| Author | Message | ||
     Hughlysses |
Mark your calendars now; Buells in the Alps 5, Friday, July 24 through Sunday, July 26 in Little Switzerland, NC. More details early next year... Here's the view from in front of the Skyline Village Inn, our meet location:  Photo courtesy of Glitch! | ||
| Dennis_c |
There will be at least 2 from central Ohio. Is it July yet? | ||
| Hughlysses |
Woohoo! Spread the word. | ||
| Pwnzor |
Pencil me in. | ||
| Hughlysses |
Woohoo! | ||
| Xbrad9r |
I plan on making it again this year. This time on a Uly again instead of a KLR like I was stuck with last year. Looking forward to it. | ||
| Dennis_c |
I got my room this yr. there will be 3 or 4 of us. | ||
| Hughlysses |
Performance Motorsports (RPM), the EBR dealer from Greenville, SC is tentatively on-board to come again with demo bikes. Hopefully I can induce a few folks at this weekend's March/Glitch Badness to come to BITA 5. | ||
| Hughlysses |
I'm at Glitch Badness in Suches, GA this weekend. I met the driver of the EBR van that's been going around with Cory West to track days. I gave him a flyer for BITA 5 and invited him to come up. He was excited at the prospect of a long drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway, so maybe he'll come! I have a couple of pics of the van I'll post when I get home. (Message edited by Hughlysses on March 21, 2015) | ||
| Hughlysses |
Photo with the EBR van from Friday:  | ||
| Buellish |
Where do you guys stay up there?I'd like to think about going this year,I was a bit under the weather when you did it last year. | ||
| Hughlysses |
Most of us stay at the Skyline Village Inn. It's a little "mom & pop" hotel built in the early 40's that has a very interesting history. The owner, Mike Thrift is a motorcyclist (he has several bikes for rent) and very nice guy. There's a spectacular view out front, it's 1/4 mile off the Blue Ridge Parkway and it's on NC-226 which is an amazing road. Other possibilities are the Bear Den Campground a few miles away on the Parkway, Big Lynn Lodge a few miles down 226, or the Switzerland Inn ($$) in "downtown" Little Switzerland. Come on over! | ||
| Hughlysses |
Alright, March/Glitch Badness Number ?? is in the bank, the next Dragon meet is coming up, time to get rolling on planning for BITA 5. WHAT is Buells in the Alps? Buell meet (sleep/eat/ride/talk) WHERE? Little Switzerland, NC. It's located about on the Blue Ridge Parkway 50 miles north-east of Asheville, NC, and it's more-or-less equidistant from Charleston, SC (287 miles), Atlanta, GA (248 miles), and Raleigh, NC (234 miles). WHEN? 24-26, 2014, Friday/Saturday/Sunday. Show up earlier if you want; stay later if you want. WHO? Any interested motorcyclist, but concentrating on fellow Badwebbers and especially SC Buell Riders, 3%'ers (GA), and C3'ers (NC) WHY? In July, we'll all be in need of some serious twisty riding and some cooler temperatures! MORE INFO ON THE AREA: http://www.diamondbacknc.com/ - webpage on roads and motorcycle lodging in the area. Little Switzerland sits on the Blue Ridge Parkway at the intersection with 226A and 226B, which are both awesome roads. There are plenty of good twisty roads off of the Parkway nearby. HOTEL/meet central: the Skyline Village Inn (between Little Switzerland and Spruce Pine, NC):  Skyline Village Inn & Cavern Tavern 12255 NC Highway 226A Between Spruce Pine & Little Switzerland, NC Phone 828-765-9394 http://www.skylinevillageinn.com (on-line reservations available) It's a funky little hotel that was built back in the 40's. The current owners have restored it and are really nice people. The hotel has some really interesting history behind it. It has a decent restaurant, and a store with the best beer selection for ~50 miles. Room rates vary from about $80/night to $120/night depending on what time you want and what discounts you can get. Tell them you're with the Buell meet and odds are they'll give you a decent discount. Check their website for more photos. View off the front balcony:  There are a few other hotels very nearby (from "mom & pop" motels up to fancy resorts) and several major chain hotels down the mountain in Marion (17 miles south). Camping: http://bear-den.com/index.html - Campground nearby on the Blue Ridge Parkway; has tent camping, "camp cabins", and full cabins. Their website allows you to check availability and make reservations on-line. There are 2 or 3 decent restaurants within 2 or 3 miles of the hotel plus one in the hotel. Nearby Spruce Pine has a bunch of restaurants including a pizzeria/brewery. There are several locations nearby where you can pan for gem stones if you're into that kind of thing. There's no shortage of great twisties in the area whichever direction you head. MAP OF AREA (Skyline is near the upper right of this loop):  Link to thread on last year's meet: http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/406 2/745480.html?1406943820 RPM (Real Performance Motorsports) the EBR dealer from Greenville, SC is planning to be there again this year. Last year they gave test rides on 226 on an 1190SX and RX. I talked to the van driver/marketing guy from EBR last week at Glitch Badness and invited him to come down to BITA 5. He seemed genuinely interested in coming down to our meet, so just maybe we'll have that too. We had T-shirts last year; I'll try and do some again this year:  ~4 months to go... | ||
| Purpony |
I may be in for this, as Ill be taking a vacation trip down to TN around this time, and hopefully bringing by bike to ride the dragon. Just did a google map and looks like ill be driving right through there!! (Message edited by purpony on March 23, 2015) | ||
