5 Days / Phili to Knoxville to Barber Round Trip

What do you do when one of your best friends asks you to be his
best man and he is thinking VIR Superbike Race for a Bachelor / Getaway trip.

Well I don't know Ricky Johnson, so having him set us up with an epic ride was
out of the question.

The best thing I could come up with was:
Wednesday go to Knoxville and hook up with my buddy Jason,
Thursday Rip in the dirt for a full day. Then on Friday head to Barber
to see the museum and Saturday 8-18 we would schedule a Track Day with NESBA.
Then home on Sunday.

That was the plan and here is the short story and lots of pics.

We did not quit our jobs or sell all of our stuff, and we did use a trailer to get there.
We also did have a great time.

If using the Trailer makes us unworthy, we understand.



Parking Lot Breakfast at Sheetz, Mount Joy, PA.
Thats Chris on the Right (the one getting married in 2 Weeks) and Wiggy on Left.
Chris rides an 06 KTM 450 EXC and a 05 GSXR 1000.
Wiggy has the wrecked Rossi Addition R6 (Thats another story) and a Dual Sported WR450.
Ive got the 03 GSXR 1000 and an 04 Dual Sported TC450 Husky.

Fast Forward 10 Road hours to Knoxville.
Thats Jason on the left and myself (Sven) on the right.

He's got a 640 Duke in the Garage and a KTM 450 EXC.
The Duke is perfect for ripping up the Tail of the Dragon,
and other nearby great roads.

So we drank some beers and ate some Pizza.

Swapped the bikes around so we could use Jasons trailer (I know there is that word again) to get to the Coal Creek Mining Company riding
area in the morning.

Thats Jason's wife Christi and Daughter Jessie.

We unloaded at the Trail head. The plan was to ride over
the mountains to Scottys for the Lunch and get fuel
across the street.

The trail is mostly fast 2 track stuff. I rode some of it last
summer and it was wet and slick. Actually it was the
slickest trails I have ever ridden, the trails are full of
clay in sections. But on this summer day it was
very hot and dry. The area is in a drought.

The Elevation changes here are incredible. Lots of
challenging up and down hill sections.

We made are way over the Mountain and down into
a Valley with a Creek Crossing.

Im not a big butterfly freek or something but my kids
really enjoyed the pictures of them.

I got a flat rear tire about 1 hour from lunch.
Jason asked me if I wanted to head back to the
Truck. "Are you kidding me, Lets Ride and go Eat".

Here we are at Scottys.
Great Greasy food, and they are happy
to have Dirt Bikers Business.

There was a small school with a big
playground down the hill.

The Bathroom was, well lets just say it has
running water.

We all enjoyed our burgers.

Then it was across the street to get some needed fuel
and water for our camelbacks.

I tried to put some fix a flat in my tube but discovered
my bead lock had broken and sheared my valve stem off.

We had no tube and there was no cycle shop in town so
back up the mountain we went.

Even taking the short way home it was a couple hours back
to the truck.

Here we are on top of the Mountain.

Chris noticed my front tire was just about flat to.

There was nothing to do but Ride.

I should have taken it easy but I was still riding the
bike hard and still having a blast.
There were several small water crossings,
when my rear wheel would get wet (we tightened the
bead lock up all the way, the rubber was gone, just metal
to metal contact) the rim would spin up like crazy.
I would be 3rd gear half to 3/4 throttle going about 5MPH
until the rim would dry out and the tire would get hot enough
to grab a hold of the rim.

Abusing the bike like this makes some people cringe but
for some reason I enjoy it. Between bashing both rims
on the rocks and hearing the waterlogged husky motor
trying to make power, it was very amusing. (The Carb
on all the four stroke 04 Husky's is Junk, and mine
was acting up.)

Anyway I finnaly lost the front end in a corner, busted my
rear fender and ended up taking a soil and rock sample.

Jason just laughed and said "Maybe if you had some air
in your tires it would handle a little better".

The Crash slowed me down a bit and we were now close
to an access road that we took to get back to the truck.

So here we are on the access road and
Chris gets a front flat.

We all run heavy duty tubes and ride
in the Rocks of Central, PA. We just had
a bad luck tube day.

So Chris is tired of me ridding in front of
him with 2 flat tires and decides to push
it down the access road to the truck.

He loses his front end also in a high
speed corner on the gravel road.

Air in his font tire would have also been
beneficial.

Anyway it created a great photo op. And
we took some pics.

Jason asked us if we could "please stop crashing
so we can just get back to the truck for some cold beer"
We only had about 20 minutes to go.

So we did that.

Hey Sven and Jason,
Thanks for the pics and report. Just what I needed to get me moving on a Sat morning. Coincidentially, the same weekend I think, the rest of Team Hairball was riding in the CO mountains. Nothing else in this world like ripping with your buddies.
Papa

Back at the Truck:

Wiggy found he had a Stick bug on him
that was along for the Ride.

Chirs and I had a couple scrapes and bruises to.

Papa,

Good to here from you. I would love to get
out there and Rip with you guys sometime.

Sven

The Heat in the parking lot was pretty intense.

Wiggy and I could feel our heads pounding
from loading up the bikes and getting changed
in the Sun. It was about 4:30 and our ride was
cut short due to my Flat tires.

Oh well, you know what that means.

Time for Food and Beer.

So we went to the Market.

We picked out some killer steaks and I picked out
the biggest Baked Potatoes I have ever seen.

The guys tried to get me to put them back, but
I would'nt listen.

We had to visit the Beer Isle of course.

Back to Jason's to Cook, Drink, and be Merry.

And we were Very Merry.

Finish up with dinner and some more Beers.




Then off to bed so we can drive out to Barber in the
morning.

Kick ass! Me jealous..........

So here we are at the entrace to Barber
Motorsports Park.


Here is the Museum from the parking lot.

And a picture of our Rig in the Lot.

This Sculpture depicts the feeling
of a Motorcycle Racer or something
like that.
There is art everywhere on the Grounds
at Barber.

I saw you guys at Barber. I was there 8-18 and 19 on the HP2. Were you the KTM in the Intermediate group? Looks like a dream trip to me!!! It was a great time. Here's me finally getting the "hang" of the HP2 on the track.

This Large display gives you a small idea of
whats in store when you walk inside the
Museum.

This is actually just in the Foyer of the
building when you walk in.

Sweet Mike, Looks like you were tearing it up.

Jason did not make the trip, One of his buddies
talked him out of running his Duke there, he
thought he would need more HP for the Track.

We were all bummed that Jason did not come
along for the Track Day.

Sven