Ride Report - 2022 Smoky the Dragon
- Thread starter shanekingsley
- Start date
Yeah he did great. On previous trips by myself, I would typically ride from 6:30am to 7pm. If he was alone, I'm not sure if he would have done that on his own, but in the spirit of doing it all since the routes were planned, he carried on and never complained. There was only a couple nights where I did more than he did. I hope to still be riding like that when I'm in my 70's too!
Thanks - bikes come and go and I don't get particularly attached. I just like ridingHi Shane,
Amazing ride report. So many good roads, thanks for sharing. I'm gutted about your vstorm. So much work done and all gone. That suspension work and the delvic itself would have made it a completely different bike to ride. But glad that you didn't let that get in the way and carried on with your trip. Bright side like you mentioned, maybe another cool bike
Time to give this thread a proper read. Hope you have an amazing trip ahead. Cheers!
Looking forward to some deals in the fall for something to ride next.
When you post your routes here.
Is it from the track of where you went, the planned route, a combo of the two, your memory, or some other algorithm?
I'm trying to find a decent map/track my ride app.
We went down to Vermont again, but no one has a gps, so I'd have to post my best guesses as to routes, and while we didn't get lost the lead rider was sometimes confused as to where we were. Original plan was something like below, we definitely hit Rochester on the way out, and Roxbury on the way back, but I believe we ended up well east of the 89 at some point, and on two clay roads, which are not too too bad when dry.
Is it from the track of where you went, the planned route, a combo of the two, your memory, or some other algorithm?
I'm trying to find a decent map/track my ride app.
We went down to Vermont again, but no one has a gps, so I'd have to post my best guesses as to routes, and while we didn't get lost the lead rider was sometimes confused as to where we were. Original plan was something like below, we definitely hit Rochester on the way out, and Roxbury on the way back, but I believe we ended up well east of the 89 at some point, and on two clay roads, which are not too too bad when dry.
The routes I post here are always based off the planned route and then modified based on whatever changes occur on the day of.When you post your routes here.
Is it from the track of where you went, the planned route, a combo of the two, your memory, or some other algorithm?
I'm trying to find a decent map/track my ride app.
We went down to Vermont again, but no one has a gps, so I'd have to post my best guesses as to routes, and while we didn't get lost the lead rider was sometimes confused as to where we were. Original plan was something like below, we definitely hit Rochester on the way out, and Roxbury on the way back, but I believe we ended up well east of the 89 at some point, and on two clay roads, which are not too too bad when dry.
If I was just winging it on the day of, then I would either have to remember where we went... or better still and like you say, use the track off the GPS that shows where we went.
Day 6: Ironhorse Loop 2 - Iron Horse Motorcycle Lodge to Iron Horse Motorcycle Lodge - 675km / 11hrs
Harmut and I figure that once the rest of the Canadian Foreign Legion shows up to the Ironhorse we won't get as much riding in since we'll be eating and drinking. So we decide to do one last long ride on the bikes and ride into North Georgia. @Jason Bourne gave some good suggestions to make our route better which all turned out to be really nice - so thanks!
Finally a full day of riding with no luggage! Off we went at 7am for an early morning run up the Cherohala Skyway. It's such a stunning ride and you get up to around 5400 feet.
That guy Harmut is always doing donuts at look out points.
From here we make our way south along the TN68 which is a super awesome road running south from Tellico Plains. And by the way, if you have never been to the Tellico Grains Bakery - OMG it's amazing and the perfect rest stop. Awesome sandwiches and a ridiculous amount of amazing baked goods. And they sell 420 beer. A place to gain weight for sure!
The TN68 leads into the start of the North Georgia Mountains for us, which has super fun twisties. We detour to check out a bunch of local roads to see if any of them would be amazing, but none were - they were good, but nothing that really stood out. However the usual north Georgia roads were in top notch shape, including GA60, GA180, US19/129, GA348, GA75, GA 197 & Warwoman Rd. Which all looks kinda like this:
We were getting low on gas and came across this really small store selling non-ethanol gas. If you've never ridden down south before, there's often smaller gas stations that promote the fact they sell straight gas. This one was also great because they had a beautiful store inside that sold all kinds of cool souvenirs and art. I scored a sweet baseball hat. They also sold some locally made soap that looked like the Blue Ridge Mountains, so I had to buy some for my wife:
We continue riding along the sweet Georgia Roads and I'm moving a fair bit quicker than Harmut is now, so I pull over at this lookout to play, but I was never very good at making circles:
Snagged a cool shot of both our bikes and this other bike coming down the mountain in the distance:
One road that I really liked which I had never ridden before was Warwoman Road. I've always wanted to ride it just for the name alone, but it turned out to be really fun. Definitely a road to do again.
We head back to Ironhorse and it's now Thursday evening, so all the other Canucks have shown up.
Time to start moving at a more relaxed pace
Harmut and I figure that once the rest of the Canadian Foreign Legion shows up to the Ironhorse we won't get as much riding in since we'll be eating and drinking. So we decide to do one last long ride on the bikes and ride into North Georgia. @Jason Bourne gave some good suggestions to make our route better which all turned out to be really nice - so thanks!
