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Damnut
| | Posted on Thursday, July 27, 2023 - 08:42 pm: | 
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Ride is going well. Left yesterday and rode to Front Royal. Today rode the length of Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge until the road closure in Sparta, NC. I grabbed a room in Sparta and will be rolling into Little Switzerland tomorrow.
Yesterday and today's Ride.
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Hughlysses
| | Posted on Friday, July 28, 2023 - 08:57 am: |
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Good deal! We will see you before noon, hopefully. |
Hughlysses
| | Posted on Friday, July 28, 2023 - 09:48 pm: |
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We have at least 4 Badwebbers in the area: me, Twig, Rcontroler and his son Darren. I have not seen Damnut but I presume he is staying somewhere nearby if not here. Buelltours and a couple of others are riding up from Hendersonville in the morning, and Nelandrew is riding up from Columbia in the morning, so we should have a decent crowd.
The plan is to meet in at the overlook in front of the Skyline Village Inn around 11 AM. We will ride from here down the mountain and around the north side of Lake James to Fonta Flora Brewery in Nebo for lunch. The annual Jaguar meet is taking place tomorrow at the Switzerland Inn, so we may check that out too. |
Hughlysses
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 01, 2023 - 03:27 pm: |
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Post-BITA 13 update.
We had a total of 6 Buells on site plus 3 former Buell-riding Badwebbers on other makes. I actually saw 2 other Buells in the area; both tubers. One of them turned around right in front of the hotel but he did not hang around long enough for us to get his attention.
Damnut rode all the way down from Massachusetts, and completed the full length of Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway, which went 50 miles further than he realized. Unfortunately, he toasted his back tire in the process. After much searching, he found a tire Saturday about 50 miles away and managed to get it mounted. After that, he went to visit some friends in the area.
Buelltours and his buddies rode up from Hendersonville Saturday morning. We all rode up to the Switzerland Inn to check out the annual Jaguar show. They had some cool Jags all the way from the nineteen forties to nearly new cars. Several of us had lunch at the Fowl Play cafe in the Inn, while the others left to go on their own rides. After lunch was done, we headed up the Parkway over to Linnville Falls and down the mountain on NC-181 and over to Fonta Flora Brewing at Whippoorwill Farms. The heat was brutal when we got off the Parkway, so some cool beverages were much appreciated. After that, Nelandrew headed back to Columbia, SC, Buelltours and friends headed back to Hendersonville, while I headed back to the Skyline.
While we were gone, apparently some hapless vehicle dumped oil over the last mile of the northbound lane of NC-226 just below the hotel. This is the road we used for EBR test rides a few years back if you were there for that. Apparently the DOT attempted to fix this by dumping sand all over the road and did not bother to post any signs to warn motorcyclists of the hazard. I got to this section at about 5 PM and could clearly see the sand. Enough cars had driven over it to make a couple of clear tracks, but man you had to be careful to stay off of it.
Sometime later, Damnut was returning from his ride and approaching the hotel just as it was getting dark. Cars had cleared some of the sand by this time, but there was still plenty of sand on the center and edges of the lanes. Within site of the hotel, he went down in a left hand turn and into the guardrail. Very fortunately, he was not hurt. His Uly suffered minor damage, but the brand-new PR6 was flat. He walked up to the hotel after a while. We got my air compressor and drove back down. Fortunately the tire would hold air long enough to be ridden to the hotel. With better lighting we could see damage near the edge of the tread. With 2 plugs, it would hold air, but then we discovered it was losing air just below the lip of the wheel, implying damage to the sidewall and/or bead. Less than 100 miles and the new tire is done. Ugh.
Sunday morning, Damnut initially thought he would rent a truck and take the bike home in that. He understandably did not trust a crashed bike for a 1000 mile ride home. But finding a suitable truck at someplace that was open on Sunday anywhere close to us proved impossible. The next idea was to leave the bike, rent a car, and drive home. After checking with the hotel, they said he could leave the bike there until he could get back and pick it up. Finding a one-way car rental also proved damn near impossible. Nobody would reserve one over the phone, so I finally dropped him off at the Asheville airport car rental area and parked nearby at a Duncan Donuts. Within just a few minutes, he had lined up a rental and was ready to go. We got all his stuff transferred and he hit the road back to Massachusetts. I checked with him Monday night and he made it home by 9 AM, driving straight through apart from a rest area nap along the way.
Monday morning was the first truly cool weather the whole time we were there, with a temp of 59 deg. F at 7 AM. After a quick breakfast, I made one last loop of NC-226A down the mountain, NC-80 back up, then the Blue Ridge Parkway back to the hotel.
Thanks to all who came out; hopefully we will do it again next year, although I am considering finding a new meet location as prices at the Skyline have increased considerably.
BITA 14 will be July 26-28, 2024, so mark your calendars now.
Pics to follow. |
Hughlysses
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 01, 2023 - 03:50 pm: |
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A few photos from the meet:
My Buell and 3 former Buell owners bikes.
View from the Skyline balcony.
Bikes lined up in front of the Skyline on Saturday morning.
At Fonta Flora brewing near Nebo, NC.
Sand on NC-226 below the hotel overlook. A couple of hours late, Damnut found this the hard way.
The aftermath of Damnuts crash.
Pics from my last ride before packing up Monday morning. Really cool clouds on the mountain. |
Mhlunsford
| | Posted on Sunday, August 06, 2023 - 11:27 am: |
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There was another Buell meet at mountain city Tennessee 7/26-7/30.
There was a guy on a black s1 - you might have seen him.
I was on blue M2.
We had a couple of XBs, 1125s and 1190s.
Camp was CornCreek cabins and tents mountain city.
Facebook 2023 Buell tail of the dragon event.
Would be nice to link the two meets. |
Hughlysses
| | Posted on Sunday, August 06, 2023 - 02:10 pm: |
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I did see a black S1 on our way up to the hotel the previous week and I saw a blue M2 come past the hotel a couple of times; was that you?
That is not a bad idea to link the 2 meets. I was just looking; the Wheels Through Time motorcycle museum in Maggie Valley is about half way between the two locations (~70 miles to each); maybe we could meet there for lunch and a tour on Saturday next year? |
Mhlunsford
| | Posted on Sunday, August 06, 2023 - 03:47 pm: |
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Royal Blue M2 - (not stock blue)with X1 forks, hand guards , me.
They plan to meet again next year same place but not sure of date. |
Mhlunsford
| | Posted on Sunday, August 06, 2023 - 03:49 pm: |
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https://m.facebook.com/groups/917972106063143/perm alink/1002921150901571/?mibextid=g4x1v7 |
Hughlysses
| | Posted on Sunday, August 06, 2023 - 05:02 pm: |
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Ahh, I missed the part about Mountain City. Little Switzerland and Mountain City are about an hour and a half (~60 miles) from each other. We could easily have one group come to the Snake for a ride one day and have the other come down to the Diamondback and Devils Whip another.
I am interested to try to work this out for next year if you guys want. |
Hughlysses
| | Posted on Thursday, August 17, 2023 - 08:30 pm: |
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So we are working towards combining both meets next year at Mountain City, TN on US 421 on the western side of the Snake.
Stay tuned for developments.
For those of you not familiar with the Snake: http://www.thesnake421.com/ |
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