Mmar 2016

[sawride]

Every year around late September or early October a group I have been associated with has what we call Motomeet Arkansas or MMAR. I missed the initial meet in 1998 but have been to almost all of them from 1999 on. It’s usually just a weekend event where everyone rides in Friday from various locations, we have a loosely organized ride Saturday, and most people head home Sunday. We have met in Mountain Home, Bull Shoals, Mountain View, and Ozark to name a few locations. There are usually a couple locals to help point us toward the good roads but we have been there enough we know a lot of them anyway. This year we decided to try The Hub a motorcycle only location in Marble Falls, just north of Jasper.

If you go back a few months my plan (using the term very loosely) was to take a roughly two week ride. First heading west to somewhere in Colorado, Utah, and or New Mexico then hit MMAR on the way back. Seemed like a great idea but without a specific destination I procrastinated and wasn't ready. With the distances involved I figured the NC700X would work better than the CB500X but it needed tires and a centerstand so the start date got pushed back. Some of the Dallas area crew was planning to lunch in Antlers OK and stay overnight in Mena AR Thursday before MMAR so I made reservations at the Mena motel (Limetree Inn) for Wednesday & Thursday night. That finally got me out the door.

Just for reference my NC700X is a 2014 I bought new earlier this year. I have a MRA windshield with the little spoiler at the top, Barkbuster Storm handquards, GIVI V35 side cases, and a GIVI V45 top case. With all the bags and the “frunk” I can easily carry way too much stuff.

Days 1 & 2

Mena is either one long day or two reasonable days ride so I planned to leave Tuesday. Tuesday morning I was loaded up and ready to go right at the crack of 11AM. I guess being retired has made me not feel terribly time pressured.

Ready to go:

I headed west on US 80 into Alabama. Phenix City AL development keeps spreading west but eventually I was out of the congestion. At least until Montgomery. There US 80 merges with I-85 so I had to get on the freeway for a while. In Montgomery went north on I-65 until I could get onto US 82 west. US 82 west actually heads northwest through Tuscaloosa AL and into Mississippi.

Lunch stop in Centreville AL:

Once in Mississippi 82 heads pretty much due west. I didn't have destination in mind for the first day but noticed 82 would intersect with I-55 near Winona MS so I did a lodging search on the GPS and saw there were plenty of choices near Winona so that became the destination for the day. I found a room at the (apparently) recently remodeled Americas Best Value Inn, had a All Star Special at the Waffle House for dinner and called it a night. 355 miles for day one. Two fillups, 62.1 mpg on one, 65.4 on the other.

Parked for the night in Winona MS:

Wednesday I continued west on US 82 to Greenville MS. There I had to take a loop to the south to cross the Mississippi river into Arkansas. Kind of a cool bridge but I couldn't find a place to get a good picture of it.

There is a bridge there somewhere:

Once in Arkansas the GPS wanted me to take 65 up through Pine Bluff but I quickly tired of the 4 lane. It was very windy with lots of traffic. Looking at the map the previous night I had noticed Hwy 35 looked like a two lane heading in the general direction of Mena so I turned off onto it and ignored the GPS trying to direct me back to the 4 lane. Eventually the GPS gave in and routed me through Monticello to Warren (I was hoping to find a welcome to Warren sign but no luck) and onto Hwy 8. Once a little farther west it proved to be a good road. Enough curves and elevation change to keep it interesting all the way to Mena. Once in Mena I decided to take a quick ride up the first part of the Talimena Drive before I checked into the hotel. That was a good choice as the sun was going down quickly. While checking in at the motel I asked where one would find beer close by. The answer was it's a dry county, you won't find any close by. I put out a quick call for help on the Facebook Motoventure group only to find out the closest place was in Oklahoma. With the sun going down in deer country I decided it wasn't that important. Dinner was Moe's Three (smoked Ribs, pulled pork, and brisket) in the motel restaurant. The ribs were great but the pulled pork and brisket was just okay. 358 miles for the day. First fillup was 56.5 mpg, the second was 64.6.

A few views from the Talimena Scenic Drive:

And a short video from a viewpoint (looks like you'll have to click the link to view it):
[video]https://photos.smugmug.com/MMAR-2016/i-7fHKgm9/0/1280/IMG_0604-1280.mp4[/video]

To be continued....

