The best motorcycle roads in Victoria (and the ones everyone forgets)

Victoria packs an unreasonable amount of good riding into a small area: rainforest spurs an hour from the city, alpine passes in the north-east, and coastal roads that show up on postcards. Here is what is actually worth your fuel, with the honest caveats.

The Black Spur — famous, and not the best

The Maroondah Highway between Healesville and Narbethong. Roughly 27 kilometres and 49 corners, through mountain ash forest with tree ferns crowding the edges. It genuinely is beautiful, particularly with morning light coming through the canopy.

It is also:

• Heavily policed. Probably the most watched motorcycle road in the state. Assume you are being measured.
• Busy. Tourist buses, caravans, and everyone else who read the same list you did.
• Slippery when damp. Under that much canopy the road stays wet long after the rain stops, and there is a permanent film in the shaded sections.

Ride it as a scenic road. Then keep going, because what is past it is better.

Reefton Spur — the local’s answer

Through Marysville and on toward Warburton. Longer, higher, quieter, and far more demanding than the Black Spur, with a surface that varies from excellent to genuinely poor.

It rewards accuracy rather than speed: blind crests, corners that tighten, damp patches under trees, and very little traffic to hide behind. Most Melbourne riders who have done both put Reefton clearly ahead.

Go early. It is a road that gets much less pleasant with traffic on it, and the surface deserves respect in the wet.

The Otways, behind the postcard

Everyone rides the Great Ocean Road once. It is a spectacular thing to look at and a mediocre road to ride: 80 km/h limits, sightseeing traffic, cyclists, and campervans stopping unpredictably at every lookout.

If you go, go early on a weekday, ride to Lorne for breakfast and turn inland.

The better riding is the hinterland — the roads through the Otways around Forrest, Beech Forest and Lavers Hill. Tight, wooded, wet-looking even when dry, and carrying a fraction of the traffic. Come back along the coast if you want the view, or come back inland if you want the ride.

The north-east: where Victoria gets serious

The alpine roads are the best riding in the state and they need a weekend, not a morning.

The Bright hub. Bright is the natural base — a town that understands motorcyclists, with three great roads leaving it.

Mount Hotham. The climb up to the resort and down toward Omeo is a genuine alpine pass: sustained elevation, huge views, and a descent that keeps going. Check conditions in the shoulder seasons — snow, ice and chain requirements are real.

Falls Creek and the Bogong High Plains. Higher, quieter, and more exposed. Weather changes fast up there.

The Great Alpine Road. The full run from Wangaratta through Bright and over to Omeo and the coast is one of the best day-long rides in the country.

Ride these late spring through autumn. Autumn is the sweet spot — stable weather, quiet roads, and colour through the valleys.

The underrated ones

Roads that never make the lists and should:

The Strzelecki Ranges, south-east of the city. Rolling dairy country with tight, empty, well-surfaced back roads, and almost nobody on them. Excellent for a half day when you cannot face the ride out to the mountains.

The Macedon Ranges and the Wombat State Forest, north-west. Less dramatic than the east, far less crowded, with pleasant flowing roads and good bakery infrastructure.

Mansfield to Whitfield, over the tops. A brilliant connector that most riders only ever use as a way to get somewhere else.

The Grampians, if you have a full weekend. A long way west and worth it, with roads that climb and views that make the ride out feel short.

Planning a Victorian day, practically

Weather changes with elevation. A pleasant 22 degrees in Healesville can be 10 and raining on top of Reefton. Carry a layer, always.

Wildlife. Kangaroos and wombats at dawn and dusk in every one of these areas, and a wombat will not move for you. Ride the hills in the middle of the day if you can.

Fuel. Fine around the Yarra Valley, sparse in the alpine areas and the Otways, and rural pumps keep rural hours. Plan the fuel stops if you are going past Bright.

Traffic timing. The famous roads are unpleasant from about 10am on a nice weekend. Leave at seven and be finished with the busy sections before the tourists get going.

Beyond the greatest hits

Here is the thing about a list like this: everyone within 100 kilometres of Melbourne has ridden the Spur, and most of them have ridden it a lot. The good roads are known, which means they are shared.

The interesting question is not which roads are best — it is which ones you have not done. Victoria has an enormous network of small sealed roads through the ranges that never appear on any list because they have no name and no reputation, and a fair number of them are excellent.

That is exactly what our ridden-roads map is for: record your rides, watch the roads you have done turn orange, then ask for a route that avoids them. You will end up on roads twenty minutes from ones you know well, that you have somehow never turned onto.

Start with the famous ones. Then go find the ones that are not.