Who is going to the RA Rally in Asheville?

[deilenberger]

I should arrive Thursday afternoon. Staying at the Sleep Inn Biltmore, which is a very short distance from the main gate of the estate. If anyone wants to meet up for dinner or something Friday night, give me a PM. I should have email access. There will also be about a dozen of my local club members there, so the more the merrier..

[mogu83]

Looks like it will be a small party Don. See you there.

[Widetrack]

Hi Don, will you be on I81 Thurs. morning?

[mogu83]

Don is likely 'on the road'. I doubt you'll see him on Rt81, I imagine he'll be something like 340 South from Frederick and then the BRP to Asheville. Where are you in the valley?

[Widetrack]

I am on rt.33 near Harrisonburg.

[mogu83]

I came up Rt220 then East 0n Rt33 to Elkton to pick up Rt340 North a few weeks ago on the way back from the Cass BMW Rally. Great place to own a R1200R.

[Widetrack]

You are absolutely right. The Shenandoah valley is great riding and I spend a lot of time riding in W.Va.

[celticus]

So how was it?

[mogu83]

Better than expected. A few small glitches with the showers but they were fixed quickly. Every day was perfect riding weather and plenty of great roads and things to see. The Biltmore is spectacular as are the grounds. Seemed to be more vendors than average and the entertainment was good - but as usual loud.

Next is Oregon

[deilenberger]

Great ride... I'll steal what I wrote for another forum..

Took an 8 day ride, just got back today a bit before 5PM. Sort of my annual birthday ride. This one was from NJ to Asheville NC - to the Biltmore Estate where a BMW-RA (BMW Riders Association) rally was held. The Biltmore rarely opens their doors to this sort of thing, but I guess we impressed them the first time it was held there 5 years ago, so they invited us again. About 2,300 people on BMW's showed up, longest distance rider was someone from the upper west coast. The majority of riders were from the Mississippi east.

It was a 4 day event, and I took 3 days going and 3 days returning, (doesn't add up to 8, but final day going was 1st day of the rally, final day of the rally was first day coming back - which then adds up to 8 ) trying to find as many great backroads as I could to keep my tires round. Going down a lot of the trip was on Rt 42 in Virginia - which runs one or two mountain ranges west parallel to I-81 north-south (with a slight westerly slant.) It can be a bit of a challenge since the road simply stops being Rt 42 in spots, and then continues 30-40 miles further on, leaving me to connect the ends. Some of the best riding was in those connecting bits - real one lane back roads twisting up and down mountains without another vehicle in sight.

I had a riding companion and his wife on his K1200S - the checkerboard pattern one (a somewhat collectable bike), and we generally rode about 7-8 hours a day. 8 hours of backroads = about 300-350 miles. I avoid the slab as much as possible. We did spend part of the last day on the Blue Ridge from about Roanke VA to Asheville NC. Also managed to visit a number of other states.

Some of my favorite riding has always been in West Virginia. The DOT there doesn't own a straight-edge, and instead of bulldozing and leveling out things, the roads more or less follow the trail a cow might take getting back to the barn. The switchbacks crossing mountains are amazing, some very tight ones with 9% grades. Pavement isn't as good as it was when Robert Bird was alive and grabbing federal road money, but still isn't bad as long as you watch for gravel in the corners (locals like "dualie" pickups - the outside rear wheel will ride on the edge of the pavement kicking gravel right into the center of almost every turn.)

Anyway - enough talk. Some photos:

Back. 1,600 miles later, and ummm.... NJ, DE, MD, VA, WV, TN and NC later. I missed KY.

Rode:


Visited:


A few friends stopped by:


That is a garden:


On the way back:


You know there is a story behind home-made signage like this:

I'm thinking a bunch of disorderly, naked, drunken people in the pool who then ran around the lobby. It is a ski resort, so most anything could have happened..





Lots or riding in West By God Virginia (one of my favorite riding places, except the deer were insane this visit..)


Studying the driveline on this very unique locomotive (12 wheel drive!):


Stopped by Green Bank:


And there was a little bid of "hard" rain (the kind that hurts, and bounces off the pavement) on Rt28 in WV:


It finally dried up:


Lunch today in MD (near Moncton):


Finally - back in NJ - to a closed welcome center on I-295:


And home finally:



Dunno about that max speed, I thought it was a bit low. Had a woman in a minivan on I-195 in NJ who was bound and determined to pass me. I figured I'd see just how fast she'd go with a van that said "Mom's Taxi" on it. She went faster then this (it's getting up to serious ticket speed on a heavily patrolled road so I backed off at what I thought was 90..)

Was a great trip... had fun riding despite intermittent weather, and seeing a bunch of friends at the "rally" is always fun. Only disturbing thing was - WAY too many deer in WV (way more than I've ever seen before, and I've ridden all these roads many times). Made me watch my speed a bit more then I'd usually done when riding there. Guess the locals aren't killing them for food as much as they used to (although almost all the ones that jumped me were yearlings or younger, so mebbe they're waiting until they have some more meat on them.)



BTW - met a young (hey, anyone under 50 is young to me, but I'd guess early 20's) man at the motel I stayed in last night, riding a blue Kawasaki 600, with 50,000 miles on it. I was impressed - for a sport bike that's some miles. His tire wear showed he knew where the twisties were. Had a nice chat, he wants a BMW - the S1000RR of course, but I did see a number of these being used for touring bikes with some soft bags on them, so it's doable. Keep them wheels turning eh!

BTW-II TinyToys - was great meeting you. I was under a heat fog of sorts when we were chatting, and dinner plans weren't really made until around 7PM, which I thought might be a tad late for you. Next time for sure!

[AncientMariner]

Nice pix, Don. Thanks for posting.

Bruce