Finally a full day of riding with no luggage! Off we went at 7am for an early morning run up the Cherohala Skyway. It's such a stunning ride and you get up to around 5400 feet.
That guy Harmut is always doing donuts at look out points.
From here we make our way south along the TN68 which is a super awesome road running south from Tellico Plains. And by the way, if you have never been to the Tellico Grains Bakery - OMG it's amazing and the perfect rest stop. Awesome sandwiches and a ridiculous amount of amazing baked goods. And they sell 420 beer. A place to gain weight for sure!
The TN68 leads into the start of the North Georgia Mountains for us, which has super fun twisties. We detour to check out a bunch of local roads to see if any of them would be amazing, but none were - they were good, but nothing that really stood out. However the usual north Georgia roads were in top notch shape, including GA60, GA180, US19/129, GA348, GA75, GA 197 & Warwoman Rd. Which all looks kinda like this:
We were getting low on gas and came across this really small store selling non-ethanol gas. If you've never ridden down south before, there's often smaller gas stations that promote the fact they sell straight gas. This one was also great because they had a beautiful store inside that sold all kinds of cool souvenirs and art. I scored a sweet baseball hat. They also sold some locally made soap that looked like the Blue Ridge Mountains, so I had to buy some for my wife:
We continue riding along the sweet Georgia Roads and I'm moving a fair bit quicker than Harmut is now, so I pull over at this lookout to play, but I was never very good at making circles:
Snagged a cool shot of both our bikes and this other bike coming down the mountain in the distance:
One road that I really liked which I had never ridden before was Warwoman Road. I've always wanted to ride it just for the name alone, but it turned out to be really fun. Definitely a road to do again.
We head back to Ironhorse and it's now Thursday evening, so all the other Canucks have shown up.
Time to start moving at a more relaxed pace
Last edited:
Jason Bourne
Well-known member
I've been getting bored of riding the same roads around here (yes, it's possible) but after returning from a two week bike trip to the Southwest and seeing your posts I can't wait to get back out there this weekend. 
Day 7
For me this trip was about 2 things. The first half was about riding my typical long days on tons of twisty roads, while looking for some fun new ones to add to the collection for future trips down. I feel like we achieved this and so much more, so now any trips where I ride back down, will have an abundance of tried and tested roads to ride, both there and back.
The second half of the trip was about doing something I don't normally do when it comes to bikes, which is slow down, hang out and just relax.
Arriving at the Ironhorse on Thursday night was awesome to meet up with the rest of the Canadians, some of whom are on this forum, some on the Stromtroopers forum and some not even online. All in all, they are a really great bunch of guys who all share their own passion for bikes and riding in their own way. We just hung out, drank, ate and caught up. Most of them are retired and I hope to be so lucky to be able to ride to fun and far away places when I retire in 17 years
This pic was taken on Friday morning when we all headed out to the Tapoco Tavern for a brunch, just a few minutes away from the start of the Tail of the Dragon. I've passed by it every year and always wanted to check it out, so really glad we did.
Their outdoor patio at night looks amazing. Now that's a sweet patio location!
The Tapoco Tavern is located right on the 129 and they have a really large patio right on the river's edge. The atmosphere is so relaxing, the food was excellent and I have to say that they were super accommodating of me not eating meat. I don't make a big deal of it when I eat out and just eat whatever I can find on the menu, but when the server found out, she wanted to have the chef make me a special omelette. It was so tasty and really thoughtful of them to do that.
With our bellies full, we all then did a rip on the dragon. For some it was their first time there and so it's always nice to share this place with a first timer to this area. Reminded me of my first time to the Smoky's and how utterly blown away I was by every road and just the endless beauty of the whole area. This pic is at the dragon lookout spot near the end of it and some of us were commenting while looking out at this amazing view, that it's pretty remarkable that some of us had been riding together for over 10 years and here's 10 of us, all from Ontario, meeting up at Deals Gap and riding the Smokies. We are a pretty fortunate bunch here.
We rode back to the start where the souvenir shops are so everyone could get the required stickers for their bikes. The parking lot here always has awesome bikes to look at, and it's just overall an interesting place to hang out at and watch all those who come and go.
Well that was about 2 hours of riding, so all the boys were headed back to the Ironhorse to start their drinking. I needed to give my bike some love for all the good times I've had on this thing, so I'm just going to head back as well to adjust a few little things on it, wash it and park it. Stopped off for this pic like I do every time I'm here.
The Ironhorse has these sweet garages for us to park our bikes and a hose attached to wash them down. I do my adjustments, wash the bike and park it and the guys all show up a few minutes later after completing their beer run. Then it starts pouring rain for a couple of hours, so now I'm really glad we weren't out on some twisty mountain road an hour or more away.
And speaking of which, now that all the guys are here, they moved me out of my covered wagon to come stay in the Rocky Top Lodge with them. This was a super sweet pad and I'm not sure I can do the tent thing again after staying like this.
It's actually a lot bigger than this picture makes it look inside, and it had an oversized washroom with a big shower and full laundry on site. I think it was around $120/US a night.
Tomorrow is the big VStrom day
For me this trip was about 2 things. The first half was about riding my typical long days on tons of twisty roads, while looking for some fun new ones to add to the collection for future trips down. I feel like we achieved this and so much more, so now any trips where I ride back down, will have an abundance of tried and tested roads to ride, both there and back.
