A great ride in the making...

[yjleesvrr]

The next seven days will see me ride my Roadster 2500 miles through ten states, from New York to western North Carolina on business and pleasure.

I left my office in Blacksburg this afternoon at noon. Rode through central VA through Lynchburg and Charlottesville. Route 29 in between these towns is a nice ride/drive. I gassed up at a Sheetz station in Colonial Heights. Is it me, or does Sheetz have lower quality fuel compared to some of the major brand name stations? My bike pings with this gas when I crank the throttle hard to pass someone.

Something Charlottesville (home of the University of Virginia and Thomas Jefferson's Monticello) does right is get traffic through on Route 29 in a fast and efficient manner. Unlike my home town, they have the signal lights programmed so that if you go 45 mph, you will seldom hit a red light through town. So despite having to cross at least 10 intersections with lights, I only hit one red.

An hour north of Charlottesville, I got caught in a construction bottleneck in Warrenton just before I-66 in Northern VA. Half an hour of pulling the clutch gets tiring. I was getting seriously annoyed. Finally after a mile and a half of barely moving, the traffic started flowing again through the construction-narrowed single lane.

By the time I hit Manassas on I-66, I was hankering for a nice dinner. I decided to chow down at the Malibu Grill in Chantilly. This is a nice Brazilian buffet restaurant that is a meat lover's paradise. They serve you all the marinated chicken, turkey, lamb, pork, sausage, shrimp, and beef you can eat.

Once I gorged myself, I left Chantilly on I-66 to hook northward on the Capitol Beltway and I-95 toward Baltimore. I gassed up again in Maryland in Montgomery County. Super unleaded at the Exxon station I stopped at cost $3.08 per gallon! And I thought we invaded Iraq for the oil. Sheesh!

The Baltimore skyline came in site 40 minutes after I had dinner. I-95 skirts southern/western Baltimore and takes you under water. I love the feeling I get in tunnels when I'm on a bike. Unlike, say, the NYC tunnels, the traffic through the Baltimore Harbor tunnels is fast. The walls of these tunnels reflect back a nice baritone sound from my Roadster's exhaust. From the Baltimore Harbor tunnel through the JFK highway in MD, the Delaware "turnpike", and finally the New Jersey Turnpike, I dug out over 12 bucks for tolls.

I NEED TO GET EZ-PASS FOR MY BIKE!

The Delaware River separates its state namesake and New Jersey. I-95 crosses the mouth of the river via the Delaware Memorial Bridge. While not quite as long as the Anapolis Bay Bridge or the Golden Gate, this bridge is still well over half a mile long and is tall enough to let massive cargo ships to pass underneath. Upon completing the crossing, I-95 hooks up to the New Jersey Turnpike. I always marvel at how well traffic flows in New Jersey given the population. The NJ Turnpike is a marvel in itself. It was well designed and very well managed. As I neared Perth Amboy/Staten Island, I left the NJ Turnpike on Exit 10 to head Northwest to get to my hotel at Basking Ridge via I-287, the pseudo beltway of New York City.

Tomorrow will be a commuting day to Summit, NJ so it will be an uneventful (hopefully) riding day. I will head into NYC for the first time on two wheels Thursday morning however, so I'm looking forward to traversing Manhattan and Brooklyn on the Roadster. To grossly paraphrase Frank Sinatra - If I can ride my Roadster there, I can ride my Roadster anywhere. I will head back home to Blacksburg Friday and head down to Asheville, North Carolina on Saturday with three friends. Vann and I are corresponding to meet up in Asheville to do dinner.

My buddies and I will then head down to Deal's Gap and the Cherohala Skyway on Sunday. We'll stay at the Tapoco Lodge Sunday evening. Monday will be a nice ride back to Blacksburg via the BRP.

[R4R&R]

Wow - that's a lot of riding! Do you have a Sargent or aftermarket seat?

The Malibu Grill is about 10 minutes from my house. Great place if you are a carnivore.

Let us know what the total miles are.

[camfarm]

Maryland believes in relieving as many citizens as possible of as much cash as possible at every opportunity. Gas taxes and 'special fuel blends' account for a large portion of that 3.08 gallon gas.

[yjleesvrr]

I do not have an aftermarket saddle. I actually put the low seat (the stock saddle) back on given that it has less of an acute pressure point. My plan was to put the tall saddle back on for my trip down to western NC.

On my way into Summit this morning, I saw a red Roadster! Does anyone know of any members of this board that lives in northern NJ, or at least is vsiting here this week?

