The Ride of my Life.

[klaviator]

My second trip to the Angeles Crest highway was an overnighter with a friend.



Will was riding an old Moto Guzzi 1000 LeMans.  I mean it was old even back in 89.

Once a month the there was a big Italian Bike ride on the Crest that started at Pro Italia which was near the base of the Highway. We were there the day of one of those rides. We hung out at a pullout on the side of the ride. It wasn't long before we could here the boom of Twin Cylinder Italian bikes with loud exhausts coming up the mountain. It was pretty cool. I got a couple of pics.

A Ducati Paso.  It was pretty exotic back then and still fairly new.



A Moto Guzzi followed by another old Ducati. Of course back then these were not old bikes.



Another pic of us:



A couple of action pics. You can see what a great road this was! The EX500 was a blast on this road. It handled the curves with no effort. It would have been nice to have a little more power but despite all the locals out on their exotic and mostly bigger bikes I don't remember anyone passing me.  I did pass a number of them ;D  I was really happy with the EX!  It was just so effortless to ride fast on roads like this.



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Newcomb's Ranch was packed:



Both of these trips were a blast. I just wished that I lived closer so I could ride this area more often.

[klaviator]

Those of you old enough will probably remember three things got their start in the 80s:  ABS for motorcycles, cell phones and Miami Vice.
My next story, which happened at the end of the 80s involves all three of those things.

One day I went for a ride by myself and of course ended up at Mother's Kitchen at the top of Palomar Mountain. There were not very many people there, I'm not sure why. A guy rode up on a BMW K100RS with ABS. I think that at that time only BMW offered ABS. I might have met or even ridden with him before  but didn't know him very well. So we talked for a bit and he told me how much he liked the ABS on the BMW. Then along came two guys on modern sportbikes. One was on a Honda CBR1000. I'm going to call him DJ because he had the Don Johnson look down pretty well. For those of you who remember Miami Vice, you know what I'm talking about. He also had a cell phone mounted on the side of the tank of his bike. At that time cell phones were still pretty rare and expensive. They were also pretty big, about like a modern cordless house phones. So he had this huge phone mounted out where everyone could see it. We asked him about the reception out here in the mountains and he admitted it was just there for looks, it didn't actually work. ::)

So we talked a bit more and the conversation (surprise, surprise) eventually got on the topic of motorcycles. So DJ talked about why he picked the CBR1000. He said he looked at BMWs but they were just too slow.

BMW guy and me looked at each other but we refrained from laughing and just carried on. Then DJ and his friend who was on another large Japanese sportbike took off.  Of course you can guess what happened next. When those guys took off down the mountain, we waited a bit and took off after them. Then we caught them and blew by them

It was a good thing DJ hadn't bought one of them "slow" BMWs :D

And thus endeth the California part of this story...............for now.  I had orders to Pensacola, FL and would be leaving California in December of 1989. 

[klaviator]

Debbi and I ended the 80's on a road trip from San Diego to Pensacola.  We drove up to Anacortes, Wa, just north of Seattle, to visit some old friends of Debbi's.  Then we drove across the country to Cleveland, Oh to spend Christmas with my family.  Then it was south to Pensacola where we would start off the 1990s.  We bought our first house for a fraction of what it would have cost in California.



So why Pensacola?  I would have loved to stay in California but Debbi and I wanted to start a family and Pensacola just made more sense.  Besides the much lower cost of living we would only be about an hour from her parents in Shalimar, FL. 

My new duty station was Helicopter Combat Support Squadron 16 (HC-16) where I would be flying the UH-1N "Huey" helicopter as a flight instructor and search and rescue pilot.  This was a twin engine version of the Huey that the Army flew in Vietnam and you have probably seen in dozens of movies.

[klaviator]

So Debbi and i became parents in June of 1990, we where living the typical suburban life and we were getting old, like over 30 ::)
I had a good job that I enjoyed and I got to ride 47 miles 5 days a week commuting to work. 

So life was good......or it should have been.  I was pretty miserable.  Except for the commute to work riding in Florida sucked.  I tried riding with a local motorcycle club but they were a bunch of "old" guys on Gold Wings and Japanese cruisers whose idea of a great day of riding was to eat breakfast at Hardees, ride 2-3 hours on boring roads to another restaurant for lunch and then everyone headed home.

