East Coast - Ride to Alabama

LittleBigGirl

Well-known member
Has anyone done a long ride from New England-ish to Alabama or Florida?

If so:

1) What roads did you take?
2) What season? And how was the weather?
3) Did you camp or stay in motels, hotels, etc.
4) Tire wear - were you good on one set of tires?

I am not looking for a ton of advice or anything, just your experiences.

I am itching for a long ride after I graduate from my MLIS program. I will be job hunting and looking to come back to the best coast -- depending on jobs, etc.

Hope everyone is doing well, staying safe, and if you're riding... I am jealous. My bike is in storage for the winter. (In NH)
 

stever

Well-known member
1980 and 1981 I rode to Daytona for the races from DC, northern Virginia area. Early March and North Carolina had snow and jack-knifed semis blocking traffic but that was an unusual storm for them. We took I-95 all the way. Pretty boring as most interstates go when we did it it in 81 but 1980 the ice under the overpasses made it pretty interesting. You would have to map, plan out the route if you wanted to use secondary roads. Lots and lots of forest in the southeast so that’s what you’re going to see although when you get off the highway and into secondary roads thru SC, Georgia and Alabama should be some good riding. If you’re traveling in summer it will be humid and they get some pretty intense thunder and lighting with the rain.
 

HadesOmega

Well-known member
I can suggest a couple places to check out. I rode to North Carolina as I rode to the beginning of the TAT.

Wheels Through Time in Maggie Valley
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Not to far is a waterfall you can ride under, I couldn't ride under it though, its called Bridaveil Falls
https://www.romanticasheville.com/b...xt=Bridal Veil Falls near Highlands,The 60-ft.
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Tail of the Dragon at Deal's Gap is epic must ride
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I paralleled some of Cherohalla Skyway on the TAT, but that looks like a fun road
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I actually came upon this on the TAT but it grazes Alabama, it goes through Mississippi and Tennessee also. it's called Natchez Trace Parkway. I rode very short portion of it and would like to come back and ride the whole thing one day.
https://www.natcheztracetravel.com/natchez-trace-parkway-maps.html


I rode all these around June and every few days it would rain a whole lot it was kind of miserable. Try to go when it's dry. I visited the Infantry Museum at Fort Benning Georgia and the Naval Air Museum in Pensacola Florida also. There's also Tuskegee National Historic air field.
 
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Plymouth State grad here ... god bless NH! :thumbup

+1 on HadesOmega’s suggestions ...

from NH I used to like to follow the Connecticut River Valley and cut over to the Hudson River Valley south of Brattleboro shooting for somewhere south of Albany and then cut across to the Delaware River ... make my way to Front Royal, VA, and Skyline Drive, Asheville NC and The Blue Ridge Parkway. Had family in Huntsville, AL.

there’s campgrounds along the way, or motels when I got rained on. it was nice to get off Skyline/Blue Ridge for food/camping/lodging, or if I just got tired of the sameness of the parkways/speedlimits ... but I did love being up on the ridges those two roads follow and the views.

used to love riding in the fall, myself. a new set of tires, and I didn’t have to worry about them. an SV sounds like an awesome bike ... jealous of your adventure! :ride
 
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kneedraggeroldy

Well-known member
+1 here for blue ridge parkway. Wife and go out to TN a couple times a year and rent a bike and have done blue ridge, dragon, cherahola, Cherokee and the wheels through time. Epic places....we stay in Little Switzerland when doing blue ridge but would like to ride the entirety at some point.....our trips have been may, June and July. Hotels for us

As far as rubber goes we did a two week trip around western US a couple years back through many national parks and put close to 3000 miles two up on FJR and had no issues with tire wear....just put on new ones before we left as we tend to get about 4500-5500 miles on set of tires.
 
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Map8

I want nothing
Staff member
I've ridden Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park once and the length of the Blue Ridge Parkway a couple of times. Spectacular scenery and so much to take in at a relaxed pace. The speed limit (mostly 45mph) is strictly enforced on the Blue Ridge Parkway, fines are severe as its Federal property. Skyline Drive has an even lower speed limit and far stricter enforcement. You can skip Skyline if you are riding all or much of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

There are countless excellent spur roads descending off the Parkway. The roads around Bella Vista and Lynchburg, Virginia were particularly memorable. The Parkway gets a lot more fun in North Carolina and the surrounding roads are even better. Deal's Gap is worthwhile if you don't go on a crowded weekend. Same for Hwy 28. The Cherohala Skyway has fantastic views. Seconding the recommendation to stop in Maggie Valley, NC.

Lots of charming towns and tourist spots along the way - and some not-so-charming ones. Smokey Mountain National Park is beautiful but very, very crowded. All the people we met along the way were wonderful.

