Beat the heat North Carolina Scooter ride

[klaviator]

Last week I headed to Maggie Valley, North Carolina to get out of the Alabama heat and ride some of the best roads in the country.  I was joined by several other scooter riders and one guy on a Ninja 250.  We stayed at the Castlewood Inn which turned out to be a good choice.



There were 6 of us for the first day of riding which took us up the BRP.

It was a beautiful but chilly morning.



The bikes on this ride where:  Burgman 650, Yamaha Majesty (400), Yamaha Xmax (300), Ninja 250, Genuine buddy 125 and me leading on my Kymco Like 150i.

I followed the Buddy for a bit and took some pics.



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I swapped bikes and got to ride the Xmax for a while.  That is a very nice scooter.  If I didn't aalready have my majesty I would have one of those.  I rode it to the top of Mt Mitchell where it was very chilly.

[lazeebum]

Nice pictures.  Your ride reports, and pictures are inspiration for a destination.

Sent from my LG-M150 using Tapatalk

[klaviator]

Cintinuing down the BRP we soon got stopped by a flagman as the parkway is being resurfaces this summer.  We were just short of the intersection of the BRP and 80.  Luckily we didn't have to ride on any gravel since we turned down 80 then back up 226.

This is 80 just south of the BRP.



some action shots.



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We had lunch in Little Switzerland.

[klaviator]

During lunch it started looking bad outside and we heard thunder getting closer.  We didn't quite get out before the rain started but we rode through it in a few minutes. 

Some time later while riding a fun road out in the sticks we came to this:



Well crap!  I didn't know my way around here, I had no map and we are in the middle of nowhere surrounded by mountains.

So I pull out my phone and.......4Gs!  I pull up Google maps and find a detour that turned out to be a great road.  I'm going to use that road next time through there.

Waiting for some slower riders.



We took a break in Hot Springs and waited for some rain ahead to clear out.



We hit some wet roads but no rain.



Total mileage for the day was around 300 and my scooter averaged around 90MPG.

Two more days to go!

[klaviator]

Day 2 Tuesday.

We had a few more riders join us for the tuesday ride.  That included 2372ighost from the MA forum.  Rich had bought a Vespa 250GTS five weeks earlier and rode it about 900 miles without leaving town.  This would be his first real scooter ride.

Getting ready to leave the Castlewood Inn that morning.



First stop, Waterrock Knob.



After some serious hairpin curves we stopped again.



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More curves and another stop for pics.



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Did I mention there were some curves?  Rich on his Vespa.



We did have one "crotch rocket" with us :D



We even got in a little riding off the pavement.

[klaviator]

Stopping for more pics.



My Like150i and the Xmax I roide the day before.



Rich on his Vespa.

[klaviator]

Before going on I need to provide a little background.  The following is a quote from the first post of a thread on ADV.

"After nine over-night trips to the hospital, five stents, a pacemaker, ICD, and a bunch of other heart issues, I sold my motorcycle a few months ago. Last month my cardiologist sent me back to the hospital for another heart cath and the team concluded my only hope was a transplant. I said I wasn't interested, and asked how long I have... he said he'd start in-home hospice because he figured I had less than 6 months... so I talked to my sons and they asked what was on my bucket list... I said hangin' out with my grand kids and riding a bike again... so I'm doing both... last week I bought a slightly used 2007 Aprilia Sportcity with only 1160 miles on it..."

Well this post was made about 3 years ago and this guy wanted to do his longest ride in many years and meet us for lunch.  I had set up a time and meeting place in Cashiers.  When we got there he was waiting for us.

He had sold his Aprilia when it didn't look like he would be able to ride anymore but his health rebounded and he bought a Kymco Grand Vista 250.



Lunch was outside by our bikes.



Group pic.



One more pic with me in it.

[klaviator]

After lunch we rode some curvy roads but we got into bit of rain and wet roads.  I didn't take a lot of pics except these on the BRP.



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We rode the BRP back to the Maggie Valley Exit and then to our motel.  Despite having 10 riders and a real mix of bikes it turned out to be a great day of riding.  I think out total miles for the day was around 200. 

[klaviator]

Day 3, Wednesday.

This day would be about curves, curves, and some more curves. 

Did I mention there were some curves?



Rich on his Vespa. 



I guess we did see something besides curves.



Waterfalls on the French Broad River.



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I was too busy leaning left and right to take a lot of pics.



I handed my camera to someone else to get some shots of me.



This was a narrow road but between having a small scooter and a lot of Gymkhana practice I could easily whip a u turn for another pass.



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It's a scooter, not a sport bike but on these super twisty roads I think it's more fun to ride.



Another great day of riding and about 200 miles!

[klaviator]

Day 4.

Early morning Pic.



Only Rich and I were left and we were heading home but we had time for a short ride.  We headed up to the Cataloochie Ski Area.

After a very steep uphill ride the road leveled off and turned to gravel.



No skiers on the slope today.



We heard a motorcycle coming down the road.



The rider stopped and talked to me with a thick European accent. I think he asked "what road are you riding?" I wasn't sure what he wanted. It seemed pretty obvious to me that we were riding the road we were on ::)

He had little patience waiting for my reply or maybe he didn't want to waste his time with a couple of scooter riders who didn't have enough sense to stay on the pavement and pulled down his faceshield and roared off.



Rich and I headed back.



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This road was open range and there were cattle all over including these two just laying in the road.



When we got to the bottom of the mountain we still had some time so we decided on a ride to Watterock Knob. We didn't quite make it before we were about to get into the fog so we took a pic and turned back.

[Nice Goat]

Well this post was made about 3 years ago...
but his health rebounded and he bought a Kymco Grand Vista 250.

Good for him!

A lifestyle change would probably benefit a lot of people, myself included.