To be fair, it was hard to find roads around Pensacola that weren't boring.

Also, the weather in Florida sucked compared to CA. Early spring was pretty good but after that it got really hot and humid. Keep in mind that back then the choice in riding gear was pretty limited. Mesh gear had not been invented yet and except for maybe Aerostich, I don't even remember and textile riding gear being available for several more years. It was real hard to dress comfortably in the heat and humidity.

I did not meet any real motorcycle enthusiasts in the area, at least not any sport riders.

This song does a pretty good job of showing what I was thinking:

I missed California and was pretty depressed.

[klaviator]

Finally, after 10 months of severe sport riding withdrawal, it was time to go for a real ride.

Years earlier, while still living in Ohio, I had seen an ad in a motorcycle magazine for a motorcycle resort in north Georgia called Two Wheels Only (TWO). While in California my friend Phil told me he had visited TWO while in flight school in Pensacola. He said there were some good roads there and that the Owner of the place rode a Gold Wing like it was a sport bike.

So now it was time to go check this place out. I picked mid to late October because I figured that by then the heat and humidity would be bearable for a long ride like this.

I took a week of leave and loaded up the EX500 and headed north. My route was some Fl/Al back roads until I hit I-65 which I followed to I-85 to Atlanta. In Atlanta I picked up 400 North. At that time 400 was not the traffic disaster it is today. After 20 miles or so it became a scenic, rural road with little traffic and not much on it. Not too long after putting Atlanta in my rear view mirror I saw mountains ahead

Yes I was excited. Before to long I was in those mountains. I rode around a bit but it was getting late and I decided I needed to find a motel. I ended up going back down 400 towards Cumming to find a motel.

The next morning I got up early and headed back to the mountains. My plan was to head to Suches, Ga and see if I could find TWO. I got as far as Dahlonega when I got to roadblock. The main road through town was blocked off due to Octoberfest. I managed to find my way around town and ended up on 60 going north. 60 soon became a fantastic twisty road climbing up into the mountains!
This was fantastic. It was also surprisingly cold but I was having so much fun actually leaning my bike around all the curves that I didn't care.

I got to the top of the mountain and started heading down hill. As I did that I saw a sport bike coming the other way:rayof Not only that, the rider was wearing leathers:wings If you are wondering why I was so excited, i hadn't seen that since leaving California. So there were other sport bike riders east of the Rockies.  But as he got closer, something didn't look right.  He was all out of proportion. As he passed I saw that he was riding a Yamaha YSR50. OK then, a little strange but at least it was a sportbike. Then I was two more sportbikes heading towards me. Another YSR50 and a Honda MB5.

What was going on here?

I ride a couple of minutes and saw a red building on the left side of the road with a bunch of people and bikes around it. It was TWO.

I pulled into the parking lot. It was the weekend of the annual True Grits 50cc rally and the place was crawling with 50cc bikes. I wish I had taken some pics.

I remember this part of the ride very well. After that, the rest of the week of riding is somewhat vague but I'll do the best I can.

I eventually headed north. I was really impressed with the great roads and scenery. It was completely different from the west but beautiful in it's own way. Everything was very green and there were a lot of rivers and lakes. The weather was off and on sunshine with occasional showers. My camera on this trip was a cheap $15 dollar camera. That $15 included film and batteries. It still took pretty good pictures. The biggest issue here was not the cheap camera, it was the cheap photographer.

A lake in North Ga.



Eventually I ended up in North Carolina. I really had no plan. The only thing I had heard of in NC was the Blue Ridge Parkway (BRP). What I did was look for the squiggliest lines on my map and head that way.

I was following on of those "squiggly line" roads in NC when I came to an intersection. My plan was to take a right there because the road to the left looked straight on my map and the road to the right looked real curvy.

At the intersection there was a gas station, store and small motel. Hanging out there were a bunch of sport bike riders. So I stopped to take a break and talk to them. They were all locals. I told them that I was in the area for the fist time looking for curvy roads. One of them pointed down the road to the left, the one I hadn't planned on taking because it looked straight on the maps, and said that it was a really great twisty road. So I pointed down the other way and asked how that road was. He said he didn't know, he never rode that way ???

