Spring 2013 - Romney, West Virginia - May 3-5

At the meet spot waiting for Tom.

Made it to the Days Inn in Bedford,VA.

Looking good. There will be a bigger contingent of Stroms this year. We have another one on the road today from Ontario, Canada, and some others from Trooper heading our way.

Talked to Larry (general manager) at Romney this evening. They have setup the showers, made dinner plans for Saturday and will have a coffee and electrical charging station setup by tomorrow. He seemed pretty excited to have everyone show-up.

Ride safe everyone. See you this weekend.

I'm out. My friend and I will not be going.

I'm workin

I'm just wasting time at work till I depart at 1230.

VAC

I gonna try to be out there tomorrow for a one day participation. My weekend is suddenly busy.

Talked to Larry, a very friendly accommodating GM, told him that this can go National . I would like to swing by tomorrow morning and meet the riders if I can get there before take off, or maybe join a short on road ride (though I going off road) . Still deciding if I would camp in Romney or CV....

Hats off to Dirt_Dad for spearheading this.
A safe and enjoyable ride to all.

It's 8:30 and I just finished helping my son dealing with a sewage flooded basement in his apartment. Other people's toilet sewage. I guess we've all been there, but . . .


Despite two scouting trips and looking forward to starting out with a group first thing, it's not going to happen. Discretion being the better part of old age, I'm beat and not going to contend with deer so that I can set up a tent at midnight.

I ought to arrive around 9-10 am and hope to have lunch with whoever is hanging around.

Bob
Checkswrecks

Still awake, this means can not make it before take off, shooting for noon at this point

Oscar

Excellent event evolving here. Romney Cycles was a great host and took spectacular care of us.

I rode this pig there. My 2002 KLR650 Commuter bike with 33K on the clock.


My little slice of heaven. Upgraded to a 3 man tent to hold me and all my crap plus an REI chair rated for 300 pounds.

I spied this SMIB in his natural environment...

Scott rode his Tiger but did the gravel ride.

Even though he rides the Tiger he is still a KLR guy. Check out his home made stuff sack for his sleeping pad. Yes, that is a leg from his walmart sweat pants.

We roughed it with stocked fire pit, heated showers, portajohns, charging station and coffee bar.

I rode to Rellas for pie on Saturday. Rella is the shorter better looking one.

Bad picture of good pie.


VAC

Had a great time. Tom and I finally made it home at 1830. We sorta took the senic route. We went to VA Beach via Monterey. It actually got colder the closer we got to home.

They really put on a super event, hats off to Romney and Dirt Dad.

I have some pics that I'll upload tomorrow.

Great event everyone. We had excellent weather, and a good turnout. Because of the different arrival times it's hard to know the exact number, the best guess is we had 28 riders. Whatever it was, it was a good group and made for a fun time around the fire each evening.

Have to say a huge thank you to Romney Cycles. They put in a lot of effort to getting the site ready for us and I think it really paid off. Hot showers, coffee, ice, water, dinner and more. Plus the last minute bike service several people told me about, it was a good example of why so many of us have realized Romney is different from other dealers. It seemed like every time I stopped in over the last few months Keven (the owner) and I would eventually talk about showers for the event. He really put some thought into it. So it was amusing to arrive on Friday and see Kevin. He was so excited to show off his showers. Both he and Larry were very proud of the solution they constructed.
Kevin/Larry: The showers were a huge hit. Very appreciated, thanks for the showers and everything else you did to make this a great weekend for everyone.

To anyone that wants to say anything to the guys at Romney just post it here and I'll make sure they see it. I know they would appreciate hearing any feedback from this event and any suggestions to make the event better next year.

Thanks to thfraser for leading the ride on Saturday, and to Wreckchecker for having a ride ready to go. I do hope your son's plumbing issues workout quickly.

Due an overflowing septic system in Pennsylvania on Friday evening, I ended up leading a pavement ride on Saturday morning. It's the one route I didn't have loaded in my GPS, but fortunately I'm pretty familiar with the roads in that part of West Virginia. Fortunately there so many fantastic options nearby it wasn't too hard assemble a good ride. We set off with the "Fabulous Baker Brothers" and newhoco (stromtrooper) from Toronto.

We hit Rt 72


Mount Storm


Blackwater Falls




And even found the other group during the ride.


Everyone seemed to enjoy the pavement ride. It was the first time I've ever lead a ride that included a scooter (Bergman). I have to say I was impressed with both the scooter and the rider. He did a great job riding it pretty aggressively. At lunch we were joined by Sail2xxs. After lunch the morning group headed north, and Sail2xxs and I set off for some rough dirt road.

We ripped it up pretty good for a while. We took a break by a river and were deep in the woods when a 21 year old Russian girl came walking up to us with a beer in hand. We talked for a while, then she told us she was a terrible driver, loves speed, and is getting her motorcycle license. Then she asked if we had any advice. We did what we could.

No photos of the Sail2xxs ride, but I do have some video of the technical road that I need to go through over the next few days. Chris is a hell of a rider. With almost 3 Tenere miles to every one of my Tenere miles, he puts me to shame. Chris, did you really need to catch me so quickly after I passed that car heading down Mt Storm leaving you stuck behind and out of sight? Actually I love riding with people who are better than me. It keeps me humble and lets me know I've still got a lot of room for improvement. Thanks for kicking my ass, even while following me.

I need to go through the helmet video I shot, and steal some of the photos you guys shot and I'll put together an event video. I'll post it here when I'm done.

Thanks everyone. it was a great weekend.

Mark B and I got home around 6:30 this evening.

Great riding past Seneca Rocks, past the radio observatory, through the Cranberry back country past Mt Nebo to the Gorge. Great raods, little traffic and high rates of speed.

Our trip would have been perfect if not for trhe 3 solid hours of cold rain from the WV border home.

Great time with everyone!

Anthony

Ditto the Great Weekend, we will return.............

A very Big Thanks To Romney Cycles

Links to some pics.

http://s196.photobucket.com/user/somerorr/slideshow/Romney 2013

another fine weekend in WV

Thanks again to Romney Cycles...........got to luv a hot shower!! Anyone else get a free shot with a cold shower curtain blowing in the breeze??

Nice to meet all you FF and in case your looking for more near the same area.........here is the linky for BYOB at Senaca Rocks June 27-30

http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=845290

yes

VAC you look to be 1/2 a slice o pie away from a food comma

Thanks to Dirt Dad for hooking me up with this excellent adventure , I made it home safely last night , after a couple of extra days riding and camping with Mike from buffalo . Sadly , we became separated in Altoona when coffee-lust drove him over a barrier I could not hurdle .. I tried to circle 'round via the highway emergency round-about , but did not find him . Oh well , another fine relationship comes to a sticky end in Altoona !
Mike , I hope to ride with you again , on your rocket-propelled KLR .

Romney Cycles ( and the whole town ) put on a fantastic weekend for us.
I'm just glad that the Tenere they had on the sales floor did not have luggage - that probably saved my marriage !

In for next year !

Alex