Marampa Motor

It has been a long winter. 6 months of cold and rain. A rare fine day arrived so I decided to try my luck at seeing Mt Fuji. I have a poor record on this after my first ride in Japan in 2008 it has been always been obscured by clouds when I have been passing but not today. I don�t want to sound too negative to begin but the ride did not get off to a great start. I chose to ride the shortest route

I think I had a touch of cabin fever. Too much time indoors hiding from the cold. Something I am not accustom to coming from the tropics. Nothing like a motorcycle ride to shake the blues. This is the Tokyo bay Aqua line highway that goes from Yokohama across the bay to Chiba first by tunnel then bridge. I had wanted to ride it for a while so when I missed the Kurihama ferry due to forgetting my

I tried my first true winter ride last week and it was better than I expected. The temperatures have been around 4 degrees daytime but clear and sunny. So when a milder 11 degree day was forecast I decided it was time to charge the battery with a ride. It is not possible to ride the mountains now, most roads would have snow and even lower areas are risk of black ice. Cars have studded tyres for

I was on my way to Borneo from Thailand but was picking up my mate who lives in the Philippines on the way to ride Borneo with me. My other mate who had just ridden in Thailand with me wanted to come to visit our mutual friend living in the Philippines so we ended up with a small reunion and being all riders we decided to try for a ride together but there really was no time to do anything decent.

This post is the first part of a recent trip riding 3 countries in SE Asia. The other areas I visited were the Philippines and Borneo, Malaysia which I will follow up on shortly. I have already toured the northern mountains of Thailand twice and was not initially planning to return this Christmas however a opportunity arose to meet up with my long time ride partner from Australia first in

A window of fine weather appeared in early November before winter. It was already very cold to ride North however the southern temperatures remained mild so I decided to seize the chance to try a more ambitious tour here before winter ends the riding for this year. One of the challenges touring here is securing hotels. They seem to book out a few days in advance and weekends often a couple weeks

I have read often that October is the best month for riding Japan. So I made sure I was here, even shelving other travel only for there to be a two typhoons! I was beginning to wish I had made other arrangements but eventually the rain eased so I decided to try a shortened Autumn leaf viewing ride. Heading north I wanted to skirt around Tokyo as I don�t trust the Garmin to navigate me through the

I had an idea to do a ride in Indonesia for a while now but have been side tracked a couple of times before getting there. Mentioning I will ride Indonesia and everybody seems to say �oh Bali� but IMO that is almost a different country within Indonesia. Focused on money with expensive resorts for those who seek to be whisked from airport to luxury hotel room. Phuket, Boracay and Bali are just not

Well time to pack the bike and move to Kanagawa region but I am taking a couple of days to get there so I can detour to Nagano and the high mountains. I will miss seeing all the beautiful mountain streams in the Aichi and Gifu area. Leaving via Gifu I take one more go at seeing Mt Norikura via route 84 on the western side but am blocked about half way up. I already tried the Norikura skyline

With all the rain of late I was hopeful of getting a fine Sunday and despite some scattered showers yesterday it turned out to be a classic hot summer day here in the sub tropics. Old fruit stall Currumbin range I set off about 7.30am and decided to make the most of it and go large. From the Gold Coast I rode over Currumbin, Burrinbgah range, Coolamon Scenic road to Federal via Mullumbimby

New Zealand is a wonderful place to ride a motorcycle. I just had a week and a half riding the south island and apart from some mixed weather at first I have to say it was some of the best riding I have ever experienced. I flew into Christchurch to meet a mate who was joining me on this ride and wow that city is really in bad shape from the earthquake. The TV cameras have long gone but the damage

Seems every week recently is mostly fine except Sunday which is forecast chance of rain or occasional showers. So I shifted gear and went for a Saturday ride. Wasn�t the best of weeks for me so a good ride was needed. I decided to do the tried and proven loop to Kyogle riding down via Mt Lindsey and the Summerland Way and returning via UKi and Currumbin valley. There are two perfect radius

That was the forecast and when I woke to blue sky I thought they had predicted the worst case as usual. This time however it was true and by 8.30 refueling at Mudgerraba you could see the rain blowing in from the sea to the south. When my friend from Ballina way arrived he had ridden through some of those scattered showers and so I decided to ride up Springbrook and try Numinbah Valley. They

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

Today I was determined to make up for last Sunday when I had planned to ride before drinking too much the night before. And so I headed north to Gympie. The forecast was for occasional showers in the Sunshine Coast district however one look this morning and I made up my mind it was going to be a perfect day so I loaded up the camera rather than my rain gear. It was not real cold but not exactly

Weather improved today so I decided to do a small ride after lunch. Local ride Share your motorbike routes @ MotoWhere.com After a slow traffic light crawl out of the city I rode via Bunya Road and Clear Mountain Road which were mostly free of cars. The clouds looked rather dark and heavy and I was wondering if I had made a bad call. After Win road I rode back to Samford and up the road

I hit the road early today and despite being one of the coldest weekends this year I was not cold at all having learned a few tricks to ensure I keep warm. Starting at the base layer I wear a thermal shirt rather than a regular t-shirt. I use merino ones which are pricey here but not too bad if you buy from New Zealand and much better than the regular polyester ones. Besides holding the body

Yesterday was a beautiful winters day with no clouds and a mild temperature. And so I rose early today hopeful of the same however the day was gray and gloomy. Never mind I am awake now so off for a small ride. Riding south I turned off and went to Mt Tamborine via Logan village. Very cold riding next to the Logan river just after 7.00am, I should have gone in my full winter gear however

Despite the forecast of showers I rose early and they were all sitting off shore so I decided to try a ride to the west. One thing about Brisbane is you have good riding to the South, North and West. Too bad about that Pacific ocean to the East or we might have even more I elected to take my winter outfit which is also waterproof and of course this ensured that I had dry riding all day. Good

Near perfect riding weather yesterday and today, last day off so I went for a small ride.I didn�t feel like doing many miles, just wanted to get out so headed off to a couple of my old favorites. Starting from Mudgeeraba I rode up Springbrook mountain and took in some views. I have not been there for some time as I always ride south over Currumbin which is mostly car free early on and was not