Drew
Well-known member
First off, I’m hoping there is a Russell group buy in the fall…..
It was a really good trip considering it was the first long distance ride for either myself or my son, neither of us have had much seat time to brag about. I don’t see an IBA membership in either of our futures.
What to pack for the trip outside of clothes was the biggest pain. I added some open end wrenches, sockets, allens and screwdrivers to the kit already on the bike. I picked up a tire repair kit with a foot pump as well as a first aid kit. Fortunately, we didn’t need any of it, so things went very well in that regard.
We took 4 days to get to the east coast from Broken Arrow (near Tulsa). We took I-40 just past Memphis and then got onto US64. That is a nice road to ride across TN, nice country, very little traffic and just an easy ride. Chattanooga was a pain to get through mainly due to lack of planning on our part but it was mostly due to construction. The second night we stopped in Tellico Plains and stayed at the very nice Tellico Lodge with secure ‘garage’ parking for the bikes. From there we took the Cherohala Skyway over the mountains. Plenty of beautiful scenery and early enough in the morning that we were basically alone with nice sweepers and a few tighter twisties. We just barely beat the fog and drizzle when we went over the mountains and got a little chilled at 62 degrees with us only wearing summer mesh gear. We stopped in Robbinsville NC for breakfast then continued out of the mountains through Waynesville to visit some family in Mooresville NC. We took the fourth day to get to Shallotte, about 40 miles south of Wilmington NC. A total of 1,441 miles for the eastbound ride.
We had a nice visit with the family and then took 3 days on the return trip going a different route, down to North Myrtle Beach on US17 then west on US501. Of course, South Carolina was basically in drought conditions until we were scheduled to leave town. We had some nasty looking clouds early in the morning, so we pulled over and geared up for rain and within 2 to 3 minutes after getting back on the road, it started coming down pretty good for close to an hour. The rain gear held up well but I need some waterproof boots and something to cover my gloves, the black finally wore off my palms after 3 days.
We came back through GA, AL, MS and then up into Memphis to I-40 again. The mountains in GA made for a very nice ride and AL wasn’t all that bad, but MS was a very boring ride, very similar to OK. It was 1,297 miles on the westbound trip so it seems to be either enjoy the ride more and take longer or get their quicker and just ride to get it done.
Total, I put 2,738 miles on the bike for the trip. I held up much better than expected, having never ridden over 200 miles or so in a day and only doing that twice. We had three pretty long days out of the 7 we rode, a 475, 465 and 460 mile day which is about my limit. I do look worn out in most of the pictures we have though.
Notables;
- We rode on the Buford Pusser highway in TN
- Saw a hand written sign for ‘Shad guts and crawfish heads’ as well, but weren’t in fishing mode at the time and wasn’t hungry either.
- Ate breakfast in Pulaski TN one morning, I’d say about 20 people in the restaurant. EVERYONE stared at us for a good 5-10 seconds when we walked in. I’m assuming it was because of the third eye on our foreheads but may have been due to the gear we were wearing. We had a very nice looking young lady as a waitress with an awesome southern drawl. Good food too.
- I leaned forward on the bike one time to get out of the wind noise and make a call and noticed water spraying on my face shield, me and the bike. I thought fantastic, it’s starting to rain. I sat up and it stopped, so then I realized I had laid down on the tank bag with the water bladder inside it and was squeezing water out all over me. Rocket scientist.
- Tellico Plains rolls up their streets awful early at night. We were lucky to find something other than Taco Bell or McDonalds after 7:00 pm. In fact the restaurant closed at 7:00 but the owner waved us in at 7:15 when we were staring in the front door. Again, some good food - cole slaw and pulled pork.
- Hiwassee GA looks like a very nice place to spend a few days. There are beautiful mountains with a beautiful lake and nice looking cottages in the area. Probably could rent a boat for a few days to go with the cottage.
- Everyone we spoke with that knew we were on bikes told us to ride safe. Really, lots of nice folks around.
Some other observations….
- I like my Fieldsheer Titanium 4.0 pants, seem to flow a decent amount of air, same with the Cortech mesh jacket I was wearing.
- I really got some good use out of the highway pegs, a knee and leg saver several times.
- The Rapid Transit Recon tankbag with hydration bladder insert got a lot of use and was very convenient. It held a good bit of water, I’d say close to 3 20 oz bottles and was easy to get a drink from while riding. It also held a good bit of small stuff so my pockets were clear.
- The Techmount worked fine with a Satellite radio mounted on it, it wasn’t in the way during any of the ride.
- The MADCo throttle lock worked fine although just not as well as I’d hoped. If it was a long flat stretch, I was good to go, but with any hills at all, it was too hard to maintain a set speed.
- I got some good use out of a cramp buster as well, it helped keep the wrist, elbow and shoulder from aching too much.
- I have a Colorado Coolvest and used it on the return ride. Not bad but just not all that good either. My son let me try out his Bilt vest he picked up at CycleGear and I liked it better, kept me cooler longer. I think the limited ventilation and airflow kind of hurt the Colorado Coolvest more than the Bilt coolvest. I rode with a mesh jacket and the windshield fully retracted.
- The Scala Q2 worked pretty well, but we did need to re-sync on a few occasions. My son’s GPS (Zumo 550) caused most of the intercom issues we had, never did quite get it figured out.