The second half of the trip was about doing something I don't normally do when it comes to bikes, which is slow down, hang out and just relax.
Arriving at the Ironhorse on Thursday night was awesome to meet up with the rest of the Canadians, some of whom are on this forum, some on the Stromtroopers forum and some not even online. All in all, they are a really great bunch of guys who all share their own passion for bikes and riding in their own way. We just hung out, drank, ate and caught up. Most of them are retired and I hope to be so lucky to be able to ride to fun and far away places when I retire in 17 years
This pic was taken on Friday morning when we all headed out to the Tapoco Tavern for a brunch, just a few minutes away from the start of the Tail of the Dragon. I've passed by it every year and always wanted to check it out, so really glad we did.
Their outdoor patio at night looks amazing. Now that's a sweet patio location!
The Tapoco Tavern is located right on the 129 and they have a really large patio right on the river's edge. The atmosphere is so relaxing, the food was excellent and I have to say that they were super accommodating of me not eating meat. I don't make a big deal of it when I eat out and just eat whatever I can find on the menu, but when the server found out, she wanted to have the chef make me a special omelette. It was so tasty and really thoughtful of them to do that.
With our bellies full, we all then did a rip on the dragon. For some it was their first time there and so it's always nice to share this place with a first timer to this area. Reminded me of my first time to the Smoky's and how utterly blown away I was by every road and just the endless beauty of the whole area. This pic is at the dragon lookout spot near the end of it and some of us were commenting while looking out at this amazing view, that it's pretty remarkable that some of us had been riding together for over 10 years and here's 10 of us, all from Ontario, meeting up at Deals Gap and riding the Smokies. We are a pretty fortunate bunch here.
We rode back to the start where the souvenir shops are so everyone could get the required stickers for their bikes. The parking lot here always has awesome bikes to look at, and it's just overall an interesting place to hang out at and watch all those who come and go.
Well that was about 2 hours of riding, so all the boys were headed back to the Ironhorse to start their drinking. I needed to give my bike some love for all the good times I've had on this thing, so I'm just going to head back as well to adjust a few little things on it, wash it and park it. Stopped off for this pic like I do every time I'm here.
The Ironhorse has these sweet garages for us to park our bikes and a hose attached to wash them down. I do my adjustments, wash the bike and park it and the guys all show up a few minutes later after completing their beer run. Then it starts pouring rain for a couple of hours, so now I'm really glad we weren't out on some twisty mountain road an hour or more away.
And speaking of which, now that all the guys are here, they moved me out of my covered wagon to come stay in the Rocky Top Lodge with them. This was a super sweet pad and I'm not sure I can do the tent thing again after staying like this.
It's actually a lot bigger than this picture makes it look inside, and it had an oversized washroom with a big shower and full laundry on site. I think it was around $120/US a night.
Tomorrow is the big VStrom day
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ZOMGdonuts
Well-known member
Awesome report Shane! Your daily mileage is awe-inspiring and this trip looks amazing. Definitely one for the bucketlists.
Sorry about the Blue Strommer, sounds like she served you well though
Sorry about the Blue Strommer, sounds like she served you well though
kurtrules
Well-known member
Hey Shane,
Kudos to Harmut's and your resilience. 5 days of riding from one raised bank to the other! Amazing pics, and ride report..
Sorry to hear about your accident and at the loss of the black strom. Glad it didn't deter you from your plan.
Looking forward to more..
Kudos to Harmut's and your resilience. 5 days of riding from one raised bank to the other! Amazing pics, and ride report..
Sorry to hear about your accident and at the loss of the black strom. Glad it didn't deter you from your plan.
Looking forward to more..
Day 8
Today is a pretty simple, but sweet day. At 8:30 all the VStroms should to be lined up at the front of the IronHorse for a big group photo of the bikes. Then us Canucks will head out and ride the Cherohala and have lunch at the Tellico Grains Bakery. At 4:30 there will be a slow race - I didn't sign up, but I've never seen one of these before and it should be fun to watch.
So we wake up early and get our bikes down to the front for a good parking spot. Slowly the bikes trickle in and by the time it's all said and done, I count 50 bikes there. That's pretty impressive since a bunch of people who signed up to the event late were staying at other locations in the Smoky's and some others had already left in the morning to go out for their long Saturday rides. I think they counted that over 80 VStrom riders attended the event, with some riding in from as far as Texas and Wisconsin.
The 3 guys who organized this rally do a really good job and put a lot of effort into it. Each night they had a big meeting with all the people there. They made fun of everyone they could and gave out lots of free prizes, had a consignment table of anything you brought to sell or want to buy, they loosely organized a bunch of paved and off road rides and much more. A couple of us Canucks thought it would be a good idea to see if Suzuki Canada could donate some swag to give out. The head of Suzuki Canada happens to live near one of us and delivered a box of around 40 VStrom shirts and a bunch of nice VStrom hats. I even got a nice pink one for my wife.
