I finally got to ride! And I hit the Gaps.

[R Doug]

It's been well over a month since I've been able to ride my bike.  I lived in an apartment with my wife and bikes both in WV for a month.  Last weekend, the movers dumped all of our goods at the new home (bikes included) and today I was determined to get out!  Thanks to my wife for allowing me to ride today on our 18th wedding anniversary.    Thanks to Servicerifle for showing me some good roads near our new home in Winston Salem.

Squirrel Spur Road



Orchard Gap Road



Wards Gap Road



Flower Gap Road / Lamsburg Road



Stone Mountain

[MK96xj]

Looks like you have been officially welcomed now

[garry]

Nice Doug!

[Skee]

Way to go, Doug!

[TriumphTiger1050]

Nice shots and nice KTM!  Glad you got your addiction satisfied!

[MisterSmooth]

That Stone Mountain pic just replaced XLR8's pic of the open range as my screen wallpaper.  

[R Doug]

The addiction has been satisfied for the moment.    Next up, I need to take long weekend and hit the road west and south.  Today I was north and west starting by hitting the BRP in Virginia then going up and down the mountains on and off the BRP on all the "Gap" roads.  Some were gravel and others were paved.

I believe I'm going to like it here.  

Smooth, PM me your email and I can shoot you a higher res version of that image.  I'm glad you like it.  Any image replacing something posted by XLR8 is high praise, thanks.  

[tankhead]

Congrats Doug!  Now I have an excuse to get to NC.  You can show me all the great riding and I can buy you all the beer!  Have fun Amigo....

[maddjack]

Nice  

[servicerifle]

Glad you had fun!  

Waiting for a PM, would like to discuss some of the routes in detail.

[R Doug]

Looks like you have been officially welcomed now

Nothing can bring me more normalness than getting out on the bike and riding.  From Winston-Salem, the best direction for me to travel for day rides would be due North to due East.  Since the Appalachian Mountains run towards the Southwest, it becomes more difficult to plan a solid day in the twisties.  I hate taking more than 1 hour to 90 minutes of slabby roads to get to twisties.  That would equate to 2-3 hours of my day on boring roads.  To tackle the roads down in your area, I would need to plan short weekend trips (not that there’s anything wrong with that).  

Glad you had fun!  

Waiting for a PM, would like to discuss some of the routes in detail.

Thanks to your input, a co-worker, and some google research, I came up with the following route:

Rt. 89 towards Mt. Airy:  Very solid road with spots of greatness.  Low traffic and no po po.

Squirrel Spur Road:  Incredibility fun run up the mountain.  It’s a smoother and wider version of Rt. 16 in VA.

BRP:  Why?  ‘Cause.

Orchard Gap Road:  very nice scenery and pavement with switchbacks down into a picturesque valley.


Wards Gap Road:  Fun switch back gravel road climbing north back up onto the BRP.

BRP:  ‘Cause

Rt. 52 down the mountain towards Mt. Airy:  too much traffic.  I only took this road as a connected to get to…

Flower Gap Road / Lamsburg Road:  Thank you Steve.  This is an absolute darling and one of my favorites for the day.

BRP:  ‘Cause

Stone Mountain:  I took the park road which starts out paved and ends up gravel on the other end.  It was a nice place to pull off and rest / hydrate.

Traphill Road to Mountainview Road:  Nice valley road with sweepers.

Balls Mill  / Cherry Grove Roads:  These are located south of North Wilkesboro and run thorugh the foothills in that area.  These two roads were great and I believe there are more roads in that area worth exploring.

Vannoy Ridge Road:  Gravel Fun!

The rest of the day was finding different connectors from Love Valley to Lexington.  It was hot by that time and the roads weren’t worth writing home about.