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This is a trip report for my trip down to the ECR, or East Coast Rally. This is a small get together of Sportster riders form some of the various Sportster related lists or web groups. This trip I took my newly acquired 2001 Sportster Sport or XL1200S. I had picked the bike up used a couple of months before. This was its first long trip. The bike barely had 2000 miles on it when I got it. I would almost double that mileage in one long weekend.
Complete photographs are here:
Photos Well, I left my place Wednesday afternoon at about 3 PM, I took the Garden State Parkway south in order to take the Cape May ferry over to Lewes Delaware. I had to stop once for gas around Atlantic City and I ran into one of the guys that was cleaning up the rest area. Within about 90 seconds I think I new just about everything about this guy... What bikes and cars he likes, what movies and what music. He was a Jimi Hendrix fan so that was OK in my book.
I arrived at the Ferry terminal in plenty of the time for
the last ferry of the night. That is 6PM on the weekdays. I pulled behind a few cruisers from Canada, it turns out it was 3 women and one man heading to the gulf coast. That's a nice ride. Soon after a couple of more bike pulled in behind me, with 2 guys that were heading to Myrtle Beach or the Smoke Out, I forget which. They were a little surprised to find out that I tour on the Sportster.
My plan was to stay in Ocean City Maryland the first night and then ride west to the Roost on Thursday. That weekend OC was having a huge classic car show in town and on the boardwalk. But I was still able to find a cheap place to stay for that night that was nice and clean, quiet and under $45. Can't beat that. In the morning I headed out starting at the East coast starting point the the famous Rt 50. I've taken parts of this highway in a few states, to include CA, NV, UT, KS, MO, IL, IN, WV, DC and MD. Not sure How I missed CO in all that. Anyway at the start (or
finish for you left coasters) there is a sign that says "Sacramento Ca 3073" in Sacramento there is a sign that say Ocean City, MD 3037. I guess the trade winds make the trip shorter heading East.... (look at the numbers again)
Rt. 50 brought me out to 113 which would bring me south to 13 and then into Norfolk via the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. There I would catch Rt. 58 and head west. All these roads are of course not major roads and it make for a nice ride instead of taking the various interstates. To save a little bit of time I did eventually get on I-85 which took me to I-40. In Winston-Salem I picked up 421 which takes me right into Wilksboro, NC. The ride so far was pleasant and the weather was good.
The Motorcycle only campground we were staying at is only 15 miles south of Wilksboro on 268. The Rider's Roost is a great place to stay, this is my second time there and I recommend it to anyone. Dan, Mike, Kris and Phil were already there when I arrived at the roost. John arrived soon after that and then
we all headed to Wilksboro for dinner.
After dinner we headed back and Gary had arrived from Georgia while we were having dinner. We tried to start a fire but within minutes of getting it started it began to pour and we ended up at the pavilion shooting the shit and having some beers with Uncle Roy, our host.
I rented a cabin instead of bringing a tent, the cabins are nothing more than a 8 by 8 shed with a bed and a light. The roof is metal so they can be a little loud during a downpour. And would we get some rain this weekend.
On Friday we took a ride down to Lenoir for Breakfast and then headed out on a nice long ride around the Pisgah National Forest. It's really hard not to find nice roads to ride in the area. 421 "The Snake" we would take on the Saturday ride so today it would be less technical roads but great roads all the same. We took 90 to 181 and then up to the Blure ridge Parkways and then back along basically the same route. We did start to get some rain
and the fog also rolled in so it was slow going at times but all in all it was a gret ride. Gary and his 'not so trusty' GPS was leading the way and I think we ended up only taking one wrong turn.
Eventually we headed back to camp so that we could hook up with any of the folks arriving on Friday afternoon before we headed out for some Italian food in Wilksboro. The restaurant happened to be right next to the HD dealer, imagine that.
On Saturday we got a later start and first headed out via some back roads (I think they all are back roads) to a place where we would have lunch. I forget the name but it's a big place that serves you family style with Fried Chicken and Ham and all the fixings. The chicken was great but the ham was just nasty if you ask me. Not sure what they cured it in but sulfur and motor oil come to mind.
After lunch we head to the Snake, Rt 421 to be exact, most of the fun part in over the Tennessee border between Mountain City and Bristol,
TN. There is a Country Store in Shady Valley that serves as the midway point and meeting spot for all the bikes that ride the Snake. We did that first leg and stopped at the store for a short rest. When we left we headed west on 421 for a while and then found a place to turn around and headed back east. We were spread out a lot by this time and Dan and Gary would pick a place east of the major twisty area to gave us all regroup for the ride back to the camp ground.
When we left on that last leg of the Snake run I was right behind Kris and Mike was behind me. We came to a section that had two hairpin turns back to back, this was also going down hill. I was keeping my eyes on Kris as a way to keep myself looking trough the corners. On the last hairpin turn she was coming out of the turn pretty well but was a little close to the outside edge of the road. This happens all the time in those tight corners especially when you are going downhill. She was
not going fast and she seemed to be looking ahead and not to the side or anything.