| Hughlysses |
Glad to hear it Marc. It's not as well-known as the Dragon, but there are some VERY good roads in this area. | ||
| Chadhargis |
How far is this from the Cornell compound? I hear he has some nice toys!  | ||
| Hughlysses |
The Broennner Vintage Buell collection is located about 60 miles away.  If you have a hankering to go off-roading, Mike Thrift (owner/operator of the hotel) has ~3 dual sports for rent. | ||
| Pwnzor |
It could be argued that the roads are actually BETTER than the Dragon. | ||
| Purpony |
I see the dates are friday-sunday. Im guessing saturday is the main day and what will be going on? A long group ride? Ill have my family with me so the wife and kids will have to find something to keep them occupied. Id probably drive on friday and get in friday night. Spend saturday, and then head out sunday afternoon. My TN destination is only 4 hours from there. Just have to figure out how to get my bike down there. I was planning on renting a pickup one way, as my father has a trailer in TN that im bring back up north. | ||
| Hughlysses |
Marc- Saturday will be the main day. We rarely get as organized as any kind of long, mass group ride. Generally groups of people just go off on their own, ride a while, and then come back. The 226/226A loop right out the front door of the hotel takes about 30-40 minutes in either direction. Buck Creek Road (aka "the Devil's Whip) is about 20 miles away; you can ride that and be back in an hour or so. If you're up for a longer ride, the "Murder Mountain Run" that takes you on some nice twisties up to Roan Mountain, TN and back. That'll take 4 hours or so. More info on that: http://www.blueridgemotorcycling.com/ride-maps/mur der-mountain-run/ And of course the Blue Ridge Parkway goes right behind the hotel so you can jump on that and ride west to Mount Mitchell or east as far as you want. Little Switzerland has a couple of shops, a bookstore, and a waterfall you can hike to. The nearby town of Spruce Pine has some shops and restaurants downtown, and there are several gem mines nearby. Your kids might enjoy that (pay ~$5 for a bucket of dirt and "pan" for gems in a water trough). | ||
| Prior |
No fam trip to the beach this year and I'll try to drag some friends along... | ||
| Hughlysses |
Alright folks, I've been working on T-shirts for the meet. Let me know which one you like best:  Design 1  Design 2  Design 3  Design 4  Design 5  Design 6 (featuring Westwind, S3T, XB12S, 1124R, and 1190RX) (Message edited by Hughlysses on March 27, 2015) | ||
| Hughlysses |
Oh yea, and this would be on the back of all of them to say thanks to RPM for providing demos and to the Skyline Village Inn for hosting us:  (Message edited by Hughlysses on March 26, 2015) | ||
| Purpony |
i like 2, 5, and 6 not sure which i like better | ||
| Cyclonecharlie |
Hugh, I like 5 the best. Charlie  | ||
| Hughlysses |
BTW- In case you can't tell, shirt number 6 has a Westwind, an S3T, an XB12S, an 1125R, and an 1190RX, to cover the history of Buell/EBR, and there's 5 bikes which matches up with our fifth meet. | ||
| 86129squids |
Hugh- I like #6 best, but I'd replace the word "Five" with the Roman numeral "V"- that would work well in the other designs too- (of course in the proper Roman font, can't show it here...) be careful of getting too busy with the wording. Simple is best! That said, it'd be neat to print a design with the Buell Code of Ethics... we don't see that nearly enough IMHO. I'd also shorten to "RPM Motorsports" on the back design, and since the front already says "Buells In The Alps", I'd shorten to "BITA" on the back, at the top, in a little bigger font. Based on experience, the design with the entire state of NC will eventually crack up, and until it does, that'll be the hottest black shirt design (in the sun) one might wear. I generally don't wear black T-shirts unless it's winter, always go for the lighter shades- have you tried to work up any designs on grey shirts? I'd be more likely to go for one like that. There. My $.02, spend as you see fit, buddy! After all that, dangit if my calendar isn't getting crowded going forward into 2015... I may only get to take off Saturday, and just ride out on the BRP, stay for dinner and $hits and giggles, and then ride back Sunday or Monday. We'll see. | ||
| Hughlysses |
Hi Brad- I definitely appreciate the input. It's pretty easy to do alternative designs. I'll do one with your suggestions. Interesting idea about the Buell code of ethics- I may do one with that too. I started off with black on gray shirts last year but got a lot of requests for black shirts. The deal with ordering form CustomInk is the price is inversely proportional to how many shirts you order of a single design. If we get say 20 shirts of a single design, the price is less than $15 each. Since the black shirts were more popular, I just started with white on black black this year, but I can add black on gray if there's enough interest. I wish I had some graphic design education- I've had to do plenty of it between webpages, T-shrits, etc. | ||
| Hughlysses |
Design 7 as suggested by Brad:   The Roman numeral "V" sounds like a good idea, but it's not obvious it means "5" in this context. We'll see what the popular opinion is. | ||
| 86129squids |
I see what you mean. Font selection may or may not help here... there is a particular way that "V" should look to impart that it is Roman #5. On the back of the shirt, may I suggest bumping up the font size for "BITA 5" by a couple of points. Good stuff! |