I decided to follow the group when they headed off. It ended up being a real exciting ride as I chased these guys down one of the twistiest roads I had ever ridden.

Eventually they pulled over at a scenic overlook. I took a pic:



Anyone want to guess what road I had just ridden?


How about if I show you the view from that point?

[Chuck & Susan]

Unless I miss my guess..... The Tail Of The Dragon.... US Hwy 129 at the scenic overlook.... Wonderful view.....

[klaviator]

Unless I miss my guess..... The Tail Of The Dragon.... US Hwy 129 at the scenic overlook.... Wonderful view.....

You are partially correct.  It was US129 but back then there was no tail of the Dragon.  The fad of giving roads "cool" names to sell more T shirts was still years away.  Back then it was normally just called Deal's Gap.  I never heard anything about it until a year or two later and it would be many more years before it became famous.

[norton73]

We used to ride down from Virginia to watch the Flat track race that used to be held in Marysville, TN back in the early 80s.  We'd ride down the BRP and then through Bryson City and up 28 to "that great twisty road" and then north to Marysville.

Actually, we really didn't differentiate between 28 and 129 to the Foothills Parkway, it was just one of our favorite parts of the ride.

[klaviator]

After the overlook I chased the local riders the rest of the way down and then took a right and rode over the Foothills Parkway. Not nearly as twisty as Deals Gap but still a fun ride with some nice scenic views.



I ended up spending the night in Pigeon Forge or Sevierville. Back then it had not yet turned into the tourist monstrosity it is today. The Main drag through town was under construction at the time being transformed from a two lane to a four lane road.

After that the rest of the ride is pretty hazy in my memory. I think I rode through Smoky Mountain Park, along the BRP for a ways and then circled around eventually ending up back at TWO. It was October and the leaves where changing colors. I remember riding down some roads that looked like a tunnel of bright colors. I don't know if it was my cheap camera or just lack effort on my part but I really didn't do a good job of capturing the scenery or those colors.

But I did take some pics:



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This was the only pic I got that came close to capturing the colors. I even remember the spot. This was on 106 just outside of Dillard, Ga.



Since I grew up in Cleveland, OH, I had to get this pic:



And of course no tour of N. GA. is complete without getting a little taste of Bavaria.



Probably the only clue I would have that this next pic is over 27 years old is the cars on the road.



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[klaviator]

The impact of this trip was huge to me. It wasn't just the great riding and scenery. It showed me that there is great riding and other sport riders outside of California. It showed me that I could experience the motorcycle dream outside of California or the western states.

This trip also introduced me to what would become my favorite destination; Two Wheels Only. At the tail end of the trip I stayed at TWO for a night or 2 and got to meet and talk to the founder and owner of TWO. Frank Cheek was without a doubt one of the most interesting characters I have ever known. Those of you who knew him know that the word "character" is the best way to describe him.

I asked Frank about the story behind TWO and this is basically the story he told me. He was on a motorcycle trip with his wife and was turned away from a campground because he was on a motorcycle. This inspired him to start a campground and "resort" that was only for motorcyclists. As far as I know TWO was the first of it's kind. Over the years many more motorcycle campgrounds were open but Frank was the pioneer that started it all.

One of my biggest regrets is that I have not done a good job of taking pictures of all of the interesting people I have met over the years. I did not get any on this trip but I will post this pic someone else took of Frank in 1985 with his wing:



By the time I met Frank he had switched from riding a Wing to a Kawasaki Voyager 1200.

There will be more (much more) on Frank, TWO and riding in that area coming up.

When I got back to Pensacola from this trip I was no longer depressed. I now had some great riding to look forward to. I was already planning to go back the following year.

[klaviator]

1991 proved to be a very eventful year for me and greatly affected the course of my life. It was eventful both from a riding perspective as well as non-riding. However, since I really do "live to ride", the non riding part of my life ultimately affects my riding.

When I left California I wasn't sure whether I would make the Navy a career. I had to do one more tour to fulfill my commitment from flight school. While I enjoyed flying, the ground jobs I had in San Diego sucked. Things changed in Pensacola. I enjoyed my ground jobs at HC-16 as well as the flying. In late 1990 a new opportunity opened up for me. I was pre-screened for the Navy's Training and Administration of Reserves (TAR) program. I decided to take advantage of it and became a TAR. Over one year in advance I got my next set of orders which would send me to Michigan early in 1992.

