Guest MDP Posted July 23, 2008 Share Posted July 23, 2008 My wife and I recently had the chance to make a 12 day 3000+ mile round trip from Ontario to the NC/TN area to ride some of the amazingly twisty roads in the southern USA. In addition to the usual suspects in the Deal’s Gap area (US129, Cherohala Skyway, NC28, Foothills Pkwy), we also had the chance to ride much of the Blue Ridge Parkway through VA and NC and some equally timeless back roads in the state of WV and southern PA. Our route generally followed the map below – we spent less than a quarter of the trip on the various Interstate roads in the areas we visited preferring to explore many of the not-so-travelled local roads. Deals Gap trip map My wife was making her first long road trip aboard her 07’ CBR600RR – I was crossing the 40K mile mark on my 05’ VFR. The CBR ended up performing flawlessly as did my wife’s riding. The VFR served both as my ride and as our luggage U-Haul – below are the bikes the day we departed: Ready to depart The trip was a long one and a wet one. The image below was repeated many, many times throughout our trip. Out of 12 days, we only had 1 without any rain! Stormy weather Below is a pic of the bikes on a drying Blue Ridge Pkwy. I don’t think I ever saw the Blue Ridge completely dry in some 400+ miles of travel! Blue Ridge Pkwy Thankfully for us (and our stuff), the VFR’s combination of hard bags and liners proved very waterproof rainstorm after rainstorm. Waterproof hard bag liners In the end, we arrived at Deal’s Gap and had a blast riding The Dragon. I was actually more impressed by The Dragon than I thought I’d be but less impressed by the Cherohala Skyway – perhaps all of the road construction on both sides of the Cherohala (and the non-stop rain) dampened my impressions of it. NC28 was as awesome as many of you have described. Below is a pic of the bikes at the Deal’s Gap Resort which is a very nice place to hang out. Deals Gap Here’s a shot of the bike’s hanging out at the overlook. Bikes at overlook For this trip, we both rode with full leathers and also made good use of our First Gear wet suits. The VFR had all three OEM hard bags + liners mounted and both my wife and I carried Nelson Rigg tail bags on our bikes – I had the CL800 rear tote tail bag and she rode with the CL75 mini sport tail pack. I topped it off with a Coretech 21L tank bag which worked very well for keeping spare visors some water. My Sargent seat was awesome and I’d like to think that our matching Puig double-bubble wind screens raised the airflow enough to keep us energized for longer durations. Lastly, my Garmin Zumo GPS paid itself off completely in this one trip! Here’s a final image of the bikes in their normal resting places upon our arrival back home. Bikes in garage Next stop, a tour of Quebec in two weeks time… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RustyA Posted July 23, 2008 Share Posted July 23, 2008 Sound like you two had a nice trip, but for the rain. How did your wife like touring by bike? In the wet? You was in my neck of the woods in southwestern Pa. If I had known you was in the area. I could have shown you some nice roads that you don't have to dodge coal buckets (tri-axles) on in S.W.Pa., and northern WV. :unsure: On your map, You came down RT79. I'm just off of that by 30 minutes to the east on RT70. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer skuuter Posted July 23, 2008 Member Contributer Share Posted July 23, 2008 Great stuff.......... :unsure: Did your wife find the CBR comfy enough ??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmv Posted July 23, 2008 Share Posted July 23, 2008 Mike, That looks like a fabulous trip! Glad to hear it went well. Too bad about the rain. Nice set up for touring. Cheers, Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 23, 2008 Share Posted July 23, 2008 Nice trip report. I hope you were able to enjoy some of the fine country roads in WV as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 24, 2008 Share Posted July 24, 2008 Great stuff.......... :biggrin: Did your wife find the CBR comfy enough ??? My wife isn't exactly a tall gal as the pic below shows. Poor girl ended up having to constantly dry herself off under overpasses like this one beneath the Blue Ridge Pkwy on her first long haul road trip. A bit of Murphy's Law at play? Seeking cover At 5'1", and about 110lbs, my wife didn't have any problems with the ergos on the CBR. In fact, the 600RR seems to be the perfect balance of weight distribution and grunt for her to ride on both urban streets and back roads. She's already clocked more than 6000 miles on her bike since she picked it up last year and loves it. Nice trip report. I hope you were able to enjoy some of the fine country roads in WV as well. Yeah, WV was pretty fun to ride. I think Rt. 16 south of Big Otter was one of my favourites. The roads in some stretches of VA and WV were so empty on this trip that I had lots of fun pulling over and taking silly photos like the one below: Helmets on Blue Ridge I had expected roads like the Blue Ridge to be packed with motorcycles but we encountered very little traffic of any kind. Maybe it was the weather, maybe it was the high gas prices but we didn't see to many riders out and about in early July. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrankoQ Posted July 28, 2008 Share Posted July 28, 2008 Nice report! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer dude Posted July 28, 2008 Member Contributer Share Posted July 28, 2008 Great report :biggrin: Definitely want to go back to that area again :fing02: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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