All-
On the recommendation of a good friend I decided to take a ride out the
Shenandoah National Park in Virgina this past Sunday. For those not
familiar with the area, the Park is 300 square miles streched out along
Skyline Drive in the Blue Ridge mountains of Northern Virgina...
The Drive:
Skyline Drive is a 110 mile strech of road along the ridges of the Blue
Ridge mountians, and is basically a northern continuation of the Blue
Ridge Parkway. The road surface is a hard aggregate of some type, it
isn't asphalt and it isn't concrete, it almost looks like the roads
treated with the oil and stone method, but exceptionally smooth and flat
(no heavy trucks allowed on the road!). It is a two lane highway with
frequent scenic overlooks and no shoulder, usually hemmed in by a
hillside and a cliff face, and a posted 35 mph speed limit. The road
goes north/south from Front Royal, VA to Waynesboro, VA covering about
110 miles of ridge. There are only two exits, one about 37 miles from
Front Royal and another about 50, I believe, from Waynesboro. There are
two gas stations located along the Drive.
Entrace fees are $10 for a 7 day pass or $20 for a year pass. The
rangers don't man the ticket booths until 7am so in theory you could
dodge this, but once you see how beautiful and well maintained it is
you'll wish you paid to support it.
The Bike:
1991 KLR650 with 7700 miles, dynojet stage 2, Cobra four-stroke
exhaust, Avon AM-24 gripsters, Russell stainless front brake line,
Progressive front springs and a Works rear shock. Tires were run at
30/32 f/r for the duration of the trip. The front fender was removed and
an Acerbis low fender was installed (eliminated some of the high speed
wiggle). Bike was fed Mobil 93 octane exclusively and is lubed by Mobil
1. Average mileage for trip was 50 mpg.
Impressions and Thoughts:
This was my first trip on the bike and I was extremely apprehensive as
I didn't have any spares or tools except for a Swiss Army knife. The
bike never let me down and ran like a top... In fact ran even better
once I got some real non-alcohol gas into her.
In short, the road is to die for. It is a 100 miles of twisting, rising
and falling road surrounded by incredible scenery. And too boot, nary a
cop to be seen.
In long...
I arrived at the entrance to the park at 6:30am on the dot after having
left Washington, DC at 5:30am. The trip on Rt. 66 to Skyline is about 60
miles of dreadful superslab with awful drivers and wicked crosswinds but
it was pleasantly foggy and quiet Sunday morning. As I pulled away from
the park entrance the sun had just begun to hit the road and a heavy
mist was burning off. I took the first 20-30 miles lesuirely, as there
was no traffic at that earlier hour, and experimented with the KLR... I
had no idea of the lean I could get or the amount of grip the Avons had,
and I had never driven the bike hard before.
When I came into my first serious corner I took it slow and kept the
bike up, but when I realized that every corner was marked "30mph" with a
right angled arrow I couldn't help but to speed up a little. It didn't
hurt that these signs kept popping up every 45 seconds. I found the bike
to be incredibly stable through the corners, nary a waggle or a shudder
was to be felt the whole day, and as I became more in touch with this my
speed through the corners increased greatly.
There were many corners on that road where I was heel dragging at 60
mph... and probably could have done the rest at the same pace if I knew
how to corner better. But even with my novice riding the bike was
flawless through the corners. I had globs of clearance, nothing upset
the suspension, and the tires were excellent. It was very forgiving when
I screwed up a corner and it never, ever did anything that scared me.
The road at that hour was nearly deserted and extremely peaceful and it
gave me the opportunity to come up with these rules for riding
Skyline....
1) If you see one deer near the road, there are even more you can't see
(yet) so slow down!
2) Turtles are not good things to hit.
3) The majority of scenic overlooks are on corners and have car traffic
cutting across the road, probably around the corner where you can't see
them. Slowing down and covering your brakes is highly recommended
regardless of how good the corner looks.
4) Rangers hang out at the scenic overlooks. Another good reason to slow
down.
5) Because of the 35 mph limit on the road and the scenic beauty, most
cars aren't doing much more than that. Flashing them once and putting
your blinker on is good protocol. Most of them don't want a biker
tailgating them and will gratefully wave you past. Double yellows mean
nothing on this road, but being respectful of the other people on the
road is a good thing.
6) Getting there early in the morning is good. No traffic at all and
you'll feel like you own the road. By about 11 a.m. there was a car
every quarter mile at least.
7) Camelbacks mean that you don't have to stop. And that is a good thing
on this road.
When I finally got to Waynesboro (the southern terminus of Skyline)
about 2.5 hours later I made a visual inspection of the bike and found
that my Avons were nicely sticky (to the touch!) and looked slightly
porous. I can only assume this was good (if not, please someone tell
me!) and I was happy to see that the tires had been ridden to about a
half inch to a quarter inch of the sidewalls. Finally got all that
release compound off
I had a nice little stare down with some harley
riders (tee shirts, skull caps and shorts) when I walked into the
McDonalds in my Roadcrafter, ff helmet and camelback. I think I scared
the server.. She had to type in my order 5 times before she got it
right.
The return back up Skyline was incredible as the drive down, but about
half way the traffic got much worse. Even so that couldn't dampen my
spirits and I enjoyed the rest of the road. The return home on Rt.66
into DC was absolutley miserable... Heavy crosswinds and 4 lanes of
packed traffic did not make me happy.
All in all, the trip was fanastic, and I am so excited to have found
such a gem only an hour away from DC. The bike was incredible. It
handled wonderfully and burbled along quite happily at 60-75mph the
whole trip. After inspecting my Avons and thinking about the stupid lean
angles I had in some of the corners, I can't imagine what this bike
would be like with a set of sticky street tires on it. Also the bike
seemed to become smoother as the day progressed and the exhaust note
picked up a deep mellowness that was music to my ears. Only
complaints... the grips and handlebars are awful at speeds above 75 (to
be remedied with lead shot soon) and the seat is almost right but just a
little too narrow for me. My ass didn't start to hurt until I hit 66 o
nthe way home. If anyone in the area wants to ride this and wants some
company... I am game.
Thanks for listening to me gush about the ride, I am sorry that I can't
describe it better, but I think that I haven't really gotten over it yet
and believe me, my girlfriend is already sick of hearing me talk about
it.
Thanks,
Zack
1991 KLR