TireSmoke.org

With the addition of the SV650 to my 'fleet' combined with the failure to reach our destination last month during The Long Ride, I decided to use my vacation time this week to finish the trip.

I spent Sunday night checking out the bike making sure everything would be ok for the trip. I cleaned/lubed the chain and adjusted the tension, made sure all the lights worked, mounted my cargo net, and inspected the tires. The rear tire looked a little thin, but it was good enough. I tried putting my camera mount from the Radian on the SV, but the handlebar diameter was different and it wouldn't fit.

I was going alone, so I would definitely need something to listen to other than myself. I have a pair of headphones that fit reasonably comfortably under my helmet, so I charged up my iPod Nano (4GB), loaded some 450 songs onto it, along with this add-on I have that has a wired-remote control. This let me keep the Ipod in my pocket/tankbag but still play/pause, vol + -, next/prev song.


Monday -- Day 1

I left my house Monday afternoon around 3:20pm -- a later start than I wanted, but it was my own goofing around. My first stop was Shadetree Powersports on Rt 87 in Middlefield. I needed a tank bag for holding a map. They didn't have much of a showroom, I was a little disappointed -- mostly just jackets, chaps/pants, and helmets on display. It was a little pricier than I wanted at $71, but in the end, it functioned very well. It has four pretty strong magents to hold it in place. It held on, even at blasts in the triple digits.

Since I had no real time restriction other than daylight, I decided at first to head for upstate New York. I really just wanted to get an extra state in during my trip. OH 87 --> OH 193N --> US 6E, across Pymatuning into PA. PA 285E --> Meadville --> PA 77N --> Corry --> US 6E --> PA 958N --> PA 957E --> PA 69N into NY. In NY, I continued up 69 until I hit NY 394 @ Chatuauqua Lake, and then headed east into Jamestown.

It was around 8pm by now and I had to start thinking about a hotel. I had a notion to go drive by Holiday Valley, where I like to ski in the winter, just to see what it looked like in the summer. There was a cop running radar in Jamestown and I stopped to ask him about local hotels. He didn't seem real enthused and quickly mentioned that we were very close to I-86 and that it was 30 miles to the Indian Casino. I knew that area from stopping there during ski season, so I hopped on 86 down to Salamanca. I never made it to Holiday Valley, instead deciding to call it a day when I got to the casino's exit in Salamanca NY. It would've been an extra 30-40 miles roundtrip to Holiday Valley and it was getting dark.

The casino is owned by the Salamanca tribe. I've been there before but never really gambled. Granted it was a Monday night around 9:30, but when I walked into the poker room, there was only 3 tables of players and they're all shuffling their chips like poker geeks. I just wasn't in a poker mood after riding for several hours. I played video poker for a few minutes (for a total of $1.75) and went back to my hotel room at the Holiday Inn Express. I got a couple Whopper Jrs. from Burger King next door and watched a little TV and looked at maps for my route the next day.


DAY 2

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=42.0 ... 86238&z=12

Tuesday morning I woke up and my first sight of the sky brought dread, as it looked like it was raining. It turned out just being heavy, wet air, but it reminded me of the first trip and how un-enjoyable it is to ride in the rain. I got on the road by 8:15 or so and headed back east on I-86 to NY 280, which goes south through Alleghany State Park to Pennsylvania, running along the reservoir. At the PA border, it changes to PA 346, which I followed to PA 321. PA 321 --> PA 59W --> US 6E --> PA 666W.

I deliberately wanted to ride Rt 666 after Mike and I had ridden it back in 2006 and remembering it as a real fun road. I remember back that it was rough in a few places, but it was rougher than I remembered. It would be a great road if the truly rough stuff gets repaved.

I followed PA 666 to its easterly end at US 62. I took US 62 S --> PA 36S --> PA 208 --> into Knox. I has misread my map and/or roadsigns, as I wanted to take 338 --> 38 but goofed up somehow. I ended up getting on I-80W for a few miles and getting off at PA 38/208 (should've never gotten off 208 in the first place).

I rode through a little burg called Emlenton and I saw a sign for a place called "Complete Burger.". It was noon-ish and I was ready to eat and get off the bike for a little while. I spent some time looking at the map deciding which way I was going to go. I did not have a West Virginia map at this point -- which if I had, I would've chosen a more westerly route. but I ended up taking PA 38S --> US 422W --> PA 8S going right through downtown Pittsburgh. I picked up US 19 south from there and rode through a lot of urban/suburban stuff. Poor route selection. I stayed on 19 until I got into Washington, PA. I stopped at a bar in there to take a break get off the bike, and have a couple Captains.