On the Friday night they asked whose bike had the most mileage on it that was put on by themselves. There were some bikes there that had well over 100,000 miles on them, but they had bought them used and didn't put on all the mileage themselves. @V-Tom normally would have crushed all of us, but his current bike is still less than 2 years old, so it only has around 100,000km on it, even though I think he said he's done way over 700,000km on his various VStroms collectively. So as luck would have it my beat up orange bike had the most mileage that was all put on by me - it had just crossed over the 100,000mile mark on my way down to Deals Gap. They recognized this amazing accomplishment with a pair of big nuts, which I now hang proudly in my garage for all who enter to admire.
So now that the slow race is done, we gear up and head out to ride the Cherohala. I'm the only one riding a silly pace, so I stop to take this pic while waiting for the others to catch up.
And then I turn around and do my best Killboy impression with my iPhone and get a bunch of pics of all the guys coming around the bend behind me:
What an awesome day to be out riding the Cherohala. This is what good group rides are all about.
The guys are going riding elsewhere and I need to make a stop over at Wheeler's Performance which is a great moto shop located right on the 129 in Robbinsville, because I still keep having some weird fuse issue that I want them to take a peek at. When I get over to Wheeler's, Ken (the owner) is sitting behind the counter with an ice pack on his neck. I've been there before and he's a really genuine and nice guy, so I now always try to at least stop in and buy something from them. There's one other tech there and apparently he's fully booked all day doing tire changes. I ask Ken what's wrong with his neck and he tells me it's from all the steel plates and rods he has in his upper body from crashing so many times doing motocross in his youth. Now it flares up often and he can't really move well as a result. My wife is an osteopath and registered massage therapist, but unfortunately it doesn't mean I know anything other than "Honey can you fix this knot in my shoulder?"
Ken still tells me to pull my bike over and he'll try to see what he can find out. He checks a bunch of electrical stuff and then we pop in a new fuse and voila, everything works as it should. He tests a few more things and it still works without blowing the fuse so he thinks I might be good to go. I ask him how much to pay and he says he didn't really do anything but jiggle a few wires so it's no charge. He spent about 30 minutes on my bike though and he knew which wires to jiggle, but he's firm on not charging me! So I buy a sweet 129 Wheelers t-shirt and some oil and we're good.
While at Wheeler’s, there was a guy from South Carolina getting new rubber installed. He's riding an Italian electric bike called Energica that gets around 300-400km of real world range and the bike is pretty sweet! We talk for a while and he just bought it from someone in California for around $19k US, which he said was a good deal. His girlfriend is following him in a car as he rides around and since he knows where the superchargers are, he plans his twisty routes off that. Pretty amazing bike and an insightful guy to talk with.
I head back to the Ironhorse to meet up with the guys and we just relax and drink until the slow race festivities start in a couple hours.
Now I usually don't drink much in general and I've never ridden after having a drink, but since I was down here and feeling nicely buzzed right about now, I thought I should enter the slow race! I'll represent our country and make everyone proud! Who cares if I've never done one of these or even seen one before. Who cares if I suck at slow speed riding? What could possibly go wrong? So I chug back my drink, get all geared up, pumped up and I'm ready to represent!
Except the organizers strategically placed an alligator and a snake right beside the course and my fear of plastic reptiles coupled with the weight of a nation overcame me and couldn't stay in the lines. I did make it over the ramp, but fell into the moat.
I clearly did not have enough to drink, which I will remember for next time. Too bad NC is a 420 free state, otherwise I would have been in the zone
Tonight's the last night, so we enjoy hanging out and tomorrow we begin the trek north! The Foreign Legion from Canuckistan as we gather around VTom's mile munching machine:
Today is a pretty simple, but sweet day. At 8:30 all the VStroms should to be lined up at the front of the IronHorse for a big group photo of the bikes. Then us Canucks will head out and ride the Cherohala and have lunch at the Tellico Grains Bakery. At 4:30 there will be a slow race - I didn't sign up, but I've never seen one of these before and it should be fun to watch.
So we wake up early and get our bikes down to the front for a good parking spot. Slowly the bikes trickle in and by the time it's all said and done, I count 50 bikes there. That's pretty impressive since a bunch of people who signed up to the event late were staying at other locations in the Smoky's and some others had already left in the morning to go out for their long Saturday rides. I think they counted that over 80 VStrom riders attended the event, with some riding in from as far as Texas and Wisconsin.
The 3 guys who organized this rally do a really good job and put a lot of effort into it. Each night they had a big meeting with all the people there. They made fun of everyone they could and gave out lots of free prizes, had a consignment table of anything you brought to sell or want to buy, they loosely organized a bunch of paved and off road rides and much more. A couple of us Canucks thought it would be a good idea to see if Suzuki Canada could donate some swag to give out. The head of Suzuki Canada happens to live near one of us and delivered a box of around 40 VStrom shirts and a bunch of nice VStrom hats. I even got a nice pink one for my wife.
On the Friday night they asked whose bike had the most mileage on it that was put on by themselves. There were some bikes there that had well over 100,000 miles on them, but they had bought them used and didn't put on all the mileage themselves. @V-Tom normally would have crushed all of us, but his current bike is still less than 2 years old, so it only has around 100,000km on it, even though I think he said he's done way over 700,000km on his various VStroms collectively. So as luck would have it my beat up orange bike had the most mileage that was all put on by me - it had just crossed over the 100,000mile mark on my way down to Deals Gap. They recognized this amazing accomplishment with a pair of big nuts, which I now hang proudly in my garage for all who enter to admire.
