September- The Lions Road a spectacular ride

Yet another fabulous blue sky day in the South East as we gathered for another great spring ride on one of our favorite roads - sort off....the last time I road Lion Rd I had a little altercation with a bridge so it was good to get back on the horse so to speak.

Twins separated at birth?? Dave & Paul

The lions road run.... a magical ride

We had a few new riders, 2 support vehicles and the largest group every with 19 bikes in the end with Des and Leigh,Drew & crew meeting us at Maccas , Beaudesert .

Graham

Dave looking like something for the future

It was another great country run out to Beaudesert with quite a few "smokies" on the road but we avoided any problem and made it to our food stop.

who is the bike security guy?

Father Dave

"hey David..if you go on the slide I will"..Sam

It is a nice run out toward Rathdowny before we turn off onto the Lions Road.For those who have not ridden the road before it was the beginning of an open mouth ride. The sports bike took off like scolded cats with the more "Mature" cruisers just enjoying the spectacular views.

It was a beautiful dry day to make the run over the mountain and across those treacherousness old wooden bridges. I was glad to safely ride across my nemesis ( the bridge I came off on last time I was on the road) and marvel at the changing landscape. Everyone paced themselves through the winding road to the intersection with the Kyogle road. This is a cameo ride of long seeping corners and nice tarmac. We topped up fuel and fluid at the caltex at Kyogle and caught up for a chat with Leigh the Tasmanian lepricorn.

assembling after lions rd

petrol and a chat at Kyogle

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Pete heads the line of 18 riders to Murwillumbah 

So, we made  our way to the Tumbulgum pub for a well earned lunch and  chat. We then split up to make our way home, enjoying the hinterland of the gold coast to finish a long but enjoyable day , another fantastic ride in the great South East.

August - Queen Mary Falls never ceases to amaze

We had a big compliment of riders for our ride on a beautiful blue day for our 350km ride out through Beaudesert, Rathdowney, Queen Mary Falls and over the top through Kilarney and battling strong winds  home through Cunningham's gap.

 We again enjoyed the company of some new bikes , a beautiful red trumpy, a Bergman 650 scooter and BMW 650 GS

Dave Walton's new BMW GS650

Pauls beautiful red trumpy

Jo's first ride with his 650 Bergman 

Peter & Des with their pride & joy,a  Guzzi and Triump

a large turnout were ready and eager for a great ride
with John & Jan's MG as our support vehicle we headed off to Beaudesert for a morning tea at Macca's. We had a few bikes peal off at that stage to make their way home, the rest of us headed off to Rathdowney...then on to the climb up to Queen Mary Falls. It was a great 30km run out past Maroon dam to the turn off.

 And up the magical road, straight out of the "Lord of the rings" to the escarpment and a beautiful Aussie view. The wind was up and I think everyone enjoyed the brief stop.

Jason had a little problem with his stand and wind

Grahame and Marjorie were enjoy the ride

Jan was happy to stay inside the MG. a bit to cold outside

It was then off to Queen Mary falls themselves and a hot meal....some great conversation and a walk around he falls themselves.

bikes parked up outside caravan park store

Peter Sutherland gazing out on a very beautiful Queen Mary's waterfall. It was a surprise seeing so much water around given the dryness. It was good to get a little exercise with the 10 min walk to the observation area

OK lads lets mount up for a run to Cunningham's gap

What a great ride home...down through Kilarney and Settlers route, a short cut to Cunningham's gap and WOW wasn't it a challenge riding down with a strong cross wind but a little adventure was a great finish to a wonderful ride. Love to ride and love this weather.

July - A great Winters ride

The promise of a clear and sunny day drew eleven bikers & support vehicle (Tim and blax MX5) out of their bed to rug up and venture out into the cold on a ride. I was quite excited as this was my first ride in six months after a double hip replacement and overseas travel last 7 weeks.
We had a wide variety of bikes from BMW's, Kwaka's,Yamaha's,a black Mazda MX5 and Des's awesome '79 Moto Guzzi.