What farkles I now know I could use;
- Russell seat
- Cruise Control
- Maybe risers (up AND back)
- Something other than the stock windshield
- A helmet that isn’t so noisy
- Powerlet outlet at the front of the bike
It was a really good trip considering it was the first long distance ride for either myself or my son, neither of us have had much seat time to brag about. I don’t see an IBA membership in either of our futures.
What to pack for the trip outside of clothes was the biggest pain. I added some open end wrenches, sockets, allens and screwdrivers to the kit already on the bike. I picked up a tire repair kit with a foot pump as well as a first aid kit. Fortunately, we didn’t need any of it, so things went very well in that regard.
We took 4 days to get to the east coast from Broken Arrow (near Tulsa). We took I-40 just past Memphis and then got onto US64. That is a nice road to ride across TN, nice country, very little traffic and just an easy ride. Chattanooga was a pain to get through mainly due to lack of planning on our part but it was mostly due to construction. The second night we stopped in Tellico Plains and stayed at the very nice Tellico Lodge with secure ‘garage’ parking for the bikes. From there we took the Cherohala Skyway over the mountains. Plenty of beautiful scenery and early enough in the morning that we were basically alone with nice sweepers and a few tighter twisties. We just barely beat the fog and drizzle when we went over the mountains and got a little chilled at 62 degrees with us only wearing summer mesh gear. We stopped in Robbinsville NC for breakfast then continued out of the mountains through Waynesville to visit some family in Mooresville NC. We took the fourth day to get to Shallotte, about 40 miles south of Wilmington NC. A total of 1,441 miles for the eastbound ride.
We had a nice visit with the family and then took 3 days on the return trip going a different route, down to North Myrtle Beach on US17 then west on US501. Of course, South Carolina was basically in drought conditions until we were scheduled to leave town. We had some nasty looking clouds early in the morning, so we pulled over and geared up for rain and within 2 to 3 minutes after getting back on the road, it started coming down pretty good for close to an hour. The rain gear held up well but I need some waterproof boots and something to cover my gloves, the black finally wore off my palms after 3 days.
We came back through GA, AL, MS and then up into Memphis to I-40 again. The mountains in GA made for a very nice ride and AL wasn’t all that bad, but MS was a very boring ride, very similar to OK. It was 1,297 miles on the westbound trip so it seems to be either enjoy the ride more and take longer or get their quicker and just ride to get it done.
Total, I put 2,738 miles on the bike for the trip. I held up much better than expected, having never ridden over 200 miles or so in a day and only doing that twice. We had three pretty long days out of the 7 we rode, a 475, 465 and 460 mile day which is about my limit. I do look worn out in most of the pictures we have though.
Notables;
- We rode on the Buford Pusser highway in TN
- Saw a hand written sign for ‘Shad guts and crawfish heads’ as well, but weren’t in fishing mode at the time and wasn’t hungry either.
- Ate breakfast in Pulaski TN one morning, I’d say about 20 people in the restaurant. EVERYONE stared at us for a good 5-10 seconds when we walked in. I’m assuming it was because of the third eye on our foreheads but may have been due to the gear we were wearing. We had a very nice looking young lady as a waitress with an awesome southern drawl. Good food too.
- I leaned forward on the bike one time to get out of the wind noise and make a call and noticed water spraying on my face shield, me and the bike. I thought fantastic, it’s starting to rain. I sat up and it stopped, so then I realized I had laid down on the tank bag with the water bladder inside it and was squeezing water out all over me. Rocket scientist.
- Tellico Plains rolls up their streets awful early at night. We were lucky to find something other than Taco Bell or McDonalds after 7:00 pm. In fact the restaurant closed at 7:00 but the owner waved us in at 7:15 when we were staring in the front door. Again, some good food - cole slaw and pulled pork.
- Hiwassee GA looks like a very nice place to spend a few days. There are beautiful mountains with a beautiful lake and nice looking cottages in the area. Probably could rent a boat for a few days to go with the cottage.
- Everyone we spoke with that knew we were on bikes told us to ride safe. Really, lots of nice folks around.
Some other observations….
- I like my Fieldsheer Titanium 4.0 pants, seem to flow a decent amount of air, same with the Cortech mesh jacket I was wearing.
- I really got some good use out of the highway pegs, a knee and leg saver several times.
- The Rapid Transit Recon tankbag with hydration bladder insert got a lot of use and was very convenient. It held a good bit of water, I’d say close to 3 20 oz bottles and was easy to get a drink from while riding. It also held a good bit of small stuff so my pockets were clear.
- The Techmount worked fine with a Satellite radio mounted on it, it wasn’t in the way during any of the ride.
- The MADCo throttle lock worked fine although just not as well as I’d hoped. If it was a long flat stretch, I was good to go, but with any hills at all, it was too hard to maintain a set speed.
- I got some good use out of a cramp buster as well, it helped keep the wrist, elbow and shoulder from aching too much.
- I have a Colorado Coolvest and used it on the return ride. Not bad but just not all that good either. My son let me try out his Bilt vest he picked up at CycleGear and I liked it better, kept me cooler longer. I think the limited ventilation and airflow kind of hurt the Colorado Coolvest more than the Bilt coolvest. I rode with a mesh jacket and the windshield fully retracted.
- The Scala Q2 worked pretty well, but we did need to re-sync on a few occasions. My son’s GPS (Zumo 550) caused most of the intercom issues we had, never did quite get it figured out.
What farkles I now know I could use;
- Russell seat
- Cruise Control
- Maybe risers (up AND back)
- Something other than the stock windshield
- A helmet that isn’t so noisy
- Powerlet outlet at the front of the bike
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