Wow, what fun.
There’s little better in life than spending a weekend doing what you really enjoy with a bunch of other people doing the same.
Last weekend was a medium to large (depending on how you want to look at it) get together of owners of the same bike that I have. The Yamaha FJR 1300, sport-touring motorcycle or “super sport-touring??? as Yamaha marketing would have you believe.
The get together was in Boone, N.C. simply a wonderful place for riding. The roads were delicious.
For those that don’t understand what sport-touring is and think we all ride one of those dang crotch rockets, you’re only half right. You see those dang crotch rockets do a couple things really well. The go fast in a straight line, and they corner very, very well. The problem is, you can’t ride them very long. The slumped over the tank riding position isn’t conducive to ride from say Cincinnati to oh, Boone, N.C. and be able to walk when you get there.
A true touring bike like oh, say a GoldWing is much more comfortable. It has all the creature comforts of your lazy boy at home. In fact it’s a lot like riding a lazy boy, and they handle about as well too. (OK, so there are some guys out there than can flop those things around pretty good, but for the most part, that’s the reality).
Sport-touring is the in-between; it’s some sport-with some comfort too. We typically ride to where we’re going. So when we get there we want to be able to walk. But we want to enjoy the roads and have fun too.
The FJR is pretty good at this.
My trip started Thursday morning, though not as early as the guy I was meeting. Kevin’s day started at 5:00am CST. Coming from Birmingham Alabama, Kevin was aiming to do an Iron Butt, Saddle Sore ride. (1000 miles in 24 hours.) Since Birmingham isn’t 1000 miles away from Boone, that led to a rather interesting route.
I met Kevin in Frankfort, KY, about ½ way through is adventure and we slabbed it on down to Boone, N.C. from there.
I was supposed to meet him at noon, even though I knew he wouldn’t be there until 1pm, and he wasn’t there until almost 2pm. Fact: Streets and Trips doesn’t lie.
We arrived in Boone, N.C. at 1am EST. It was a long ride of boring interstate, except for I-40, that’s not boring interstate, and the evening really livened up when the fog rolled in. (Yippee).
The next 2 and days were spent surrounded by great folks, great food, and outstanding roads.
There were folks from all over, as far north as Canada eh?, as far west as Texas, and as far south as Florida.
All in all I added a little over 2000 miles to the FJR this weekend and except for the initial 600 miles the rest were in twisties or secondary highways. It was all good, even the ride home.
Photos in the gallery: