Where to go with a weekend?

**benVFR** · 03-30-05, 09:18 AM

I am thinking it is almost time to take off on friday night and ride all weekend seeing where I can get to.

I have a 3 day weekend coming up but I have 2 things that will keep me in the Boston area that weekend.

Anyway what would be the best place to try and go assuming I will be heading south to where the weather is nicer?

Maybe go to Pennsylvania? Any good riding there? I guess Philly is only ~300 miles away by highway, that'd be easy.

I am basically just looking to ride all day and find the nearest/most convenient hotel at the end of the day to crash, hopefully ending up in an area that has some awesome roads to ride for a while.

I am figuring I would realistically need at least 4 days of death-march style riding to go down and blast Deal's Gap, etc.. and then come home immediately.

Ben

**Wayne-o** · 03-30-05, 09:56 AM

Ben,

Lemme know when.....I know a few noice roads in Pa.

Wayne-o

**Nikon** · 03-30-05, 12:01 PM

not the right direction but upsttate NY and, obviously, vermont have some nice roads. Never been much south of CT so I can't really say.
I am no help I will shut up now

**ZX-12R** · 03-30-05, 12:10 PM

Ride the Cabot Trail in Nova Scotia!

**Nikon** · 03-30-05, 12:27 PM

now that's a trip I would like to make at some point but I think that's a bit more than a 3 day trip for Ben

**oreo_n2** · 03-30-05, 12:31 PM

my roomate and some of his harley friends are doing a nova scotia trip in may. 3 day weekend. Ferry up, ride back.

**Nikon** · 03-30-05, 01:06 PM

Originally posted by oreo_n2
my roomate and some of his harley friends are doing a nova scotia trip in may. 3 day weekend. Ferry up, ride back.

forgot about the ferry..... I think of riding the whole way from here.. oops

**HBerry** · 03-30-05, 01:11 PM

I go to Nova Scotia every year. There are obviously a million nice roads up there for riding, but a lot of tar snakes and a lot of frost heaves that never go away. The ferry is too fucking expensive

, forget that just ride.

**Nikon** · 03-30-05, 01:18 PM

Originally posted by HBerry
I go to Nova Scotia every year. There are obviously a million nice roads up there for riding, but a lot of tar snakes and a lot of frost heaves that never go away. The ferry is too fucking expensive , forget that just ride.

damn.. i just looked it up - about 250 for round trip...damn

**ZX-12R** · 03-30-05, 01:40 PM

Some more Nova Scotia goodness.

**ZX-12R** · 03-30-05, 01:41 PM

.

**ZX-12R** · 03-30-05, 01:47 PM

.

**benVFR** · 03-30-05, 01:59 PM

I was thinking Nova Scotia would be more than a 3 day trip even with the ferry, at least if you wanted to see the Cabot Trail.

It took me about 2 full days of driving to drive my car from Nashua to Halifax (without the ferry), and it looked like another 300-400 miles from Halifax up to the Cabot Trail, almost enough that you couldn't do it as a day trip from Halifax. Where exactly does the Ferry drop you off? I got the impression that it was at the far south of NS, and it is dead flat the southern half & a serious drive/ride to the Northern part.

Even then I am not sure I feel NS is a good riding destination after taking my car/bicycle trip there, as it is flat as a pancake compared to New England. I went to the highest point in NS and if I recall correctly it was far lower than the highest points of any New England states. Maybe 1000ft above sea level?

In any case I was not interested in heading North at this point, IMO it is too early. When I went to Nova Scotia in MAY a few years ago it snowed two days while I was there. Not enough snow to stop someone like Randy and I'd probably deal OK with it at this point if I had too, but there is no way I would actually choose to head north at this point in the season. Other than bits of Maine there is not that much left of New England that I haven't seen so I was interested in southern areas other than the Deal's Gap area.

Ben

**hohum** · 03-30-05, 02:28 PM

Poconos, thats all i have to say

Weekend doable, still a fairly long haul, but awesome roads.

**unionjackass** · 03-30-05, 03:02 PM

I like the "take off on friday night and ride all weekend seeing where I can get to" format and I've been thinking of doing one myself soon. Let me know what you figure out!

**breakdirt916** · 03-30-05, 03:09 PM

What about Vermont? I've heard of riders from MA heading up there for the twisties several times.

Otherwise, I wish I could perform such a feat myself.

**hohum** · 03-30-05, 03:14 PM

Bhavesh, VT is quite doable in a weekend, its not 'such a feet'

Come on one of the rides up there this summer, its tons of fun.

I think Ben was more thinking further south in hopes of slightly nicer weather.

**unionjackass** · 03-30-05, 03:18 PM

Ditto. Vermont is entirely doable in the scope of a day. But it's rarer that you get the chance to go further afield and do some real sport touring.

Still got the TT, Chris?

**hohum** · 03-30-05, 03:24 PM

Yeah, still go the TT. Gotta do a little bit o work to peice it together from last years track day damage (minor) and last years jerkoff of the year lowside

Cheers,
Chris

**unionjackass** · 03-30-05, 03:33 PM

Should be manageable and you can always fit one-piece plastics if the damage was sever and it's more cost effective.

Course the question then would be which bumblebee color to lean towards ; )

**hohum** · 03-30-05, 03:41 PM

Luckily I am of the school that scratched/cracked plastics == battle scars... at least when its only as bad as it is now

I may just go flat black for the true hooligan effect!

**benVFR** · 03-30-05, 04:29 PM

Originally posted by Bhavesh
What about Vermont? I've heard of riders from MA heading up there for the twisties several times.

Otherwise, I wish I could perform such a feat myself.

All you need is just to make sure you get some good gear. That is all that really is going to slow you down and stop you from doing big epic rides. You need to be comfy, you need to be able to keep yourself warm, and you need to be able to keep yourself dry. It is not all that expensive to get the gear to do so compared to spending the money on bling.

Once you have that it is just a question of getting out there and doing the rides. Once you do some rides say 200-300 miles from home it will be no big deal to start doing the longer ones.

It was a huge big deal my first season to go to Vermont for the weekend for the first time, as it seemed like a real long way to be out on a bike where something could happen, but now it is no big deal. A big part of it is just trusting your bike and knowing you can take care of yourself if something goes wrong, and that you're smart/mature enough not to make any dumb riding decisions out in the middle of nowhere by yourself.

**Nikon** · 03-30-05, 10:56 PM

Originally posted by benVFR
It was a huge big deal my first season to go to Vermont for the weekend for the first time, as it seemed like a real long way to be out on a bike where something could happen, but now it is no big deal. A big part of it is just trusting your bike and knowing you can take care of yourself if something goes wrong, and that you're smart/mature enough not to make any dumb riding decisions out in the middle of nowhere by yourself.

but now that you all know that Chris and I are here and can help and put people up if something happens - it's all good and we should be seeing more of youguys visiting us up here.

**TIMMYDUCK** · 03-31-05, 07:53 AM

Ditto here,
The GF is going away this weekend to Albany so I have an empty house this weekend, if you want to come up to Vt.
I am off all day Saturday and will be breaking in the new Busa.

**SSearchVT** · 03-31-05, 08:19 AM

I'll throw my place into the mix. Full garage, 1 guest room with a queen bed, and lots of sofa/floor space in a secluded development. You might want to hold off on trying the twisties up here. We still have snow on the ground, and lots of sand on the roads.

Where to go with a weekend?

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