| Author | Message | ||
     Cato |
What time are you leaving from Panera? I'm coming down from Cleveland and would like to meet up with you if the timing works. It will take me about 3 hours to get to Reynoldsburg. | ||
| Mikef5000 |
Gary, I have a Uly clutch cable, perhaps you can make it work? I'll bring it! Cato, we're taking a dirt/gravel road route there. Everything should be do-able on a Uly, but the rest of us are on knobbier tires, so you'll need some dirt skills to enjoy it. We're leaving Panera at 9am. If you're looking for (paved) route suggestions from Cleveland, I'd freeway it down to Canton, then take 800 south all the way to Fly, OH. Take the ferry across the river, and take 18 down to 74. That'll get you to 50 just east of 16, so take 50 West to 16 South, and you're in Harrisville. Then it's just Main street west out of town. That's about 215 miles, or 5 hours by Google Maps. Just a suggestion of some good paved roads. | ||
| Cato |
Thanks, I'll stick to the pavement. I know lots of good routes from my place to Harrisville. | ||
| Mikef5000 |
Hey my old Buell lightning is in your profile picture! That event (WVBR3) was about the only time I ever got to go use that bike for what it was really meant for. Man did we tear up the roads that weekend.    | ||
| Nittanyxt |
Mike,can you pm me your route, or post it.I might try to meet up somewhere. | ||
| Mikef5000 |
I can email you the GPX tracks, but here's the rough map:  You coming on the dirt ride Saturday? | ||
| Hillis3 |
Emt - I'm making better time than I thought. I'm in Harrisonburg, VA. I should be there around 10 if everything stays smooth. (Message edited by Hillis3 on August 09, 2012) | ||
| Jimduncan69 |
Cool mike we will see what we can do!!! Also can you bring a t-27 with you? | ||
| Nittanyxt |
Bike's packed! I'm up for the dirt on Sat. | ||
| Mikef5000 |
I've got the clutch cable and T-27 thrown in the bag. Route's also finished for Saturday. 4 hours of dirt down, 2 hours of pavement back up. Add a couple hours worth of stops and such, and it's a long but doable day. I'm fine with playing it by ear though when the time comes. | ||
| Emtff376 |
We are in bound. Gps says we should be there around 3. Let me know if we should pick anything up on the way in. | ||
| Etennuly |
What the hell?  Friday night/Saturday morning and no pictures yet? Not even a report? | ||
| Fb1 |
Vern, here's a bone until the real reports start coming in.  M2nc and Prior spent the night here in FOG Thursday night, Carlost on his way to the Gathering Formerly Known as the West Virginia Buell Rally, Alex on his way to the New River for a camping trip with his missus and friends, and me on my way to another Ferris Bueller's Day Off! Rain and wet and fog here in SWVA pretty much all night, and still thick as soup at oh-dark-thirty yesterday morning, but by the time we geared up the sun was busting through the scud, and from Wytheville, VA to Bluefield, WV it was postcard-perfect riding conditions. M2nc led outta Wytheville, out 52 and up Big Walker Mountain (which VADOT has absolutely destroyed with a million road cuts for new drainage culverts, at the apex of nearly every corner, and the worst patch jobs I've ever seen. Makes ya wonder if they did it on purpose just to slow us riders down...) Anyway, Carlost set a torrid pace towards West-by-God-Virginia, and me 'n Alex did our best to keep him honest (I really gotta get a sportbike one of these days...). Here we are at the Bluefield overlook on East River Mountain Road/598:  Carlost looks pretty proud of hisself, no?? I'll show ya why here in a second. | ||
| Fb1 |
So Carlost climbs off his Uly, looks down at his seat, and starts giggling like a little schoolgirl. Turns out a chunk of gravel kicked up by his front tire (we'd hit a bunch of this stuff, most of it damned invisible, and always in the frikkin' apex!), during our bomb run from Wytheville) had found its way under his butt!!  | ||
| Fb1 |
I'd witnessed a couple of butt-pucker moments as we turned 'n burned towards Bluefield, as Carlost did his best to keep me and the Road King from passing him on the outside (it's a joke, folks!), and the poor guy not only had a rock on his seat, but apparently from all the stress he pinched out a malted milk ball, too!!   Tsk, tsk - a grown man and still not potty-trained. | ||
| Fb1 |
Bluefield, WV way down below:  | ||
| Fb1 |
"Hey Ferris, you're not gonna post a pic of my, um, little accident, are ya?!?" Depends, my brother!  | ||
| Fb1 |
One last shot from the overlook before the rain collapsed on us:  Before we hurriedly donned our rain gear we pulled up radar on our phones. No worries, just an isolated cell, we'll be out of it in no time. Yeah, right!  Turns out the cell followed us northeast all the way to Beckley, WV. Carlost, in particular, was absolutely soaked when we stopped for Mexican in Beckley (see below). I fared better, except my H-D(spit) rain gear failed miserably right in the frikkin' crotch, which, well, made it look like I had the accident this time! Here are the BadWeatherBoyz (with their laundry hanging out to dry) getting their rocks off 'cause it looked like I'd done a Dumb and Dumber and peed my pants:  Grand times, fellas - thanks for the awesome camaraderie, and hope ya both have a most excellent weekend! (And a million thanks to Denise, for putting up with us three children on Thursday night!!  ) | ||
| Etennuly |
Awesome! I really hate that I missed this trip with Carlost and co. Damn it! On the restriction side.....this flu has turned into pneumonia in one lung.....see.....I told you I was sick!  That is probably what they will put on my epitaph when the time comes.  The good thing is that the meds are working, I am feeling better than I have for the past month, even on one lung.  Ya'll have fun, keep posting! | ||
| Whatever |
I think if Carlos pooped out that milk ball it probably would have been melted... Come on, people, who CRASHED on the first day of WVBR... it IS a tradition...  | ||
| Stevedplumber |
