I headed out of South Carolina warm around 7:30 Friday morning. I went over the
hill to Clayton Georgia, must have gone through the front, it was chilly, I put all
my gear on. By the time I got to Hiawassee I plugged in the heated stuff and
turned it on, it was cold. And kind of raining some... this is 76 near where the
Appalachian Trail crosses it.
On the NC end of the road where Fields of the Wood is, crews were cutting down
all the big trees... maybe they're going to widen it? Rain, cold and traffic
backups slowed me down some...
The meetup place was an upscale restaurant in Sweetwater... the weather broke
between Tellico Plains and Sweetwater...
We chased off through backroads down to Tn. 30... 30 is a good curvy road, I've
been on it before. It is a series of hops from one little burg to another, each hop
filled with twisty roads. I rolled into Pikeville low on gas, so I pulled in to a gas
station, there were only about six or seven of us at that time, I figured they'd
pull over or turn around and come back. Pikeville is a tiny town, they pulled over,
but I didn't see them, and we got split up for a while. I kept going in the planned
direction, and after they got done cussing me, they did too, and we got back
together in McMinnville, where we discussed how much we didn't want to
go to the quagmire of Murfreesboro. About that time, I realized the back tire
on my bike was worn to where cord was showing
... I noticed (by feel) when
I was mounting the saddlebags last week that it had a pronounced flat place
in the middle, but I never considered even for a second that a tire on a bike
with only 2200 miles on it would be worn out... I chewed up a tire in 2200
miles!
Joe was all over that, so now my bike will be called "Chewie" from now on...
We rolled into a big Honda shop in Murfreesboro and they put on a new
tire right away, thank you Sloan's
Right off the bat they
got my bike in the shop and the wheel off. They jacked the rear of the bike
using the rear shock pivot hardware as a jack point, that's how I'm
going to do it
... while they were doing that they took me
through racks of tires and collected four or five that would be appropriate...
I got a Michelin Pilot Road 4.
When we got done, we were still miles from the motel... my buddy Mark, a local,
called me and told me that it was pouring out that way and we'd be soaked
in rush hour. Instead, we went to crowded local eatery recommended by the Honda
shop, and we all got instant seats at the bar and ate there. The storm was done
when we left. We got to the motel around dark and by that time it had begun
spitting a little sleet. It got down into the 20s both Friday night and Saturday night.
We crowded into a couple of the motel rooms instead of hanging out in the parking
lot, we couldn't kick any tires, so we told extra lies...
I love heated gear. Heated gear doesn't just prevent you from getting cold. Heated gear
lets you arch your back into a glorious heated heaven while zipping down the road
in the cold. Heated gear rules
The dam ride went great, lots of following a long stream of riders through the country
side with occasional stops at dams... during the ride we obeyed all the speed limits
and all the other rules we encountered as well... I'm pretty sure that none
of these guys had any alcoholic beverages, anyhow...
We ended the dam ride with a trip up the tail end of the Natchez Trace. For 425 miles,
the Natchez Trace is like a nice driveway. For the last 30 or so miles, it is similar to
some parts of the Blue Ridge Parkway... waterfalls and hills and curves... We pulled off
at this waterfall, this picture doesn't do justice to nice gorge it was in...
A bunch of us left together Sunday morning, punched through Nashville on 40, and then
wandered out towards Knoxville on country roads. We ended up at Ozone Falls.
Not long after that, we split up... they went left, and I went right and pretty
soon I was on 68 near Watts Bar nuke plant. 68 leads from Tennessee down
towards North Carolina and Georgia.
You can see the North Carolina/Georgia mountains looming in the distance from
Hwy 68... They were covered in smoke. I guess it was a controlled burn, I passed forest
service people and burned woods (just the undergrowth) on 76 in North Georgia, and got
home about 7:30 Sunday evening.
Here's Jim's Concours... it weighs 750 pounds, has tons of horse power and
he rides it hard. It uses the same kind of tires (sport tourer tires) that Chewie
needs, and Jim gets 6 or 7 thousand miles per tire...
I sure hope Chewie gets OK mileage on the new tire...
I reckon Chewie's mine now...
Comfortable for at least all day long for three days
-Mike "thanks to all who showed up for this ride..."
