Franklin WV Moto Weekend!
On the weekend of June 1st, Amanda and I planned a trip out to the mountains in West Virginia, centered around the Franklin WV area. Having a sportier bike in the fleet now, I thought it would be a great opportunity to have a little spicy fun, and put some of the skills I learned on my motorcycle racing class I had done a few weeks prior.
Amanda found a small AirBnB on Main St in Franklin for us to stay the weekend. We set out on Friday, taking the long “scenic” route from Elkridge to Franklin. This route took about 7 hours of riding!
So we hopped on our bikes, Amanda on her Triumph Street Triple R and me on my Suzuki SV650, and hit the road after fueling up. It was mostly a nice ride, once we cleared the suburbia of eastern Howard County. We used Rever’s Twisty Routing feature, that lets you put in a destination, and it provides you turn by turn navigation on the most twisty path possible. In the future, I think a hybrid approach, spending some more time picking and choosing details on the route, would help us both make better time on the more mundane sections by getting onto more main or highway roads, and then getting off to spend more time in the twisties.
That being said, it was a nice ride out, and as we got closer to Shenandoah County, the scenery started to really shine, and we started getting into more interesting roads. Once we got past Harrisonburg, we reached what would have been the highlight of the long trek out, Rt 33 traveling west up the mountain on the last stretch towards Franklin. Unfortunately, we were met by a major lane closure, due to road work, on this twisty mountain road. After waiting for a long time, after the lane cleared, we were slowly escorted up the mountain in extremely slow moving traffic, until we got near the top where things opened up. Things got spicy for a short bit until we got to a scenic overlook that I’ve been to in the past with Andrew on the snow wheeling off-road trip a few years ago.
After that, we took the beautifully twisty road, which was now clear, towards Franklin. Amanda, as a more experienced rider and on a faster bike easily pulled away from me as I made my way up the mountain. As I continue to improve my skills and confidence, I’ll get faster, but there’s also a threshold as to how aggressive I feel comfortable riding on the street!
We finally pulled into town, and found the rental. It was off of Main Street and had no on-site parking. Parking was handled by parking on the street a bit of a distance away. Being on motorcycles, this concerned us a bit. But, we grabbed our bags, locked up the bikes (I brought my disk brake lock), and headed in. The rental was small, but usable for what we needed.
After eating and settling down, we decided to head back out and explore a small 78 mile loop running down 220, across 250, then back up 28. It was a lovely, twisty forested mountain road. By this time, my legs were starting to cramp up, as being in an aggressive riding position on a naked sport bike for what ended up being nearly 9 hours was a lot for one day. I was glad to hop off and stretch out back at the room!
The next morning, we pulled up Rever and started plotting our route for the day. We drew up a 231 mile loop, covering some of the roads and areas I have been through on my way to off-road trips. The first stop was the scenic overlook at the top of Reddish Knob. To get there, we took a delightfully tight and twisty steep mountain road, with a lot of low speed 1st gear switchbacks. Once we got there, the view was incredible, and we pretty much had the place to ourselves!
Photo Credit: Amanda W
We continued on, taking the loop clockwise, finding a glorious mix of tight twisty mountain roads, more open forested roads, and small towns. We made it to a beautiful overlook at the Confederate (not cool but it’s where we were) Breastworks Interpretive Trail. It had a bench to stretch out on, and a bathroom! Great spot for a 100 mile stop!
We continued on, and found a place further on to stop for lunch in Durbin at a nice diner alongside the Durbin and Greenbrier Scenic Railroad. After that, we continued riding, coming across some lovely scenery and challenging twisty roads.
Photo Credit: Amanda W
As we got near Elkins, we ended up on bigger more open roads, which for me at least, was a bit of a mental relief after concentrating hard on pushing my limits all day! It was nice to roll into town and relax for the evening!
The next morning, we packed up early and decided to boogie home. We didn’t take anything super tight or technical, but found a pleasant route home, going from Franklin to Romney, then through Winchester, then a hilariously fun jaunt towards Charles Town. After that, an easy ride to Harpers Ferry, with the always beautiful bridge traversal over the Potomac. After getting to Frederick, a straightforward highway run on 70 to get back home.
It was a great, but tiring weekend! I’ve never ridden the SV650 that far before, so it definitely was a test of my long distance chops! I’ve got a big ride on the cruiser coming up, so this was a great test run on my packing and how long I can go without stops. The cruiser is a very different bike with a different seating position, vibrations, sound, etc, but hopefully the lessons I learned translate over! For me, I think my tolerance is between 1 and 2 hours in the saddle at a time, longer stretches earlier in the ride, and having to stop more frequently later in the day. I can also probably put down about 200 miles per day on tight twisty roads that require a lot of concentration, and maybe more on higher speed roads. That works out to be about 7-ish hours in the saddle per day max.