 

[sawride]

Days 3 & 4

Thursday I was to meet David and some of the Dallas area crew at the Burger Barn in Antlers OK at noon. Google maps and the GPS put it at a little over 2 hours but I planned to take the Talimena so allowed about 3 hours. I had the Talimena all to myself early on a weekday. I'm not a particularly fast rider but it was nice to be able to ride through the curves at what is fast enough to keep me entertained and not get stuck behind slow moving cars or trucks. Once in Oklahoma I knew I could cut a little time by heading south on 259 and not going through Talihina but I didn't know what road to take after that and I didn't have a Oklahoma map so I finally gave in and followed the GPS. I arrived at the Burger Barn in Antlers about 20 minutes early, saw no one else there, so I found a gas station to top off the tank and went back to wait for the others. It didn't take long for David on his Buell "Mule", STeve on his 800 Tiger, and Eric on his R1200GS to arrive. Unfortunately I neglected to take any pictures in Antlers. We had excellent burgers for lunch and headed off toward Talihina to meet some others. We headed north on 271 toward Talihina but turned off onto 144 west and then north toward Talihina on David's secret road the Indian Highway. One of those gnarly little two lane roads you only find by accident. In Talihina we stopped at Bell's Kitchen to find Steve and his Moto Guzzi Griso finishing up his lunch. Very shortly Bob appeared on his BMW R110RSL (yes Doc Tom's former bike).

Bell's Kitchen in Talihina (left to right: STeve, Eric's R1200GS, Davids Buell "Mule", my NC, Bob's R1100RSL in the back):

Same picture without STeve:

Steve's Moto Guzzi Griso and STeve's 800 Tiger:

Eric and David with Barney (it's a long story) seated on "Mule":

After lunch and/or pie STeve and I headed over to the local liquor store. STeve bought a 30 pack of PBR in cans but didn't have room for them all so I put about half in one of my saddle bags, putting them on top of the liner for my Darien jacket thinking that would cushion them. Then we all took a rather spirited ride across the Talimena back to Mena. As usual I trailed the pack but I'm not convinced anyone had anymore fun than I did. Arriving back at the Limetree and removing the beer from my saddle bag I noticed the cans felt a little sticky. Then I noticed my jacket liner was damp. Seems one of the thin aluminium cans had rubbed enough against something to wear a hole in it and emptied itself mostly on my jacket liner. So I rinshed it out in the sink and hung it over a chair in front of the air conditioner hoping it would be dry by morning. We had pizza, beer, whiskey, vodka, etc for dinner in the parking lot (David had arranged for most of us to have rooms on the back side of the motel. Almost like having the place to ourselves). Sometime in the evening John arrived from Birmingham on his Ninja 1000 and Brian arrived from Fort Worth with his WR250R in tow (not sure I got the model right. It's the super motard version). 269 miles for the day. Three fillups, 64.4, 63, and 56.8 mpg.

Some more views along the Talimena:

Friday we were to head up to the HUB as a group, meeting some of the Missouri folks in Oark AR for lunch. I couldn't leave with the group at 9AM as I had to wait until 10AM for a possible call from a little freelance gig I'm doing. Unfortunately Steve saw me not getting ready and thought the group had been delayed so he and John ended up leaving late. I left Mena a little after 10AM heading north on 71 and then east on 28 which was a great little twisty road. At Rover I went north on 27 and then west on 10 to Havana. At Havana I went north on 309 up to Mount Magazine. Some nice switchbacks getting to the top.

From Mount Magazine:

A short video from Mount Magazine (sorry not sure how to embed it):
[video]https://photos.smugmug.com/MMAR-2016/i-gbpdzVG/0/1280/IMG_0634-1280.mp4[/video]

After some photo ops I continued on 309 down the other side and into Clarksville via 109. After lunch in Clarksville I headed north on 21 back into the twisty roads. I took 21 to 16, 16 to 7 north through Jasper. At that point I knew I was close to the HUB but the directions were a little fuzzy. The HUB website says they are in Dogpatch AR but the GPS doesn't know about Dogpatch. The mailing address was Marble Falls so that's what the GPS was aiming toward. Luckily there was a little blue highway sign indicating next right for the HUB. As I went up the steep rough road and saw the "end of state maintenance" sign I wondered if I was in the right place. Sure enough I was. It is kind of a strange place. Looks kind of like someone planned a entertainment location and the only thing still in business is the HUB.

