I rode my 1991 Honda VFR motorcycle

1,750 miles in eight days.

My first long motorcycle tour!

 

Day 1 – Thursday, August 9, 2018 

Packed up and rode from Midlothian to Roanoke staying on quiet back roads. That night I checked into RoadRunner Magazine’s Touring Weekend, a two and a half day gathering of touring motorcyclists with talks, communal dinner, and group rides on the beautiful roads of the Shenandoah Valley and surrounding mountains. There were more than 200 riders on all types of bikes, including trikes with trailers. Some, but not a lot of Harleys in this group. This was not Sturgis or Daytona Bike Week.

Just like RV conventions and photography courses, 90 percent of attendees were gray/white-haired/bald, old, white guys. Not a criticism, just an observation. Seems the demographic chose me rather than me choosing the sport. 

Day 2 – Friday, August 10, 2018 – Goshen Pass Loop

190-mile circuit route north of Roanoke. I rode with eleven other riders and two leaders. Started out fine on the Blue Ridge Parkway but I quickly learned that I was the slowest rider and timider on mountain curves.

The Blue Ridge Parkway is one of the better motorcycle roads in America. No trucks, little traffic, few intersections, 45 miles per hour speed limit, beautiful views, shade trees, lots of curves and none of them with decreasing radii. Easy and safe to ride. 

What do you mean by decreasing radii? Why is that a problem?

At any speed over 10 miles per hour, motorcycles turn by countersteering and leaning, not by turning the handlebars in the direction you want to go. The more lean, the more turn. Approaching a curve, you decide on your speed. Once in the curve, you shouldn’t slow down. If you do, the bike will straighten up, stop leaning, and you risk riding off the outside of the curve.

If you chose your speed correctly and the curve is smooth and predictable all is good. If radius decreases, you have to increase your lean, sometimes a lot! Pucker factor time. 

Mountain curves are not smooth and predictable with constant radii. Surfaces are rough with potholes, tar strips, and gravel. Elevation changes rapidly. Each curve is different and they come in rapid succession. Most are blind so you don’t know what is over the hill or around the bend. Go too fast and a deer/stalled vehicle/pothole/tractor/gravel is right in your lane. More pucker factor.

I ride timidly. I slow down groups.

I want to get better. Each night I read David Hough’s Proficient Motorcycling or Jim Ford’s The Art of Riding Smooth . My goodness, I rode thousands of curves on this trip, got better but never felt comfortable. 

Before dinner that night, there was a presentation by Alain Labadie, “11,000 Miles in 20 Days” which convinced me that I don’t want to spend half my time on Interstates trying to make mileage. I would rather travel the back roads slower. 

After dinner, John Flores, the leader of my ride, photographer, and long-time writer for RoadRunner Magazine spoke on “In the Tire Tracks of a Pioneer”. John followed the 1903 route of George A. Wyman, the first person to cross the United States on a motorcycle. There were only 200 miles of paved roads then, mostly in cities, and no road maps. Through sheer determination, Wyman made it from San Francisco to New York. John made his retro trip more challenging by doing it on a fully electric motorcycle whose range was 77 miles if he rode 55 miles per hour. He had to plan around his recharging. John has a book coming out on this topic. 

Day 3 – Saturday, August 11, 2018 – Gaps Loop

175-mile circuit, northwest of Roanoke. Nice ride but coming back I skipped around a section that was “technical”, that is, there was a tight, right-hand 180-degree climbing switchback with a reverse camber in the road.

• If you aren’t aggressive in the lowest gear with high revs, you fall over.
• If you go too slow, you fall over.
• If you enter the turn too soon, you fall over.
• The reverse camber makes you feel like you are going to fall over.
• You can’t put your foot down to balance yourself, the road isn’t flat.
• If you go too fast and don’t lean enough, you swing wide into the left lane where you pray nothing is coming down.  

I have nightmares about these turns. 

So why more of a problem with a right-hand curve? Well, since we drive on the right, the curve is tighter on the right than on the left.  

The presentation that night after dinner was “Facing Adventure Head on” by Pat Trahan, the first Canadian to participate in the Dakar Rally. This guy was an entertaining loon. He barely knew how to ride a motorcycle when he fooled everyone into letting him race. “I just wanted to ride the dunes!” A more accomplished but still loony rider now, he still participates in International off-road events. 

