Headin North Roadtrip - july 2014

It was a chilly Friday morning that we left Gateway for our annual mid-year winter roadtrip with 13 bikes , 2 support vehicles and 23 people overall...for a wonderful 3 day roatrip to 1770.

A quick photo collage....

 

Check out our storybook of the road trip HERE

and a few video's below

A fine food September Ride- Flying Nun to Ricks Dinner

Ricks Dinner at Palmwoods on the sunshine coast was our iconic destination for lunch and , lead by the leaping lepracaun Leigh, around 30 bikes gathered at Gateway . This included some first-timers from our "meet-up"....

it was an impressive sight as we lined up both side of the road,our construction has cut off our normal assembly point. We had  couple of Harley's for  change...not that there is anything wrong with that. :)

The cavalcade then made the torturous Saturday morning ride through the traffic, stop lights and more stop lights before we got to some open road near Stamford Village

We finally made it to "The Flying Nun"cafe at Samford village for a "posh" sit down breakfast ..

amazing what they can do with an old Church

hey waiter..I'm ready to order

Some great community was had in this restore old Church environment...what an apt place to share...

..enjoying conversation in the chapel...sorry out the head shot Des

At the Flying Nun I had to hand over the fashionable tail-end charley safety vest to Johann who looked surprisingly happy to receive it...thx mate.

Leaving the flying Nun .....

Just had to drop in a pic of my crusty custom ...a love of my li

A Very Twisty ride in August

What happens when you let a sports ride lead a ride...you get a very twisty ride...and this is what we enjoyed for our August ride.

For a ride guaranteed to have no straight bits..Steve did an awesome job. We wound our way to Mt Tamborine, up and over and down the "goat track" to the Outpost for a late breakfast. It was then up to Beachmont, down through Natural Arch and up toward Springbrook etc etc more twisties etc before lunching at the 
"Bearded Dragon" at Tamnorine for lunch.

Steve, our route leader on his bargain of the century

Daves new KTM monster

Larry, complete with his daughters hair attachment, enjoying a cuppa at the Outpost Cafe.

Steve's  video below was testament to the twisty Mantra ...all from his rear helmet and bike camera's ...its was good to have some extra  camera's on the rides

Short ride on coldest morning in 100 years

Some brave bikers assembled on the coldest Saturday morning in a 100 years for breakfast at Springwood Suzuki and a short ride to Jacobs Well. It was cold enough to make a trip to the Sharks bike shop to get some winter gloves for our upcoming roadtrip north.

So off to Springwood Suzuki for some hot coffee , cooked breakfast and some oggling at bikes.

cafe at springwood suzuki

interesting bikes in the carpark as well as showroom

Des made the trip down in his triumph stag but still showed his Guzzi loyalty

What's this..Des on a KTM

Once we finished brekky and were heading off to Jacobs well it had warmed up nicely. Once we got off the freeway at Yatala it was a great run through the cane fields on what turned out to be a magic day.

pitty about those cars on the road...but check out the sky

looks like the Stig was out and about ( thats motor cars i know)

Sam wasn't going to take the helmet off

We then meandered to Harrigans Irish pub at Calypso Bay for a coffee...and check out the beautiful outlook.
Tucked out of the wind was awesome. We then posted the obligatory txt to those who missed this great time.

tucked out away from the wind..beautiful

what's my boat doing here....

An Epic June ride to Queen Mary Falls and beyond

With spring creek recently opened after significant repair work we were eager to again wind our up the mystical road to Queen Mary falls...and what unfolded for 30+ bikes and 35 riders was truly amazing.

spectacular views from the top of Spring Creek road

 Our ride took us out through Beaudesert, Boonah, Moogerah Dam, Mount Alford before winding up the mystical road, straight out of the Lord of the Rings. Fording streams, navigating steep winding corners we are suddenly up with the mighty Aussie gums, gazing over magnificent valley's before we finally burst onto what appears to be manicured lawns of a plateau.

As usual we enjoy (?) our late breakfast at Macca's taking up our usual spot.

We descended on Spring creek cafe for a long lunch, sitting on the edge of an amazing escarpment the setting is spectacular.

If we went home from here it would have been enough...but we had a great ride home through dramatically different landscape, rolling Aussie open fields , through quaint towns like Killarney. It was here we bunkered under the street awnings from an isolated thunderstorm.

..we really are tough Bikers?

the isolated storm clouds held some rain

across the plateau heading for Cunningham's Gap

and it chased down off Cunningham's gap

check out the video below ...a big day & long video

May's Wrong Way round ride

With forecast rain and an angry sky I was wondering who would make it to this great, twisty ride up the McPherson Range and back via the iconic Lion's Road.....but it turned into a beautiful day enjoyed by 27 other band of bikers.

 The ride was a little over 300km long with our traditional run out to Beaudesert Macca's for m/tea then off along Mt Lindsay Highway, through Rathdowney and up the hill towards Woodenbong, we turn off at Summerland for a great run down the mountain, ultimately turning onto Lion's Road and a stop at Ripples on the Creek for lunch.

We again welcomed some new riders and another bike from the Tasmanian Terrier (Leigh McQ).. and this one is a a Harley Cruiser!

Peter with his Kawasaki 900 Classic

Peter, Paul came along on for the ride his Honda ST

Our Tasmanian leprechaun with a Harley..note to self,always ask the wife first!

It was also good to have a number of couples on the ride though getting though new fangle bluetooth communicators working can be a challenge , a good thump on the head normally slows us down ladies (ha,ha)

Christa....."äre you there Leigh" ....Leigh .."yes I am over here.."

With my new camera system set up...a Drift HD Chost as the forward facing ( thx Steve for the heads up re the camera)..and my trust Contour rotated around for the rear facing. All dounded good but I didn't count on the "flapping yellow vest" interference at the back

We don't often see large groups of bikers on the road in Qld anymore....but we did come across this Harley rider who lead us along for awhile...

Then...horror of horror's , we hit a one lane of dirt!! Some major land slips had caused a re-route as significant work was dont to re-do the highway. Leigh came up for a chat ...we know how he hates waiting at lights.

Some of the dirt bikers amongst us may have enjoyed the little slip and slide but not yours truly... well we had a great twisty ride up and down sumerland way...then  onto Ripples on the Creek on the Lion Road.

what a lovely bike...oh yest its my crusty custom 900

... and there was some love in the air...

Geoff and his lovely wife...

Ripples on the creek was prepared for us and we all settled in for a nice lunch in a beautiful location , then I had to run home early...don't like the ride on my own but seems like the group enjoyed there ride back though some didn't heed my advice to fuel up at Beaudesert and there was some mad scrambling around Rathdowney.....all arrived home safely from another fantastic ride in the great south east.

Check out snippets of the ride in the video below