Weekend ride

[Art708]

 I left Jax Thurs evening and got to Charleston 4 hours later. Saturday morning my friend and I (he on his '12 Wing and me on the old dirty Valk) took off for his brother's house in Virginia. We rode up old Hwy 52 over Fancy Gap (got caught in a rain about halfway up) and spent the night there. We left Sunday morning and headed west and went over Walker Mountain and part of the boring Blueridge Parkway. Then we ended up back on Hwy 52 going south down Fancy Gap and back to Charleston. I spent the night there and headed back to Jax this morning around 11. Had some HOT riding but saw some beautiful scenery and rode some great twisty roads. The Valk made the trip easily, of course. I did get one big surprise on the way home. After we got off Hwy 52 and gassed up before I77 I checked my mileage...... 41.3 mpg. The best I've ever gotten before was 38 on some back road slow riding. I was hoping and wishing for a light rain shower all the way through SC and GA today but no joy. I crossed into Florida and ran into a hurricane!  I pulled off in the visitor's center while I could still see the road and waited out the worst of it. Maybe I wished too hard for a shower... lol. All in all I rode about 1500 miles.

[Pappy!]

Well....except for Mother Nature it sounds like you had a great ride! Had to be cooler up in the higher elevations. Jealous !!

[Art708]

 Pappy.... it was definitely a great ride. But coming down from the mountains back to flat land the temps skyrocketed! It was very hot from Charlotte to Charleston and from Charleston to Jax.

[sixlow]

So you have decided to keep the ol dirty girl then ??   
My experience with mpg is similar, on the slab 2 up doing 75 plus I get 32 mpg, and 42mpg once on the backroads climbing mountains but not much over 45 mph.

[Art708]

  I am keeping her for a while anyway.  I would like a new bike but I am so used to the smoothness of the Valkyrie. A wing is just getting bigger , and I really don't want that, but I do want something that can make the trip....but not a V-twinky.