SATURDAY RIDE!! Charlotte->Brushy Mt. Rd->18->88->Boone->181->Charlotte

[bpg]

Like the title says, we is ridin' on Saturday up to some of the GOOD twisties NW of the Charlotte area on Saturday!

Hoping to leave a lil' early (meet 9-ish?) from a central meeting place - exit 25 from I-77 looks good for collecting riders from Charlotte, Concord and Huntersville areas.  Anyone know a good gas/food spot right on 73/Sam Furr Rd.?

From there, jet up I-77 to Statesville,
work our way up to Sulphur Springs and Brushy Mtn. Roads,
then north on 18,  
west on 88,  
South on 421 to Boone, maybe hit lunch,
S-SW on 221 and/or BRP,
S on 181
S on 321

S&T estimates 283 miles/6.5 hours - if we leave exit 25 at 9, that should put us back into the Charlotte area ~5-ish with food/gas stops.

There is some slab at the beginning and end, but I'm fairly certain that the back roads between here and there aren't worth the time lost..



So far myself and 2 other riders are looking at doing it - anyone else game??

Weather should be pretty decent - 55-60 and only a slight chance of rain..

[Lager]

Wish I could make this ride, But I have to work that Saturday and getting some new rubber installed that day for the Brushy Mountain ride 04/01 on Groupride.com.

[servicerifle]

Could probably make this but I will be doing my service to the motorcycle community, noob bike transport, on Saturday.

[Mach VIII]

Right on!  Gotta break that new tire & chain (& sprockets) in somehow.  

[Scott9990]

Just might make it!!  Gotta check with Co Pilot (She rides too) Timing is a little early for us.  We have a kid to trop off at 9:30 am, then we can go!  Could be at meeting place by 10:00am (best we can do)   We were kinda planning to ride to the beach and buy some scrimp!  Then just come home and eat!!

Scott Davis

[bpg]

all-righty, we just may hold until 10...  Can't you slip the sitter a few more bills for taking the child early??

[bpg]

Saturday's forecast: 10% chance of rain, 68 degrees

[Scott9990]

Thanks Guys!  We will head out asap Saturday morning and meet you all at I-77 & HW 21 (Statesville Rd)  We will try to get out a few minutes early if possible!  The route looks good.  I have not been on any of the roads until Boone, then I know the way from there.  I know a few great side trips from 181 & BRP if we have an extra hour.   I will load up the gps and have them if the group wants more by then.   Looking forward to meeting you all Sat!  

Scott & Laura Davis
Concord, NC

[bpg]

tell you what - since you have a GPS would you mind putting the early part of the route on - the part in Hiddenite where you get off 64 onto Sulphur Springs road looks pretty hairy..  

Sounds like you and I/my buds have done the same stuff, so Brushy mt. rd, 88 and 18 will be new territory for all!

[Scott9990]

No problem!  I have the entire route loaded up.  That does not mean we won't go the wrong way once, er twice, but we will not go too far off track.  Sounds like a fun day, weather up by Boone is upper 50's!  Not bad!  We will get to the start asap.  I rode lead last year on an 850 mile (TAT) trip and only ran us into a trailer park twice, but we all found Mississippi in the end.  Had a ball getting there.  

Seeya all then!

Scott

[bpg]

OK, little change in meeting place -

We'll meet at the Target/Office Depot/Petsmart plaza off of Rt 49 just off of I-85's exit 42.

The Target store's addy is:

8120 University City Blvd
Charlotte, NC 28213

Meeting time is 9:45 - we can fuel up by hopping onto WT Harris, which we can take north to hook onto I-77.

[Scott9990]

Good Deal!  We will see you all there!  

Scott & Laura
 

[prez]

tell you what - since you have a GPS would you mind putting the early part of the route on - the part in Hiddenite where you get off 64 onto Sulphur Springs road looks pretty hairy..  

Sounds like you and I/my buds have done the same stuff, so Brushy mt. rd, 88 and 18 will be new territory for all!

It's not as bad as it looks, as long as you're looking for it. If you're looking for it, it seems to show up further away than you expect. You  guys have fun and give me a report on the road conditions, I'm planning on doing this Wed.

BTW Brendan, you & I should be able to get together a good bit this summer, since I had to turn down the new job and will still have weekdays off.

[bpg]

Well, made it back - helluva day, great riding, no wrecks - and only 3 performance awards

MachVIII ('94 'Zuki RF900R, Edmund ('07 Duc Monster S4R), Scott9990 (Kawi Connie) and his wife Laura ('Priller Pegaso) met between Charlotte and Concord ~9:50 and headed up I-77 to the twisties.

Brushy Mountain Rd. was a bit choppier than expected, but very twisty indeed!  18 up to 88 was awesome once we got out of Wilkesboro  - reminiscent of Cherohala..  