It was getting close to 5pm by now and I wanted to get into WV before nightfall so I chose to hit the interstate one more time, heading down I-79 South into Morgantown, WV.

... to be continued...


pics at http://photos.studly.net

Dave. Real nice. You're making want to get bike. Except I don't know if I would feel safe doing all that riding alone, without my firearm, I'd have to have it on me.

I can't remember where I got off I-79. Even looking at the map now, I can't quite figure it out. What I do know was that I stopped at a bar along the road and the guy there had a big atlas, even bigger than their TV remote (see pictures). From where I was, I needed to hit WV 310 and take that to US 50. In the meantime, a local guy rolled in on his Kawasaki Concourse, a big sport-tourer along the lines of a Honda ST or Yahmaha FJR. He offered to lead me over to 310. It was only 5-10 minutes away, but he was going that direction as well.

310 meets US 50 in a little town called Grafton.
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=39.3 ... 09656&z=14

It was somewhere in the 5pm-hour and the weather was really starting to look iffy. I wanted to get further down the road before calling it a day, too. I headed out on US 50 east and it wasn't long before I started getting hit with rain drops. The area around here is pretty desolate and towns are few & far between. 50 would take me into the northern part of Maryland and let me chalk up another state on my journey, even though I would end up passing through back into West Virginia. On the Long Ride, we had ridden this stretch of 50 and some of the climbs up the mountains were really fun, but I had to be careful with the wet roads. I wasn't soaked because it wasn't raining that hard yet and also because I was going through forested areas.

By the time I hit Maryland, I had gotten ahead of the weather. I made a quick stop at the Tablerock Inn, a bar we had stopped at last month. The bartender there remembered me from being there with the group and asked if I ditched my buddies this time. Someone there told me if I could probably find a decent hotel room in Keyser, WV, so that was my destination. (Keyser is actually on US 220, just a few miles where it splits from US 50)

I rolled into Keyser just as it was getting dark. The first thing I saw was a Wal-Mart, so I figured there had to be a couple different hotels. I stopped at the Keyser Inn and was a little shocked when the clerk said they were full. On a Tuesday night? But, he called to a place down the road called the Candlewyck Inn and a girl named Dawn said they had 3 rooms left. The Candlewyck was just a couple miles down the road, in the 'downtown' area.

My room at the Keyser was really like a small apartment. It wasn't a conventional hotel. The girl I spoke to about the room, Dawn, was also the bartender. Very friendly, and personable, with a nice rack. My iPod was getting low on battery and I only had a car charger for it -- no wall charger. So I asked her if she would plug it into her car for a while to charge it for me. She agreed and 45 minutes later, she asked if she thought it was charged so she could shut her car off! I felt bad that she had her car idling that whole time, as it certainly didn't need to. I left a $12 tip.

DAY 3

When I woke up in the morning, I saw that it had rained overnight. The air was definitely cool and completely cloudy with no sun. UGH. This wasn't going to be that fun. The roads were still damp, but not real wet. I went back out US 220 to hook back up with US 50. US 50 would take me into a town called Winchester, VA. From Winchester, I picked up US 340 and US 522 to get down to Front Royal, VA, which is at the north end of Skyline Drive. It took me about 2 hours from Keyser to Front Royal.

Just as I was getting into Front Royal, maybe 10:30-ish, the rain drops started falling again. Not hard, not very much, just enough to be threatening. The roads weren't even wet, but the sky looked like it could clear up soon, or just start raining. I really didn't want to ride in any rain, it was too early to hit a bar, so I went into a McDonalds and called my sister to get some weather info. After talking with her and deciding that the weather should clear up in an hour or two, I went to a local laundromat to wash my clothes. I kept wearing the same shirt under my jacket when I was riding, and changed into something clean before getting the dinner the previous two nights. So, I killed another hour there and the weather did appear to be getting better. By the time I had everything re-packed and on the bike, raindrops again.. ARGH... just a few, and fortunately, short-lived.

.. to be continued ...

She thought the car had to idle to charge the iPod? Was she blond too? Anyways I hope you left her a nice tip. Did you get a picture of her?



