Mary#17

The roads already mentioned are probably the best for this area but they really don't hold a candle to the roads surrounding Athens.  The new pavement alone down south is just too hard to ignore.  However, since Coshocton can be done in a day ride, we still enjoy them. 

We took 60 two weekends ago until we got to the detour and then grabbed the road on the left. 22? 24?  Can't remember but it did have some new pavement and some nice turns although lot of gravel.  We took that and then ended up on 83 so it wasn't a bad detour but still cuts off lots of 60.  

520 from 62 to 514 is really nice. Southern part of 83 is good but often has lots of traffic.  We did 19 once but road quality was pretty marginal from what I remember. 179 near 60 has a couple of nice turns but mostly straight although there is a 2 turn section that is really fun if you can catch it without traffic. 

715 had horrible pavement last time we did it (last year?).  Lots of junk in the road too. 

Mary

We did end up riding 676 from Marietta to 550.  We liked it.  I don't think you see the decreasing radius corners in this direction so maybe not as hairy as going in the other direction.  We will do this one again. 

As far as 329. All new pavement. Mostly calm twisties although my husband and I both got caught off guard on one right hander going north.  New pavement and no traffic can lull you into complacency. 

377 was a lot of fun. Definitely a keeper!!!

I probably won't be able to do the 5th. I already abused my babysitter (my mom) for an overnight trip last week. Hope you guys have fun!

Thank you!!!!  

Has anyone done 681 or 143 south of 50?  Are they any good? Any other options in that area worth trying?  I know there are some good roads further south of there but I don't have enough time to hit those. Thanks. 

Mary

OK. good to know. Thanks!

Also, where is this jump? I've read about that in other reviews as well. 

So what part of 676 is good?  I've read some past posts that said areas were chip/sealed but it now sounds like areas have been paved? Any details you can give would be appreciated. Thanks. 

Mary

It seemed like they offered quite a bit, but that's more than my mortgage!! AND we had to pack my daughter a lunch! I know my wife has looked at care.com but seems like those are a lot of 1-2 month gigs for them. We are looking for long term. We don't want to have to switch sitters again in 6months-a year.

I think you need to look more closely for other daycare providers and also at care.com. Lots of options out there. On care.com, you can place your own ad for exactly what you want and let people come to you.  Goddard is one of the most expensive daycare's around and they are still cheaper than what you were looking at.  My son is doing 3 days a week now at Goddard for $675/month.  Infant care is more expensive.  I think your biggest issue will be doing part-time care for your infant as many daycare's do not do part-time for infants.  Your other big issue is finding someone in a week. That's going to be a real challenge.

Has your current provider backed out on you completely or are they willing to work until she delivers? or close to it? You could always stick with her and then search for another.  When she is about a month away from leaving, have both sitters there for a period of time to ease the transition.  My mom watched my son for the first 6 months and then we transitioned to a full time nanny. She worked side by side with my mom for about two weeks and it was a smooth transition. My daughter was about 3.5 years old at the time and she was fine with the changes as well. Just a thought. Good luck with your search.  I feel your pain.  Searching for childcare is very stressful. 

Mary

Have you checked out care.com?  I had used that when I was looking for childcare and you can really narrow and focus your search. Also allows you to do background checks.  I ended up finding my Nanny from church but I did get a lot of good applicants from care.com. 

$2k for part-time childcare is really steep. My kids went and currently go to Goddard and even full time infant care is like $1100/month so that is pretty pricey for 3 days a week. 

Mary

Get a cheap first bike. Once she is comfortable on it, then she can get a bigger, sportier bike.  I started on a KZ305 and it was not pretty and I was embarrassed but whatever, it was a good decision.  We bought one from a friend for like $300 and then turned around and sold it for $300.  I like the the 250s/300s but I can definitely see wanting more bike in under 2 years but they do hold their resale value. 

Rode here yesterday. 60 is closed near 62.  We didn't go an explore so I don't know if there is a way around or not. Think it said closed for 90 days. Was a bummer. 

How much for a 5s?