So now that the slow race is done, we gear up and head out to ride the Cherohala. I'm the only one riding a silly pace, so I stop to take this pic while waiting for the others to catch up.
And then I turn around and do my best Killboy impression with my iPhone and get a bunch of pics of all the guys coming around the bend behind me:
What an awesome day to be out riding the Cherohala. This is what good group rides are all about.
The guys are going riding elsewhere and I need to make a stop over at Wheeler's Performance which is a great moto shop located right on the 129 in Robbinsville, because I still keep having some weird fuse issue that I want them to take a peek at. When I get over to Wheeler's, Ken (the owner) is sitting behind the counter with an ice pack on his neck. I've been there before and he's a really genuine and nice guy, so I now always try to at least stop in and buy something from them. There's one other tech there and apparently he's fully booked all day doing tire changes. I ask Ken what's wrong with his neck and he tells me it's from all the steel plates and rods he has in his upper body from crashing so many times doing motocross in his youth. Now it flares up often and he can't really move well as a result. My wife is an osteopath and registered massage therapist, but unfortunately it doesn't mean I know anything other than "Honey can you fix this knot in my shoulder?"
Ken still tells me to pull my bike over and he'll try to see what he can find out. He checks a bunch of electrical stuff and then we pop in a new fuse and voila, everything works as it should. He tests a few more things and it still works without blowing the fuse so he thinks I might be good to go. I ask him how much to pay and he says he didn't really do anything but jiggle a few wires so it's no charge. He spent about 30 minutes on my bike though and he knew which wires to jiggle, but he's firm on not charging me! So I buy a sweet 129 Wheelers t-shirt and some oil and we're good.
While at Wheeler’s, there was a guy from South Carolina getting new rubber installed. He's riding an Italian electric bike called Energica that gets around 300-400km of real world range and the bike is pretty sweet! We talk for a while and he just bought it from someone in California for around $19k US, which he said was a good deal. His girlfriend is following him in a car as he rides around and since he knows where the superchargers are, he plans his twisty routes off that. Pretty amazing bike and an insightful guy to talk with.
I head back to the Ironhorse to meet up with the guys and we just relax and drink until the slow race festivities start in a couple hours.
Now I usually don't drink much in general and I've never ridden after having a drink, but since I was down here and feeling nicely buzzed right about now, I thought I should enter the slow race! I'll represent our country and make everyone proud! Who cares if I've never done one of these or even seen one before. Who cares if I suck at slow speed riding? What could possibly go wrong? So I chug back my drink, get all geared up, pumped up and I'm ready to represent!
Except the organizers strategically placed an alligator and a snake right beside the course and my fear of plastic reptiles coupled with the weight of a nation overcame me and couldn't stay in the lines. I did make it over the ramp, but fell into the moat.
I clearly did not have enough to drink, which I will remember for next time. Too bad NC is a 420 free state, otherwise I would have been in the zone
Tonight's the last night, so we enjoy hanging out and tomorrow we begin the trek north! The Foreign Legion from Canuckistan as we gather around VTom's mile munching machine:
Last edited:
ZOMGdonuts
Well-known member
Damn, is that Energica owner's name Austin?? I think I know him from a FB group haha
Nice riding!
Nice riding!
Good question and I'm not sure because I never got his name. I bet that thing is super fun to ride.
bigpoppa
Well-known member
Day 7
Today is a pretty simple, but sweet day. At 8:30 all the VStroms should to be lined up at the front of the IronHorse for a big group photo of the bikes. Then us Canucks will head out and ride the Cherohala and have lunch at the Tellico Grains Bakery. At 4:30 there will be a slow race - I didn't sign up, but I've never seen one of these before and it should be fun to watch.
So we wake up early and get our bikes down to the front for a good parking spot. Slowly the bikes trickle in and by the time it's all said and done, I count 50 bikes there. That's pretty impressive since a bunch of people who signed up to the event late were staying at other locations in the Smoky's and some others had already left in the morning to go out for their long Saturday rides. I think they counted that over 80 VStrom riders attended the event, with some riding in from as far as Texas and Wisconsin.
The 3 guys who organized this rally do a really good job and put a lot of effort into it. Each night they had a big meeting with all the people there. They made fun of everyone they could and gave out lots of free prizes, had a consignment table of anything you brought to sell or want to buy, they loosely organized a bunch of paved and off road rides and much more. A couple of us Canucks thought it would be a good idea to see if Suzuki Canada could donate some swag to give out. The head of Suzuki Canada happens to live near one of us and delivered a box of around 40 VStrom shirts and a bunch of nice VStrom hats. I even got a nice pink one for my wife.
On the Friday night they asked whose bike had the most mileage on it that was put on by themselves. There were some bikes there that had well over 100,000 miles on them, but they had bought them used and didn't put on all the mileage themselves. @V-Tom normally would have crushed all of us, but his current bike is still less than 2 years old, so it only has around 100,000km on it, even though I think he said he's done way over 700,000km on his various VStroms collectively. So as luck would have it my beat up orange bike had the most mileage that was all put on by me - it had just crossed over the 100,000mile mark on my way down to Deals Gap. They recognized this amazing accomplishment with a pair of big nuts, which I now hang proudly in my garage for all who enter to admire.