The suspense of the story is killing me...................I love it.

No she wasn't blond (surprisingly, for a move like that) and I did not get a picture of her.

So, after leaving the laundromat, I gassed up and less than a mile later, I was on Skyline Drive. See the map

It was $10 for a motorcycle, but the pass was good for 5 or 7 days. The speed limit along the entire road is 35 mph and it's 105 miles long. So even if you don't stop (or speed), it's a 3 hour ride. I started at about 12:30. The few raindrops seemed to have stopped and it looked like it would be an okay day. For the first few miles, it was just forest on this 35mph road -- not real exciting. But when you get to the first of many, many pull-offs, the scenery is just incredible. I really didn't take enough pictures. But honestly, after a while they all start to look similar.

Since it's a long road with very limited access, there's not much traffic. When you're stopped anywhere and no cars are nearby, it's just silent. You and the wind. There's no other noise. It's beautiful, peaceful bliss.

I stopped at Skyland which is around half-way to get some food and a souvenir. I got a little pin that says "I rode Skyline Drive". I'll probably put it on my tank bag or something. For food, I ordered the 'Southern Fried Chicken', but there wasn't anything very southern about it to me. Very plain. Oh well, I wasn't here for fine dining anyway.

As late afternoon came along the sun had come out, and it had warmed up into a really nice day. By 5:30, I had reached the southern end, where it ends at US 250. This was the same road we had ridden through much of WVA on the Long Ride and I knew the town where we stayed last time would be a good place to crash that night, a town called Elkins. Looking at the map, I actually hopped on I-64/I-81 for about 10 miles to try and bypass a city called Stautnon, but I ended up back on US 250 without missing anything interesting.

US 250 going west from Stuanton was a very fun ride. In my pictures, there's a sign for the Confederate Breast Works, which is at/near the top of Shanendoah mountain. I have no idea what the CBW was, as I didn't feeling like parking the bike to go read the little information plaque. The twists/curves/switch backs getting to the top here were probably among the best on my entire trip. There was one 180* banked left-hander where I was only going 15-20mph, but I had the bike sooo leaned over, I had to be close to hitting the peg. It was just the coolest feeling.

The SV has 11.5:1 compression, so there's a lot of engine braking when you close the throttle. Going through all the curves, I could do 80% of my slowing down just by closing the throttle. If I was really blasting through some turns, or they were just slower, I was in 3rd gear, 4th if I was just in regular sporty mode, and 5th when I just wanted to cruise. I only used 6th above 60mph, on straights. The engine just pulls good from 3000 on up. Even when I was trying to *really* get on it, I found myself upshifting at no more than 7000 RPM, even though it pulls past 10,000.

Even after riding pretty aggressively, I was still pulling down 50 mpg. I've never recorded more than 55mpg, though. I gassed up in a town called Monterey, WVA. From here it was 65 miles to my destination in Elkins. It was only 7-ish, so I should've been able to get there easily before dark. But this would be the worst part of the trip -- rain again, and this time it was very wet and it really slowed me down. The weird thing was that I could see the sun shining in the west, so I knew I would probably be riding out of it at some point. Then, just to make it worse, I got stuck behind a gasoline truck. So I'm wet, riding slow as it is, then get caught behind this thing, down to 20 mph on an uphill grade. So now, I really gotta choose my spot carefully. There's not many safe places to pass. There was one switchback where I was really tempted to just pass him on the inside, but it seemed too risky. *maybe* in the dry, but not this time. I eventually got around him and the road even straightened out a bit allowing me to get up to 50-55 mph.

There was one dicey moment when I came upon a deer on the side of the road. I was heading straight downhill, still in the rain, and there's a fence to the deer's right, and the road to its left. He starts running, right between me and the fence. I couldn't really just blast the throttle and get past him, I just sort of had to slowly increase my speed a bit. Thank god he didn't veer into the road. Just a few nights before I left for this trip, I was with Mike when he hit a large fawn on his Ducati, with his wife on the back. Very scary. He hit it solidly in the middle of its body, it flung to his right, hit his foot and slid into the ditch. I saw the whole thing happen, and it was one of my worst riding fears realized. Luckily, very luckily, nothing happened.

After about 35 miles of rain, it finally stopped and the roads straightened out a bit, so I was able to blast and make up some ground, and I was also dried out fairly well over the final 30 miles.

