Poor Maddevill is the only one who has posted new threads in the Ride Reports section since last November, so I will ASAP. We're going to Maggie Valley, The Dragon, Little Switzerland, Cherohala Skyway, etc again in Sept, so I'll post pix after ... and try to get some shots I haven't posted before

This time will be a first for us in that we'll be using my new 24' enclosed car hauler for the 3 bikes. Every other time we've utility trailered them, except that one trip on the Amtrak Auto Train. Will be nice to keep the bikes out of the weather and peeping eyes while we sleep.

EX...Guess that was a "challenge" ? Between eye surgery and our heat situation I have been doing very little riding. I Managed to get the breakin miles done today with a 250 mile run up into the Sierras of Northern Calif. Beautiful day and high 60s mostly The lil 400 is a great play bike for the 2 lane mountain roads . Just south of Downieville I had to wait for a road repair and as I sat , the white Vette pulled up behind me. When we got the ok to advance , I waved him ahead of me and got to follow him for about 15/20 miles. Kinda cool . Chatted a bit at Downievile then continued on my way . Last time I made that loop . I chased a Dino Ferrari. Seems to be a pretty popular loop for sport cars.ave not been out much, I did get a few miles on my lil 400.

Quick shot when I did the first few miles. :)
A lil look at the neighborhood.

* Last updated by: chrly on 7/24/2023 @ 8:47 PM *

chrly Didn't know you had gotten a 400! That's one I've been considering too I like it in white, imagine that! "Probably" too small for me, but def wanna test ride to see

EX been keeping it under 5/6000 so fun should increase as rpm’s rise but the one or two times I bumped the rpm’s the 400 seem to handle it without complaint . 6th gear at 6000rpm equals 62 mph although climbing 7% grade in the hills required downshifting to keep from bogging . I have a friend who weighs slightly less than I do and want to take her for a ride. That will put about 265 pounds as a load. Shud be interesting test :)

* Last updated by: chrly on 7/25/2023 @ 9:56 AM *

I look forward to hearing how the two-up went

Will do but wont be for a couple weeks ..

Just back from another 5-day NC / TN ride Stayed again at A Holiday Motel in Maggie Valley. As is often the case there was a Rolling Thunder / Harley / cruiser type event going on, so we were 3 sport riders among a sea of hogs at the motel and in Maggie. Pop's there in the background is a breakfast place jammed right up against the motel so close that it's literally like 30 feet from the motel; may even be on the same property, not sure. Excellent breakfast, fairly priced:

This is the same trip we've been making for quite a few years now, albeit different in that we rode 5 days instead of the usual 3 or 4, and we trailered up in style this time with my 24' enclosed car hauler instead of exposed utility trailer. 3 bikes fit great end-to-end. Prob could fit more side-by-side, if needed. Skies were ominous when we arrived! ... but didn't dump on us. Only rain of any consequence was the last 30 minutes of the entire 5 days while riding the Parkway back to the motel on the last day - Not bad, can't complain. Oh, and A Holiday Motel's property includes this nice field of grass where many truck/trailers can park:

We secured each bike using a front wheel chock attached to the floor and strapped to the E-track running the length of the trailer, and rather than aligned end-to-end, wheel-to-wheel we rotated the chocks a little so the front bike could easily get past the other chocks without having to manually lift / slide the rear wheel over into alignment; just let 'em sit a little sideways and ratchet 'em down. Using 2" wide E-track straps, my bike did not budge; surprised at how firmly it was held:

The view out of our room. My truck/trailer is straight head and just left, only blocked by the hand railing; in other words we can see it from our room:

We again stayed in one of the four "family units" out back which includes 2 beds in the main room and this bedroom in back; I was allotted the bedroom since we used my trailer! I prefer to not hear snoring while trying to sleep!

This Blue Ridge Parkway overlook is actually called Rough Butt Bald! HA! (5,300' AMSL)

Didn't really work, but was trying to show the scale of this rock wall that was blasted decades ago to make way for the Blue Ridge Parkway, at Yellow Face Overlook (5,588' AMSL)

.... but maybe this one shows it better? That's me standing at the base. Scaling it looks to be ~50' high ... prob nothing for CA, CO, etc folks:

And here's the vista view from Yellow Face Overlook (5,588' AMSL):

... then all of the sudden clouds started pouring like smoke over the mountain and down onto the Parkway ... super cool looking, really need to see video of it ... no wonder they're the Great Smoky Mountains:

Switzerland Inn in Little Switzerland NC. Very hard to capture how large and wide these vista views are ... really nice. We ate lunch here twice. Think I could eat there every day! Great view while dining:

Snapping pics of my buds snapping pics at Thunder Struck Ridge Overlook (4,780' AMSL):

Just a sunset silhouette I like at the same overlook:

White bike, white trailer, white truck ... starting to sense a theme!

Historic Tapoco Lodge at 14981 Tapoco Rd in Robbinsville NC ... we ate lunch here twice, too, cuz it's good, and it's 2.7 miles from Deal's Gap which is the east end of the Tail of the Dragon:

Pic from Tapoco Lodge toward the bridge right out front of the place ... bikes whiz by pretty often, but it's just far enough that the sound shouldn't bother diners much:

Tapoco even has a nice, long shallow dimension 'carport' type parking area just for bikes (too shallow for cars) ... turned out to be handy since one bud got a flat at or just after we left Deal's Gap, so we patched it here:

Super nice to be able to ride the bikes right up into the trailer each night, set 'em on their side stands, lock the door, go have a few beers, sleep without concern for the bikes ... then wake up and head off in another direction the next day

Day 1 Sun 9/10 Maggie > Blue Ridge Parkway > Cherokee > Gatlinburg > Townsend > Foothills Parkway > Tail of the Dragon > Deal's Gap to stare at the Wall of Shame and ogle all the bikes and cars > Lunch at Tapoco Lodge > 28 aka "Moonshiner" > back to the motel.

Day 2 Mon 9/11 Maggie > Blue Ridge Parkway > Little Switzerland for lunch > 226A aka "The Diamondback" down and back > Blue Ridge Parkway back to the motel.

Day 3 Tue 9/12 Maggie > 209 aka "The Rattler" > Hot Springs for lunch > 209 back to the motel.

Day 4 Wed 9/13 Maggie > Blue Ridge Parkway > Cherokee > Gatlinburg > Townsend > Foothills Parkway > Tail of the Dragon > Lunch at Tapoco Lodge > 28 aka "Moonshiner" > back to the motel.

Day 5 Thu 9/14 Maggie > Blue Ridge Parkway > super-curvy 215 > Blue Ridge Parkway > super-curvy 276 > Blue Ridge Parkway > ultra-curvy 151 > Blue Ridge Parkway > super-curvy 80 aka "Devil's Whip" > 226A aka "The Diamondback" > Little Switzerland for lunch > Blue Ridge Parkway back to the motel.

* Last updated by: extrapolator on 9/25/2023 @ 8:24 PM *