North America by motorcycle

I have been sitting on this one awhile but now have made a commitment – I am shipping my motorcycle to the USA next year and touring North America for 10 weeks.

I have a real world wish list of motorcycle tours I want to complete and while the full list has a dozen locations that I have been refining for sometime the two big at the top have have always been the alps of Europe and North West America. I completed my first ride in Europe last year and it was wonderful and I had been looking for a similar small group organised tour in the USA however besides ones in California there is very little else on offer.

So for the last 6 months I have been looking at small tours in Europe and thinking about going on one in Spain or Norway for my holiday in 2012 but my mind kept wandering off thinking about an opportunity to do something else much bigger. With the Australian dollar worth more than the green back, my hands seemingly recovered at last from painful dermatitis that has dogged me a decade and access to extended leave from work I said to myself – if not now then when.


And so I have now 12 weeks off work in 2012, 1 week either side and 10 weeks in Northern America from July to September to coincide with the shipping dates to and from Portland Oregon by the motorcycle shipping experts at Get Routed. My route so far is only a collection of ‘good motorcycle roads’ not yet compiled together however I will be riding west to east coast and back across parts of Canada in a large loop of sorts that will cover all the places that appeal most to me. Major areas of focus will be the American Northwest and Canadian Rocky mountains. The Smokey mountains and Blue Ridge parkway. The New England and maybe Nova Scotia.



I will update my tour plans along the way as things get firmed up. The route is an ongoing work which will take months. Otherwise I have started by taking the CB back to Pipemasters this weekend to have the sound volume reduced further. Sounds beautiful currently but over the course of a long day I felt I wanted it to be slightly less so the guys have said no problem.

I have a Audiovox car cruise control packed away, they make a simple cruise control popular for fitment to motorcycles. Mine is 2nd hand and has seen much more miles that the advertiser on eBay stated but includes a ton of accessory parts so I may buy a new main module and then find someone to install this as my next main job for this tour as I feel that will be essential.

I’m so excited and it is still 12 months away!

Spring may have sprung

Looked like it would be a fine day when I woke early this morning, the clouds were already breaking up so I decided I should go for a ride and perhaps think some things over.

Traveling south I ‘flat slabbed it’ as the Americans put it to Currumbin where I refueled and along the way came up with a new variation on some of my favourite roads.

First I rode over the Currumbin border range. The air was cool and very clear so I stopped to try and capture the moment however I am still learning with this new camera and did not manage to do so well despite many attempts...

Border ranges

I had a smooth journey to Uki riding the road as it follows the river with Mt Warning standing tall in my view all the way it was very enjoyable. The new road south of Uki is also nice to ride. I know it lost many curves in the revamp but this new section flows smooth so I like it a lot.

Uki

I stopped for a morning coffee at the Sphinx Rock café Mt Burrell and while it was a nice rest they have stopped serving Merlo coffee which was a slight disappointment.  



South towards Kyogle a little further then I turned left to Nimbin. The road into Nimbin is still a mixture of surfaces some good some poor some gravel roadworks. Before Nimbin I turned left towards Turntable creek. There is a terrific view point a few km down this road over the whole of the Nimbin valley which I just could not capture well enough today with the new camera - maybe next time.

The road over to The Channon is narrow and tricky in parts with some loose surface but if you ride at a steady pace then no reason you cannot ride this route and focus on the scenery. After The Channon the road improves as does the landscape with the rolling hills always reminding me of the Tuscan hills in Italy. Maybe not as scenic but it is very pretty in parts with some beautiful grand homes scattered around the countryside as well. There may be a few hippies left but there are far more millionaires in these hills and beyond to Byron Bay.

Dunoon

When you ride from or to the Channon it is important to note the Dunoon road is not sealed all the way so you need to detour on Dorroughby road via Corndale. The signs will direct you onto the Dunoon road so take a moment to study the route map I will include for today at the end of the post.

The ride then is often along the ridge of the hills offering wonderful views of groves of macadamia trees mixed with lots of curves. This area is my favourite riding within one day of Brisbane. These scenic country roads have few cars and outside of the villages are mostly open road speed limits with no enforcement so you can relax and just ride to the conditions and enjoy yourself.



I was recalling today it was about 15 years ago that I was shown this area and it struck me how fast the years had passed. I often thought I would like to relocate to the area and change my life. You think you have plenty of time and yet the window to do some things in life is not as wide as it first may appear to be. Especially the big ticket items.

The road from Rosebank to Goonengerry is not in as good a condition as it used to be. Not a show stopper but I saw a herd of hogs on the road today and they seemed to be having a slow old time of it and I suspect the sports bike rider would not much like it either as need good suspension travel to soak up the bumps.

I had intended to get back to Murwillumbah Tweed Gallery for lunch but I was hungry and ready for a break at Mullumbimby. I tried a new to me café Poinciana located on the eastern side near the new Woolworths. Good service, tasty burger and strong coffee but my burger was priced very high and I naturally expected it to be a full meal with chips and salad but nope just a burger and not even a large one so give this place a miss as it is very expensive.

How clear is the air today!

I had a very smooth run back over the Tweed valley way and Burrunbah range and indeed over Numinbah despite the motorcycle volume jumping dramatically once north of the Tweed river. Warm enough today to call this the first ride of Spring.

 

Numinbah

Reverse Nimbin Loop

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