HRGuru

"Leaf Peeping" in the fall is great when you're riding a motorcycle.  I live in Florida, so I usually head up to the Smoky and Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina and Tennessee in the Fall.  I'l  be leaving in a couple of weeks, or whenever the leaves start to change.  The roads in the Smoky's are also fantastic motorcycle roads, like the Tail of the Dragon near Deals Gap, and the Blue Ridge Parkway that runs all the way to Virginia.  I've been on these roads many times, but I never get tired of them.

I can imagine how beautiful the fall colors are in Vermont.  I was through there last year on my annual motorcycle adventure, but it was in July.  I didn't get to see the fall colors, but Vermont is beautiful any time of the year.

Out here in the Rocky Mountains, the aspens have gone golden, the elk are bugling, and the wolves have their young out learning to hunt.  There should be some fresh snow on the ground this weekend.  Winter is on its way!

Snow?  This weekend???    That's waaay too early for me! 

Hey Cutie....I viewed your photo album of the fall colors.  It is very beautiful, especially the one with the water.

Thanks for sharing your experience Cutie, and the pictures are absolutely breathtaking!!!

You're right Mark - there is nothing that compares to motorcycling across our own country.  It is a trip my boyfriend and I want to so someday - travel from coast to coast to enjoy all that the US has to offer.  I believe I have that book you mentioned but haven't read it yet.  No time during the riding season to read!  LOL

Like Mark, I have ridden motorcycles for over 40 years.  Most of my early years were spent riding and racing off-road motorcycles.  Now I enjoy riding the backroads of America.  Each year I take several trips on my motorcycle, and at least one extended trip (6000 to 10000 miles).  I'm working my way around North America, and having a blast.  I rarely get on an Interstate or other major roads.  I look for the less traveled back roads where most of the beauty abounds.

This  year I traveled in a zaig-zag fashion to the west coast and then down the pacific coast highway from the Canadian border to Mexico.  Unfortunately, I ran into some physical problems when I hit Tucson, AZ.  The heat sapped the water from my body and I suffered severe heat exhaustion, which resulted in my kindey's shutting down.  I spent a week in the hospital and ended up flying home and shipping my bike back to Florida.  I've recovered and am ready to ride up to the Smoky's in a couple of weeks.  For those interested, I have documented some of my major travels on my website at www.louwhitney.com.

With gas prices being what they are, I use my motorcycle for almost everything.  No matter where I go, I  take the most scenic route.  I live in Lake County Florida, which is full of lakes and is also the hilly part of Florida.  Yes, Florida does have some hills, but nothing compares with the Rockies.   

Riding in the cold is envigorating! (Did I spell that right?) Living in the mountains here in NC it doesn't get as cold as in New England but it still can get chilly...especially at 60 mph. We have some of the best roads for riding here as well. I just love it. I've only been riding for about three years and I now wonder how I survived the first 45 years without it. I ride every chance I get. The freedom that come with riding is unexplainable and even addictive.

I ride a Suzuki Boulevard C50 (800 cc) and i love it! It is my first bike and I think I made the right choice. The mountain grades aren't too steep here in Asheville...8-12% and the highest elevation is a little over 6,000 ft. Lots of curvey roads though which makes it so much fun! And the views are spectacular, much like Cutie has up in CT.

I would love someday to ride cross-country and see the America most never see from the interstate. I only wish my wife was as passionate abour riding on the back as you. She really doesn't care for it so I'm basically on my own in that dept. It would be nice to take a long trip together but i don't see that happening anytime soon. Maybe one day!

It is our dream someday to travel across the US with an RV and trailer the bike.  Whenever we stop, we can ride the bike through the beautiful scenery of the states!  Just take off for a year to be able to visit all the states.  Like you, Tim, we hope for someday.  Maybe if we all win the lottery, we can make it happen.  Maybe you can make it to Americade in Lake George sometime.  My boyfriend has been going since it initally started 26 years ago.  Next year, I'm going for the week.  It is pretty neat to see all the bikes - mostly Harleys - traveling up and down the main strip of the village.  It's a fun time.

