Mt Cootha & Mt Nebo

[earlybird]

Hello,
I'm in Brisbane for the next week and plan to do a few loops of Mt Cootha on one day and Mt Nebo on another. I'll be staying on the south side and driving early in the morning to bottom off each climb. I hope to be on the bike by 5am.
I'm chasing advice on any thing that I should be aware of and what to look out for, or any other suggestions. My ride day options are most likely Wednesday to Saturday.
Due to their popularity, I'm assuming there will be plenty of others out and about around the same time. I've found some relevant segments via strava and plan to follow those.

Cheers,
John

[elantra]

Hello,
I'm in Brisbane for the next week and plan to do a few loops of Mt Cootha on one day and Mt Nebo on another. I'll be staying on the south side and driving early in the morning to bottom off each climb. I hope to be on the bike by 5am.
I'm chasing advice on any thing that I should be aware of and what to look out for, or any other suggestions. My ride day options are most likely Wednesday to Saturday.
Due to their popularity, I'm assuming there will be plenty of others out and about around the same time. I've found some relevant segments via strava and plan to follow those.

Cheers,
John

Coottha is usually done as a circuit, and obviously those that are keen can do it more than once, or once in one direction and then repeat in the other direction.

It is a nice road surface, generally not too narrow, and its a case of just follow the other cyclists once you have parked your car, if arriving by car.
Popular place to park car is at a picnic area called Slaughter Falls park, but really finding somewhere to park a car is not an issue, anywhere at Bardon really.

The most popular way up is the "back" and then descend the "front"

This is because descending the "back" is much more dangerous than descending the "front"

There is a cafe and lookout at the top of the "front", which is worth the slight detour (note -one way road access !) if you like nice sunrises etc.

[marinmomma]

For Nebo you can park at the bottom in the bus station carpark, on a Sunday it's nearly empty, the climb starts there.
Nebo is about 19-20k up the road, there's two cafés to choose from to refuel or if you just want water go a bit further past the 2nd cafe to the school and fill up there.
If you want to extend the climb kept heading up to Glorious, the scenery is indeed glorious.
Sunday can be busy with cars and motorbikes, the former can be impatient at time but the moto's are usually good and give you space.
Are the roadworks still happening? Haven't been up for a couple of months now!

Enjoy!

[Dragster1]

If you are near the centenary bike path just get on it, it takes you straight to MT Coothas door step. The climb is pretty simply,short and easy

[Smithstreet]

No roadworks.. as of Saturday morning, but that could change at any moment.

On the cafe side of things, when it comes to Mt Glorious, I highly recommend the Elm haus Café, which is the second one on the right just past Browns Rd.
The first one on the right with all the motos, may or may not like cyclists in their establishment. Lets just say I heard that from a friend, of a friend, of a friend!!
Besides that, they have sh*t coffee... IMHO.

[earlybird]

Thanks all, some great info there. I had a look at the maps and I will continue on to Mt Glorious, thanks MM for the suggestion.


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[earlybird]

I headed up to Mt Nebo/Mt Glorious on the Wednesday and decided to park at the service station - that way I could grab a cold chocolate milk for the drive home. I was on the bike at 4:30am and the ride up was very quiet, as expected. Someone has a sense of humour - as I'm grinding at 15-16km/hr on a longer climb, they put a speed limit sign that says 80 - this was in several places. No-one was going up and 5-6 cars/motorbikes were heading down and there were no roadworks. None of the cafes were open this early. On the way down I passed 1 rider who must have turned at Mt Nebo, and a couple of small (2-3 riders) groups heading up. All up it was 66kms in 2.5 hours.

I rode Mt Coot-tha on Saturday morning, parking at the Planetarium at the foot of the climb - after doing a recon of the loop in the car. On the initial climb out from the planetarium I caught up to a local rider who I decided to ride with and chat to. Before I knew it the climb was over and we were descending. I decided to tag along and do the famous "River-loop" I had read so much about - nice ride, but wouldn't hurry to do it again. I found my way back to Mt Coot-tha and decided to do another loop of the hill - this felt better doing it 5 and half minutes quicker than the 1st loop. Pretty much the same distance and time as the Mt Glorious ride.

2 rides that I will definitely do again when back in the big smoke.

Cheers,
John