WackyDan
New member
Today I got a late start on my planned ride. First long ride in a long time due to work and the baby.
Left the Charlotte area around 3pm and decided to take the fast way out to Morganton, NC so I cheated and used the interstate to make up lost time.
Original goal was to head from there up to Mortimer and over to Mulberry Creek and maybe then up through Blowing Rock and back down. Came pretty close to doing that.
181 is a great road for fast sweepers.
Funny thing was the gps popped me up onto the Blue Ridge Parkway after 181... four miles up the BRP and the gps pointed me down RoseBoro Rd.
Now, Roseboro Rd turned out to be gravel. Sometimes hard pack but sometimes pretty loose... GPS said 5.7 miles, so I figured I would give it a run and take my time assuming 5.7 miles later I would pop out onto pavement. WRONG. That 5.7 miles of gravel ended up being 18 to 20 dead through the Pisgah National Forest. The road would go from hard pack to gravel to mixed every so often, and at times, you would have small ruts from washout. The sides of the road dropped off steeply at times, and the really cool thing was that at times the road was the actual bedrock. There was a surprise view around every corner and I was pressed for time or I would have taken more pictures.
Spyder handled it well, and I have been down worse roads with it. VSS kicked in a lot and the rear end slid around a bit, but I never felt I was pushing it too hard.
Here is a video and the google map.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8qjTrTe7XA[/ame]
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Matthews,+NC&daddr=Morganton,+NC+to:Jonas+Ridge,+NC+to:Mortimer,+NC+to:Collettsville,+NC+to:Lenoir,+NC+to:Matthews,+NC&hl=en&geocode=FQ3XFwIdIEEw-ymRuAuS8CNUiDGAR5je9xMWBw%3BFX9uIQIdrZYh-ym9xFJ6J85QiDGDhgHkohNn3Q%3BFZTlJAIdqGEe-ynTlByZxr9QiDH-NtG_9t0qkQ%3BFYAXJQIdkmsg-ynhl1lM4elQiDF_vyeyFwsUkQ%3BFTQuJAIdHr4h-ylJEtWq3txQiDEmnTuq0YMeHw%3BFSQBJAIdV9Aj-ykHeibaat9QiDG5uT26x_ADmg%3BFQ3XFwIdIEEw-ymRuAuS8CNUiDGAR5je9xMWBw&mra=ls&sll=35.673474,-81.388779&sspn=0.418349,0.617294&ie=UTF8&ll=35.930205,-81.725922&spn=0.416999,0.617294&z=11
Left the Charlotte area around 3pm and decided to take the fast way out to Morganton, NC so I cheated and used the interstate to make up lost time.
Original goal was to head from there up to Mortimer and over to Mulberry Creek and maybe then up through Blowing Rock and back down. Came pretty close to doing that.
181 is a great road for fast sweepers.
Funny thing was the gps popped me up onto the Blue Ridge Parkway after 181... four miles up the BRP and the gps pointed me down RoseBoro Rd.
Now, Roseboro Rd turned out to be gravel. Sometimes hard pack but sometimes pretty loose... GPS said 5.7 miles, so I figured I would give it a run and take my time assuming 5.7 miles later I would pop out onto pavement. WRONG. That 5.7 miles of gravel ended up being 18 to 20 dead through the Pisgah National Forest. The road would go from hard pack to gravel to mixed every so often, and at times, you would have small ruts from washout. The sides of the road dropped off steeply at times, and the really cool thing was that at times the road was the actual bedrock. There was a surprise view around every corner and I was pressed for time or I would have taken more pictures.
Spyder handled it well, and I have been down worse roads with it. VSS kicked in a lot and the rear end slid around a bit, but I never felt I was pushing it too hard.
Here is a video and the google map.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8qjTrTe7XA[/ame]
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Matthews,+NC&daddr=Morganton,+NC+to:Jonas+Ridge,+NC+to:Mortimer,+NC+to:Collettsville,+NC+to:Lenoir,+NC+to:Matthews,+NC&hl=en&geocode=FQ3XFwIdIEEw-ymRuAuS8CNUiDGAR5je9xMWBw%3BFX9uIQIdrZYh-ym9xFJ6J85QiDGDhgHkohNn3Q%3BFZTlJAIdqGEe-ynTlByZxr9QiDH-NtG_9t0qkQ%3BFYAXJQIdkmsg-ynhl1lM4elQiDF_vyeyFwsUkQ%3BFTQuJAIdHr4h-ylJEtWq3txQiDEmnTuq0YMeHw%3BFSQBJAIdV9Aj-ykHeibaat9QiDG5uT26x_ADmg%3BFQ3XFwIdIEEw-ymRuAuS8CNUiDGAR5je9xMWBw&mra=ls&sll=35.673474,-81.388779&sspn=0.418349,0.617294&ie=UTF8&ll=35.930205,-81.725922&spn=0.416999,0.617294&z=11
