North Carolina Ride

As some of you know, I took off a few days (April 28th to May 2nd) to go riding in the Smokey Mountains area with some friends. Below is my “Road Trip Report”.

I landed in Charlotte, NC late Wednesday night. Waiting for me at baggage claim was the rental guy from Carolina Harley Davidson. After some brief pleasantries, we headed to the dealership. Once there, I picked up my 2004 Electra Glide Ultra Classic. The bike had less than 1000 miles on it – sufficiently broken in for highway cruising but still low enough miles to still have that “brand new bike” feeling. Saying quick goodbyes, I headed towards Morganton, NC to meet my riding partners. After checking in at the hotel, we all met at a bar in Hickory, NC called Rolling Thunder (with the Hickory HD adjacent). I HIGHLY recommend a stop in at the Rolling Thunder if you are ever in central NC.

Getting to Morganton from Charlotte is a pretty straight forward interstate drive. The big difference is in how traffic treats motorcyclists in NC – with either total respect or total disdain. You did not know what you were going to get until the car/pickup/SUV/18 wheeler tried to run you off the road or politely changed lanes. It really was a 50-50 chance for either.

Our group started off with 9 bikes – 6 V-Twins and 3 sports bikes. As it happens, the sport bikers felt that riding in the mountains was more of a MotoGP experience and wanted to see just how fast they could take the corners. The V-Twin group (mostly Harleys) were more comfortable with a touring pace. So – at the first gas stop, we agreed to split up and meet at the next waypoint. Good move – it was a pain to push the bike as hard as they wanted to.

Day one was 391 miles total. About 350 miles were along mountain roads with 200 of them being the Blueridge Mountain Parkway. The Parkway runs the crest of the Blueridge Mountain chain and is EXCELLANTLY maintained. While only a 2 lane road, commercial traffic is prohibited. In other words, there were times we did not see another vehicle for an hour or more! The weather was fantastic – a balmy 70-80 degrees (depending on which side of the mountain the road twisted to). We made “scenery” stops ever hour or so – which kept the pace slow, yet enjoyable. Only regret – of the 6 bikes in our riding group only one camera between us. And we still don’t know if the camera worked! (Note to self: pack digital camera for ALL road trips).

One stretch of road was particularly exciting. It was a side road between the Parkway and the town of Blowing Mountain. It was 26.3 miles of curves. I don’t believe there was more than 2 miles of straightaway in TOTAL along the entire road. I road my bike the entire 26 miles with the tach in the “power zone” – you HAD to drive that way to handle the quick flips from right to left or left to right. I lost track of how many 10 mph curves there were. Clearly, one of the best stretches of roads I have ever been on.

Day two (Friday) was a few less miles – approximately 250. The day began in Ashville, NC. We went down the Parkway to Deals Gap and then road the “famous” Deals Gap ride. It is about 18 miles of twisties - but the whole "Tail of the Dragon" is a quite a bit longer. A GREAT ride but somewhat marred by the number of sport bikes that thought it was a MotoGP track. The only accident we saw on this trip was on this road – a two bike accident of a couple of rice burners that simply lost it in a tight curve. Deals Gap, like many of the mountain roads, has NO shoulder – only drop off on one side and mountain rocks on the other. In this case, they went of the deep side. Both riders were OK – but the bikes were not even good scrap iron.

A group of 4 BMW riders joined us on the trip back up Deals Gap (ok – we road it 4 times). They stayed with us all the way to Knoxville, TN. The roads in TN were not as good of quality (too many ruts in the road, pot holes, etc) but still worth the scenery. We ended up in a Bed and Breakfast just outside of Knoxville Friday night.

Day 3 (Saturday) we got a late start (monsoon like storm moved in). The owners of the B&B allowed us to park our bikes in his barn – very nice. We spent the morning cleaning our rides (scraping bug remains from windshields). When the weather cleared a little we saddled up and headed SE into SC. While the elevation flattened, the ride quality improved dramatically from what we had in TN. The “farm country” roads had plenty of sweepers to keep our interests up – and it was good to be riding in 5th gear for a while. We headed N on Hwy 64 and ended up at Chimney Rock/Lake Lure. This is the site of the movie Dirty Dancing – and a VERY biker friendly community. We got there in time to participate in a Poker run to Charlotte and back. That evening, we celebrated something (along with about 400 of our new best biker friends), but I can’t seem to recall EXCACTLY what the celebration was about. Suffice it to say, there were non in our group that could dance like Patrick Swayze. Including the Poker Run, my odometer said I road 402 miles.

One of the sponsors of the “celebration” was the local HD dealer – Heavenly Hogs. These guys were HARD CORE. Decent shop – but other than apparel not sure I would buy anything from them.

Day 4 (Sunday) we had agreed we would hit the road EARLY. Unfortunately, we were pretty well spread out and took awhile to locate our group. We did not get back on the road until 9:00 AM or so. The original plan was to head to the coast – we had several possible destinations in mind. We stopped for gas south of Charlotte, and saw ads for Carowinds (a 6 Flags like amusement part). The kids in us got the best of us – half of us decided to go ride roller coasters for the afternoon. Some of the group was planning on heading home Sunday – so good day to play “tourist”. Total miles for Sunday – 120.

Day 5 (Monday) our group is down to 6 riders. My flight has been moved to 5 PM (from Charlotte) so plans for what ride was needed to “end on” We all agreed – one more shot at 221 (see Day 1) was the way to end this trip. So – we hit the road at 5:00 AM and headed north. We got to Blowing Rock (the beginning of the stretch we liked) by 8:30. After a short breakfast – we were hitting 221 again. This 26 mile stretch of road is simply fantastic. We finally got back off the mountain by 11:00 – and I had to get back to Charlotte to return my bike and head home. Total miles for Monday was 274.

Total miles over 5 day – 1437. I was riding an ’04 Electra Glide Ultra Classic (totally stock). I averaged 44 MPG for the trip. Best fuel economy was 51 – worst was 41. the 51 MPG tank was almost all 5th gear running (65-75 MPH). Of all the bikes on the trip, the only bikes that had any mechanical problems were the sport bikes. The Harley’s, Honda, and Yamaha all did fine. While the mechanical problems were minimal – they did provide for some excitement. We had to improvise a screw to hold on a chain guard on the bike and improvise a clutch cable connection for another sport bike. I had brought pretty much the right gear for this trip but in the future will bring a pair of shorts and an extra set of gloves. I rode with my full faced helmet and the dealer loaned me a beanie style (along with raingear). I did use the dealer helmet part of Day 2 but appreciated the full face helmet during the periodic showers. I REALLY wish I had remembered my camera – there were LOTS of great pics that might have been lost.

I should point out that Carolina Harley (where I rented my bike) had the largest showroom I have ever seen of a HD dealership. I could not tell you how much inventory they had – but they seemed to have every bike in every factory paint option offered. They also had all the CVO models on the showroom floor. Perhaps the most interesting is they claim to sell at MSRP. I did not verify their prices – but they were very fair on the rental. I paid $120 (+$18 for the “full insurance” package). I thought about getting a Road King (would have gone for $100 a day) but thought I might like the stereo (I was right).

All in all it was an INCREDIBLE experience. I am already thinking of another ride – this time west coast. Say go down 101 BEFORE tourist season then back up along the mountain line. Any takers?