Day 4 – Sunday, August 12, 2018 

My friend, ScooterNut, Lloyd Messner, left Fredericksburg Sunday morning to join me for several days of riding. Unfortunately, he was unable to start his bike after stopping for gas about 40 miles north of Roanoke. The problem seemed electrical so I went into “handy” mode (see the previous blog). Lloyd thought his battery was bad so I took it to Advanced Auto Parts. It tested as fully charged and working so the problem wasn’t the battery or the alternator. We checked the fuses and considered a bad starter, a faulty ignition switch, and a faulty side stand switch.

The latter was not intuitive to me until I thought about it. The motorcycle will not start if the side stand is down. Why? Well if you ride off with the side stand down and try to take a left-hand turn, the bike can’t lean and you crash. If the switch is bad, the bike won’t start.

Couldn’t see an obvious problem or damage to the side stand switch and I did not have a multimeter to check if the starter was receiving current. If the starter is getting current than both switches and the battery are working and the starter is bad (expensive on a BMW!). If the starter is not receiving current, then one of the switches is bad, or perhaps motorcycle gremlins. 

We spent the better part of the day trying to solve his problem but my handy attempts failed. Next time I will pack a multimeter in my work tools. I couldn’t replace a starter but if the side stand switch was bad, we could temporarily bypass it by connecting the white and brown wires and get back on the road. (Yes, Google is the handyman’s friend!)

Fortunately, Lloyd’s friend, Lew, drove down from Fredericksburg with a trailer and took him back home. I rode down to Troutville and spent the night at a Motel 6. Not many miles that day.

At least we had a good lunch at the Pink Cadillac Diner. 

Heard from Lloyd later in the week but the problem is not diagnosed yet. 

 

Day 5 – Monday, August 13, 2018

Without Lloyd, I had to decide where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do. My timid, introverted personality wanted to go back to Midlothian before I had an accident or a mechanical problem, but I faced the fear and just took off, after all, I quit work for this opportunity!

I made up my own back road route and rode more than 200 miles through Pearisburg VA, Bluefield WV/VA, and Horsepen WV and ended up in Tazewell for the night at the Tazewell Motel. Many of the Virginia towns, such as Tazewell, Grundy, and Richlands looked old and tired. There were very few stores. Small businesses were not thriving. 

Day 6 – Tuesday, August 14, 2018

I wandered around another 200 plus miles of mountain roads including the absolutely beautiful Burke’s Garden, a hidden valley east of Tazewell completely surrounded by mountains and accessible by one windy, steep, mountain road. BG resembles a volcano from aerial photos but was formed when limestone caves collapsed.

The farms are spectacular, I loved the place. I hear that the weather can be quite cold and harsh but my time there was awesome. I highly recommend that you see this gem once in your life. I think it is the prettiest place in Virginia. Spent the night in Marion.

Day 7 – Wednesday, August 15, 2018 

Back of the Dragon called me and I almost chickened out. Though I had ridden more than 1,000 miles in the previous six days, most of those on mountain roads, I felt I couldn’t meet the challenge of 32 miles with 260 curves, many of them hairpins, including the dreaded right-hand uphill switchback. The power of marketing. Before 2012, there was no “Back of the Dragon”.

That morning I lay in bed worrying about it and thought I would practice more and come back another time but dang, I was only a quarter of a mile from the start.

Reluctantly I started slow and nervously made it to Tazewell. The right-hand demon turn was not so bad. At Thompson Valley Market near Frog Level (FYI there are two Frog Levels in Virginia, the second is in Caroline County), I met 70-year-old Bryan on his Kawasaki Versys 1000 and 68-year-old Jim on his Harley Wide-Glide. They ride this route often and encouraged me to do it again. So I followed them back down the 260 curves in reverse and eventually wandered around to Wytheville. Not so bad the second time!

So I rode Back of the Dragon twice and survived!

 

Day 8 – Thursday, August 16, 2018

I rode 420 miles from Wytheville back to Midlothian, 200 miles of it on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Too far on my bike. My sore knees, stiff neck, and cramped wrists told me to look for a more upright seating posture and a lighter bike. So, does anybody have a 2005 to 2007 BMW F650GS for sale? A Goldwing would be comfy but too heavy.

Oh yeah, time to take an Advanced Riding Course or Jim Ford’s Riders Workshop or StayingSafe.

I can get better and do Tail of the Dragon!