Scootin Through the North Carolina Mtns - 2 up on an Aprilia CS250

[klaviator]

Heading back towards Franklin on 28 we stopped at Bridal Veil Falls.



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[klaviator]

Just a few miles down the road is Dry Falls so we stopped to take a look.



Not sure where the name came from, these falls didin't look dry to me.



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Then we headed back to Franklin. We ended up eating at the Blue Ridge Roadhouse again. We finished up the evening by walking around downtown for a bit.

[E-man]

Mega up
Awesome pictures and your description of heavily trafficked roads is spot on

[klaviator]

I woke up early Monday morning - who can sleep with all those great roads just waiting to be ridden?

So I went for a short solo ride.



I wanted to ride one of my favorites which we missed yesterday.



Yeah, one of those roads with endless curves.



And little traffic

I also did some exploring and went down a road I had not explored before. I didn't have time to follow it through and see where it went. I'll be sure to check it out next time.

Time to head back and see if sleeping beauty was awake. So I headed back. It was a nice little 50 mile ride.

When I got back Debbi was not only awake but nearly ready to go.

Next up - doing something I never thought I would do

[klaviator]

We decided to head over to Deal's Gap. Normally I won't go near the place on a weekend, especially a holiday weekend, but the roads there and back are a great ride and we probably wouldn't actually ride through Deal's Gap. Besides, the store is a cool place to hang out, check out all the bikes and talk to other riders.

We took 28 towards Deal's Gap. 28 is one of my favorite roads. A few miles down the road Debbi commented how much she liked the road. lots of nice sweepers. And we hadn't even got to the best part yet

So we had a blast riding the curves

Right in the middle of the best of the curves, we took a turnoff. It's not a "real" adventure without a little dirt right?



We only went a couple of miles to get to this.



It's a bridge from nowhere to nowhere.



I'm not sure what purpose it serves.



Except to amuse tourists like us. It does bounce up and down quite nicely.

It provides a nice place to take pictures.



Parking the scooter on the soft dirt without it falling over was a challenge but I managed to find a spot. Like many scooters, the Aprilia has a centerstand but no side stand. This makes parking more challenging at times.



Then we geared back up.



And headed back out.

We even tackled some mud.



I don't have knobbies on the scooter but I figured adding an ADV sticker to the tail trunk made it off road capable

[achtung3]

Love your scoot! Great pics and it seems that your are having a great time, it shows us that there is no need to have a big bulky machine to have real fun.

Keep the pics coming and thank's for sharing. Pretty inspiring.

The older I get the smaller the bike I want! I will be there.

[tastroman]

Looks like you are putting her to good use.

I find those 10mph turns much easier with a CVT.

[klaviator]

Originally Posted by E-man

Mega up
Awesome pictures and your description of heavily trafficked roads is spot on

Thanks. Luckily, none of the roads were as heavily trafficked as I expected for a holiday weekend.

Originally Posted by achtung3

Love your scoot! Great pics and it seems that your are having a great time, it shows us that there is no need to have a big bulky machine to have real fun.

Keep the pics coming and thank's for sharing. Pretty inspiring.

The older I get the smaller the bike I want! I will be there.

I agree with you on the big bulky machine. Although big may be more comfortable, especially on the highway, on the roads I like to ride, smaller is more fun.

Originally Posted by tastroman

Looks like you are putting her to good use.

I find those 10mph turns much easier with a CVT.

Smaller and lighter also make those hairpins easier and much more fun

[klaviator]

After our "extreme off road adventure", we got back on 28 and had fun on more curves Then 28 turned into a 4 lane, 55 MPH road for about 20 miles or so. This was not the best place for a small 250cc scooter but it did the job. We did slow down some on the long steep hills, but then it was easy cruising going down hill.



Eventually, 28 became a 2 lane road again and the curves began. First there were lots of high speed sweepers and the some nice tight turns. The last section before getting to Deals Gap is particularly nice with great curves and also very scenic as it runs along the water.

