There are definitely good roads to ride here.  The miles tend to add up a bit as these roads are going somewhere - you end up doing big loops and speed limits are 55 except when going through populated areas.  The really curvy roads are impossible to keep up to the speed limit of 55mph.

The Breaks Interstate Park is a very nice place to stay - Camper or Cabin or Tent. The name comes from the "break" in the mountain that allows water to pass through, and this occurs in only 3 places in Pine Mountain..........and the "interstate" comes from the location of the park being in both KY and VA.  the park is privately owned and not funded by State or Federal money. It looks pretty central to a lot of good riding areas - however there are a lot of good riding areas that are a bit too far away.  Pine Mountain is 125 miles long and offers great riding along the entire length.

Traffic on the roads was very light - but it was weekdays and this was the first week of school.  There were a considerable number of gravel and lumber trucks - coal goes by railroad from the few coal mines that are still working.  The trucks are not hard to get around when needed as they  slow down a lot on the uphill climbs and curves.

My front tire is nearing the end of it's service life - riding down these steep and curvy roads did put a lot of wear on each side of the tire from nearly constant braking while going downhill while riding double!  I bought a very affordable front tire just to get me through the summer - it is an older model Dunlop Roadsporrt 2 and doesn't have all the fancy water sipes or compounds of the new expensive tires.  It has turned out to be a really good tire for the way I ride - when I get home I will check the mileage and decide if I want to get this tire again.  I have a new Dunlop Roadsmart IV that I bought during the last tire shortage scare to install - I likely don't really need expensive tires as the cheaper ones are working realy well......I try to avoid riding in the rain and I may not need all their fancy (expensive) tread designs and compounds.  When you go riding on curvy mountain roads in the summer when temperatures approach 90 - the rubber just shreds away regardless of how expensive the tire was.  

The Back of the Dragon is Route 16 from Marion, Virginia north 41 miles to Tazewell, VA.

What is even more amazing is it keeps going north on Route 16 for hundreds of miles!  The map shows a great section between Tazewell, VA and Beckley, WV.  Then another great looking section up near Charleston, WV.  The road continues to be called "The Trail of Dragons" all the way up to Saint Mary's, Ohio.  For sure we need to ride the Back of the Dragon and then continue on up to Beckly, WV.

All of this is making me want to trailer my bike up north somewhere.  It been around 100° here the past several days and the heat index is up to 115° in the area.  Some cool 90° weather sounds wonderful!

MMRanch wrote on 08/17/24 at 08:20:02:


There really isn't a lot of time to assemble a big group ride before the roads get covered in wet leaves, and the roads crowded with "leaf lookers" crowding the roads with their Mini'Vans and SUV's.

The Breaks is a 6 hour and 5 minute distance for MM (359 miles) if you take the MapQuest route on highways and don't make any stops along the way!  My trip there is more like 200 miles and 4 hours without stops........my neighbor and I have been looking at places to ride in KY so we don't need to make the 7 hour trip to Robbinsville or the 9 hour trip to Suches.

ThumperPaul wrote on 08/20/24 at 14:51:04:





REALLY

I still have my Son and Daughter-in law in the spare bedroom , but the other twin bed , bed room is available  if anybody wants to partake in a late September or early October day ride 'Fall Color Cruise' around the middle TN country side.  One day to get here's  , day two 'day ride' , day three back home is the sort of thing I like to do too.    

Let me know if anybody is interested in such ... I have a working bathroom and hot water in the house we're building that could be used for camping if Son and Daughter-in law are still using the spare bed room in a month , it's questionable right now.  

The Jack Daniel's BBQ is always the second weekend in Oct and the population of our county doubles for the week , but its an interesting time to go walk around the square .

I'll admit "Driving fast on a road like that makes me a little faint even to think about it" !  
But
Its a "Leaf Looking Lane"  !    
and there not all the same color either !!  

Putt , Putt , Look , Look , Putt , Putt , Putt , Look , Look , Look , repeat ! 

Its about the time of year for me to get these roads ever day for a couple of months !  

Za-rooom summer days  are  being replaced with Putt Putt Putt ... and that's OK !

This is my ride to town road , on roads like this a 350cc or a 110-125cc even ,  is better than a Goldwing  !

My neighbor and I have been riding the area at the Kentucky/Virginia border for a couple of days.  The riding here is great, and we believe it is better riding than our normal area down around Deals Gap in North Carolina.

This area has wonderfully curvy and hilly roads, and there are not any big towns or touristy areas that dray in large numbers of tourists.....even the "main" roads are "back" roads!  The mountains are smaller than the Blue Ridge/Smokies and there are no huge climbs like on the Cherohala Skyway - however the roads down the valleys are wonderfully relaxing to ride and full of curves.  The climbs up and down the mountains are just as fun as the Tail of the Dragon (without having to deal with all the car clubs that have been making the Dragon unsafe to ride).   It also has become apparent to us that you can ride longer distances between STOP signs and there are not any slow traffic areas where tourists clog the highway.

The pace in this area is also more laid back (similar to riding in Arkansas), and folks are very nice.  The coal mining in this area is not very active right now - and there are a lot of abandoned houses and shops.......all reminders of a thriving industry that is gone from this area.  The people in this area are living simpler lives than they are in Gatlinburg and Ashville!

I do believe this area is where I am going to spend more time riding in 2025!

NOTE:  The power line repair crews were in abundance in this area - we had crews from Texas, Indiana and Mississippi at our hotel on Saturday night - about a dozen trucks.  The crew from Texas had been on the road for 3.5 weeks - the repaired tornado damage in Texas before driving up here to work on the hurricane damage.  We were told that 6,000 lineman have been dispatched to make repairs in TN/NC/VA.  They are all repairing lines that were damages by Hurricane Helene, and we say a lot of trees on our ride yesterday that had been tipped out of the ground roots and all!  The work to clear the roads was completed - but the work to get broken poles and downed trees along the cross country lines is continuing.  The crews told us that they had been in the Asheville area the week before and parts of western North Carolina are so torn up that they cannot get in to repair the power lines - and that some places don't have any need for power as the building and residents are gone!