So I had one year left in Pensacola and I had just discovered some great riding not too far away. I decided to make the most of that year. From my driveway in Pensacola to TWO was 410 miles. I would end up doing that ride 7 times in 1991. Some of those trips I remember and took some pics, others I didn't and don't remember.

I rode up 2 to three times in the spring on my EX500. One of those trips was to attend California Superbike School at Road Atlanta. I had never ridden on a racetrack and it was something I really wanted to do. On top of that I figured I might learn something. I signed up for the half day school. For 250 bucks it included a few hours in the classroom and 20 laps around Road Atlanta. They provided the bike, leathers, and helmet if you didn't want to use your own.

Although TWO was not the closest or most convenient place to stay from the track, I decided it would be more fun that staying at some motel. So I rode those 410 miles to TWO and stayed in one of the rooms in the lodge. Then I rode down to the track the morning of the school. the class was interesting. Then it was time to suit up for the track. They had brought a tractor trailer full of Kawasaki ZX6's and a rack for of leathers, helmets and gloves which I took advantage of. Unfortunately it started to rain which threatened our riding session.
Luckily the rain didn't last long and after the track dried it was time to ride.

I was excited but also really nervous. The first few laps around the track I rode like an old lady. Then one of the instructors rode by and gave me the follow me signal......so I did. That was just what I needed. I started riding more faster and loosened up. It was a blast after that and my lap times dropped dramatically.

Far to soon out session came to an end. I got a printout of my lap times and a guy who worked in the timing booth told me I had the fastest times of my class.  I felt pretty good until I compared my times to the track records.

Then I rode my EX back up to TWO on some great twisty roads.

It was interesting comparing my EX which was a budget or " beginners" sport bike to the state of the art ZX-6 which had been prepped for the track with some suspension mods. Without a doubt the ZX-6 handled the speeds of the track much better than my EX would have but on the street, my EX felt great and seemed much more responsive than the ZX-6.

I wish I had taken some pics of this trip or at least gotten someone to take some pics of me on the track but I didn't. I didn't even keep my lap times printout. All I got to remember this trip by was this T-shirt:



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[klaviator]

As I mentioned before, I rode to TWO seven times in 1991. In each case I spent some, or all of my nights at TWO. At that time I was not into camping. The idea of piling a ton of camping gear on my little EX500 did not appeal to me. TWO did offer indoor lodging. The main lodge was originally built as a family home upstairs and a restaurant downstairs. The upstairs had 3 bedrooms, a large bathroom, a kitchen and a large living/dining room. The primary attraction of TWO was all the great riding all around it. But, it was also a really cool place to stay.

When you rented a room upstairs you had your own room but shared the bath/kitchen/dining/living areas with anyone else staying upstairs. This could sometimes be an inconvenience but it also often resulted in getting to know some other riders. There was a TV in the living room but it only got one or two channels from the antenna and poor reception at that. Some people might look at that as a negative, how can you live without an electronic time killer:eek1

I liked it because it meant people would actually sit around and talk instead of all starring at the TV like zombies. The owners who bought the place from Frank years later put in cable TV and that is exactly what happened.

There where also a bunch of motorcycle magazines laying around. If I was there by myself I often read those magazines.

Although the downstairs was a restaurant, Frank didn't really operate the place as a restaurant. It was more like a B & B. He would show up around 7:30 in the morning and have breakfast and coffee ready by 8. The breakfast menu consisted of 2 choices: Yes or No. And he didn't do any substitutions or modifications. There was a sign there that said something like:

This is not Burger King. You can't have it your way. You have it my way or you don't get the damn thing at all. :D


I usually ate breakfast there. It was not exactly endorsed by the heart association but was only around 3 bucks.  Lunch and dinner was only served for special occasions, normally groups who arranged it in advance.

Lunch was really no issue. People who where staying there were normally out riding somewhere during lunch time. Frank didn't cater to those who where local and just stopped by anyway. He called those people his PALS. Pissers And Lookers. They rode up, pissed in the restrooms and looked around but didn't buy anything. Of course, if he served lunch they might actually buy something.

