Trip down south Leaving Friday 6/28

[Mille2theFutura]

I'm doing a trip down south for 9 days ........ Were working with the Book -- EXTREME TWISTIES..

We are leaving with the bikes on the trailer Friday at noon.. This is the plan :

June 28 Drive to Elkins, WV 526 miles in car.

June 29 Ride northern WV loop (300 miles) then drive to Beckley, WV. 146 miles

June 30 Ride southern WV loop (150+ miles)

July 01 Ride more of southern WV loop (150 miles) then drive to Marion, VA (80 miles)

July 02 RIDE southwestern VA loop (200 miles) and drive to Stations Inn. 50 miles. Leave car and trailer if good weather.

July 03 RIDE NC parkway to Franklin (265 miles) Ride 64 and Nantahala +++ ????

July 04 Ride 28, ( Deals Gap ) 64, 178, etc (250 miles)

July 05 Ride north on parkway (265 miles) Get trailer and car. Drive to Fancy Gap, VA (45 miles)

July 06 Plan open this day, Drive to Winchester, VA (~260 miles)

July 07 Drive home 431 miles

Any comments from those of you who have done some of these roads would be helpful. Randy I know you have been almost everywhere so your comments would be good. As far as others who have been in and around the Deals Gap area's speak up. This will be my third trip down that way so I know a lot of the roads, But I would like to find any new gems I can..

Thanks,

Ps : I put the new Sportec M1's on the Mille yesterday, so I can't wait to see how they work out. Everything I have heard is all very positive.....

[RandyO]

if yer gonna be near Big Stone Gap, VA, Route 160 to Lynch KY is a nide ride, very steep up and down

My WV expereince is pretty much only Route 16 from War, to St Marys on the Ohio River, Rt 16 is nice, except for the immediate area surrounding Beckley..... Beckley is a congested metropolitan area..... by my standards anyway.

[Mille2theFutura]

Originally posted by silent1
Be VERY careful going thru Deal's Gap. I have friends who go to school at UT, so they ride there all the time since it's like 30 miles from Knoxville. Lately, the cops have been issuing drag racing tickets - which means you tried to get from Point A to Point B in the fastest way possible. That's an automatic court date, BTW. Also, whatever you do, DO NOT CROSS THE DOUBLE YELLOW LINE. That's a HUGE no-no.

Other than that, I'm really fucking jealous and wish I could go. Check out http://www.tailofthedragon.com if you haven't already.

WE may not even do the GAP depending on what day were in the area. So many other great roads in the area. I don't want to be there on Thursday ( The 4th ), it will be a zoo. Both of the trips I have already done to the GAP, were mid week with very few cars. The way it should be..

I have been on the ( www.tailofthedragon.com ) site before but thanks anyway.....

We both have Radar detectors also, this proved to be a big asset on the last trip..... V1's rule........

[RandyO]

county route 1001 (bike rt 2) heads east from Rt 28/64 about 5-6 miles south from Franklin NC, this is a narrow road virtually no traffic

Route 281 heading east from Rt 107 in Tuckasegee NC is sweet....BUT the last 8 miles on the southern end before you get to Rt 64 is gravel you might want to ride to the gravel & turn around unless of course you want to experience REAL technical riding, some steep downhill switchbacks on loose gravel.

IMHO the best riding is in northern Georgia, I think they maintain thers roads better and have marginally more shoulders, Tennesee road conditions would be second best but the roads are notorious for having absolutely no shoulders, North Carolina could learn from TN & GA how to surface roads

Some roads to hit in N GA are Rt 60 (connects with TN RT 68 that runs south from Teleco Plains, Rt 180 (wolf pen gap road) RT 348 (Richard B. Russell Senic Hwy)

Or you could just ride around trying to find BEER, it took me over 200 miles & 6 hours of riding,

[Mille2theFutura]

My trip report :

We started or trip Sat. in Elkins West Vir. .. We had the book extreme
twisties in hand, and had done our homework.. Man these roads are
sooooooo nice.. we did 400 miles Sat. and 300 miles Sunday. Some of the
technical sections here are as good or better than North Carolina.. I
think on a future trip we could ride for 7-8 days here, No LEO's at all ,
very few cars and FANTASTIC roads...