So now that the slow race is done, we gear up and head out to ride the Cherohala. I'm the only one riding a silly pace, so I stop to take this pic while waiting for the others to catch up.
And then I turn around and do my best Killboy impression with my iPhone and get a bunch of pics of all the guys coming around the bend behind me:
What an awesome day to be out riding the Cherohala. This is what good group rides are all about.
The guys are going riding elsewhere and I need to make a stop over at Wheeler's Performance which is a great moto shop located right on the 129 in Robbinsville, because I still keep having some weird fuse issue that I want them to take a peek at. When I get over to Wheeler's, Ken (the owner) is sitting behind the counter with an ice pack on his neck. I've been there before and he's a really genuine and nice guy, so I now always try to at least stop in and buy something from them. There's one other tech there and apparently he's fully booked all day doing tire changes. I ask Ken what's wrong with his neck and he tells me it's from all the steel plates and rods he has in his upper body from crashing so many times doing motocross in his youth. Now it flares up often and he can't really move well as a result. My wife is an osteopath and registered massage therapist, but unfortunately it doesn't mean I know anything other than "Honey can you fix this knot in my shoulder?"
Ken still tells me to pull my bike over and he'll try to see what he can find out. He checks a bunch of electrical stuff and then we pop in a new fuse and voila, everything works as it should. He tests a few more things and it still works without blowing the fuse so he thinks I might be good to go. I ask him how much to pay and he says he didn't really do anything but jiggle a few wires so it's no charge. He spent about 30 minutes on my bike though and he knew which wires to jiggle, but he's firm on not charging me! So I buy a sweet 129 Wheelers t-shirt and some oil and we're good.
While at Wheeler’s, there was a guy from South Carolina getting new rubber installed. He's riding an Italian electric bike called Energica that gets around 300-400km of real world range and the bike is pretty sweet! We talk for a while and he just bought it from someone in California for around $19k US, which he said was a good deal. His girlfriend is following him in a car as he rides around and since he knows where the superchargers are, he plans his twisty routes off that. Pretty amazing bike and an insightful guy to talk with.
I head back to the Ironhorse to meet up with the guys and we just relax and drink until the slow race festivities start in a couple hours.
Now I usually don't drink much in general and I've never ridden after having a drink, but since I was down here and feeling nicely buzzed right about now, I thought I should enter the slow race! I'll represent our country and make everyone proud! Who cares if I've never done one of these or even seen one before. Who cares if I suck at slow speed riding? What could possibly go wrong? So I chug back my drink, get all geared up, pumped up and I'm ready to represent!
Except the organizers strategically placed an alligator and a snake right beside the course and my fear of plastic reptiles coupled with the weight of a nation overcame me and couldn't stay in the lines. I did make it over the ramp, but fell into the moat.
I clearly did not have enough to drink, which I will remember for next time. Too bad NC is a 420 free state, otherwise I would have been in the zone
Tonight's the last night, so we enjoy hanging out and tomorrow we begin the trek north! The Foreign Legion from Canuckistan as we gather around VTom's mile munching machine:
its like a vstrom church
makes me want to buy one
Day 9 - So long IronHorse - time to head home!
These next days are all going to be on roads I've ridden many times before and the days will be shorter and more relaxed. Myself and one of the other guys worked on these routes before the trip, to make sure that they were fun but not too long. We're getting still on the road by 7am each day, but done by 5pm and we have a nice sit down lunch each day.
I'm leading most of the way and and anytime the roads get a bit twisty I go off ahead to have some fun. This is great because then if I see something interesting or a nice lookout spot, I can stop and check it out and then wait if it's worth the whole group stopping to check it out. Kinda like this:
For lunch every day we would just decide as a group when & where to eat - it usually ended up being around 1pm or so and we would just search the GPS for nearby restaurants and pick something. On our first day heading home, we rode up Roan Mountain which is where the Rhododendron festival is held in Mid June. That road itself is pretty amazing. At the north end of it, we stopped at this Mexican place and the food was awesome. Highly recommend it if you are in the area. I can't believe I finished this whole plate of fajitas, rice & beans and didn't fall asleep!
We then make our way over to the Snake US421, which is always such an amazing road to ride and stop at nearby Backbone Rock for a quick pic:
Now it's off to Marion VA for the night. We get there a bit early, so Hartmut and I decide to dump our luggage and do a quick run up and down The Back of The Dragon. It was just as bumpy as before, but beautiful and fun nonetheless:
That night we head out to a local restaurant for another nice meal - but this time we decide to try a Mexican restaurant for something different. But seriously, we ate at quite a few Mexican restaurants and they were all really good and always with excellent service. After 5500km, I'm getting close to the wear bars on my rear Road 6 and I'm not sure it will make it home, especially if we are riding at a brisk pace on twisty roads for the last three days. Tomorrow night we are going to stay in Romney WV. It's in an amazing riding area and there is a big powersports dealership in town, so I've arranged for a tire change at 3pm.
Bikes are ready for sleep:
These next days are all going to be on roads I've ridden many times before and the days will be shorter and more relaxed. Myself and one of the other guys worked on these routes before the trip, to make sure that they were fun but not too long. We're getting still on the road by 7am each day, but done by 5pm and we have a nice sit down lunch each day.