Dinner would have been nice. The nearest town was Dahlonega. It was around 15 miles away and had plenty of place to eat. Oh, and those 15 miles where 15 miles of really great twisty road

I did not consider it a problem to ride to Dahlonega and back to get dinner.

Besides serving breakfast, Frank also loved to play tour guide. He'd ask where you planned on riding and then make suggestions. He even had some home made maps which he used when suggesting rides.  These came in pretty handy. 



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Frank often pulled out a pen and added custom directions and facts to those maps.  Notice that on the second map, the Cherohala Skyway had not yet been built. TN 165 was a dead end road. It was still fun to ride and unlike today had little traffic on it.

More on TWO and Frank later.

I didn't get many pics from my spring rides but I did have a blast exploring the TWO local riding area which included north GA, a bit of SC, NC, and TN.  Here are two pics I took on my May trip.  The first was on Wayah Rd. and the second just off of it.



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[klaviator]

In June Debbi and I headed up to the mountains on the Venture.  This was our first vacation together after having out son a year earlier.  We left Scott with Debbi's parents. 

Of course we headed for TWO. It got pretty hot on the way up but once we got to the mountains it cooled off nicely. We spent a couple of nights in one of the rooms in the lodge. This time I took some pics.  This is the only pic I ever took of Frank. In front of TWO with Debbi:



This was one of the reasons TWO was so unique:



Behind that fence in the last pic was this:



The Lodge:



After TWO we headed off to Clayton, GA to do something Debbi really wanted to do. We went whitewater rafting in the Chattooga River. This river was where the film Deliverance was filmed. It was an all day trip and we did end up flipping our raft going over some pretty extreme rapids. Debbi loved it. I was ready to get back to something safer like riding a motorcycle on some twisty mountain roads. We spent the night before and after in Clayton. After that we headed North. We stopped in Cherokee, NC for lunch. When we walked into a restaurant Debbi ran into someone she knew from church. It was a lady and her husband who were also on a motorcycle trip to the mountains. We ate lunch with them and then decided to ride with them for a while. We headed up to the Blue Ridge Parkway (BRP).

This couple was pretty interesting and not the typical husband and wife riding couple. The both rode their own bikes but unlike the typical couple, she was by far the most experienced rider. Here's a pic:



The Harley was hers. He was riding a Suzuki GN400. I doubt he could have handled the Harley.

Scenic view of the BRP from Waterrock Knob.



Then we took the BRP to Mt Pisgah. They were camping there so we decided to stay at the Pisgah Inn. Luckily they had a vacancy. It was a really cool motel built right next to the BRP with a fantastic view. Of course I didn't take any pics so I'll just steal one of the web:

[klaviator]

The next day we headed north on the BRP and got off in Asheville to see the Biltmore Estate. At the ticket office we ran into a couple who had been in the raft with us a few days earlier. It's a small world.



Then we toured the Biltmore Mansion. It was a self guided tour and was not nearly as interesting as the Hearst Castle had been a few years earlier.



And of course Debbi wanted to see the floral gardens.



Then we headed back south on the BRP. Our destination was Gatlinburg. We took a detour down 276 to check out the Blue Ridge Cycle Camp.




I'm pretty sure that they have moved things around since I took this pic.

When we got to Gatlinburg we were able to find a nice cabin right in town for a reasonable rate. I doubt that would happen today. I doubt those cabins are still there. We did some tourist stuff and the next day headed back to TWO. My memory is pretty sketchy on this trip but I think we spent a couple of days at TWO.

I did go out for a ride with Frank while Debbi just relaxed at TWO. We swapped bikes for a bit. We both agreed that his Voyager handled better than my Venture and had much better brakes. The linked Brakes on my Venture had always sucked. The handling had started to deteriorate as the miles piled up.

I think I went out by myself and got this pic on one of my favorite roads in the area. Anyone familiar with the area should recognize this hairpin:



Not sure when I took these next two pics but Debbi and I were riding along, I think near Helen, when we saw this and Debbi insisted I take some pics.



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That's all from this trip. It wouldn't be long before my next big ride.

[Gdenn]

Really enjoying this, keep up the great report