A little story first.` BR's not so excellent adventure!
Well after prepping for the trip I rolled out of Nashville at 8am Friday morning. The GPS said 6.5 hours and 350 miles for a mostly Super Slab run over, my early start should have allowed me to spend a few extra hours hitting some of the local twisties in the Little Switzerland area before dark.
I slapped a PP rear on for the trip as I was wanting a little extra turn in and cooler grip on this trip, but as soon as I hit hwy speeds I had a fairly bad vibration! :ohmy: WTF?
But I remembered that the last time i slapped on this PP I had a similar vibration so I assumed it was a imbalanced rear tire, strange though as in the almost 80k miles and 35 sets of tires I've run on this bike I've only balanced one rear. Running Michelins also seemed to make it less of a need to balance a rear.
So the plan was to stop at a large Dealer just outside Knoxville and get the tire balanced as I didn't want another 800-1000 miles of vibration. I wasn't really sure where this place was,but knew there was a big road sign on I-40.
First problem, I-40 was about to drop to one lane! :dry: So I dive off, gas up and take hwy 70 or something to try and avoid the stop & go traffic. I do this semi successfully and jump back on 40 east. I never see the sign to the dealer and I'm now in Knoxville so I decide to see if i can find a high end Tire store hoping they have a machine that could balance my rear wheel. So after I tool around for 30 minutes finding everything except any tire stores, i punch tire store into the GPS and it says 10 miles to TriCounty Tire. I say go and off we went. 30 min later I'm wondering just how far 10 miles is! :blink: Another 10 min and I pull up to a pile of used tires about 30 feet high and a small tire shop, of course they couldn't help and I'm pissed as I'm over an hour and a half into this venture now with nothing to show other than being another 30 min further away from my intended destination. :dry:
I start heading back towards Knoxville and the slab when I see a Taco bell and Walmart Super store so I decide to see in the tire store at WallyWorld can spin up a tire, nope!
Off to TB to grab some lunch as it's now way after noon! In line ordering food a guy in an Autozone shirt asks if I'm heading to hwy 116(I wish), I say no just trying to find someplace that can balance my tire. he says there's a new little shop just a few miles away that has all the No-Mare set-up. I was ready to give up on the idea but thought WTF maybe I can actually get it done. I find the shop which is named
The Bike Shop! :beer:
The Owner Terry Gardner was great and said No problem. He had several bikes on lifts, but no other customers in the shop. He handled my bike with great care like it was his own bike. He stuck it on the balance r and sure enough way off! He asked if the tire was installed with bar code was at the stem, I said I don't know. He said let me check at no extra charge. Most of us know that Michelins don't have alignment Dots for mounting purposes, but Terry stated that he found out on the internet that the Bar code was the light spot of the tire. Sure enough we found it was opposite of the stem so he spun it around and the out of balance issue was dropped in half!
Terry finished the balance, mounted and torqued on the wheel and asked for $10. I tried to give him a $20 but he wouldn't take it so I paid him $10 and gave him a fiver tip! We shook and off I went.
Nice and smooth now and finally a smile on my face I hit recalculate route on the GPS and continue my journey, looking to just hit the hwy again and blast out on the intended route. 45 minutes later I'm still tracking a bunch of side roads passing by, over, under and around the Interstate and in some really strange areas of town. I'm like WTF how hard is it to find the hwy??? Then I realize that I have AVOID Highways activated of course on the GPS because i hate hwy's and any straights, so I reset the GPS to allow hwys and hit recalculate again and off i go. Things seem to be going right for awhile, but a few hours later still cruising the hwy and after the GPS saying "next turn 20 miles" for 30 mins I realize the GPS has screwed me! :mad: By now I'm almost in Asheville and heading south when I'm trying to head NE! I pull off the hwy and gas up again, I give up on the GPS and buy a map which confirms that I've wasted hours going in the wrong direction, it's getting late and I'm still hours away! :ohmy:
I take off thinking I'll just stay on I-40 to Asheville and hit the BRP and ride it up towards Little Switzerland. I'm cruising along and see a sign that says Hot Springs! This is the town I was trying to get to in order to start the twisty part of the ride into the motel so I decide to take it. I think it was 209 into Hot Springs which was a fun road, I pull into Hot Springs and pull the map out again. I shitz! From where I was near Asheville I needed to go NE, Hot Springs was NW! :blink:
Crap, I'm desperate now as it's like 4-4:30pm and I'm still hours away I guess. In desperation I try the GPS one last time and ask it to find the quickest route, one pops up and it says arrive at 6:30pm after dark. Oh well, I head out and hope for the best. Turns out to be a decent route, pretty much what I originally intended to finish up with only about 3-4 hours earlier in the day. I was clipping along on some pretty fun roads and finally hit hwy 80 which will drop me at the motel heading south. Another fun road and a short time later I'm pulling into the motel with about 30 min of light left. :goofy: 425 miles and 9 hours later, I'm there!
