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

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.

South East Queensland Ride

One of our good friends Rick( better known as Doctor Kwok) had changed jobs and was moving to Brisbane. Stu came up with an idea rather than trailer the bike up to Brisbane that we could ride up there. I initially scoffed at riding my R1 that far in 2 days, but when I looked into it a bit more it was only about 500km per day, that's do-able I thought - despite the protests from my buttocks and we hadn't even ridden anywhere yet.

I took the annual leave for 2 days and waited and it wasn't until the week before that I actually finally decided that I would go. They say every trip you don't do you'll regret it later and how true those words turned out to be. No one ever said on their death bed I wish I had worked harder - NO ONE, so screw work I'm out here. Bring on the bikes, roads and beers and good mates, besides I've never ridden further north than the Oxley Highway so it was time to change that.

DAY1 
Leaving early Saturday morning we headed up our usual weekend riding route via the Putty Road, stopping in at Grey Gums so Rick could meet up with a couple of friends who were out on a ride today. One of them had a beautifully restored Norton Commando. I loved the paint work on the tank.

Grey Gums Carpark

Norton Commando 850

We continued on up through the 10 mile of twisties on the Putty road and up to our first fuel stop in Singleton. The highway patrol were out in force today as we saw 3 from grey gums to the top end of the putty but we were exceptionally well behaved.

Buckets Way

I wasn't looking forward to the next section of road which is the Gresford to Dungog goat track and then onto the Buckets Way. It has been bumpy for years and my bike isn't suited to these minor bumpy back roads, some of which are no longer roads but rather a section of patch upon patch until you can't see any road anymore just a series of patches everywhere. Needless to say by the time I got into Gloucester I was glad to get off the bike. The country side through here is absolutely beautiful but the road surface is oh so bad. The Buckets Way isn't as bad as the Gresford Section.

Gloucester Main Street

Barrington Tops

A quick rest stop for fuel and lunch in Gloucester was what I needed and a great recharge for the ride up the thunderbolts way to Walcha. Some of the road surface through here is pretty ghastly but some is good and new so you need to be on your toes. We stopped in the little town of Uralla at the Top Pub on the Saturday night which is your standard country pub but boy they have excellent pub food, everyone commented on how good the food was all washed down with a nice cleansing ale or two of course. The rooms are quite small but are clean and a bargain at $50 per person.

Uralla

DAY 2
After a quick breakfast at the cafe across the road from the pub we were under way by 9am on Sunday morning headed north to Armidale. We turned off towards Ebor on the waterfall way, this road was heavily wooded by the sides of the road and looked like it would be kangaroo country but luckily we didn't see any. As we passed the Dorrigo turn off the road got quite tight and twisty and wound is way through the forest with big tall gum tree's to either side, I was having too much fun to stop and take any photo's, oops. We took a quick break by the roadside in Nymboida but soon continued on into Grafton for fuel.

We got a rain shower leaving Grafton and it was slow going up to casino as this was generally straight boring highway. We were soon coming into Kyogle for a late lunch around 2pm I think and rolling into town I saw a familiar blue R1 parked up outside the Kyogle Bakery. My brother had ridden down to greet us and ride back to Brisbane via the twisties.

This was a good day for me personally as this was the first time I've actually ridden with my brother since 2003 with the exception of the tour of New Zealand which was now 2 years ago. Gee time flies doesn't it? A chicken salad roll from the bakery filled a hole just nicely and now I was feeling a bit more motivated for the next part of the ride into Brisbane via the Summerland Way and Mt Lindesay Highway.

Dueling R1's

The ride along the Summerland way runs along some beautiful country and is mostly sweeping bends up and over hills and through farming land until it winds its way up to the turnoff near woodenbong which we turned right and headed for Beaudesert and Brisbane.