I'm leading most of the way and and anytime the roads get a bit twisty I go off ahead to have some fun. This is great because then if I see something interesting or a nice lookout spot, I can stop and check it out and then wait if it's worth the whole group stopping to check it out. Kinda like this:
For lunch every day we would just decide as a group when & where to eat - it usually ended up being around 1pm or so and we would just search the GPS for nearby restaurants and pick something. On our first day heading home, we rode up Roan Mountain which is where the Rhododendron festival is held in Mid June. That road itself is pretty amazing. At the north end of it, we stopped at this Mexican place and the food was awesome. Highly recommend it if you are in the area. I can't believe I finished this whole plate of fajitas, rice & beans and didn't fall asleep!
We then make our way over to the Snake US421, which is always such an amazing road to ride and stop at nearby Backbone Rock for a quick pic:
Now it's off to Marion VA for the night. We get there a bit early, so Hartmut and I decide to dump our luggage and do a quick run up and down The Back of The Dragon. It was just as bumpy as before, but beautiful and fun nonetheless:
That night we head out to a local restaurant for another nice meal - but this time we decide to try a Mexican restaurant for something different. But seriously, we ate at quite a few Mexican restaurants and they were all really good and always with excellent service. After 5500km, I'm getting close to the wear bars on my rear Road 6 and I'm not sure it will make it home, especially if we are riding at a brisk pace on twisty roads for the last three days. Tomorrow night we are going to stay in Romney WV. It's in an amazing riding area and there is a big powersports dealership in town, so I've arranged for a tire change at 3pm.
Bikes are ready for sleep:
Day 10
I'm riding solo today since I have to make to it to Romney WV by 3pm for a tire change at Romney Cycles. The guys are going to take a slightly different route to get there and plan to arrive around 4-5pm to meet up. So I had a nice simple 8 hour route planned which should put me there right at 3pm. Marion to Romney 8hrs / 550km
I figure riding solo gives me a chance to check out a couple new roads and ride at my own pace. I can stop whenever I feel like it and take more pictures too. So the first road I check out is Stoney Fork Road, which heads up and over to the Big Walker Lookout. This one totally caught me by surprise, because I was expecting a simple connector road and nothing more. For all the love I have of the mountains, these valleys with the morning mist and all the farm animals grazing away are a pretty serene start to my ride. This is my favorite pic of the whole trip right here, taken in the low valley, before starting the climb.
There's also something special about riding in the morning fog and then climbing above it, but staying below the clouds in that middle place that you only get to see in the mornings.
Form here I wanted to check out a road called East River Mountain Rd. I had read that it's pretty short, but it was worth the ride and there's a few spots to take in the view. It was only about 10km long, but the road is non stop fast moving curves and elevation changes. More fog and clouds:
Now I'm going to hit up one of my favourite connector roads, which is the Wolf Creek Highway, which will lead you to the bottom end of the 219. Wolf Creek Highway meanders along a river and is a stunningly beautiful ride for me. It's a very smooth road with awesome curves and scenery throughout.
After Wolf Creek Highway, I'm about to make my way into a pretty ominous looking storm.
I ride up the southern section of the 219 all the way past Marlinton and over to Snowshoe Mountain, which I decide to ride again because I'm currently about 30 minutes ahead of schedule. From here I go back through the town of Cass and make my way north. As I'm riding I come upon a sign that says next left for Spruce Knob. I've been there before and it's the highest point in West Virginia and it's a pretty cool spot to check out. The sign says it's 17 miles to get there so I figure that I'm ahead of schedule and should be able to check it out again as long as I keep a good pace and skip breaks for the rest of the ride. I've never gone in from this way either, so I was looking forward to taking the back way in. It quickly turns to dirt.
I ride these easy gravel and dirt roads for about 15 miles, but in the process got lost and turned around a few times. GPS and cell reception is poor in this remote area and elevation. I think I'm on the right road, but then all of a sudden it becomes very rocky and there is no smooth tire track to stay in. I ride it for a bit and know that I haven't seen anyone the entire time I've been on it. I really don't know for sure if I'm even going in the right direction, so I make the executive decision to turn back and ride down the mountain. I make it back to the paved road and continue north. By now I'm actually 1 hour behind schedule even if I took the most direct route to Romney. I still don't have any cell reception to call the shop in Romney, so I pull into a nice little gas station and the lady there gives me the wifi password and lends me her cell phone to call Romney Cycles. I apologize to Romney Cycles, cancel my appointment and off I go, since my rear tire looks like I might just make it home anyways.
I come across another sign saying next left to Spruce Knob. This is the way I've come in before, which I know is paved and a really nice ride. Note to self - take Briery Gap Road to the top next time, because it's awesome.
I get to the top and look at my GPS. I can see where I have been on the screen and now I can see that if I just stayed on the rocky gravel road, I would have been to the top in a couple more minutes instead of turning around and backtracking. I could have also kept my appointment at Romney Cycles. However the views at the top of Spruce Knob are worth the detour and I quickly forget what an idiot I am:
Since I'm not going to Romney Cycles anymore, I decide to swing by Smoke Hole Road once again. For some reason it's always raining there.