Arrived at The Hub:

The motel:

Map in the restaurant:

A three story motel, a restaurant, and a convention center. All catering to motorcycles. Our group took the majority of the west side of the building and other groups took the east side of the building. At one point STeve counted 78 motorcycles, 27 of them with MMAR. We had dinner in the HUB restaurant which was packed. The food was good but not great. The HUB is in a dry county but about 2 miles north is a wet county so a short ride for supplies and then we were parked for the night. There were many new and many familiar faces and I will not attempt to list who was there but I will say Nancy and Phil were there on their extended trip. I had reserved a double room thinking James Ho would be there but he had to cancel so I had space when Brian was looking a room. Lucky for him I brought my CPAP machine so has was able to sleep. 237 miles for the day. One fillup for 67.2 mpg.

To be continued....

 

[misterk]

great report! thanks

 

[sawride]

Days 5, 6 & 7

Saturday was group ride day. David had setup a 250 mile route with a stop at Dennis and Kevlyn's 341 Market at the base of Push Mountain Road. The nearby volunteer fire department was having a pig roast lunch so Kevlyn had warned them to expect a large group of hungry motorcyclists. Because of the number of riders we broke into 3 groups. A fast group, medium group, and the slow group which I was leading. Each group leader had the route loaded into their GPS and had a map with the route highlighted. My group consisted of me, JD and Bob each on Harley Softtails of some sort, someone whose name I never got on a Honda Shadow 750, Terry on a FJR1300 and his wife Donna on a Can AM 3 wheeler of some sort. I didn't know until later that Doug was also with us on his ST1300. We headed south on 7 to Jasper then east on 74 to 123 and 123 to 65. All nice twisty roads. I could scoot ahead in the twisty parts then back off on the straights to be sure we were all together. When we got to hwy 65 we were to turn right but I saw some of the faster group were leaving a gas station to the left so I held up the group until the faster group had gone by then we took the right down 65. We were not on 65 long before we took a left onto 235 heading toward Yellville. Just before Yellville we turned right onto 14. Somewhere on 14 all the sudden Doug pulled up along side pointing at his gas tank, of course meaning he needed fuel. Go figure the guy with the largest fuel capacity was the one that needed fuel! I had the GPS look for fuel "near route" and didn't find anything within 40 miles so when I found a wide spot I pulled the group off the road to find out how serious the need was. It was fairly serious so looking at the map it appeared we need to go off route toward Marshal when we got to Harriet. I figured I would text David to let him know we would be late. We got lucky and found there was a gas station at Harriet so we stopped there, not going off route. While fueling up who should arrive but David and the "medium" group! Seems back when we turned onto 65 they were at the gas station so we got ahead of them. So we let them start before we left and continued on 14 to 341 (aka: Push Mountain Road). We zoomed down Push Mountain Road to the 341 Market which Dennis and Kevlyn have fixed up nicely.

A few shots of Dennis and Kevlyns 341 Market:

And a short video:
[video]https://photos.smugmug.com/MMAR-2016/i-C5VdX8f/0/1280/IMG_0638-1280.mp4[/video]

We took a group picture (which I don’t have a copy of yet) then back track a quarter mile to the VFD pig roast. For $7 we got more food than I could eat (and I can eat a lot).

A few pictures at the VFD:

After getting stuffed we headed back up Push Mountain Road (my favorite direction) and took 14 back to 28 toward Marshall where we stopped to pay our respects to Charlie. We lost him a couple years ago to cancer. His headstone has a red Honda 750 nighthawk etched in it. Miss him.

