2012 Roadtrip to NC

[Hailwood]

Ever since I started riding, my best riding buddy has always been my Dad. From my first bike ~15 years ago until now, we've always tried to get out and ride when time and circumstance permitted.

We've done plenty of day rides, and even an overnight trip or two, but we've never gone on what I'd call a truly 'epic' ride. We decided that this would be a good year to try and get one in, as neither of us is getting any younger or any fewer responsibilities.

We arbitrarily decided that ~3 day trip down to the mountains of NC would be a great way to go, and set our sights on Boone, NC as our Southern-most point. After that a route sort of developed based on great roads that we'd read about, and a quick stop off in Morgantown on the 7th for a family celebration.

I took my trusty FZ1 and Dad brought his GS-A, both of which were very well-suited to this type of ride. The FZ continued to impress me with its versatility, and I was surprised how well the big BMW handled the twisty bits.

The heat was oppressive, especially later in the weekend, but with a couple of Camelbaks and plenty of stops, it worked out just fine. I honestly believe that if you're riding longer than ~4 hours at a time, a Camelbak is the best thing you can buy to help ward off fatigue from becoming dehydrated.

Here's a link to the route we took

Day 1: Green, OH to Athens to meet up w/ Dad and then on to Boone, NC

Day 2: Boone, NC To Charleston, WV via Roanoke, VA

Day 3: Charleston, WV to Morgantown, WV for some family stuff

Day 4: Morgantown, WV to Green, OH

~1300 miles roundtrip and worth every hour in the saddle.

We didn't get too many photos since we were riding so much, but here are a couple from a stop we did just before entering Tennessee on WV-16:

Couple notable roads from the trip:

WV-16: Ride this road. Seriously. I'd been on the Northern part with Tony and Dave a few months ago and it was fantastic, but the section South of Welch until you hit NC is some of the best riding I've ever seen and it goes on what seems like forever.

Unfortunately it was raining and the pavement was super slippery when we went through, but I'd love to come back and ride it in the dry on a proper sportbike.

Blue Ridge Parkway: This is such a spectacular road, not for the curves, but the amazing scenery and lack of any commercial vehicles. The speed limit is 45 and the corner speeds aren't marked, so it's difficult to try and go quickly, but for a nice relaxing ride, you just can't beat it. We took this all the way from Boone to Roanoke - something like 170 miles and loved every minute of it.

VA-311: The section we did was from Roanoke up to US-60 at Interstate 64 in Greenbriar Co., WV and was also a spectacular road. This road takes you over the mountains from VA into WV and had some excellent scenery and great pavement.

Here's a quick video I shot on one of the better sections of 311:

http://youtu.be/hHLSQMnQlhk

One of the things I really liked about this road compared to WV-16 was that the pavement was immaculate and free of debris. I didn't try pushing the speeds at all (the video is a little boring unfortunately) but of all the roads we were on, I felt like this one had the best potential to be ridden quickly.

US-60: 60 is a bit of a mixed bag. Parts of it are really boring and go through quite a few small towns, but the sections near the New River are truly excellent and most of the hills have passing lanes, so it's really easy to make time around slower traffic.

US-119: I took this almost all the way from Charleston to Morgantown and really enjoyed it. Plenty of curves and it's close enough that it could easily be part of a long day ride from NEO (which Tony, Dave, and I did a few months ago). The traffic is mostly light in the best sections and the pavement is mostly clean, so you can make some really good time.

I have some other videos I'll be playing with over the next few days, so I'll hopefully update this post as I go.

[NinjaDoc]

Niceeeee,

[Hailwood]

Thanks guys, it was a fantastic ride.

Excellent' date=' Will. You should join me on my IronButt ride near the end of August. We're heading to Deal's Gap and the Skyway.[/quote']

That sounds like a hell of a lot of fun. I probably couldn't make it, but shoot me the details anyway, and I'll see what I've got going on.

[Hailwood]

Here's another quick video from VA-311, playing around with the camera position to get some shots of my Dad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNduxvnBNA4&feature=plcp