Continued from the 21st of September..

 

The final day of our Tour from Indy back to Charlotte started off with a great breakfast at the Old Mill Inn at Cumberland Gap, TN.  Very cool place for sure and we will definitely go back there next year for this same Tour.  check it out at www.oldmillbbinn.com.  After a short hike on the Daniel Boone trail, we mounted up and headed heast to Jonesville, VA on US 58... gorgeous ride along the Cumberland mountains.  At Jonesville, we turned south on SR 70 that would ultimately take us into Marshall, NC where we had lunch at the  Zuma Coffee Company, right at the Courthouse Square.  Not only great Espresso there, but terrific house-made soups and sandwiches.  Way better than anticipated.  After more rewinding the great ride from Joesville on SR 70 that in itself was terrific... we headed out toward Asheville and the last leg into Charlotte.  Weather looked pretty concerning.. but we were lucky enought to avoid the rain all the way to I 485 Beltline around Charlotte, NC.  Still... when you are wet you are not comfortable.. but this time it was only for a short 15 minutes before pulling into the Rennaissance Hotel at the Airport where Debbie was there to meet us and relax a bit before getting bikes loaded up and heading back to Waxhaw. 

All in all we did 675 miles on the return trip which was pretty energetic but lots of fun for sure!!

Next year Tour to Red Bull GP at Indy we will add a  another day to the trip up which would get us into Indy early on Friday for more of the fun at the track  and a little easier pace during the ride up.  More new roads to discover for next year's trip.

Stay with us from time to time... for more ideas and tips on Touring for your moto enjoyment !  The 2009 schedule will be up on www.bluestradatours.com by October 1, 2008.

Speaking of tips... I was just going to write a review of the new Scorpion EXO 1000.  See www.scorpionusa.com for more info.  But..... read on...

This may be one fo the best helmets ever at any price!  Top Rated Snell certificatyion... increidible venting options... very cool drop-down tinted visor and stil the best face shield in the business ... clear an absolutely no-fog that works like none other.  Check it out!!

 

CIAO for now... and remember "the ride there is more fun than being there"   well.. most of the time it is.

Bill Kniegge

 

 

 

 

 

Greetings again from Charlotte, NC

Our Tour to Indy was  a lot of fun.... and some terrific riding.. We rode over 1,350 miles total from Charlotte, to Indy and back again.  Two days up and two days on the return trip. 

Day 1: Leaving Charlotte on the 11th of September, we wound our way through the back roads to the tiny little historic town of  Marshall just abouve Asheville for lunch where we lucky enough to have Jamie James of AMA Superbike fame join us for some fun and storeis about his incredible racing career.  Yes.. we had our share of rain, but by the time we got to Asheville it had stopped so Marshall was bright and sunny.  Leaving there.... we started to wind again up through TN on SR 70 to the Cumberland mountains and then west through the Cumberland valley to Somerset, KY where we stayed our first nite at the Doolin House Inn... right in the center of town and equipped with two fantastic chefs that made our evening dinner that much better....after riding 340 miles ove back raods... and only 50 miles of interstate hwys.

 

Day 2: More great food at Doolin House breakfast as we packed up and got ready for our cruise into Indy.  Another 310 mile day for sure, but we were looking forward to it.  Meandering along SR 80 in KY, we eventually started north on SR 61 through pretty little towns and lots of fields with crops of tobacco, corn and soy beans.  Nothing really challenging but very pretty and enjoyable to ride.  Reaching the north side of the Ohio River and into Corydon, IN we stopped for lunch there at Magdalenas where I remembered the white bean chili as being nothing short of incredible.  It was just as good the 2nd time around...    Looking forward to arriving in Indy, we pressed on with more energy as we worked our way north and stopped only briefly to take pics and look closely at the longest covered bridge in the USA in the tiny town of Medora.  Amazing structure... and looking forward to state suported restoration in the near future.  On to Brown County and and the amazing discovery of some terrific roads on SR 135 as we headed to the little village of Story, IN with it's hotel that dates back to 1856!  Very cool place with a landmark restaurant and bar with some cool rooms at the Inn.  We enjoyed the stop there as we waited for the rain to stop in Indy... which it finally did.  Onward to the big city... and we were lucky enough to get there without ever getting adrop of rain on our shields!  Amazing and lucky for sure.

 

2009 Indy Moto GP Tour will likley include a stop over in STory, IN before heading into Indy on Friday morning... it was just too good to pass up. 

 

More to follow..... including a little group of photos so stay tuned. 

Well here it is the end of August... and BMW USA finally has decided to deliver it's 2008 R 800GS Twin to the USA dealers.  no one really knows why it is so late.. but whatever the reason... it sure does look like it will be a winner.  I think I told Mark at BMW Charlotte on Saturday after giving it serious look on Saturday that it may be the best GS BMW ever made for it's fans around the world of Adventure Touring.  We'll see for sure... and we can hope that they have made ..or are planning build in support of their anxiously awaiting dealers... If they were going to gamble this would be the one to gamble on for sure... even though the price has finally arrived at est. $2,000 more than anticipated at the BMW Intro in Milan last October..  None the less.... it just makes the R12GS look and feel a little like a Rhino by comparison.. and it has REAL front forks.. that actually may work on both tarmac and a dirt road or two...  Congrats to them...

 

So today... after still being thrilled with my V Strom 650... I had to pick up the DL 1000 for a little pre Red Bull GP at Indy service...  That was a nice surprise too.. I forgot how much power that motor makes around 4,000 rpm.  It has some stirring torque that comes on like a tractor ... funny after so many thousand miles on the 650 how accustom I got to the 6,000 revs at 80 MPH..  So when 80 MPH showed up I was stunned to see the rev counter sitting at only 4,000 RPM.

 

What is fun is there are so many really fun bikes available today that anyone can find something to really please their zest for speed and handling on any kind of road surface including race track groomed smooth ideal roads.  But I can tell you that the fun for me is on the bad roads that make Adventure bikes really shine through..

 

So that's all for now.. if you get a chance sto by your BMW dealer to see the 800 GS if you can before they get them delivered.  Great Job BMW.

 

Ride Safe... it's a Holiday Weekend...

Bill Kniegge