I would make sure you have new or nearly new tires. My Brother-in-law ran his rear tire down to the cords when we crossed into West Virginia. Dealers with tires in stock were not easy to find. We had to back track into Virginia. The pavement on most roads is excellent but can be abrasive.

Let up know if you have more questions.

Enjoy your trip.
 
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LittleBigGirl

Well-known member
Yes! Wonderful pictures. Thank you so much for sharing them and the spots to check out. I am a little worried about the rain. It will be like June ish. Your ride looks way more equipped than mine, haha. I have an SV650 - 2017 with no windscreen. Hasn't bothered me on my really long rides, but would be more comfortable with a screen, I think. I'd love to check out some museums. I may go down through PA and hit Nashville.
 

LittleBigGirl

Well-known member
Thank you, everyone, for those great suggestions! I am looking up those destinations now. Yay! Whee! More to come!
 

usedtobefast

Well-known member
For tires, I assume you could get ~6000 miles on a set, it depends on the tire and how you ride it. That is about the miles I got on a V-Strom 650. Personally, I would go with Continental Road Attack 3 tires. Those are expensive but awesome. :) But even budget type tires today are really good. Hopefully you have a shop in the NH area that could help?

I grew up on the East Coast and I would say there is 0% chance you will have a rain free ride (full trip). And maybe even a 50% chance you will get rained on each day.

When we did a trip like you are planning, we altered the trip each day due to weather. If you roughly plan your trip down the mountain chains you should be able to either ride to the East or West up and over, etc based on fun/time/rain.

For example, the Blue Ridge Parkway, wonderful road ... but you might find on a particular day it is pouring rain on the BRP, but 10 miles west of there is dry.

As for fun roads, it you go up/over any of those mountain ranges you will be on fun roads. :) Well, mostly.

We normally went with "camp when dry, hotel when wet" plan. The bugs can get pretty bad in June, warm muggy nights.

I would suggest sorting out your hotel around 3 pm. Like pull over somewhere, check maps/phone, figure out you will be in Soandso Town by your desired stopping time, look up hotels, call up and book a room. Then ride the next 2-3 hours to that town.

The wrong way to do that is to roll into a town at 7:30 pm hoping to find an empty room. Seems travelers (cars/families) start doing that around 4:30 pm or so and fill up the hotels. So you want to book your room before that. And doing it day by day allow you to adjust your route.

That is also assuming you are staying at some small town in the mountains. If you are on interstate and each stop has like 3-8 chain hotels then no worries with just rolling in at 7:30.

Oh, rain gear. Funny thing ... seems most buy it, packed in cases/bags ... riding along, get a few drops of rain, thinking it doesn't look so bad, keep going ... then a few more drops ... then by the time you think "this is bad, get the rain gear" you are already pretty wet! :) That has only happened to me like 100 times. :)

The challenge with most rain gear is it doesn't allow moisture out ... so if it is a muggy 80-90 degree day with 70% chance of rain, what do you do? Start out with rain gear on? Kind of miserable. Or wait until it rains and try putting rain gear on, in the pouring rain, standing on the side of a rode in the weeds and mud. :)

Frogg Toggs has some reasonable priced rain gear, actually so many options it is a bit confusing.

I got Marmot stuff, not motorcycle specific, but reasonable price and I got the ones that do allow moisture out.

There are also plenty of moto specific, one or two piece rain gear options, that aren't too expensive (like $60-$120 range).

If you have mega dollars, their are fancy fancy outfits that you just wear every day that have vents and stuff and are rain proof so you just keep riding if it start raining. Talking KLIM or BMW type gear here. Too much money for me.

Hope things work out where you have a great trip!
 

bpw

Well-known member
About 15 years ago I did Boston to Florida and back over Thanksgiving with a friend, 10 degrees when we left, ice on the Blue Ridge and snow coming home into Boston. We had fun?

A couple years ago my GF and I went North Carolina to upstate NY and then Boston two-up on a CB350. We just hit "avoid highways" on google maps because of the little bike and it wound up being a way better trip than we expected. Lots of pretty 40mph roads through old towns and along rivers.
 

Map8

I want nothing
Staff member
You're definitely going to hit rain. The roads are generally in very good condition with good grip and good drainage. The only issue I experienced in rainy conditions was the addition of heavy fog atop the Blue Ridge Parkway which reduced visibility to around 100 feet.

Build some extra time into your schedule to allow for weather.
 

afm199

Well-known member
My buddy Joe Kerr, RIP, at the age of 74 was still riding his Ducati or GSXR1000 from Monterey to Virginia every year, doing about 16 trackdays on the way, from Virginia to Alabama, Michigan, and a few other states. He rode the bike all the way, tracked it, and then went on to his next destination. One year he and I both did over 52 trackdays each.
 
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