Home.... thanks to mark for the idea that brings us together and to his parents for the snacks that fatten us up. good times once again. thanks all for the stories and laughs for those keepin count 4 hours 23 mins state park to front door. someone post up some pics when they can. See some of you in the fall and others next year. | ||
| Sekalilgai |
as probably the one with the shortest commute home...no free helicopter rides this time! Had a great time as always, thanks Mark! Pics to follow....we had a bunch of dirt bags show up too (Message edited by sekalilgai on August 12, 2012) | ||
| Cato |
Back Home. It was great to see everyone and enjoy the twisty roads. Glad to see Judy is doing so well. Can't wait til next year. | ||
| Jimduncan69 |
Home! Took the long way home and had a great ride. Thanks Mark once again for all that you do! | ||
| Mikef5000 |
A dirt bag... checking in! Home safe and sound after an easy days ride. Now, to bombard all of you street folks with our dirt pictures... En Route!  Lunch stop in Wheeling, and the start to our dirt route:     Made it to the campground in time to setup the tents before the late afternoon shower passed through:  Good dinner , good campfire, good people, good beer, good night. Saturday! We added NittanyXT to our group of dirt bags, and hit the dusty trail once more!    This one doesn't look quite right (ended in the drink... no biggie):   And then.....................  Here... Cross rutted:  And down!  He went down pretty dang hard; smacked his face on something (dust/breath shield in his helmet maybe?) and busted his lips. All in good fun; he walked it off and we proceeded! That's what the crash bars are for right?  At the next intersection he decided to break off and stick to pavement for the rest of the day. He had no idea how wise a move that was.  Our original goal was to dirt road it down to the New River Gorge Bridge. Before noon we already knew there wasn't a chance... so here's our bridge picture:  Lunch break in Glenville! ... | ||
| Mikef5000 |
Alright... so at this point we've ridden some state routes (fast twisty fun!), some 1 lane broken old roads (fast inconsistant fun!) some perfect gravel roads (fast slidey fun!), some hard packed dirt (fast jumpy fun!), and some mud puddles/creek bed paths (fast splashy fun!). So after lunch we decided to change it up completely (unbeknown to us), and eliminate the "fast" part completely, while redefining the "fun" part. We entered what would quickly become the ultimate test of man and machine. The road has 3 names... Duck Run-Dry Run Rd. Co Route 32-3. And my personal favorite... Impassable Rd. We worked our way left to right:  It started with a mega awesome river crossing. I'm not sure where the defining difference between creek and river is exactly, but this was a river... every bit of 20" deep, and with current!     For reference, his front wheel with tire is 25" tall (same as mine, I just measured it) and it's more or less completely submerged here:  Nice! Next... Tree down... no biggie:  Couldn't move it all out of the way, so we team worked it; a few people stand on low branches to push them into the ground, a few people lift up on high branches so we can fit under them, then ride through one at a time:   Next... big log across the trail... but wait, there's a go-around... This is my bike standing up on it's own, sunk to the axles in mud... 600 pounds... this isn't going to be easy:     Made it, log moved, everyone else cleared to go! (another 50 or so feet) Next obsticle... Rutted out mud puddle:    Alright! Complete 180 degree spin slip and drop by George! We gave him a 9.4:  50 feet down the road.... More rutted mud puddles, this time with a tree blocking the only reasonable line. we lined up on either side to help each bike through one at a time:   Looks good.....  But can't pull it off in the end:  Dang! Porker is down! Gotta love these soft squishy landings though! Next...  Alright... you get the idea... an obstacle every 50 feet or so. At this point we had made it approximately 1 mile, and we had been at it for every bit of an hour. We were hot, thirsty, and ready for more of the fast and fun roads. At one point we took a vote whether to turn back or not... We did not. I was over-heated and sick feeling in a way I'd never experienced before. Dehydrated? Early early signs of heat stroke? Eh, I apologized to the group and took ten minutes to myself; fought my way down to the river, and got in. The cool water brought me back to a reasonable comfort level within minutes, and I suited back up and headed back up the slope to see what we were in for next...  Ah yes... But wait! Light at the end of the tunnel! The GPS is giving me hope that just ahead... could it be... YES! OUR WAY OUT! We were free! After 2 hours, and only about 2 miles... we had survived the most epic stretch of adventure road known to man (well, to us at least). We bee-lined it for the closest gas station, and guzzled liquid like never before!   That's that! PAVEMENT back to the campground for dinner! I've got more stories... but that'll do for now! All the pictures here: http://s267.photobucket.com/albums/ii309/Mikef5000/WVBR%205/ | ||
| Emtff376 |
I tried to post from my phone, but alas it didn't make it to the board. We are home (ish) safe and sound. Great to see everyone and can't wait for next year. | ||
| M2nc |
Back home little after 5pm. I had a great time. Enjoyed the rides to, while there and from. Mark and I even did a little dirt, but did not hit terra firma due to mud holes were smaller, though big enough to get the boots dirt, and the fact that we were on light weight dirt bikes. (Message edited by M2nc on August 13, 2012) | ||
| Road_kill |
Got back last night. 14 hrs/800 miles. All good. Thanks again to Mark and family. It was great to see y'all again. | ||
| Reepicheep |
Cool pics! Dry dirt? Just about any bike just about can go just about anywhere on just about any tire. Wet dirt? (aka mud?) Its gotta be a light bike, and its gotta be a big knobbie, or you are just pretty much screwed from the git-go. Still fun though... in hindsight. Cool pictures! |
