The best motorcycle roads in South East Queensland

South East Queensland has an unusual advantage: genuinely great riding roads within 45 minutes of a capital city, in a climate that lets you use them all year. The trade-off is heat, storms and roads that get busy early.

Mount Glorious and Mount Nebo

The classic. From Samford up through Mount Nebo to Mount Glorious — about 28 kilometres with roughly 64 corners, which is a higher corner density than any comparable road near an Australian capital.

It is tight, technical, shaded, and relentless. Second and third gear for most of it, with corners that come one after another with almost no straight to reset in.

Practicalities:

• Go early. By mid-morning on a weekend it carries cyclists, cars, and a lot of other bikes. By afternoon in summer it is hot and often stormy.
• Shade means damp. Sections under heavy canopy stay wet for a long time after rain, and there is often a slick film even when the rest of the road is dry.
• Wildlife. Wallabies and scrub turkeys, and both are entirely unpredictable.
• Enforcement is present but the bigger risk is the road itself. It punishes over-commitment far more effectively than any camera.

Most riders combine it with a descent toward Wivenhoe and a loop back through Dayboro, or turn around and do it in the other direction, which genuinely rides differently.

Mount Mee

North, toward the Sunshine Coast side. Similar character to Mount Glorious, generally quieter, with a fast run up through the state forest and lovely views over the D’Aguilar range.

It is the answer when Mount Glorious is going to be busy, and a good half of Brisbane riders rate it higher for exactly that reason.

The Gold Coast hinterland

South, and a full day rather than a morning. Four roads worth stringing together:

Numinbah Valley. The run from Nerang down through Numinbah toward the border is fast, open and beautiful, with the escarpment on both sides.

Springbrook. The climb up to the plateau is tight and steep with genuinely spectacular views at the top. Narrow in places and popular with tourists.

Tamborine Mountain. Several ways up and down, all of them fun, all of them busy at weekends. The Goat Track is the well-known one and deserves respect — steep, tight and often damp.

Lamington and Canungra. The road out to O’Reilly’s is a proper hill road: narrow, technical, and slow. More an experience than a fast ride, and worth doing once for the rainforest alone.

Further out

The Bunya Mountains. North-west, a couple of hours from Brisbane. A superb climb onto the plateau, empty roads, and far fewer riders than the coastal ranges.

Toowoomba and the range roads. The various climbs up the Great Dividing Range from the Lockyer Valley are all worth doing, and the Darling Downs beyond them offer fast, empty riding of a completely different character.

The Sunshine Coast hinterland. Maleny, Montville, Kenilworth and the roads through the Conondale Range. Gentler than the Brisbane ranges and very pleasant, with the best bakery-to-corner ratio in the state.

The Queensland-specific planning issues

Heat. Riding gear plus 34 degrees plus humidity plus stop-start on a mountain road is genuinely dangerous, and dehydration sneaks up on riders in a way it does not in the south. Early starts are not a preference here, they are a plan.

Storms. Summer afternoon storms build fast and drop enormous amounts of water. Being on Springbrook when one arrives is memorable for the wrong reasons. Check the radar before you leave, and be off the plateau by early afternoon in storm season.

Wet season debris. After heavy rain, the smaller range roads collect gravel, branches and washed-out edges. The surface is temporarily worse than the map suggests, which is exactly the case rider hazard reports are for.

Canopy damp. Everywhere in the ranges, and it is the single most common cause of a Queensland range road catching someone out.

Beyond the four famous roads

Brisbane riders have the same problem as everyone else, arguably worse because the good roads are so close: you can ride Mount Glorious every weekend, and plenty of people do.

The country west of the ranges — the Brisbane Valley, the roads around Esk, Kilcoy and Blackbutt, the network behind Toowoomba — is full of quiet sealed roads with no reputation and no traffic. They are not as spectacular as the ranges. They are also empty, and you have never ridden most of them.

Record your rides so your map fills in, then ask for a route that avoids the roads you have already done. In this part of the country, that usually points you west, which is exactly where the roads nobody talks about are.