Brisbane good for motorcyclists?

[deafwish]

Hey all,
My work has been making noises about a possible job opportunity for me in Brisbane...
What's Brissie like for a keen biker/ performance car nut?
Just doing my research with financials (property) & lifestyle changes for the possible move...

Cheers.

Daz.

[ttc]

Depends what mood the cop is in

Seriously, I moved up from Vic 13 years ago.. never ever regretted one day of it

We have lots of places to ride

[red_dave]

Things to consider,

1. Fuel is cheaper...

2. Cops carry protractors...

3. It's bloody hot and sweaty riding in leathers in the middle of summer...

4. Ponti and Cheeky live there...

5. It's a long way from PI

[Slow and wobbly]

Beware of Ponti and his anti social ways

" I fought the law and the law won "

[Tack]

My wife and I moved up here from Melbourne about a year and half ago so I can only give some initial impressions.

One of the best things is the weather. The temp range is much more conducive for pleasant riding 90% of the time however sometimes when it rains in absolutely buckets. Sometimes it rains so hard, so quickly here, that the roads can, at times, get flooded. Monsoonal sort of stuff. It only rains hard occasionally but when it does, it's bad and you will get absolutely soaked thru to the skin and you will find seeing anything very difficult.

Having said that, many (not all but definitely more than melb) riders I see up here ride in shorts, no gloves, work clothes, minimal protection and only don protective clothing when it gets colder.

Seems to be a lot more women riders up here too ...or at least ones that ride to work more regularly at least.

The roads are definitely a poorer standard to Vic roads. The main arterial roads are just acceptable however the secondary roads are rough, pot holie and not as well maintained. The roads in some areas are very steeply crowned to allow for water to run off to the gutters when it rains hard. I dunno if it's fair to say but it seems that they pay less attention to road hazards that put motorcyclist at risk. However, If the majority of the roads were smoother here then it would be biker heaven as they have some fantastic country and lots of great places to ride to.

One of the worst things, at least at the moment, is the amount of traffic and the lack of roads to handle the volume. Apparently the infrastructure has not kept up with the number of people moving here over the last 5 years. The traffic congestion is a major problem. An accident on one of the arterial roads can cause major disruptions to every road within 10 k's of it as people fight to get away from it. Sometimes you can't get off the road that the accident has occurred One accident caused delays for 5 hours...and there was no one even injured in that one.

Some strange things occur with the traffic too. Like I used to travel from Virginia to Eagle farm on the bike at the same time every day. One morning the traffic would be banked back for miles the next, nothing...not a soul...kid you not....nothing. Then it would go back to being banked up ...then one day..out of the blue it would happen again. It was like everyone decided to stay home for one day??? Bizarre, I thought.

So bikes are really great to have to get thru the traffic however the powers that be are not happy with the number of motorcycle deaths up here (apparently 1 in 5 deaths up here is a motorcyclist and you are 30 times more likely to die even getting on a motorcycle up here...so the advertising says). So they're cracking down on such fun things as splitting and filtering thru the traffic. On the major arterials, the emergency stopping lane is the normal travel lane for many motorcyclist in the peak hour traffic. On one morning there were 4 separate motorcycle accidents during the peak hour!

All in all, it's a great place to live.

[deafwish]

Sounds like you have a bad case of Cop Nazi syndrome up there...?
Are the Police that rediculous with bikers or is it the general public that doesn't know how to share the road with us?

[mike-s]

One of the worst things, at least at the moment, is the amount of traffic and the lack of roads to handle the volume. Apparently the infrastructure has not kept up with the number of people moving here over the last 5 years. The traffic congestion is a major problem. An accident on one of the arterial roads can cause major disruptions to every road within 10 k's of it as people fight to get away from it. Sometimes you can't get off the road that the accident has occurred One accident caused delays for 5 hours...and there was no one even injured in that one.

Seriously that sounds a bit like sydney, so that'd be why my pre-commute ritual is listen to the radio/telly and check the RTA's traffic website so i know what im in for and if there's any way i can avoid a living traffic hell. this snarled up the entire primary arterial from the west to the CBD for half a day, i took a 10+km detour just to stay away on unaffected roads.

Then again i think there's this kind of problem with nearly any city you choose to live in.

[Nanna10r]

Tack has hit it on the head. As a motorcycle heaven you're at least 3 years too late, The Police have an agenda set down by the politicians to protect us from ourselves. Nearly by any means possible at this stage.
All in all you NEED a bike up here to Ease the Commute carnage. But there's better places to go Sunday riding.
hth.
Cheers Nanna

[shinnynoggon]

lived in brisbane in the end of the 90's and couldn't wait to get back to sydney , one day crossing the story bridge a cop chucked a u-turn in the middle of the bridge just to pull me over for nothing , pack of karn'ts they don't like bikes up there , better off heading north a bit

[Lone Wolf]

Road riding (other than the cop issue) = good

Track riding = shit. QR has got to be the worst track in the country