Phillip Island Coast Ride
A 203 km loop
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Why this ride
Leave the city behind and spend the day on roads with texture. Out of Melbourne and back again: 203 km, roughly 3 h 41 in the saddle. The plan has 1 food stop marked.
Roadbook
- Melbourne
start
Melbourne rewards anyone who stops long enough to get lost in it. The grid of the central city, laid out in the 1830s on the north bank of the Yarra River, hides a maze of laneways full of cafes, street art and tiny bars, and the coffee here is taken more seriously than almost anywhere on earth. Around the centre spread leafy inner suburbs, parks and the great sweep of Port Phillip Bay, and the city's character owes much to waves of migration from Greece, Italy, Vietnam and beyond.
The land is the country of the Wurundjeri and other peoples of the Kulin nation, who lived around the bay and the river for tens of thousands of years before the British arrived. The gold rushes of the 1850s made Melbourne rich almost overnight, and for a time it was one of the wealthiest cities in the world, which is why its Victorian architecture, arcades and boulevards are so grand. Sport is close to a religion: the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Australian rules football, the Australian Open and the Formula One Grand Prix around Albert Park all draw huge crowds.
Riding in the city has its own rules. Trams run through the centre and the inner suburbs, and their tracks are slippery in the wet and can catch a narrow tyre. At some intersections in the central business district, drivers turning right must make a hook turn, moving to the far left and waiting until the lights change before turning across, a local quirk that confuses visitors. Lane filtering is legal for motorcyclists in Victoria under conditions, but the traffic can be dense and impatient.
The Phillip Island rides head south and east around the bay, past the suburbs and through farmland, across the bridge at San Remo and onto the island, home of the Grand Prix circuit where MotoGP races each year, and of the famous little penguins that waddle ashore at dusk. The coast roads are lovely, with views across Western Port and Bass Strait, but often windy, and the weather can turn quickly.
Melbourne is known for four seasons in one day: a hot morning can become a cold, wet afternoon as a southerly change blows through. Pack layers whatever the forecast says. Fuel, food and coffee are everywhere, and it would be a waste not to end the ride in a laneway cafe or one of the city's many excellent restaurants.
- Phillip Island
food
Phillip Island is a granite and basalt island at the mouth of Western Port, joined to the mainland by a bridge at San Remo, and for motorcyclists it carries a name that needs no explanation. The Grand Prix circuit on its southern coast has hosted the Australian motorcycle Grand Prix for most years since 1989, and it is loved by riders for its fast, flowing layout and the way the main straight seems to plunge towards Bass Strait. On non-event days the circuit has a visitor centre, and sometimes ride days or go-karts, so it is worth checking ahead if you want to see more than the gate.
The rest of the island moves at a gentler pace. Cowes, on the northern shore, is the main town, with cafés, bakeries, fish and chips and fuel, and it is where most people stop to eat. The southern and western coasts are wilder. Cape Woolamai, a granite headland, has a long surf beach and nesting shearwaters in season. The Nobbies, at the western tip, look out over rocks that are home to a large colony of fur seals, and at Summerland Beach the famous penguin parade happens every evening at dusk, when little penguins come ashore in small, nervous groups and waddle up to their burrows. It is touristy but genuinely moving.
The riding itself is relaxed. The island roads are mostly smooth two-laners through farmland, with grassy dunes and coastal heath near the sea. The real factor is wind. Phillip Island sits exposed to the Southern Ocean weather systems, and gusts across the open paddocks or the bridge can be strong, so keep an easy grip and watch the flags. The weather can switch from sunshine to horizontal drizzle in a quarter of an hour.
The approach from Melbourne through the South Gippsland Highway and Bass Highway is not especially exciting, but once you cross to the island the mood changes. Come on a weekday outside school holidays and in the cooler months, and you will find it calm and spacious. During MotoGP week it is the opposite: crowded, loud and a celebration of everything on two wheels, and accommodation fills up a long way ahead.
- Melbourne finish