Made it to and from the BMW Motorcycle Owners of Georgia’s North Georgia Mountain Rally at the Georgia Mountain Fairgrounds last weekend without incident (see pictures attached) This was a 400 plus mile weekend trip with friends who were riding much more powerful equipment (BMW’s included a R1100RT and a K1200LT.) Managed to keep up OK on my early ‘85 R65.
100 miles dry run up on Friday, mostly Interstate highway.
200 odd miles mostly wet or very wet on Saturday doing some twisties, including the Cherohala Skyway from an elevation of about 900 ft. in Tellico Plains, Tennessee, in the west to Robbinsville, North Carolina, in the east, which meant climbing over a 5,390 ft summit. Absolutely wonderful, and it helped that it stopped raining about the time we got on the skyway (I’m glad my wife opted to stay at home as I there would be no way I'd ever get back in to her good books if I’d subjected her to the truly appalling riding conditions earlier in the day.)
Sunday was 100 dry-ish back road miles home.
Despite the weather, the weekend was great fun.
Found an occasional hesitation at 4,250 rpm or so on the highway stretches if I really snapped open the throttle. No problem if I was a little less aggressive. Not sure I’ll worry about it, but if anyone has any thoughts, I’d like to hear them.
I’m in Eatonton, Georgia, a few days next week for work. If the weather holds, I’ll make this on my R65 (it’s work so I can’t really turn up in full rain gear.) If this works out, I’ll turn the journey into a 200 miles back roads round trip rather than a quick Interstate dash by car.
Mark