Waited at the intersection of 18 and 88 for some time - No Scott or Laura  Sent Edmund back to look - no dice.  No messages left by them on our phones; called them, no reply , so we left a message saying we hoped all was OK and motored on to 88W...

88 was just plain great - some choppy pavement here and there but smooth and twisty for the most part - VERY fun!  I high;y recommend it - it's as good as it looks on a map!

Ran 88 all the way to 421 - was sad to see it end , Ran 421 into Boone and had lunch at Murphy's Irish Pub (Awesome joint - great choices, great food!)...  Even picked up some $6 green Murphy's St Paddy shirts!

While in Boone, got a call from Scott & Laura - ends up that instead of making their way west on 88, they took the Blue Ridge Parkway into Blowing Rock to meet up with their daughter there.  So we met up with them again in Boone and started off...  

Except... we needed to pick up a bolt for Edmund's Duc...  Apparently a bolt/sensor had blown off his exhaust pipe and his left leg was now being inundated with hot exhaust ..  Looked at Lowe's, no dice..  Scott & Laura were getting antsy to leave, so they headed back to the Charlotte area...  Advance Auto had nothing in the way of correct bolts either, so Edmund jammed an SAE bolt in the hole with some high-temp thread-lock and we were finally off, pretty late in the evening with rain threatening.

Hopped on the BRP to make our way down to 181..  With the light rain falling and impending darkness, we were running a pace that made time yet wasn't crazy for conditions - definitely under 60 as we threaded our way along..  Passed a Park Service car going the other way, instinctively scrubbed some speed just in case, nuttin' on the radar detector..  Then passed another, still nuttin'...  A few miles later, saw one coming from a distance with the rollers lit up "please let him fly right past, please let him fly right past!!"

Nope.  All 3 of us were fined $175 (no points) for essentially being a danger to ourselves: "We see bikes launch off of these cliffs all the time.."  Not saying the tickets weren't justified, just kinda sucked as were were definitely taking it easy while trying to beat the rain/darkness..  Hell, to be honest, aside from our stints on the interstate, the BRP portion was by far our most tame riding that day...

All in all, a very fun day aside from the tickets - will have to do again given that all these great roads are relatively colse to Charlotte!

[prez]

Sounds great Brendan, glad all went relatively well. That's bad break on the tickets.you know since it's a federal rd they can give you a fine up to $500 (@ officers discretion). That's why I hardly ride the parkway, unless it's 2up with the wife.

[bpg]

Yep - although I've never heard of anyone getting the full $500, I'm sure it happens if someone tries to turn BRP into a racetrack...  Like I said, luckily that was probably the most sedate riding we did Saturday (as you know, 50's-60's on the BRP feels like the bike is barely running!).

The bad part that I forgot to mention was that the particular stretch of the BRP that we were on was all 35 mph ...  For my part, I noticed but one 35 speed limit sign right near an overlook, and figured it was only for RIGHT there due to cars pulling and and out of the overlook..  If we'd have known that section was all 35 we'd have stayed on 221!!

[prez]

Yep - although I've never heard of anyone getting the full $500, I'm sure it happens if someone tries to turn BRP into a racetrack...  Like I said, luckily that was probably the most sedate riding we did Saturday (as you know, 50's-60's on the BRP feels like the bike is barely running!).

The bad part that I forgot to mention was that the particular stretch of the BRP that we were on was all 35 mph ...  For my part, I noticed but one 35 speed limit sign right near an overlook, and figured it was only for RIGHT there due to cars pulling and and out of the overlook..  If we'd have known that section was all 35 we'd have stayed on 221!!

I know where you're talking about.

[Mach VIII]

Yeah, the tickets were definitely a bummer - and on top of that, while we sat there awaiting our fate from "The Man" the skies opened up and dumped on us.    At least I had my waterproof riding pants on and was able to dig out my FroggTogg jacket.

Aside from that though and a few delays, it was a great ride.  Like Brendan said, up to Brushy Mountain was a little sketchy, but not terrible - you just can't rail on it too much, as there are so many nearly invisible pavement depressions and such (especially mid curve or just before as you're setting up).  88 and 18 were like butta' though.  

[CafeTBird]

You guys take 18 or old 18 (South Mountain Road)?

Sorry I couldn't join ya - but was sitting at the Daytona 200 at the time! ('Tis a shame those Honda's had such poor fuel consumption!)  

[prez]

Well since I missed out this weekend, I headed out @ 11:15 to sample some of that route that I've never ridden...NC-88. I pretty much took the same route, since Brushy is practically my back yard, but came back down 421 to Wilkesboro and hit Brushy the opposite direction to head home (had to pick up my daughter after school). Got home at 4:45

The first few miles of 88 were sketchy, with rough pavement and patches, afterwards was just like these guys said, silky smooth (gravel free too). For 240 miles in 5.5hrs I'm pretty beat, very out of shape compared to end of last season. Only took 2 breaks, one break for 30min, then went 10 miles to stop & eat, really one break for total of 1hr.