We pulled into Deals Gap expecting a huge crowd.



It really wasn't that busy. It was no more crowded than when I came here back in March. The mix of bikes was quite different though. Back in march there were lots of serious sport bikes. Today the parking lot was dominated by Harleys.

There was one other bike with an ADV sticker, a Triumph Tiger. I had met the rider before although I never new his name. He introduced himself and of course I promptly forgot it Having CRS disease is a terrible thing.

We did get him to take our "we were there" picture.



Then we walked around and looked at bikes. A BMW R1200GS caught Debbi's eye because it had some really rugged looking aluminum luggage on it. I explained that it was designed to handle really rugged adventure riding. The thing that caught my eye was that there was not a spec of dirt anywhere on the bike So much for rugged adventure riding

It was nearly noon and it was starting to get hot. So, how hot was it you ask?

It was so hot that this Harley burst into flames.

[klaviator]

After hanging out for a while, it was time for lunch. We timed it perfectly, there was no line at the counter. 10 minutes later there was a line of about 15 people. Lunch was good, but nothing note worthy.

After lunch we decided that since traffic was lighter than expected, we would go ahead and ride through Deals Gap. No doubt there would be some law enforcement present but the word was that they were only ticketing flagrant speeders. I figured we would be OK if I kept it under 40 or so

So off we went. Debbi decided to try some action photography. Here's a sample of her shots. Enjoy the ride.



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OK, are you dizzy yet. Actually, this road is much twistier than it looks in the photos. There are 318 curves in 11 miles.

[klaviator]

As I mentioned earlier, traffic was much lighter than I expected for a holiday weekend. There was still some traffic however. As usuel, most of the cars and cruisers go through here at a snails pace so even though I was taking it easy, we soon came up behind a slow moving cage. I had no intentions of trying to pass today so I just pulled over and then waited for a few minutes to give us a clear road for a couple of miles and then pulled over again. I only had to do this a few times. I just can't handle going that slow, I think I would fall asleep. Since that would be dangerous, I rode fast enough to be safe

It was still an ejoyable ride down to the overlook where we turned around. One of the reasons we rode through the Gap was to get our picture taken by some professional photographers. There where a number of them out today although we seemed to catch some of them by surprise. Unlike all the straight pipe Harleys or even sport bikes, I don't think they heard us coming. Most of them still got plenty of pictures of us riding by. I thought that US129 Photographers got the best pics and best of all, they where running a buck a picture special for Memorial Day weekend. Where else can you get a professional photogragher to take your picture for a dollar???

Here's the ones I bought:




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[achtung3]

Not fair! You two are having too much fun! Way more than me.

[ShimrMoon]

Hey, it doesn't matter that you trucked over to NC, we're glad you came and you showed all the haters that you can have a blast on a little ole 250 scooter, 2 up at that! You don't have to have the latest, greatest whatever...

Just come on back to visit the "Old North State" anytime.

[feline]

What a great time! Thanks for bringing us all along!

[klaviator]

Originally Posted by achtung3

Not fair! You two are having too much fun! Way more than me.

Can't have "too much fun"

Originally Posted by ShimrMoon

Hey, it doesn't matter that you trucked over to NC, we're glad you came and you showed all the haters that you can have a blast on a little ole 250 scooter, 2 up at that! You don't have to have the latest, greatest whatever...

Just come on back to visit the "Old North State" anytime.

I think I enjoyed the ride more on my scooter than I would have on a MV Augusta, Ducati, or other high performance sport bike, especially Deals Gap. Riding Deals Gap on a fast bike with the slow traffic and law enforcement present would have been more frustrating than fun.
Besides, I enjoyed having Debbi Along. The Aprilia is surpisingly comfortable two up, more than many larger bikes.

As for coming back, I'll be trucking back up in a week or so to do some dual sport riding

Originally Posted by feline

What a great time! Thanks for bringing us all along!

Thanks for following along!



I still have a little more to post. I've been having computer problems but I'll try to finish up soon.