Lemonade season-ender (spoiler alert) | GTAMotorcycle.com

Lemonade season-ender (spoiler alert)

oomis

Well-known member
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For the 2 people following my sadly neglected ride report (insert excuse here) I just wanted to let you know that I landed a new role that I'm excited about, starting in early November. You know what that means.

One last trip.

I'm going to take a week starting on Saturday and head south. Going to keep a close eye on weather, but am hoping to ride the Blue Ridge down to Cherokee. The trees should be spectacular....
 
The trees should be great. Camping or motel? Taking the big bike?

Taking the R1200GS, for sure. I was considering trailering down to the Gap area and just playing down there for a couple of days, but the idea of putting a GS on a trailer makes me twitch. Doesn't feel right, you know?

I am pretty sure I'm going to be motelling it. I learned from my last trip that camping is a lot of work, and much more fun if I'm not solo. Were I travelling with other people, or meeting up with folks, I'd be all over that, but considering how economical it is to find mom and pop motels in the US, I think I'm just going to pack light and not camp.

Also, it's pretty late in the season, and the weather's more likely to be unpredictable. And the days are way shorter. Lots of reasons not to camp this time around...

...unless someone's going to join me and convince me otherwise.

Any takers?
 
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MacDoc - where are you riding to, and how long are you planning on being out for? I don't have a set agenda (yet) and if it makes sense for us to connect, we should.

I'm planning on riding for a week, give or take, and right now am looking at Kentucky and Northern TN. I've done the BRP many times, ditto the Gap, but there appear to be some great roads in that area.
 
For the 2 people following my sadly neglected ride report (insert excuse here) ....

My excuse is - 'marketing'

I apologize for not opening your Ride Report as the subject title did not sound appealing. Sorry about that. And now that I have its a great story and am enjoying it.

As much as I like this site (we are after all Canadian) reserved and small in number. The focus on this site is primarily closer to home issues or travel. If you want greater discussion and feedback you should really post your Ride Report in advrider.com (as in 'adventure rider' and really what you are) under the Ride Reports.

The community there is more than the US alone but worldwide. Europeans love to hear about our wild and largely unsettled areas like the Yukon.

Edit ...Okaaayyy - I just got to the part where you are talking about your activity on advrider - as Roseanne Roseannadanna used to say on SNL - 'Never mind'.
 
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I'm leaving for NC tomorrow, but will have to trailer down...have to be back at work on Wednesday��
Keep in mind, hotels/motels in Robbinsville and area are very busy on the weekends, till the end of October. I had a trouble finding three rooms for Sat-Sun-Mon in that area...finally got lucky in Franklin. Plan accordingly.
 
Ya I see a break in the weather around 11am tomorrow.
So I'm heading to Bridgeport WV then off to Wytheville Saturday.
I'll spend a few days there before heading home.
 
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I discovered last night that my rear brake pads on my R1200GSW are shot. Shot as in I need new pads pronto. Calls around the GTA, then Southern Ontario proved useless. Nobody had these pads. The closest I could find a set was in Detroit.

Great little BMW shop, after confirming that they had them in stock "You have your hands on them, right?" and telling them that I'd be coming down from Toronto on my way to Kentucky, there was a pause on the other end of the line and then "Well, I'm looking forward to meeting you!"

I rolled in this am, and was received warmly. The pads did indeed exist, and 10 minutes later they were installed on the bike. There was only about 2mm of material on the old ones. Shot the breeze, made some friends "you rode from where?" and was on my way.

But the weather day was miserable. The warmest I saw on the bike was 12C, and that was at 6:30 am in Toronto. It was downhill from there, between 6.5C and 10C, overcast and cold, hard rain for most of the day.

My gear did it's job - every time I find myself in foul weather I'm glad I sprung for the Gore Tex. But it was miserable going - my old Widder heated vest kept my core warm, but the damp crept in and I found my hands cramping up, despite the thermal gloves and heated grips and handguards. I know when I'm beat, so I stopped short of my goal of Corbin KY by about 200 miles. Hunkered down in a Drury hotel (love these guys) to warm up and recover.
 

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