Humevale Road
Length: 7.2km
Average gradient: 3.5%
Elevation gain: 252m
Introduction
Winding its way up from Whittlesea to Kinglake West, the Humevale Road climb is one of the hidden gems of the Kinglake area. Car traffic on Humevale Road is restricted to local residents only so this beautiful, gentle climb through bushfire affected areas can be enjoyed virtually traffic-free.
The start
The Humevale Road climb begins just after the one-lane bridge 2.6km east of the Whittlesea Yea Road (C725).
The finish
The Humevale Road climb ends at the intersection of Humevale Road, Coombs Road and the Whittlesea Yea Road (C725).
At a glance
- A gentle, pictureque climb at a very manageable gradient.
- The road surface can be a little sketchy at times but it’s more than fine on a road bike.
- The climb has a number of impressive hairpin bends where the gradient increases slightly.
Climb details
The gradual climb up Humevale Road isn’t overly challenging at an average gradient of only 3.5%. The climb begins with a gradient of around 4% straight after the narrow bridge but this fluctuates throughout the ascent. Most of the climbing seems to happen as the road bends around the numerous corners that populate the climb with the straighter sections tending to be a bit flatter.
The climb is punctuated by several impressive hairpin bends, the most significant of which occur 2.3km, 3.2km, 4.2km and 4.7km into the climb. Be sure to take particular care when climbing around these bends as the road is quite narrow and it is often difficult to see oncoming traffic.
Also be aware that ever since the Black Saturday Bushfires of February 2009, the surface of Humevale Road has become rather sketchy in places. A mountain bike is not required but be careful on the descent as loose stones often cover the road on the climb’s sharper corners.
Profile
This profile was created by using Bike Route Toaster. To see the full profile, including full elevation details, click here.
Location
Humevale Road starts and ends at an intersection with the Whittlesea Yea Road (C725). From Whittlesea the Humevale Road climb can be accessed by taking the Whittlesea Yea Road (C725) north-east out of town. Humevale Road is on the right around 3.2km after passing the Whittlesea Showgrounds on the left. After turning onto Humevale Road you can enjoy the 2.6km flat section to the one-lane bridge and the start of the climb.
Humevale Road can also be accessed from the township of Kinglake by following the Whittlesea Kinglake Road (C724) north-west out of town for 12.4km. At the T-intersection turn left onto the Whittlesea Yea Road (C725) for around 1.5km and at that point Humevale Road and its intersection with Coombs Road will be on the left.
Times
To see how your time up the Humevale Road climb compares to others in the cycling community, or to post your own time, head over to Cycle2Max. The Strava segment for this climb can be found here.
Did this today, it really is a little gem, one you just want to get into an easy rhythm and enjoy, and not a single car to bother me!
Agree the road surface isn’t great, but I descended on the main road (which, while a bit busy, is a lovely descent anyway)
Correct on all counts Sean. It’s charm is its quietness I believe, and the way in which you can work up a great rhythm.
As you mentioned, traffic on Humevale Road is restricted to local residents only. So f-ck off. All you cyclists do is annoy the f-ck out of the locals. So please, for the love of f-cking god, f-ck off.
@Resident of Humevale,
Could you elaborate on your issues with cyclists using this road? I have ridden this road many times & said hi to many locals along the way who have always been very friendly back to me.
Obviously one strongly dissenting resident with no elaboration or evidence to support their claim. Quite probable that this individual is inept at communication and easily characterised as ignorant. The above attitude doesn’t deserve the attention they are obviously craving, given their awareness of this website, their ineffective message and nothing a little education about the benefits of cycling wouldn’t fix, unless their head is so far up their *%# that they are not able to hear the pop!
Don’t feed the demented troll. Eventually he will choke on his own ute.
It was nicer before it was crispy fried
I used to see echidnas and lyrebirds on cool days – none there now. Hello climate change.
@Tom
Could I elaborate on my issues with cyclists using this road? Of course. Groups of cyclists are always taking up the whole road. When a car comes, they either take their time moving to the side, or don’t move at all. On mornings when people are trying to get to work or school, this is insanely annoying.
I also regularly ride my horse along this road. He is perfectly calm when passing cars, as they are cautious and slow right down, allowing me to pass them with no trouble at all. Cyclists, however, seem to think they own the road – the road which THEY DO NOT EVEN LIVE ON. The first time my horse was fronted with a cyclist, he freaked out. The cyclist road past very fast and dangerously close to my and my horse. I almost fell off, yet the cyclist zoomed past without a care in the world.
Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that time when I drove past a cyclist who had stopped on the side of the road, had his pants down, and was pissing.
@User of roads
Is the above elaboration enough for you?
@kosh
I’m a she, not a he.
