West Virginia Chicken Strip Therapy

[Twist]

I just got back last night from a 4 day ride that included some Blur Ridge Parkway and a lot of the best roads in West Virginia. It was a BMW group but they're not particular about what kind of bike you show up on - last time I was on my Super Duke, this time on my GS. It was about a dozen or 15 riders and so we split up into groups based upon the intended pace of the ride. We had perfect weather and here's a couple of relive videos of our, uh, spirited pace group of myself and 2 other guys.

Friday’s Ride:
https://www.relive.cc/view/v1OwNy8kNXv

Saturday’s Ride:
https://www.relive.cc/view/vMv8Qkw3xNO

This was the first time I'd really gotten an opportunity to get in to a fast paced groove on my Dunlop Trailmax Mission tires and I'm going to report something hard to believe. These are the same 50/50 tires I put on the bike to go to Texas Hill Country and back and rode Firebolter's ADV ride on them so there were close to 4,000 miles on them when I set out last Thursday. I don't typically like to ride so hard that I'm grounding hard parts on public roads so you'll usually see about a half inch to an inch of chicken strip on my bikes. A few times I found myself in a tighter decreasing radius turn than I had expected and put some wear on my foot pegs. These tires were stuck like glue. Even when encountering that DAMN West Virginia pea gravel that gets kicked out into some of the corners they would slip just a bit and then grab.

I know that the big GS is not a popular bike with some folks but I've done several off-pavement ADV type rides in the Jefferson and George Washington NFs and in the same area have now done some pretty quick paced romps on the good roads and if there's another bike that could do all that better, I'd love to know what it is.

Up on the BRP:


Out in the hills:


What I like to call a good "GS road" around all the sport bike guys:


Back to front: my GS, a GSA, and the bike in the fore is a new Ducati Multistrada V4S - that bike was fun to listen to on full chat throttle:




Now with over 5,500 miles on the tires they still look like this:




It's just really hard to imagine how a tire hard enough to last that long and can be ridden both on and off road so effectively, can be pushed hard in corners and work so well. I'm sticking with my theory that there's some black magic involved.

[Firebolter]

throttle control and usage plays a large part in tire wear as well. I get alot of life out of a rear tire, especially knobbies on my 300/500 cause I am not always spinning the tire and on the street, not always on the gas enough or hard enough to have the tire under constant pull force. Makes a difference. Momentum is the bomb!

Cool trip. That reliver replay is pretty slick. Bike models/brands are like society, some of them you like and they work well with you, some you just don't. I have seen some guys that ride GS's and put sport bike guys to shame, it's more rider than bike!

[Twist]

throttle control and usage plays a large part in tire wear as well.

That's a good one Bill! I thought that's what traction control was for?

[Firebolter]

throttle control and usage plays a large part in tire wear as well.

That's a good one Bill! I thought that's what traction control was for?

I'm old school Wes! My throttle hand is my traction control! I don't need no stinkin' electronic's!

[Bucho]

Cool trip.


I know we like to tease big R1200GS bikes and other big ADV bikes. But that has more to do with the idea people have “hey, Ill buy giant ADV bike and LEARN to ride offroad on it!” Im always shocked how often that comes up on ADV rider. Then their first time offroad goes really poorly. And when they ask for advice we say things like “buy a small/cheap dirt/dualsport and practice on that”. But it never seems to go over well…

But seriously Im a fan of the big boxer. Wife and I rented one and had an awesome trip around southern AZ in 2007. Such a great bike for twisty pavement, long straight paved sections, and dirt roads. All 2up as well.

[DR650SEX]

Me and my wife were in AZ a week after 9/11. Took a R1100RA offroad into a gravel trap, after killing a mule deer...