Today I woke up to clear skies, 68˚ and no humidity. I wiped down Ol' Blue and packed her up. By 8am she was fired up and headed west. I eventually jumped on I-26 heading for Spartanburg, SC. The roads gradually evolved into fast sweepers with very little traffic. And all of a sudden I had this strange feeling. My hands were actually cold. After two of the most brutal, hot and humid days of riding, I was using my heated grips!
I couldn't wipe the grin off of my face. No sweating, no foggy face shield and glasses. At a few spots my ambient temp read 53˚, a 40˚+ temp difference.
Just outside of Spartanburg, I got on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It is a 450 mile stretch of road that is the exact opposite of the roads in Florida, hardly a straight anywhere. And full of motorcycles. I imagine that for every mile you cover as the bird flies, you cover about 5 miles of road. The maximum speed limit for the entire parkway is only 45mph however; not so good for the sportbikes but perfect for a relaxing ride on the BMW. For the record, I never exceeded the 45mph speed limit. Okay maybe once or a thousand times.
And speaking of the BMW R 1200 RT, it has exceeded all of my expectations. It's surely fun enough on the twisties. It will loaf all day long at 80mph while getting 50 mpg. It's comfortable as hell and it carries a ton of crap. She never hesitates to fire right up every time, even after spending the night getting drenched in a rainstorm. I'm extremely happy with the bike. Yes, I would recommend it to a friend.
The Blue Ridge scenery is spectacular, so much so that I set a personal record for time in the saddle on one ride, 10 hours. With that said, I completed approximately 2/3's of the Blue Ridge today and I plan on riding the rest of it tomorrow.
Ended the day in Roanoke, Virginia. Had a little feast and need a little rest. It's so hard to condense everything I'm experiencing in a just few paragraphs.
I couldn't wipe the grin off of my face. No sweating, no foggy face shield and glasses. At a few spots my ambient temp read 53˚, a 40˚+ temp difference.
Just outside of Spartanburg, I got on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It is a 450 mile stretch of road that is the exact opposite of the roads in Florida, hardly a straight anywhere. And full of motorcycles. I imagine that for every mile you cover as the bird flies, you cover about 5 miles of road. The maximum speed limit for the entire parkway is only 45mph however; not so good for the sportbikes but perfect for a relaxing ride on the BMW. For the record, I never exceeded the 45mph speed limit. Okay maybe once or a thousand times.
And speaking of the BMW R 1200 RT, it has exceeded all of my expectations. It's surely fun enough on the twisties. It will loaf all day long at 80mph while getting 50 mpg. It's comfortable as hell and it carries a ton of crap. She never hesitates to fire right up every time, even after spending the night getting drenched in a rainstorm. I'm extremely happy with the bike. Yes, I would recommend it to a friend.
The Blue Ridge scenery is spectacular, so much so that I set a personal record for time in the saddle on one ride, 10 hours. With that said, I completed approximately 2/3's of the Blue Ridge today and I plan on riding the rest of it tomorrow.
Ended the day in Roanoke, Virginia. Had a little feast and need a little rest. It's so hard to condense everything I'm experiencing in a just few paragraphs.
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