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Region:

Alpine Region 

Length:

30 km 

Duration:

45 mins 

Submitted By:

Motorcycle Rides 

Ride Summary

This 40 kilometre ride boasts a corner ratio of 95%, and corner speeds which may be either slow, medium, or fair. You are likely to meet one car every 10 minutes on this stretch of road in the summer. The ride is smooth, bump-free, and features good bitumen grip.

Ride Description

This section of the Great Alpine Way is very twisting, offering many enjoyable corners as well as splendid views out over the surrounding scenery, which is of surpassing loveliness. This is a spectacular motorcycle road and well worth your time. Some of the tightest corners have been widened recently, and a yellow line has been added to the left side of each lane, but there are still some hazardous corners on the mountain itself, where heavy forest restricts visibility and there are still plenty of very tight, narrow corners.

Returning to Melbourne on this road is an attractive alternative to the Hume route, because the road has been sealed between Mt. Hotham and Omeo. The 40 kilometres of tight downhill work on this ride’s return is tiring, unlike the invigorating uphill work on the outbound leg. If you need food for yourself or fuel for your motorcycle, then Harrietville is the place to obtain both.

Another thing to look out for on this road are light-traveling riders who bring their motorcycles to Harrietville in vans, and following one of several routes, including Hotham to Omeo to Bruthen and then back. Some take a wide loop through Cann River, Bombala, Jindabyne, Corryong, and then return to Harrietville. Whatever the route, you should look out for them.

Mt. Hotham itself is an interesting part of the route, with snowdrifts often persisting into early summer and temperatures usually 10 degrees lower than Harrietville. The mountain area is windy, and there is a selection of cafés on the mountain as well as a year-round chair lift. There is a publicly-visible thermometer on the building facing the chair lift, and you may see a snowflake or two at any time.

Directions

Found 210 kilometres east-northeast of Melbourne, this ride can be reached by two different routes. Approaching from the north, take the Hume Highway throught Myrtleford and Bright to Harrietville. From the south, got through Bairnesdale and Omeo to Hotham.


View Alpine Region – Harrietville to Mt Hotham in a larger map
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Best Thing About This Ride

The ability to enjoy a steady series of satisfying, exciting corners and some magnificent scenery at the same time is the high point of the Mt. Hotham ride.

What Else To Look Out For

There are several hazards on the Harrietville to Mt. Hotham ride which you should be cautious about. One is that 4WDs and cars may be encountered unexpectedly on the narrow areas and the near-blind corners they include. The alpine bitumen sweats chemicals if the temperatures rise above a certain point, and high temperatures in Bright probably means that the extremely tight, twisty section of the road at the midpoint is slippery and dangerous.

The bitumen also gets soft in the heat, resulting in the surface shifting under your motorcycle wheels. This can be intense enough to simulate the feeling and handling characteristics of a flat tire. This occurs most frequently on the light grey portions of the paved surface.

You might also encounter sudden fog on this route, regardless of season or time. We have found fog on this ride in the early afternoon in February, with visibilities as low as 20 meters.