Old Mountain Road is the original road connecting Raglan to the Waikato until SH23 was constructed. Now the road is little used except for local farmers and residents. The gravel on the road can be thick in places especially if it has recently been graded, and the road has many tight, blind, and quite steep corners especially at the Hamilton end.
In World War 2 Home Guard troops built a tank trap in a narrow section of the road to act as a barrier and deterrent to an invading force should one land at Raglan and try to move inland, this is still in place today.
The West end of Old Mountain Road links into Waitetuna Valley Road.
Contributed by: @eddieb
Track type: Gravel Road
Track composition: Bumpy ,Loose, Undulating
Slippery when wet? Yes
Suitable for bikes <650cc? Intermediate
Suitable for bikes >650cc? Intermediate
River crossings? No
I did this road a couple of weeks ago on my Yamaha 100cc 2t scooter. Along with the Plateau rd which runs off the Kawhia/ Bridal Veils fall road. Plateau rd ( according to google ) should have linked up with Van Houtte rd which would have bought me back out on the Raglan Hamilton road. It was closed so I did some back tracking to Te Mata and SH23. I did a write up on this ride for the scooter section of the kiwi biker forum. Here is one photo I took on the Old Mountain rd. Look familiar??
Went through yesterday …. good surface and very interesting historically. My wife’s family used this road as access to Hamilton and beyond in earlier years.
The “outback beemer” stopped by the tank trap on Old Mountain Road.
The Beemer is looking good. I found the road further on (in the direction you are facing) was cut up quite a bit. But then on 10″ wheels I find corrugations ruts etc, that full size wheels dont notice.
Just went over this tonight and the gravel truck has been through, particularly on the Hamilton side there’s now quite a bit of deep gravel.
Took my learner rider son over Old Mountain Road today to get some metal road experience and carried on through to old lime works road. He was on a Kawasaki KLX125
Not much metal left on the road, was fairly greasy going down the incline. Good confidence building.
Love the history
Old Mountain Road has just been graded so has a loose flat surface to it and some useless scrotes have dumped and burnt a pile of rubbish at the summit.
Went over this road today. A few patches of wet clay but overall pretty good.