I have been seriously considering the Americade Rally @ Lake George. I was born and raised in Buffalo so I'm a Yankee at heart anyway and it would be a good excuse to get back that way. If I can find a group to ride up there with, I may just do it next year. I was actually able to get out and ride yesterday up on the Blue Ridge parkway and it was beautiful. The leaves are just now changing here in the mountains and it was very nice. I took some pics so I'll post them here later tonight.

Sounds good to me. I would love that.

I just returned from a week-long ride in the Smoky Mountains, and the fall colors were beautiful.  I rode the "Tail of the Dragon" at Deals Gap, and  some of the "Blue Ridge Parkway", and a lot of other less traveled roads.  I've spent a fair amount of time in the Smoky's, and try to ride there at least every fall.  I've been on most every road in that part of the country, and a lot of them many times, and never get tired of them.  I have even riden my dual-sport motorcycle on many of the dirt roads and mountan trails in GA, AL, NC and TN.  I have even ridden the Appalachian Mountain Range all the way up to New England.

This past summer I spent a lot of time in the Rocky Mountains, and went over at least a dozen mountain passes that were 9,000 to 12,000 feet.  Seabrowntree raised the question if a motorcycle could make it up steep grades.  The answer is yes.  Many of todays motorcycles can make it up any grade that a car can go up, and any of the new sports touring bikes can out perform even the fastest and most powerful automobiles.  I ride the new Kawasaki Concours 1400, which is claimed by many as the most powerful sports touring bike in the world.  It weighs 600 pounds and has 156 hp.  That's 3.8 pounds per horsepower.  To put it in perspective, I have a very fast 2006 Pontiac GTO that weighs 3725 pounds and has 400 hp.  That's 9.3 pounds per horsepower.  You do the math.

While I have been to all 48 contiguous states on my motorcycle, and have enjoyed almost every mile that I have ridden, the mountains are my favorites.

As I said, mountains are my favorite places to ride.  There is nothing like riding a motocycle in the mountains, except that it is easy to lose your concentration on the road.  In 2004 I was riding in the Sierra Madre mountains in Mexico, and  taking in the beauty around me when I encountered an unmarked hairpin turn at about 50 mph.  I was on my dual-sport motorcycle with knobby tires and could not negotiate the turn at that speed.  My choice was to go off the road and fall a few hundred feet, or to lay the bike down and hope that I would stay on the road.  I tried to lay it down, but the bike flipped and through me off, then it landed on me and pinned me to the asphalt face down.  I didn't have enough leverage to get the bike off of me, so I had to lay there for aboout 15 minutes before someone came along.  Once they got the bike off me I checked myself out and then did a few quick fixes to my bike and proceeded to ride into the next town where I met up with the other people that I was riding with.  One of my riding partners was an orthopedic surgeon, who cleaned  up my cuts and checked for broken bones.  He didn't think that I had any broken bones, even though my left leg was hurting badly.  We rode out of Mexico to El Paso the next day, and I trailered my bike and proceeded to New Mexico to visit with my niece for a couple of days.  From there I headed for home in Florida and my leg was still  hurting very bad.  When I got home I called the doctor and made an appointment to see him in a few days.  Before my appointment, we received a call from my wifes aunt in Toronto, Canada who was in very poor health and wanted us to come up and see her.  We dropped everything and left the next morning.  We were in Canada for about one week before returning home.  I finally got to the doctor the next week and found out that my left leg was broken.  The doctor couldn't believe that I had walked on it for over three weeks before getting it checked out.  He wanted to do surgery and add a plate and some screws, which I did not agree with because of a bad experience with that kind of surgery on my left arm a few yearsw earlier when I was still racing motorcycles.  So he casted it and eventhing was fine in about 8 weeks.  The worst thing about that injury was not being able to ride my motorcycle for 8 weeks.

Bottom line is to be attentive to the road when you're trying to take in the scenery.  A very hard thing to do when the scenery is so beautiful.  I now stop more often to enjoy the scenery and take photographs.  It may take a little longer, but I don't get hurt as often.