I topped off the fuel last night for the final time at the "Chesapeake House" rest area on I-95. I put Sunoco's 93 octane into the tank for only $2.73 a gallon. I only needed about a gallon and a half to fill the tank so that left me wishing I had put less gas in earlier in Montgomery. From my experience, ExxonMobile, BP, Texaco, Shell, Chevron, and Sunoco have the best gas.

[wncbmw]

That's quite a ride you have planned! NYC on a bike! I admire guys that do that. I thought it was dangerous enough just walking across the street!

Looking forward to meeting up for dinner. I sent you my cell phone number. I hope to maybe get to ride with you guys a little on Saturday also!

[wncbmw]

BTW - at dinner, I will show you some of the secret roads to ride on the way to the Gap! Bring a map! Available only in person to board members who visit in person!

[yjleesvrr]

Sounds good Vann. I'm looking forward to meeting up in Asheville.

Work has been very busy here in New Jersey. It looks like I'm heading to NYC on Friday morning instead of Thursday. I'm planning to hit the "Pulaski Skyway" to Holland Tunnel since you don't have to pay the NJ Turnpike toll to get there. Needless to say, this "skyway" is vastly different from the Cherohala. You get a nice view of abandoned factories that are over 100 years old. While not exactly pretty, the view from this roadway does have a beauty of its own. I'll hit the Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges on my way to and from Brooklyn.

560 miles so far and counting.

[yjleesvrr]

With 1800 miles on the clock for the week, I'm about to depart shortly from the Tapoco Lodge with three of my riding friends. Vann joined up with us for dinner a couple nights ago in Asheville. Had a fun time hanging out and trading some funny stories about riders and cops on the BRP.

Vann warned us about a big charity ride departing Asheville at 9, so we slept in a little to take off after the group left. You're going to have to join us next year for the ride, at least near Asheville.

Ran the Dragon yesterday a couple times. Given that it was a Sunday afternoon, the crowds thinned out considerably by 4 p.m., so we had much of 129 to ourselves. Unfortunately, it began raining right after we made our last run around 5:30, so we went to Robbinsville for dinner in the pouring rain.

We hope to hit the Cherohala Skyway this morning before heading north.

My friends are on a R1, an '85 VMax, and an '83 Yamaha Seca 900. I am by far the most comfortable person at the end of the day given that the Roadster can take me cross country. It is rides like this that brings home the point of how versatile the R1150R is. Spend a day in New York City one day and find yourself strafing Deal's Gap two days later

[wncbmw]

Yong, glad the weather and traffic let you enjoy Deal's Gap. The Ride of Kids set an Asheville record for number of bikes, so you did good not to get tangled up in that traffic! Did you do my loop off the BRP?

[yjleesvrr]

Vann - yes we did. It was a lot of fun, and we appreciated you showing us that loop. You'll have to join us next year when we go again.

Wow, I'm pretty tired. By the time we came into Blacksburg last night at 11:20, I had ridden 2080 miles in 7 days. Last Friday, I rode across Manhattan into Brooklyn on the Manhattan bridge. On my way back out, I rode across the Williamsburg bridge. Seeing the Empire State Building and the New York skyline as I was riding across the East River was quite a sight.

Two days later, I was over 6000 ft. above sea level on the BRP just south of Asheville. Sunday wound up being rather wet, so we only ran one lap of Deal's Gap. Yesterday, we ran two laps. During my last run, my rear stepped out on one corner by about five inches or so while I was cranked over and my bike went into a mild tank slapper as a result. I thought I was going to bite it big time when I managed to recover barely enough to avoid running off the pavement by four inches! I guess there IS a limit to running a 550 lb. bike on sport-touring tires! In all honesty, I must have hit a wet spot or a leaf.

We rode the Cherohala Skyway into Tennessee after gassing up at Robbinsville. We then hit 411 into Knoxville, 40 east to 81, and northward on this interstate back to Blacksburg.

Riding such a distance in one week gave me further confirmation that BMW makes the best motorcycles in the world.

BTW - I'll post some pics tomorrow.

[yjleesvrr]

I uploaded some pics from the weekend's ride

http://yjleesvrr.smugmug.com/gallery/772863

They're mainly from the BRP and Deal's Gap. BTW, I'm the dude in the black Joe Rocket Phoenix mesh jacket and sunglasses. My smile looks like a smirk because of my continuing recovery from Bell's Palsy. Erik is wearing the white, red, and black leather jacket. Kyaw (pronounced "Chaw") is the one wearing the red/black mesh jacket, and Paul is the gentleman in the jean jacket.