Sunday night we moved on south to Marion Virginia. Monday we worked
route 16 North/ West from rt. 81 all the way back to West Vir. This was
one of my best days . Rt 16 crossed 4 mtn. ranges with sections as good
if not better than the GAP, with three miles up and three miles down on
each mtn range. The last section deep in the coal mine sections of W.
Vir. had this up hill section with two lanes for passing trucks. We had
the whole road all to our selfs, and made it into our private race
course. I had so much fun on this road after lunch I just went CRAZY. I
put the CB-1 behind me on a long uphill section and he was never close
the next three miles. Brad rides the wheels off that bike, and is such a
better rider than I , but it was just one of those brief moments when
everything was perfect, roads and the mental thing and I just went way
FAST. It was one of my best moments of the trip.... We finished the day
retracing our way back down Rt. 16 . What a blast...

Tuesday AM bright and early we moved the Car , trailer and bikes a bit
further south to the Stations Inn on the Blue Ridge Parkway.. This was a
mostly for bikes only Hotel, Bar + Restaurant. It was mostly a cruiser
crowd, but nobody beat us up. We did some loops in that area for the
day, and found some more very nice roads. We had a great night hanging
out with a bunch of Motorcycle people from all over the place..

Wed am we were up early and on the Blue Ridge Parkway south without car +
trailer for three days. I lived out of my tank bag just fine for the
three days... The Parkway for those of you who have not been is just a
perfect 45 MPH road begging you to hit the 35MPH corners at 65 + 75 MPH
all day long. I did have a nice chat with a park ranger that day doing 20
over and an easy $50.00 for my not paying attention to my RADAR detector
going off for a mile. It was one of those totally focused sections with
a lot of high speed passing , and I just blew it. The guy was nice and
just said mail in the $$$$, and they will not bother my home state or
insurance company . COOL........ Later in that day we hit the best roads
of the trip just north of Franklin. This was the most travelled /
Favorite road of the trip, I think we did it 5 times in the three
days... It was tight, it was fast , it was clean, it was very smooth, it
was full of 90 + 180 corners , it had very few driveways, it had -- IT
HAD IT ALL ..... We did a large section of this road with it's 10 MPH
corners sections just rolling on and off with no brakes at all, just
working very hard at SMOOTH, and both staying way closer than normal for
me. It seemed like I was in a Pin Ball machine it was so intense....
DID I SAY how fun it was ............

Thursday AM we were back on the road I just mentioned above again, then
the roads before the GAP, 15 + miles of newly paved SMOOTH + SILKY fast
roads . WHAT FUN... If you knew this road with out and cars it could be
100+ for most of the 15 miles... AS I said before the GAP SUCKED ....
( Deals Gap Sucked trees across the road, Piles of wet leaves 12-18" high
in blind corners, All kinds of wet debris, wet road, + more gravel then
my past two trips -- LOTS OF GRAVEL !! ). So we went and redid our
favorite road again, then went on the Waterfall trip ( Rt. 64 I think ).
Lots of traffic but some Brief Brilliant moments going up the canyon, oh
to have that road up north . OH MYyyyyy... We went all the way to Rt
215 then north ( very FUN FILLED road ) , to the BRP again, after a fast
blast back south we made it to the Hotel for the third day as the Clouds
were just starting to DUMP HARD. We had a hotel with a front over hang
and put the bikes up on the walk way, to stay dry......

Friday we had a long day to get back to the car, and rode very hard on
the BRP for about 150 miles with only two or three cars to pass. It was
the most perfect conditions EVER..... The last section of the BRP had
some slow ass stupid drivers we had to work our way past so things slowed
up a bit. After a gas stop we had to pass some of these same cars again
and we were nearing the end of our trip. I was getting into my ZONE
again and took the lead and was doing some very very nice sweepers very
fast. Then it was OVER.... We packed up the car and headed north the
plan was to do Sat in Vir + West Vir. But Brads front tire was WAY shot
and I was getting close on my rear. So we drove from 1:00 in the
afternoon back to my house in Ct in about 12 hrs...

TRIP OVER --- Memories of great roads , and planning for next year....

OH yeah --- I LOVE MY MILLE ....... ( three months old and 6000 miles of
fun )

Steve D

[RandyO]

Glad to hear you had a good time, WV rt 16 is sweet, two years ago, Scott D & I didn't encounter any traffic either (except in Beckley of course) I do remember encountering coal truck traffic, but I think that was on Rt 83 in VA, those guys fly, but not much different than a loggin truck in Northern NH.

I think Rt 28 north from Franklin is my favorite road too.