There is this fantastic set of tight twisting bends on the NSW side of the border that climbs up the hill and crosses into Queensland and comes down the other side of the range in another fun-tastic set of twisties, but these ones are quite rough compared to the NSW side. The road winds its way down around the ranges with great views out to Mt Lindesay which we stopped for a quick photo. Most of the way through here there were light spots of rain, enough to make the traction control light on my dash start blinking on/off. Yeah we had some fun through here and the roads were mostly empty due to the inclement weather.

Me at Mt Lindesay

Stu

Dave at Mt Lindesay

Dave followed me pretty closely down the mountain range with his Gopro on, should have got some good pics there bro. There were a few more showers here and there before we stopped in for a coffee break in Beaudesert. You know you've been on a sportsbike for too long when the wooden seat at the coffee shop looks comfortable. We got back on the road again and Dave was riding like a mad bastard on a mission through the trafficked hills to the M1 motorway, he must have thought he was in motogp. This is where he departed for home and we rode to Rick's house for the night. More beers were drunk but nowhere near as much as the night before as we were all pretty knackered from the days ride.

DAY 3
We met Dave again the next morning waiting for us on the on ramp of the motorway and he took us up the Advance Town road and back towards the NSW border. This was a fantastic smooth bit of road with long sweeping bends and a few twisties thrown in. The road followed around a large lake and then up to the NSW-QLD border crossing which looked out over the Numinbah Valley. Beautiful views from up here and the road was fantastic if a bit narrow in places but no traffic really. We stopped at the border for a couple of photos before moving on. I made Dave ride my R1 along here, I noticed his suspension was totally shagged and the motor felt a little asthmatic but it still went well.

Numinbah Valley

The road down into Murwillumbah and on into Kyogle is one fantastic ride with sweepers, tight twisty bits and everything  in between. Its got everything you ever want in a road including great views and lush green countryside. It seemed to go on forever some bits were smooth, some were rough but it was one of the best rides I have had in years. We stopped off for coffee in Uki. The coffee here was good. The road had many great spots for photo opportunities but it was so much fun I just couldn't stop, it was that good.

Coffee in Uki Cafe

We stopped in at Kyogle again for fuel and a quick drink and this is where we said our goodbye's to Rick and Dave as they headed back to Brisbane via the Summerland Way that we had ridden yesterday but this time in the dry. It was decided here that instead of riding back the same way we would ride the Bruxner Highway which turned out to be a fantastic idea as the ride out from Casino to Tenterfield on the Bruxner is another top bike road. After you go through the little town of Drake there is 25km of twisting bends that wind up the Great Dividing Range until you come to the top and the road comes into Tenterfield. Parts of this road remind me of bits of the Putty Road.

From this point on until we were back in Uralla for the night at the Top Pub it was 2 hours of fairly straight Highway miles which was broken up with the occasional rain shower then a complete downpour followed by a couple more light showers just to keep us on our toes. It was along one of these rain shod sections that both Dave(ZX-10R) and myself had some rear wheel aquaplaning along the road, real heart in the mouth stuff.

Geoff & Stu in Guyra

DAY 4
Day 4 turned into the reverse of day one with us back tracking along to Walcha and onto the Thunderbolts Way to Gloucester for a coffee stop. As we ascended Barrington Tops we found we were running up into low lying clouds and just breaking out at the lookout again.

Thunderbolts Way

There were a few more spits of rain along to Dungog as we made our way back to singleton. Both myself and Geoff had been keeping an eye on our tyres as we both had done 4000km on them before the trip started and they were just about finished but in this last bit Geoff's Pirelli seemed to wear a lot faster than the bridgestone I had, that's not to say my bridgestone wasn't shot, it just wasn't down to the canvas showing.

Coming back down the Putty Road we hooked into the 10 mile twisties with renewed vigor that is until I came around a 55er with 2 kangaroo's standing in the middle of the road. Yeah that slowed me down real quick.

Getting back into Sydney's peak hour traffic at around 4pm required a wind down beer before we all departed in different directions. Cheers fellas was a great ride, thanks for the company we rode on some great new roads and we will have to do it again some time maybe once my ass have recovered.