Paying our respects to Charlie:

Feeling a bit somber my group followed the medium group into Marshall proper. I knew we still had some need for fuel and I though David said the medium group was going to stop there also so I followed them until I saw they were heading out of town and we had not seen a gas station yet so I stopped the group. My GPS was no help. We were pretty sure if we went into the main part of Marshall there would be fuel but the GPS didn't find any "near your current location". The Softtail riders were on fumes so I let them lead us into town in search of fuel. It didn't take long so we all filled up. At that point I was beginning to wonder if the group really wanted to do the next 100 miles on the route or head back. Glancing at the map I saw we were kind of in a commit to the rest or take a shorter route back. We I got back to the group after buying a bottle of water I could hear them discussing Harrison which was the shorter route back so I asked what direction they wanted to go and it was unanimous we really didn't want to do the full route. So I used the GPS to find a shorter route back while avoiding Harrison which is just too busy to be fun on a Saturday afternoon. We ended up a little short but still we all had a good ride and got our fill of twisties.

Saturday night we had dinner in a private conference room. Bob got the Barney award for the longest distance riding to MMAR (beat me by about 100 miles). Doug got an award for something (I forget what it was for). After dinner we gathered around outside the rooms for a few drinks and told more stories. 212 miles for the day. Two fillups at 63.7 and 66.7 mpg.

Sunset at the Hub:

Bob got the Barney award for most miles ridden to MMAR:

Doug got an award for something, I forget what:

Sunday was time for most of us to head home. Breaking tradition I did NOT leave before the crack of dawn. I have a reputation with this group for a couple things. First I very rarely ride the same bike to MMAR twice and I always head out well before sunrise so I can make it home in one day. I think it was close to 9AM before I left. A new record late departure for me. I headed straight down 7 toward Russellville. I should have stopped to take a picture of the big yellow warning sign "Steep and crooked road for the next 42 miles, use caution" but I was enjoying the ride. I didn't have a route home planned out but realized I had never really tried the NC on an extended freeway ride so decided to get on I-40 east and see how it did. Once on I-40 decided to run a steady 75 to 80 mph. That was fast enough to move a little faster than most traffic but didn't make me the fastest so I figured I wouldn't attract any attention. One thing I have noticed about both the bike I currently own is their speedometers match the GPS indicated speed within one mph at any speed I have ridden them. I don't know that the GPS is exact but I do know that most other bikes I have owned have been around 5 mph optimistic by 70 mph. It is nice not having to estimate a "fudge factor". I rode I-40 to Memphis and then I-22 to Tupelo MS where I headed south on Hwy 45 to Columbus MS and stopped for the night. That was about 310 miles of freeway and the NC handled it quite well. It could use a little taller windshield and better seat for that kind of work but at an honest 75 mph it turning just over 4,000 rpm and feels very relaxed. 464 miles for the day. Two fillups at 62 and 55.4 mpg.

Sunset in Columbus MS:

Monday was my last day on the road. I headed east on 82 through Tuscaloosa to Montgomery and onto I-85 toward Atlanta. I decided to stay on I-85 to Opelika rather than drop down to Hwy 80. While tooling along between 75 and 80 I was passed by two large SUVs so I decided to drop in behind and see how fast they were going. Not a whole lot faster but more like 80 to 85 so I just stayed back a ways hoping they would be the one to attract attention. Not sure what that did to the gas mileage as I didn't fillup after getting home but the computer showed my average mileage down around 54 mpg. I arrived home about 3PM in the afternoon. Good to be home but I had a great trip. 261 miles for the day. Two fillups at 55.4 (all that 75 to 80 on the way to Tupelo) and 62.4 mpg.

Home!

GPS stats from the ride:

This is the longest trip I've taken on the NC. I can see going farther with a little better windshield and seat.

 

[DCTFAN]

It's been a while since I heard from you!
Now I know what you been up to.
Missed you at the HU meet. 670cc says Hi!

 

[sawride]

It's been a while since I heard from you!
Now I know what you been up to.
Missed you at the HU meet. 670cc says Hi!

Hi guys! I'll have admit I cut my riding way back over the summer. Other commitments made overnight trips difficult to fit in. I see you have a new ride and sounds like you like it. I was at the Opelika Honda shop a few weeks ago and was surprised to see they had two red African Twins. One manual, one DCT. It was very difficult to not ask what kind of trade in deal they would work for me.