The best motorcycle roads on the Gold Coast hinterland

Behind the Gold Coast, the ground rises fast into the border ranges, and the roads that climb into them are among the twistiest in the country. Counting every sealed road with a high enough corner density within about an hour of Surfers Paradise, we get roughly 640 km, spread over more than 60 named roads. That is a lot of riding behind a holiday coast.

The core loop: Canungra

Most of the good roads start or finish at Canungra, a small town at the foot of the ranges that works as the area’s riding hub.

Beechmont Road climbs from the Canungra valley onto the Beechmont plateau in a run of linked bends. It is the most popular road in the area, which is both its attraction and its drawback: on a weekend morning you will share it with a lot of other riders, and with the police who know why they are there. Early on a weekday is a different road.

Lamington National Park Road leaves Canungra in the other direction and heads for the Lamington plateau. It is narrow, shaded and dense with corners, and the better for being ridden slowly. Wildlife on the road is common at dawn and dusk, and oncoming traffic is often wider than the lane.

Ride one up and the other back and you have a loop that mixes the quicker plateau road with the slower, tighter one.

The steep one: Springbrook

Springbrook Road climbs onto the Springbrook plateau and is the steepest and most technical road in the area. First and second gear in places, with tight bends stacked close together. It is the one to build up to rather than start on.

The easy introduction: Tamborine–Oxenford

If you are new to the ranges, Tamborine–Oxenford Road is the gentle way in. It is a long climb from Oxenford up onto Tamborine Mountain, flowing rather than tight, and close enough to the coast that you can fit it into a half day. The mountain top has cafes and, on a good day, plenty of other riders.

What to know before you go

• Weather. Summer afternoons bring storms, and the shaded sections stay damp long after the rain stops. Gravel washes onto corners.
• Traffic. Weekends are busy on every one of these roads. Early and midweek are the quiet times.
• Fuel. Fill up on the coast or in Canungra. There is little between the towns.
• Enforcement. Treat every popular hinterland road as patrolled.

Plan it

You can plan a loop around these roads in the app: drop pins at Canungra and the road ends, choose curvy routing, and it builds a route along the twistiest roads it can find. Save it for offline use before you head into the ranges, where signal is patchy.