Flyboy had his Go-whore rolling and got some snaps. It looked pretty devastating. We stopped in Tenterfield for fuel and then some mid morning breakfast.

Plagiarism from Flyboy

We decided on heading back down the Bruxner in the hope that it would be dry by the time we got back there. We both spoke about taking it easy on the way back down. It was indeed dry on the return trip and then for some inexplicable reason 5 minutes in it was like motogp time.....I really did miss the quick shifter from my new R1 riding this old R1.

Turning left in Tabulam we head back towards Urbenville. This was a narrow bumpy bit of road as well with some of it being unfenced with cows wandering across the road between fields. It was along here that I hit the biggest bump(unseen) I have ever hit and had the biggest tank slapper in my life. F$CK ME, NSW roads are f*cking shit.
I stopped a few minutes up the road and told Flyboy we are swapping bikes. After 2.5 days on the R1 and riding this dodgy, bumpy goat track I was a bit over it. Give me some decent roads please.

Hopping on the Beemer was like whoa - a real Bill & Ted moment, it's so high, such a weird feeling, arms up in the air sitting bolt upright. It felt awkward and unnatural. So off we went, with me wobbling along not used to this riding position. I watched Flyboy on the R1 ahead of me, bouncing off bumps like crazy. I didn't feel any bumps at all, only the biggest of bumps would upset this bike which just felt kind of minor. It just seems to glide across them effortlessly not upset at all. I thought how good is this, no matter how awkward this is. At least I wasn't getting pounded by the bikes suspension.

Flyboy said we will swap bikes back when we get to Urbenville, but I selfishly decided he wasn't getting his comfy bike back so soon as I was certain that the road coming up was also going to be another special NSW goat track, and I was right.

The Toolom road was tight narrow, twisty and bumpy in equal proportions. I was starting to get used to this riding position and how the bike was so comfortable after about an hour or so. This road had some great mountain views through the trees, but not so good that you could get a photo of anything.

Soon we came down out of the mountains and cross the NSW-QLD border and on into Killarney.

We stopped at the Killarney Hotel for some mid afternoon lunch and a quick ale. Killarney is a quiet little country town, quite pretty but it was very dry here, it looks like they badly need rain in this area.

Dumb and Dumber

With a light lunch dispatched we headed out of Killarney. It was here we swapped bikes back again. When I got on the R1 I was so surprised at the position I was sitting in compared with the Beemer. It felt like I was sitting crouched on the floor on my hands with my knees tucked under my legs, so unnatural a feeling, but this was what I have been accustomed to over the last 25 years, now felt so wrong. WTF?

We went around via the Condamine gorge and then turned back and headed up the Head Rd which wound its way through the mountains.  We stopped in at Carr's Lookout which overlooked the valley below. It was so green here it was hurting my eyes, so it must rain a lot.

The ride down from the lookout was a hoot, through the forest, with tree's overhanging the road providing a canopy overhead. Some spots were quite dark. I wonder does the road get moss on it in winter up here. Eventually the road came out to the bottom and there were open fields with cows wandering across the road.

From here we had to make our way back out to Rathdowney, it felt like deja vu, we were only here yesterday afternoon about a similar time. We stopped again for fuel before making our way back down the Mt Lindsey Hwy. Our destination for tonight was Kyogle on the Summerland Way.

We stopped on the Mt Lindsey Hwy as a slow moving car was blocking our fun, so we turned around and went back so we could have a clear run riding through. It turned out to be a blast. After the photo below we didn't stop again until we got to the Commercial Hotel in Kyogle.

I must say the Commercial hotel was an excellent choice. A double room was $120(60 each) and we had brand new rooms and brand new bathroom. Excellent value for money. Best pub room I've stayed in yet and better than most motels I've stayed in.

Again we had takeaways up stairs for our last night on the tour before we had to head home tomorrow.