Full day ride, leaving Dahlonega early Sunday 3-25

[wallypiper]

John (the friend that sold me my FJR) and I will be leaving the WaHo at the end of GA 400 at about 9:00 Sunday morning planning to make a full day of it. We haven't settled on a definite route yet but it could go Cherohala or maybe some BRP or maybe both. They are now predicting 80 deg in Ashville.

Who wants to come along?

 

[jwilly]

I might join you guys Wally. I will shoot you a PM Saturday if it looks like I can make it. Otherwise I will see you Sunday at WaaHoo!!

-jwilly

 

[HaulinAshe]

... They are now predicting 80 deg in Asheville.

Fixed the spelling for you.

I wanna play too!!! But alas, have children to feed, educate and yell at this weekend. Ya'll twist one for me.

Jeff Ashe

 

[wallypiper]

Good deal jw. If you're going, we could hook up here in the Marietta for the ride up there. There are several options, ranging from a solid 1-1/2 to 1-3/4 hour backroad wander to the 1 hour slabblast.

We'll think about you, Jeff, while sweeping around some flowercovered NC mountainside.

 

[wallypiper]

jwilly, john and I just talked and we're going to meet at a gas station on the northeast side of he intersection of GA 53 and GA 400. That's the big intersection just north of the outlet malls on 400, basically Dawsonville. We're going to meet there at 8:15. Just under an hour from my house, about 10 mintues from the Awfulhouse at the top of 400. We're planning to eat breakfast somewhere around there and discuss the day's route plan.

I'll send you a PM, too. I'll probably leave my house in Smyrna about 7:00 if you'd like to connect near here. Or, I can swing by the WaHo on the way north, around 9:15 probably.

Lemme know.

Cell is:

for oh for, 4 three 4, ate four ate for.

 

[wallypiper]

Had a great day. 425 miles of smiles.

US129 over Neal's Gap in GA, Wayah Road, NC28 up to 129 at Deal's Gap but skipped the congested gap and went south to Robbinsville for lunch (Philip's Restaurant is CLOSED, appears to be getting remodeled but looks a long way from being open. Don't know if it will still be Philip's or something else. I hate Wendy's for lunch during a ride but there aren't many choices in Robbinsville at the moment. There is some kind of BBQ place a little south of Wendy's. Anybody been there?) Then across the Cherohala and down TN68 to Copperhill, onto GA 5 and down to Blue Ridge and the slab home. 7 AM to 7 PM.

It seemed really hard to keep the FJR leaned over. Especially on the Cherohala sweepers, it took constant pressure on the bar tot keep it in a turn. It really wanted to stand up. Hopefully, that's a tire thing. I have a nearly used up Z6 on the front and a nearly used up Avon on the rear so maybe a new matched set of something will cure it. Other than that, she had a great day. Wayah Road was spooky. Not a lot of gravel, which it sometimes has, but the tires really felt loose on it. John, on an ST4 had the same experience, even stopped at one point to check his tires and ask me if it was happening to me, too, which it was. The surface is very rough in places, like they put large aggregate in the mix and the points stick up. Not a comfortable feeling, especially with the big FJR torque on tap in Wayah's tight turns. The rear stepped out a bit several times, nothing buttclenching really, but just little slides to the outside as the power came back on. John said the ST was doing the same thing. We were glad to get off of it and back onto smoother stuff. 28 was the best ride of the day, very little traffic, good surface for most of it, one the great roads in NC.

Sorry none of you guys came along, it was a great day.