It's kinda funny how the locals who know the roads well can hustle along in lesser vehicles but still keep a good pace. In the morning, after just leaving Keyser on US 50, I followed an empty logging truck for many miles with no real desire to blast past him. In the evening, on US 250, I was behind someone in an 80s LeSabre who was cooking along quite well too., just because they had been down these roads before.

When I finally got into Elkins, I figured the most stressful parts of the trip were over. I pull into the Holiday Inn Express that we stayed at last month. They had a jacuuzi next to the pool that I was looking forward to soaking in for a bit (I packed a swimsuit for that reason). When I got there, there was a sign on the door saying it was out of order. But, it got worse. No rooms. Called the Super 8 -- no rooms there either. Stopped in the Econo Lodge. No rooms there, either. By now I was really starting to worry. It was just about nightfall. Finally, I called the Days Inn and they had a room left. Thank God. If you're in your car, worst case is you sleep in the backseat. No-can-do on a bike.

Days Inn are not my favorite places to begin with, and this place seemed like it was a converted from some sort of hospital. The doorway to my room was incredibly wide. The elevators were unusually deep, and it had this big, gaudy lobby. I didn't take any pictures, because I was aggravated at almost not getting a hotel room, and then had difficulty finding this place, and then getting "you can't leave your bike under the awning in the entranceway, you'll have to find a spot in the parking lot. We don't have any trouble with bikes here, the state police are a 1/4 mile down the road." I hadn't even asked to leave it there, I just parked it there while I was checking in. Grrrrr...

I went to the restaurant downstairs, which was Duke's Steak House. It was empty (it was 9:30 by now, they closed at 10), so I decided to just go up to my room and order a pizza, and watch TV. I should've ordered from a local joint, but I wussed out and got Domino's. It was pretty blah.

DAY 4

From the previous trip, I knew I could get home in a day from Elkins, which is one of the reasons I decided to stay there. I was awake by 6:10am and was on the road by 7-7:15am. It was very foggy and humid. As I left town, the shield on my helmet accumulated so much mist, that I had to ride with it up. It would then build up a little directly on my sunglasses, then there'd be a clear area and the sunglasses would clear up a bit. After an hour or so, everything was all clear. I made a quick stop to wipe off my shield and glasses, threw a couple extra paper towels in the tank bag and continued. Sun was out, but it wasn't real warm. I didn't fill up when I left Elkins, as I only had 65 miles on that tank, so I rode about 100 miles when the fuel light came on. The SV has a fuel light that comes on with about 3/4 of a gallon left instead of a reserve. I filled up about 15 miles outside of Moundsville, WVA which is right on the Ohio River, just south of Wheeling. This would be my last fillup of the trip.

I continuted following US 250 in Ohio, but picked up OH 9N in Cadiz. I followed OH 9 --> OH 43 --> OH 183. I was very close to OH 44 at this point, but didn't want to go through East Canton and Ravenna. I stopped at McDonalds in Minerva, OH, going through the drive-through. I guess my bike wasn't heavy enough/big enough to trip the sensor, so after a few tries of "hello' , I pulled around to the first window. I guess no one on a bike has ever gone through their drive-through based on their reaction. I just ordered a double-haamburger from the dollar menu and put it in the tank bag (I already had a can of pepsi) I found a spot up the road to pull off and eat in the sun.

I followed 183 to OH 14, and picked up OH 88 on the northeast side of Ravenna. I went OH 88 --> OH 700, up into Burton. I took OH 87 to Auburn Road, north to Wilson Mills, and west back home.

After leaving Elkins at 7-7:15, I arrived home around 2:40pm. I totaled 1,213 miles. It was a *great* ride, but I was very glad to get off the bike finally. My butt was sore and my knees were aching a little. After I got home, I checked email and stuff, but within 15 minutes, I was completely crashed out in my bed. It was good to be home again.

ttamrettus wrote:Dave. Real nice. You're making want to get bike. Except I don't know if I would feel safe doing all that riding alone, without my firearm, I'd have to have it on me.

Bikes are great, and where you live, you could probably ride year round. Riding alone was a little bit of a concern, but not a huge deal. I've done quite a bit of riding, so as long as I think my equipment is good, I have few worries. What would you need a gun for? If you were camping, I could see wanting it, but not staying in hotels.

-Dave

Sounds like great time, and I love the bike! Looks like a perfect machine for sport touring stuff.