I meet a few of the guys there including Jeff with his NC30 who offers it up for a ride which I immediately take him up on! :fing02: I jump on it and run 80 up to the BRP and back, all before it gets dark.
I step off and someone hands me a beer! :beer: Life is good, I made it to the event!
OK now some pics. Click on any pic to SuperSize!
The motel was nice and in a beautiful setting, run for the last 30 years by a German couple. There was a golf course behind out motel and this is a shot out our back door early Sat. morn!
[image: Attached Image: 2010 Fall ride little switzerland 006.jpg]
One amazing surprise was a new type of seat for HS's Veefalo.
[image: Attached Image: 2010 Fall ride little switzerland 009.jpg]
Again the morning sun coming up on our big ride day!
[image: Attached Image: 2010 Fall ride little switzerland 011.jpg]
Mini rolled in from Canada ready to roll!
(see last pic)
love the silver 5th gen!
After breaking the Bank on Friday nights dinner, we were able to enjoy a nice breakfast at this lovely spot Sat. morning, cant remember the name of the place.
This is teh view out their windows and off their deck! :fing02:
[image: Attached Image: 2010 Fall ride little switzerland 019.jpg]
Here's one for Skuuter.
[image: Attached Image: 2010 Fall ride little switzerland 026.jpg]
Hard to believe, but Keith was entertaining as usual! Much Good Keitf!
[image: Attached Image: 2010 Fall ride little switzerland 030.jpg]
Ben did a great job, but it seemed like most every planned place we were to go was closed, so here he is scanning options!
[image: Attached Image: 2010 Fall ride little switzerland 041.jpg]
These two barely kept there hands off each other long enough to ride, but when they did Brian did a great job leading the pack!
[image: Attached Image: 2010 Fall ride little switzerland 043.jpg]
We enjoyed some great roads, beautiful scenery and good weather!
[image: Attached Image: 2010 Fall ride little switzerland 060.jpg]
Sunday morning got a bit nippy, but from what I'm told it was nothing like the freezing azz weather of last year!
[image: Attached Image: 2010 Fall ride little switzerland 088.jpg]
Sunday warmed up nicely, but things were slowed trying to find a place to eat breakfast! Ben checks again! :491:
[image: Attached Image: 2010 Fall ride little switzerland 041.jpg]
Mikes(WERA910) damn Aprilla burst into flames in the middle of out bikes warming up Sunday morning, we were able to roll it into the creek before any Viffers were harmed!
[image: Attached Image: 2010 Fall ride little switzerland 091.jpg]
By the time we hit the BRP the leaf watchers had it infested! We did get a few open spots to enjoy.
[image: Attached Image: 2010 Fall ride little switzerland 110.jpg]
I couldn't take anymore traffic and needed to start heading home So I pealed off waving by to the group. CC followed me for a while before heading south. I blasted the hwy to about Crossville where I headed south and hooked up with my normal twisty route across TN and was able to get every last fun and favorite road in before changing to a clear face shield and hitting I-40 for the last 60 miles home.
This is the sky just as I finished one of my fav sweeper roads, hwy 96.
[image: Attached Image: 2010 Fall ride little switzerland 111.jpg]
Enjoyed it boyz & gals! Thanks Ben and the group for a fun time!!!! :beer:
BR
Attached thumbnail(s)
-
[image: Attached Image: 2010 Fall ride little switzerland 013.jpg]