Kosh…it’s a real pity your 1st post was expletive ridden and aggressive, not surprising then the people it antagonised. I’ve seen what you’ve described, bunch riders not giving a damn, but abusing them and telling them to %^*k off clearly doesn’t work well. We all as riders and road users have to do the right thing show respect to each other…so let’s do that and on that narrow Humevale switchback, let’s demonstrate we can all get along.
Did you mean to address this to Kosh? He was the one that said: “Don’t feed the demented troll. Eventually he will choke on his own ute.”
I think we should organise a mass Humevale Road ride. Put out a call to arms for all cyclists to come to Humevale Rd on a particular day. A group of at least 30 cyclists for a leisurely cruise up the hill would be magnificent!
Wow, Chris, you’re funny.
Wasn’t meant to be. I know for a fact I will be requesting our cycling club to do a ride up Humevale Rd.
All your doing is antagonising cyclists which will have only 1 result. More cyclists on Humevale Rd.
Demented troll thinks it’s their private driveway and horse riding trail. Unless they choose to buy the road, just ignore them.
As far as it’s says, it’s restricted to CAR drivers only.
So not a ‘private’ road by any stretch of the imagination. And any fool using/thinking this is the case needs to have a bex and a lie down.
@ Chris – though not a clubby I’m in, let me know when!
@ Resident of Humevale – Happy to stop buy, pat your horse share a cuppa & talk about how our taxes pay for y’our’ road, how cyclists are actually managing the risks roads present including unpredictable animals (or arguably less predictable than motorists but a risk none the less) and their riders who seem to have an axe to grind or an inflated sense of entitlement/ parochialism, how cyclists enjoy the company of others with far less emissions than a horse whilst not only staying healthy but celebrating the benefits of open spaces. By the way, do you have a bike?
@ Resident of Humevale
I agree that cyclists will sometimes hold traffic up and that the way they ride 2 abreast (legally) is often frustrating and IMO rude on many roads.
But it is a public road and it is there for us all to share; Horses, Cyclist and Motor vehicles alike.
I know that when I’m commuting to work in the city it is the cars slowing my bicycle down and not the other way around. But I like to think I am doing my bit to reduce the problem and that not everyone is physically capable of using sustainable transport methods due to health and other reasons.
I love the Kinglake/Tolangi area and try to support the local cafes and IGA.
During the bushfire disaster I gave much more because of my connection to the area than I would of.
I hope this gives you a greater understanding of cyclists and they are just normal people adding to your community.
Well said Glenn.
What residents need to realise is that in a group of cyclists most wiil obey the law and have common sense. Eg slowing when approaching a horse on the road. However there is the odd one just like any other group in society that give us a bad name.
Also @resident of Humevale needs to understand is that in groups of cyclists like the one I cycle with you will find many different professions some of which required us to be in the Kinglake area for the disaster relief to which I was proud to help out. So please dont tell me to …. OFF!
I am sure the local traders would not like us to …. OFF either.
I think it’s up to each of us to take umbrage at other cyclists being d*ckheads, tell them how they’re being d*ckheads, and eventually we create a better culture. Keep writing about it in blogs, comments on articles, etc etc, but also get out there and start taking responsibility/leadership on the roads (i.e. don’t just shout at people, it only makes it worse).
I hate the knobs that Resident of Humevale is talking about as well, and can see her point. There are heaps of idiots on bikes, and it’s getting worse with the ‘cadel effect’. Heaps of new ‘cyclists’ (well, not sure you could call them cyclists, maybe it should just be ‘people on bikes’) with no road sense, no idea of how to behave in even a small group, and an exaggerated sense of entitlement to the road.
Well that spun me out reading all that.
I just wanted to say Humevale is a great ride which I do often and I saw a lyrebird only a couple of months ago and a tiger snake four weeks ago up there.
Climbed this one on Boxing day as a bit of Christmas calorie expunging exercise.
What a beautiful road and so quiet! Like Sue above, I saw some interesting wild life including a lyrebird and some sort of black feathered cockatoo which looked quite interesting.
The climb profile above is not correct. There weren’t any rolling ups and downs along the climb, just a long, steady and twisting climb.
I used a 34×18 ratio up this road and average about 19 km/h.
PS I love Humevale resident’s logic that if you don’t live on a road you shouldn’t use it – would make getting anywhere rather difficult.
Cyclists are welcome to Humevale- much prefer them to the idiots on dirt bikes and motor cars who seem to think the quiteness and serenity allow them to shatter the peace.
As the map shows, this climb is essentially a detour from the Whittlesea-Yea road. Many cyclists like to ascend Humevale Road and descend back towards Whittlesea via the main road, which is much better surfaced, straighter, and features some steeper pinches. It’s an exhilarating (and comparatively safe) high-speed descent.