In that particular part of the road the pavement ended right at the white line. Most of the time there is at least a foot of pavement past the line. Of course you don't always see that because you are looking through the turn and not staring at the side of the road.
What I guess happened in that her tire slipped off the pavement and onto the gravel shoulder. The other bad thing was that the gravel was a few inches lower than the road, that means the tire dropped a bit while the bike was leaned over for the turn. Not a good thing anywhere or at anytime. I saw the marks on the gravel from her tire and it showed that the tire slid sideways as soon as it hit the gravel. I don't think anyone could recover from that kind of situation.
The bike went down and she went down and did a tumble. I did not catch all of it but she must of slid under the guard rail. By this time I was trying
to stop my bike on the shoulder without crashing myself.
Kris was laying at the top of the embankment with her head and upper body over the side. As I jumped over the rail, she started to move and that made her to start to slide and tumble down the hill. It was a long way down, maybe a few hundred feet and it was pretty steep. Too steep to run down so I slid down on my butt and managed to get in front of her before she got too far. By this time Mike was right behind me. Kris was about 50 ft down before we were able to stop her.
She was awake and talking to us and it did not seem too bad. She was definitely in shock and she was asking the same series of questions every minute or so. Things like How far is she down the slope, where is her bike, what happened and the like.
I think if we let her she would have tried to climb up the hill herself. By this time the rest of the group were top side and called 911. Her right side was
hurting but that was the side of her that was resting against me. I was down hill from her and I was dug in to keep us from sliding any farther down.
When the EMT's got there they had to lower a basket and a back board down the hill to the group of us that where with her. In a short time Dan had joined us and we helped the EMT's secure her to the board for the trip back up the slope.
They had to use a winch to bring her up the slope and the called for a helicopter to bring here to a hospital in Johnson City. It's nothing but back roads and although it was only 45 miles away it would have taken 90 minutes to get there by car.
They had ropes for us to climb back up the slope and we started to get all her gear of the bike so that the wrecker could take it away. The front wheel was bent and the handle bars and triple trees were tweaked. Say what you will about spoked rims but with a bend so bad that you could see the
inner tube, that baby still held air.
Of course it started to rain again and while Dan, Mike and Gary headed off to the hospital the rest of us headed back to the camp ground. A little slower and very concerned for Kris.
Some of the riders wanted to stop for dinner in Wilksboro while some of us just wanted to get back to the roost. Phil, John and I headed back, but stopped to get some burgers to take back with us. By this time we were soaked and walked into the BK sloshing water wherever we went. As we were about to leave one of the locals asked where we were headed to. We told him Furgeson, and he said that the road was closed due to floods and mud slide or two. Great what else can happen.
After what seemed like an eternity he gave us directions for the detour. We headed out in the dark rainy night on some unfamiliar roads. "Adventure suck while you having them." (Neil Peart) We did make it back OK and got out of our wet gear and had a beer or two with our food.
They
kept Kris in the Hospital overnight but she was luck and only had bruises on her right side. She was wearing full gear to include a full face, Draggin jeans, and a jacket with armor. Of course all nicely cut up now at the hospital.
Dan, Mike and Gary did not make it back until 3 AM or so. Their ride was also long and slow from Johnson City. In the morning Dan said that he would rent a truck and put his and Kris's bike in the back and ride back to NJ. He had the week off anyway and he lives close to Kris.
On Sunday I left the Roost in pouring rain and headed back to NJ. I took the direct route (I-77 to I-81) but wanted to bypass the DC and Baltimore areas. The rain did let up when I hit the Roanoke area, but I kept my rain gear on for the whole trip to help with the cold and wind that we were having.
That last day was about 600 mikes of riding and I got in just before midnight. The bike handles superb and I really like the tunable suspension
and extra ground clearance. I never dragged any parts the whole time. I also noticed the extra power of the 'S' model on the highway when you rolled on the throttle at highway speeds. My other 1200 would have to be down shifted most of the time, not so with the extra ponies available on the 'S'.
The total mileage for the trip was 1636 miles and the bike averaged 48 MPG. And the bike was running great and not too lean either. The bike was jetted for the SE air cleaner and pipes. I replace the mufflers with the stock units before the trip.
As far as Kris's bike, the damage was the front rim, lower triple tree, fork tubes bent, handlebars bent also and the clutch lever and mirrors. With some spare parts that I had (wheel and Triple tree) we were able to get her bike road worthy the next weekend. We did not notice that the forks were bent until we had them out. A trip down to Nick's Custom Cycles in Williamstown, NJ had that fixed in short order.
We thought went there to pick up some new fork tubes, but once
there "Machine Shop Bob", as he was called by the rest of the crew, was able to straighten them out in his press. And we didn't even have to take the forks apart. Nick's is an old time MC joint and is worth a trip even if you don't need anything. They have a museum of their own and a ton of parts and used bikes for sale. I took a walk in the back to look for Bob at one time and the whole place was crammed with parts and bikes. Just barely enough room to walk around. I love the place.
Well that's it for now, need to start planning the next trip.
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roadcapDen
non-member comment
Nice write up
Dec, Thx.