North Carolina traffic laws have an automatic 55 mph speed limit which does apply in those 35-45 mph mountain roads.   You can't speed, because you can go as fast as you want to go around all those curvy NC roads.

No one in our groups has to my knowledge ever gotten a ticket in NC during the 10 years we have been doing this.   This is not true in other states we have traveled.

Density of very good curvy roads favors the NC areas west and north of Asheville NC.


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HOWEVER, this isn't what Dave asked ---- is there a rider group centered around somewhere else where we can meet up and ride?

And.....there is no reason that we cannot have more than one event in more than one location.  If someone wants to set up a West Coast event....let a Moderator know and we can set up a sticky for your planning and reporting.  Same for the Mountains of Colorado, Sturgis....or anywhere that has great roads and scenery.  Some will be able to attend.....some will not.....same for our Tennessee/North Carolina event.

This is the thread for thinking out loud.


Dave

http://www.motorcycleroads.com/Routes/West-Virginia_124.html


Let the insert map have a few minutes to color the roads in according to the rating system.

West Virginia has a lot of motorcycle rated roads (most of them, actually)


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2005 West Virginia Code - §17C-6-1. — Speed limitations generally; penalty.
§17C-6-1. Speed limitations generally; penalty.
(a) No person may drive a vehicle on a highway at a speed greater than is reasonable and prudent under the existing conditions and the actual and potential hazards. In every event speed shall be so controlled as may be necessary to avoid colliding with any person, vehicle or other conveyance on or entering the highways in compliance with legal requirements and the duty of all persons to use due care.
(b) Where no special hazard exists that requires lower speed for compliance with subsection (a) of this section, the speed of any vehicle not in excess of the limits specified in this section or established as authorized in this section is lawful, but any speed in excess of the limits specified in this subsection or established as authorized in this section is unlawful. The following speed limits apply:
(1) Fifteen miles per hour in a school zone during school recess or while children are going to or leaving school during opening or closing hours. A school zone is all school property, including school grounds and any street or highway abutting the school grounds and extending one hundred twenty-five feet along the street or highway from the school grounds. The speed restriction does not apply to vehicles traveling on a controlled-access highway which is separated from the school or school grounds by a fence or barrier approved by the division of highways;
(2) Twenty-five miles per hour in any business or residence district; and
(3) Fifty-five miles per hour on open country highways, except as otherwise provided by this chapter.
The speeds set forth in this section may be altered as authorized in sections two and three of this article.

Someone who lives there would have to comment on how often they mark the roads with lowered limits, how harsh enforcement is, etc.

Road density in WV isn't as great as the areas we have been riding.   In WV you are going from point A to point B on the only road up there.

Much of the mountain region of WV is federal forest and parkland, so expect that level of "civilization" and that number of gas stations.

Carry a spare gas can in your saddle bags.  

Expect to share the road with commercial trucks and lots of cars.

It was too short, he says.

It started on Wednesday the 18th and ran to Wednesday the 23rd, so it was as just as long calendar-wise as any outing we have ever done.

Are you really saying you didn't get to do all the cool things that you had had actually planned to do?  That it left you wanting MORE ?   Good.

Now this is true, we did use up ALL the available time in a very thickly packed fashion, from wake up all the way to snooze time and we did manage to INCLUDE everybody in everything that was going on while we were up at your farm.   And we did do a lot of neat stuff that fit everybody's liking, and we managed that by tasking folks to find us a new neat place to eat so dinner was always good and fresh and everybody did have something to look forward to.

The smaller trips are generally the better trips, I have always thought so.

I was always partial to those reconnoiter runs that we did hopping from hotel to hotel -- that was always fresh and new too.

The AMA magazine had a listing for Harrison Arkansas as a motorcycle destination.  I don't know anything about riding in the Ozarks.

Here is a link to their website:

http://www.harrisonarkansas.org/c_upe_view.php?id=34&PHPSESSID=ed7352585d7ee6...

I just spent some times on Motorcycleroads.com and these folks are just a compilation of the varous roads folks have actually ridden upon.

Many listed are relatively larger roads because touring guys do most of the writing.

Example:    Hwy 32 isn't listed at all, nor are some of the better roads like Hwy 80 we all know about.

West Virginia doesn't really excite me as the only roads there are the major from A to B roads, roads that are likely well improved by now.

The roads we tend to like the very best are converted & paved logging roads, dating back 200 yrs plus to the horse cart travel era.

This sort includes Hwy 32 and the Dragon ....   You find them at the edges of populated areas (takes tax money to pave them little roads, it does, and that requires lots of people nearby to fund it).

Go to Google Earth and zoom way out and look at your state for the topo coloring for green areas, this will identify your heavy mountain areas in the various states.   Then zoom in at the areas of interest, down to the local road level, looking for smaller roads with curves that just about touch themselves sometimes -- that indicates the sort of road we like.

West Virginia has lots of mountains, but all the roads seem to go straight from A to B and may have been improved to death to carry the traffic flow.

Boone NC area is mountainous, but when you look at the various ski type mountain areas around it you see a lot of neighborhoods with development streets -- might not be wild enough for us to skate through there (too populated).

Western NC / Tennessee is remote enough that the population doesn't justify extreme traffic enforcement but it has enough money to pave (but not straighten/improve) the roads.

ALfromN.H.  FSO wrote on 07/27/14 at 04:44:28:


The Kancamagus Hwy would be a worthwhile road.  https://www.google.com/maps/place/Kancamagus+Hwy,+NH/@44.014894,-71.4274354,1...