Ride Report - 7 states, 4250km, 8 Days | GTAMotorcycle.com

Ride Report - 7 states, 4250km, 8 Days

Hardwrkr13

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Big thanks to Shane Kingsley for helping me with routes.

Left Toronto June 10th with 4 friends on their HD's headed for York, PA. Hit rain an hour south of the border but arrived ok slightly cold and wet.
They wanted to do the Harley factory tour so we did that the following morning which was scheduled for 9:30am. We got attitude for arriving at 9:38. Geez what a boring tour. $38USD for a walking tour. No drinks, no lunch, not even a t-shirt. but they gave us plenty of attitude for being late.......even though 4 of us were customers. Plant recycles pretty much everything and has little waste which was nice.
An hour outside of York headed towards "Back of the Dragon" north end. HD #1 coughs up its fuel pump. We had just happened to be stopped at a HD dealer because one of the lads wanted to buy new rain gear because his new HD rainsuit was leaking the day before so location couldn't be better........well almost. Pushed the bike into the service area and they confirmed it is the fuel pump. Good news is they have time to fix it. Bad news is they don't have the part in stock. HD dealer 45min down the road has one but doesn't have time to install. So two of us race down and bring back the new pump and it's ready to go shortly after. Made it down the road for about 4hours after that although we had to divert direct to Waynesville as we had a cottage booked already for the following night so we had to skip BOTD.
Arrived in Waynesville around 6 the next day. Found out once arriving the cabin is in a beautiful location called Eagle's Nest. Named appropriately because it's up a single lane very steep and winding road that goes up the mountainside. Beautiful views and cabin was amazing. Road up was more fun the following day when it was dry.
Next day early start as this was the first time my 4 friends had been to the area and experienced roads like this. We hit up TOTD, Cherahola, Wayah Rd (randomly discovered this and it may be my new favourite road), and Moonshiners. Beauty weather with only one 5min downpour right after TOTD. HD #2 picks up a 3" bolt that somehow punctures his new rear tire making a loud clunking sound bouncing off the inside of the rim as it goes flat. Just so happens an old lad retired from Goodyear is passing by on his Goldwing and stops to see what's wrong. "Mildred we found another one!" he excitedly yells back to his wife still seated on the back of the 'wing as he begins to get out the most intricate tire plugging kit I've ever seen. A standard plug would not work. But he had some crazy needle, plug, pump contraption that had us on our way in minutes.
Following day we were off to Johnson City TN where the uber drivers were the sketchiest I've seen but the bbq was excellent as was the beer at Yee-Haw brewery. Took in the Appalachian Caverns tour near Bristol which were interesting and recommended ($12US and were amazing so suck it HD). People there were wonderful and friendly. As we arrived at the hotel HD #2 had its ignition switch go bad causing the bike to randomly start itself if the ignition key was turned on. One hour stop at the HD dealer there the following morning resulted in them confirming it was the faulty switch but they didn't have the part in stock. Well it always started and never died so we continued on.

Off to Lexington KY the following day and arrived mid-afternoon in 40c heat after hitting the "Rattler" (wonderful). Stayed in a wonderful boutique hotel weirdly decorated in horse racing pictures (actually the entire city had horse related statues and such around but hey.....it's Kentucky). Other than the Arby's down the street having a bullet hole in the front window it was a lovely place. That night we took a cycle-bar tour which resulted in many beers and new friends. Stayed in the bar district until closing. Gotta say the people there were so friendly and the women........Southern Belle's indeed.
We were headed to Cleveland the following day and checked in around dinner time. Bar district was basically one packed alley filled with shops but by 11pm it was great.
Day 8 the next morning we departed for home and made it through the border quickly thanks to an attendant that shunted us over to a quick line.
A stop at Timmies in Niagara as a quick sigh to remind us we made it over 4200km's with no crashes, no major breakdowns, a great week of riding, little rain, and lots of memories.
I feel my next trip down will be to explore more of Tennessee and Kentucky.

Heading to the Cabot Trail in NS for a proper week of hiking and relaxation on Monday.
 
sounds like a great trip!

agree with more exploring in TN, KY and I'd add Arkansas to that list
beautiful scenery, good roads, and wonderful people
especially after you correct them that you are not a Yankee :)
 
Glad to hear you had a good time and a safe journey.
Imagine how much more your group could have done if they only rode Victory's instead:)
 
Glad to hear you had a good time and a safe journey.
Imagine how much more your group could have done if they only rode Victory's instead:)

I hear polaris actually has decent reliability(indians?)
 
Sounds like a great ride short of the HD problems.....geez that's a lot of issues for just a single trip, across multiple bikes, at that - I've thrashed my VTX to the tune of ~20,000K a year since I bought it and I've never had a single failure that ever caused me any grief during a ride.

I hear polaris actually has decent reliability(indians?)

I ride with a buddy who has an Indian, bought it brand new about 3-4 years ago...he is hard core, rides well over 30K a season and it's been super reliable...like myself, I don't think he's ever had any mechanical issues while on the road.
 
Great write up! Love reading the adventure stories out there. Next time you're down there check out Canada Road (the north half), and NC215. Notorious P.I.G bbq in Sylva is always a hit, so is the US421 near Boone.
 
Great write up! Love reading the adventure stories out there. Next time you're down there check out Canada Road (the north half), and NC215. Notorious P.I.G bbq in Sylva is always a hit, so is the US421 near Boone.
Thanks, I did NC215 and Canada Road (had a huge black snake cross my line on this road and I really dislike snakes) back in 2014.
US421 looks great but it was too far east for us this year. Next time.
 

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