How’d ya go this weekend?

I don’t ride every weekend and by ride I mean getting out of the city, not to places I usually go like the supermarket, the mall or table tennis.

Yesterday we went for a very short ride to the supermarket and found the capacity of 2 standard Nike backpacks is a 2kg box of laundry powder, 1 packet of 6 long rolls, 2 pkts of 4 cheese & bacon rolls, lettuce, 500gms ham, a roast chicken, 2 pkts of feminine hygiene products and a punnet of melting moment biscuits.

Our local shopping centre has motorcycle parking but strangely not near the door which is the whole idea to stop motorbikes taking up the close car park spaces 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️. There is a lot of wide space on the paved pedestrian areas and I have parked in there a couple of times when I couldn’t be arsed walking too far.

Today we went for a quick blast up Mt Coot-tha. If you don’t take the steep turn off for the summit there is a fairly nice although short route that snakes up the western side past the TV stations. There are A LOT of people on the mountain on any warm weekend and this was no exception although we have only been stuck behind cars a couple of times.

My favourite part of the mountain is the section between Simpsons falls turn off and Channel 10. Pic below for clarification. The road surface is smooth and rolling rather than tight and twisty. The speed limit is 50km/hr but you can easily get 75-80+ on most bits.

Our usual route is to shoot around counterclockwise past the summit, down and back around. The second time around we stop at the top (recommend the wedges with sour cream and sweet chilli sauce) for a rest and stunning view of the city.

Today we were pressed for time so just went to Channel 10 and turned around and headed back down. My first time going clockwise and downhill which was a weird feeling and felt like I had discovered a whole new road!

The full circuit is a great little run if you are not confident on corners as they are forgiving and you can increase your speed as you gain confidence. It’s generally quiet as most traffic takes the shorter, steeper ride to the summit.

I plan on stopping at one of the many rest areas for a BBQ or picnic lunch one day. The tree canopy is superb and a cool way to spend a hot Brisbane summer day. I note there are people on the mountain nearly year round with the temperate Brisbane weather and seemingly endless clear sky days, even in winter.

For a quick blat it’s definitely worth a punt.