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Buell Motorcycle Forum » Quick Board Archives » Archive 0212 (December 2002) » Adventures » Virginia Memorial Wkend ride results « Previous Next »

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Mcpoet99
Posted on Tuesday, May 28, 2002 - 09:02 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only)

Well, group, we did it!

My husband on his Honda ST1100 and I on my Buell Blast went west for 250 miles to Roanoke, then north-north-east for 220 miles to Front Royal, then back home -- 240 miles -- to Chesapeake for a memorial weekend trip over saturday, sunday and monday. Even rode through some rain before it got too stormy and parked the bikes at a Chevron till the thunder and lightning ended. Overall, we were only on interstate for about 30 miles or so; the rest were scenic roads and the occasional four-laner. We didn't see many other bikes east of Richmond, but, because of the great roads west of there, we saw literally a hundred or more. My husband even saw 4 other ST1100s, an unheard of event up to that time.

If you want to ride the twisties in western Virginia, here's the experience I got: The Blue Ridge Parkway was a lot of fun, except when my vertigo kicked in and made the horizon
squirrelly, which was often, though I'd happily do it again. Skyline Drive wasn't much fun at all and surely not worth the $5 we spent to take it -- speed limit was an understandable 35, but it doesn't make the curves enjoyable, no matter how numerous. I'd highly recommend routes 460, 221, 211 and 15 -- scenic and a lot of fun -- and also route 6. Up and downhills and many twisties at
all different speeds. My Blast, because of so much high-rpm downhill and curve riding, required 1/2 quart of oil over the course of the trip, but, with the mods my husband made to the pilot jets and the exhaust, the bike performed better than it ever has in the mid-range.

Speaking of performing well, even the rain didn't hamper us;
we'd both rain-proofed our clothing and tank bags and made
sure to stop and don our rain gear before the dark clouds were directly overhead-- unlike some of the soaked riders we saw. Moreover, the Ventura soft luggage system on the back of my bike worked great-- I must've had 30 pounds or more in it and, with its rain hood, nothing got wet inside and I never felt a change in balance. And, to keep us from getting cottonmouth between the sometimes distant small towns we rode through, every morning we'd refill our faux-CamelBack hydration packs, from Target.

The only thing I'd do different is plan more time for the ride back. After over 200 miles of lots of twisties for two days straight, we both got pretty tired. Of course, if it had been interstate, things would have been different. Also, the weather turned real windy on the ride home yesterday, so the plan to take interstate 64 from Richmond all the way home changed to taking route 60 instead since my jacket turned into a billowy sail that tried to yank my arms off the handlebars at 65 plus mph -- no, I have no windshield or fairing save the stock bug shield. However, route 60's not a bad road; it was just slow because of the holiday traffic.

Anyhow, you can probably tell that I'm even more pleased with the Blast after this ride than I had originally been and am really grateful that I finally got a chance to get on it after so many months with it parked due to too much work.

I hope your Memorial Day Weekend was as memorable as ours became.

Keep it upright :-)
Denise

 
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José_Quiñones
Posted on Tuesday, May 28, 2002 - 10:49 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only)

Nice story Denise!
Pictures?????
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