If you do decide to descend on the main road, be careful of crosswinds on the more exposed sections, and mind the traffic.
Back in the 90′s the Preston Open road race went up this road and down the main road 10 times. For those wondering that was about 80ks uphill in a day.This was actually before they had sealed it and before the first bridge was concrete. You picked your plank to get across the bridge and went straight onto a section of dirt. There was a rough section of bitumen and then another section of dirt before the bitumen at the top. Given the fact that you crested the hill 10 times the atrition rate was high. As much from a mental point as anything. I sware my bike just took its own line after about 6 laps. I seem to remember the first couple of complete laps were done in around 28 minutes
Wow, a great piece of history there Geoff – thanks!
Went up Humevale today. Gravel has recently been dumped on it from top to bottom. Anyone know if it’s going to be properly resurfaced?
Further to this … I asked Whittlesea City Council. They received state funding to repair Humevale Rd with a gravel seal following the bushfires. Further repair works are under consideration but only if funding allows (read: don’t hold your breath).
Thanks for the update!
Humevale is still with gravel unfortunately, up there last weekend and not much has changed. Not a lot of fun climbing on a gravel road. Looks like its Kinglake West all the way!
The road is in pretty good condition now (at least compared to what it was). Some work was done to deal with the gravel a few months ago after the local bike shop pulled together a bit of support to push for a fix and, obviously from the comments above, individuals complained as well.
Also, the local traffic only sign is long gone, but it is still a lovely quite ride. I’ve cycled the hill a couple of times this week and seen more lyrebirds than cars. Still, there is some traffic, including descending cyclists, so please stick to the left hand side and don’t give the locals a reason to be annoyed.
Great update Simone, thank you!
I did this climb last week. Fantastic road and a great place to start climbing for novices like me. I thought the condition of the road was good, was expecting a lot worse. Great website.
I started doing this climb years ago when I lived in the northern ‘burbs of Melbourne. Hardly ever saw any cyclists in miles of riding all about the place. That’s changed a fair bit – every time I visit Melbourne there’s more riders and more infrastructure. You’re definitely the nation’s leader in the respect.
I digress. If you’re looking for a nice steady, quiet, picturesque climb; this ride is for you. Continuing over the top and coming back down through St Andrews/Hurstbridge is good fun.
Since then I’ve lived in:
- Darwin (rode my bike once in 2 years – weather and drivers just too *ahem* challenging)
- Brisbane (best if you stick to bike routes/tracks)
- Alice Springs (got a MTB – the club there has made kilometres and kilometres of amazing track)
- And now Canberra (OMG did that car just GIVE WAY to me?)
Which brings me to my question… when is the Climbing Cyclist going to start reviewing climbs further afield?
Hi Rich, thanks for this! And a fair question. At the moment it’s just me working on the site in my spare time, at home in Melbourne. So I’ve only got limited opportunities to get out and about to other states/territories to document the climbs. I wouldn’t want to open, say, an ACT section of the site with only 1 or 2 climbs on it. So, I either need to find some money to spend quite a bit of time travelling/documenting or I need to recruit people in other states/territories to help expand the site. It would be a lot of work for those people and I couldn’t pay them, so, not too appealing I imagine.
But yes, I’d LOVE to cover as many climbs around the country as possible. Hell, there are the best part of 100 climbs in Victoria that I’d like to document that I still haven’t!
Just stumbled across this for Canberra…
http://thecycleway.com/?p=748
Perhaps you could link to other bloggers who focus on their part of the world?
Matt you do a great job with the site. Great reading and inspiring climbs.
Thanks Sue!
Hey all
I’m a resident of Humevale Road too. At the end of the day, it is a public road, and we are all entitled to use it. I for one use it every morning on my mountain bike to gain access to the fire trails further up. Most roadies that use it are generally polite, and will say hi. Like every group, there will be a minority that give the rest a bad name. Don’t focus on those, and just focus on the good people!
A quick thanks for the website, it’s great to have some knowledge of climbs in areas I haven’t been to before so I can get an idea of what I’m in for.
Used the extra hour gained today from the end of daylight savings to head out to Humevale Rd and give it a go.
After reading the comments above, I was half expecting a lynch-mob on horseback waiting for me on arrival, but there were maybe 5 other cyclists and 3 cars for the entire time I was there. Drivers were respectful and I waved them through when it was safe to pass, and gave a wave to cars coming head-on.
I don’t know the area well, so I just rode this climb 4 times and really enjoyed it. Not too steep that it’s a matter of surviving to the top, but a good consistent grade and encourages tempo and keeping the speed up, and practising good pedalling technique.
Plenty of lyrebirds, small lizards and a wallaby around, and so quiet.
Great area, I’ll be back again.