Excellent! Have a safe trip and let us know what you find!

Our 2005 Monster still has the original Yuasa, at 33k+ miles. My 2008 MTS also, with 20k miles.

Yeah. We think it's pretty odd as well. They checked the charging system and the bikes are always on the tenders when not ridden so we've got a battery gremlin apparently. New battery tenders too.  Between the two of us, we've owned over 50 bikes and we've replaced more batteries on the Ducs than we did on all the other bikes combined. In fact, I think prior to these bikes, we've maybe changed batteries 3x in 20+ years of riding.  It's very strange. 

Do you have any pranksters around? 

 

My boss and I a couple years ago drove someone to their wits end. He rebuilt his forks and every other week we would put a couple of drops of fork oil on the forks and on the ground underneath them. He changed out his seals four times that summer. Evil...yes. Hilarious since half the office was aware...yes. 

Ha! That would be cruel!  No, both bikes were clean before our WV trip and by the end you could see streaks of fork oil on the plastic and wheels.  We use strapless stands so it's not a trailer issue and the forks have been set up for our individual weight etc..  I don't know if we're just picking up some road debris or getting bad seals. 

Aprilias are the same...high compression, v-twin eats batteries. I switched to a Shorai a year ago and haven't had a single issue. Several dudes in the Ape forums have had them for well over two years with no issues. With the higher cranking power they are a lot easier on the sprag clutch.

I've considered a Shorai but NEO Ducati doesn't recommend them for the 1098s. They've seen a lot of failures and/or poor lifespans on them.  Might have to try in the Monster next time around.

Thanks for the review. I'd be curious to see what final mileage you get out of these so it would be great if you could update later.  I love the tires but we are lucky to get 3000 miles (1098 and Monster S4RS) on a set but I think they could go longer on a different bike.  

oh yeah. new battery for my bike. They only last 2 years on the Ducs if we're lucky. 

15000 mile service on the Monster and 1098.  New tires on the trailer. New tires on both bikes. bought my husband fancy frame plugs for father's day.  Now installing new chain, sprockets and carrier on the Monster.  Forks on both bikes are leaking AGAIN.  So we need to figure out why that keeps happening.  Both were done by GMD Computrak Atlanta and I even had him reinspect my forks for some kind of damage and he doesn't see anything so I'm not sure what is going on there. 

Also, just remembered, Route 28 from 33. As you get close to a town, the speed limit reduces quickly (25mph?) and you should definitely heed it.  The road goes from pavement to a gravel bridge (wtf?) with NO warning. It was the strangest thing and startled the crap out of me. 

And the smoky mountains WV style.  From our hotel at Elkins. 

And this is off of 61 near deepwater.  Supposedly there was bridge on this route to take us across the river at some point but we gave up when we came across this rock and decided another route would probably be a good idea. It's hard to tell from the pictures but I doubt a pickup could make it under this rock or it'd be close. 

 

I was having trouble understanding your "33 to 28" section. Did you cross over Shenandoah Mountain into Virginia and then turn around on 33?  That is the absolute best of the best, with 250 over the same mountain 35 miles south of there being the close second.  I looked on the maps and I only see a WV-28 north of there a ways that stops at 220, but it seemed your trip was mostly south of 33 at that point, right? 

 

Yeah, we took 33 all the way south until maybe 10 miles outside of Harrisonburg and then turned back around and did 33 again. We picked up 28 from 33, It's just a little bit north of 220.  28 then dead ends into 250. 

Yeah. I'm thankful we had a safe trip and even with the tickets, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  I just haven't had any tickets in years and it seems once you get one, they multiply.....  Oh well.  Sorry to hear about your misfortunes but I'm glad that everyone is ok. 

Next time around we are probably going to set up base camp in Elkins and just ride around there for 2 days instead of heading over to Beckley. There was just a lot more areas we could have ridden. I am going to keep my time in Virginia to a minimum though.

Thank you to everybody who offered suggestions and reports on the roads. I really appreciate all the insight and was very thrilled with the suggested roads!