But it's still amazing:
I keep seeing these pink flowering trees that remind me of Lilacs that we have in Ontario, but these are much taller and the flowers are super sweet smelling - like pure sugar.
I love riding in groups, but it sure is nice to ride alone sometimes and stop and smell the flowers whenever you feel like it.
I'm riding solo today since I have to make to it to Romney WV by 3pm for a tire change at Romney Cycles. The guys are going to take a slightly different route to get there and plan to arrive around 4-5pm to meet up. So I had a nice simple 8 hour route planned which should put me there right at 3pm. Marion to Romney 8hrs / 550km
I figure riding solo gives me a chance to check out a couple new roads and ride at my own pace. I can stop whenever I feel like it and take more pictures too. So the first road I check out is Stoney Fork Road, which heads up and over to the Big Walker Lookout. This one totally caught me by surprise, because I was expecting a simple connector road and nothing more. For all the love I have of the mountains, these valleys with the morning mist and all the farm animals grazing away are a pretty serene start to my ride. This is my favorite pic of the whole trip right here, taken in the low valley, before starting the climb.
There's also something special about riding in the morning fog and then climbing above it, but staying below the clouds in that middle place that you only get to see in the mornings.
Form here I wanted to check out a road called East River Mountain Rd. I had read that it's pretty short, but it was worth the ride and there's a few spots to take in the view. It was only about 10km long, but the road is non stop fast moving curves and elevation changes. More fog and clouds:
Now I'm going to hit up one of my favourite connector roads, which is the Wolf Creek Highway, which will lead you to the bottom end of the 219. Wolf Creek Highway meanders along a river and is a stunningly beautiful ride for me. It's a very smooth road with awesome curves and scenery throughout.
After Wolf Creek Highway, I'm about to make my way into a pretty ominous looking storm.
I ride up the southern section of the 219 all the way past Marlinton and over to Snowshoe Mountain, which I decide to ride again because I'm currently about 30 minutes ahead of schedule. From here I go back through the town of Cass and make my way north. As I'm riding I come upon a sign that says next left for Spruce Knob. I've been there before and it's the highest point in West Virginia and it's a pretty cool spot to check out. The sign says it's 17 miles to get there so I figure that I'm ahead of schedule and should be able to check it out again as long as I keep a good pace and skip breaks for the rest of the ride. I've never gone in from this way either, so I was looking forward to taking the back way in. It quickly turns to dirt.
I ride these easy gravel and dirt roads for about 15 miles, but in the process got lost and turned around a few times. GPS and cell reception is poor in this remote area and elevation. I think I'm on the right road, but then all of a sudden it becomes very rocky and there is no smooth tire track to stay in. I ride it for a bit and know that I haven't seen anyone the entire time I've been on it. I really don't know for sure if I'm even going in the right direction, so I make the executive decision to turn back and ride down the mountain. I make it back to the paved road and continue north. By now I'm actually 1 hour behind schedule even if I took the most direct route to Romney. I still don't have any cell reception to call the shop in Romney, so I pull into a nice little gas station and the lady there gives me the wifi password and lends me her cell phone to call Romney Cycles. I apologize to Romney Cycles, cancel my appointment and off I go, since my rear tire looks like I might just make it home anyways.
I come across another sign saying next left to Spruce Knob. This is the way I've come in before, which I know is paved and a really nice ride. Note to self - take Briery Gap Road to the top next time, because it's awesome.
I get to the top and look at my GPS. I can see where I have been on the screen and now I can see that if I just stayed on the rocky gravel road, I would have been to the top in a couple more minutes instead of turning around and backtracking. I could have also kept my appointment at Romney Cycles. However the views at the top of Spruce Knob are worth the detour and I quickly forget what an idiot I am:
Since I'm not going to Romney Cycles anymore, I decide to swing by Smoke Hole Road once again. For some reason it's always raining there.
But it's still amazing:
I keep seeing these pink flowering trees that remind me of Lilacs that we have in Ontario, but these are much taller and the flowers are super sweet smelling - like pure sugar.
I love riding in groups, but it sure is nice to ride alone sometimes and stop and smell the flowers whenever you feel like it.
Last edited:
Jason Bourne
Well-known member
It looks like you're heading home and I just got here. Would have been good to say hi down here (wouldn't be the first time!), oh well.
So in my case. .I packed the van for both a race weekend and a Deals Gap trip. Did SOAR round 1 on the R3. Soon as that was over, got on the road and kept going. Initial plan was to stop overnight somewhere in Ohio but I felt okay so kept going...stopped at 3 AM at the I75 TN welcome center. Woke up at 6:30, and here we are. The gang that I'm meeting down here has gone to Helen GA for lunch. I didn't have that in me, I'm staying local. It's the Memorial Day holiday here. It's nuts.
So in my case. .I packed the van for both a race weekend and a Deals Gap trip. Did SOAR round 1 on the R3. Soon as that was over, got on the road and kept going. Initial plan was to stop overnight somewhere in Ohio but I felt okay so kept going...stopped at 3 AM at the I75 TN welcome center. Woke up at 6:30, and here we are. The gang that I'm meeting down here has gone to Helen GA for lunch. I didn't have that in me, I'm staying local. It's the Memorial Day holiday here. It's nuts.