Des and his Moto Guzzi

We welcome Richard on his first ride

Richard , Leo and Peter enjoying a chat

Grahame & Marhorie just arrived back from usa

Whilst not a long ride was an interesting one.....a nice run down to a normal watering hole, The Outpost. at Canungra the up and over the windswept beechmont and down the twisties...a diversion up Henry Robers drive to Nth Tamborine and a welcome Irish pub lunch.

There are always interesting sights on the road.....like this custom trile...wow!

A quick stop on top of Beachmont road

The wind was howling at the hand gliding launch site

this would make a good patch,not sure about the Amrican thing

Dave & Dave enjoying some Irish hospitality & ploughmans lunch

Ahhh///cold winters day..on a ride....Irush stew

Thx Tim, finally a real support vehicle




Check out a quick video of the ride below

June ride.....The Gateway 300

A group of 7 bikers and our MG backup crew left Gateway under clear blue skies for a ride into the Sunshine Coast Hinterland and back – a distance of exactly 300km according to Google Maps.

Leon & new Ninja 600

The old and the new (bikes I mean)

Our morning tea stop at “Café au Lait” in Beerwah was a little more upmarket than usual (read ‘feminine’ décor) but the proprietors were most welcoming and the coffee was wonderful. The much needed toilets were a bit far away though (it was a cold ride up the highway).

After a short ride up to Peachester we turned into Bald Knob Road for a gentle ride under the gum trees before joining the Landsborough road up to Maleny. Plenty of mountain scenery and nice winding roads were enjoyed as we then headed for Kenilworth and the Bellbird Creek Café for lunch. The contrast of this Biker cultured café with the previous Café au Lait was very obvious as you will see with the photos. 

A very relaxing lunch was enjoyed and the constant ringing of bellbirds was God’s provision of background music to enhance our experience. The lunch time entertainment was provided by a carpet snake that was trying to find its way into the kitchen – snakeburgers for afternoon tea?

someone else we left behind

In Kenilworth we ventured into the Cheese Factory for a bit of cheese and yoghurt sampling (and buying). Unbeknown to us, Larry’s flat battery delayed his departure from the Bellbird Creek Café and we didn’t see him again that day. I (David E) accept responsibility for not going back to find out what happened to him – as leader for the day I should’ve shown more care for our fellow rider.

Our ride up to Mapleton from the west included that twisty, one way, bitumen section that was so much fun on a bike. If it wasn’t a dirt road in the opposite direction we may have been tempted to go back down and do it again!

After some refueling at Mapleton, we headed south through Montville and along the sweeping road toward Maleny. Here we split up for alternate routes home – some via Landsborough, some via Woodford (for yet another cup of coffee) and the backup crew took to the hills again, going home via picturesque Mt Mee.

Mays ride and a meeting with the pelicans

There was a bit of crispness in the air as a small group of 4 bikers and our MG backup crew left Gateway under beautiful blue sky heading for the Redlands area. Russell was on his brand new Ninja 1000 (he said he needed more grunt for passing!).

After enjoying the sights and smells of agricultural land it was then back to the Motorway for a brief run at 110km/h before heading to Cabbage Tree Point where the water views of the bay were spectacular. About 17 pelicans welcomed us - some in the air, some in the water and there were a couple of pole sitters! (No, not the Casey Stoner variety.) Then it was off to morning tea at the Horizon Shores marina by the boat sales office. Some brief looks in the office window at the used boat advertisements confirmed that motorcycling is a MUCH cheaper hobby!

David then took us southwards on some back roads to show us the grand entrance to Mick Doohan’s residential property east of Coomera – couldn’t stop too long, we were probably being filmed and our rego numbers are now most likely stored on his security data base!

Daves suzuki picture for his desk

look up in the sky..is it a bird..no its pelican!

Some more back roads through new residential estates had us finally on some country roads heading for Canungra. En route we were all stopped by the Police!  A bikers’ RBT, which we all passed of course, including John in the 4 wheeled MG. There was a car drivers’ RBT station further up the road as well (in the opposite direction). After such excitement we enjoyed our lunch at the Outpost which was surprisingly quite for a Saturday. Perhaps all the other Bikers had already been through at morning tea time (or perhaps they failed the RBT). We split up here with some going home over Tamborine and others going around it. A great day. Would love to see more join us next time.