2025 East Coast Rally Official thread

[misterprofessionality]

Ride Day 1   

The official first day for most attendees to the 2025 Cb1100 East Coast Rally!  

After some thought and lots and lots of on site testing, I've determined that this will be the best possible introduction for everybody the flavor of Tennessee.  It contains some Country scenery, Local attractions, good food, and an honest-to-goodness Tshirt road! 

https://maps.app.goo.gl/urs9bV569Tm33ghN7



The day will start out with us leaving town by the most expedient means so that we can make it to our portion of the legendary Highway 58.  This is a cross country highway that twists through rural landscapes and foothills across multiple southeastern states.  The bit we're concerned with starts just across the Virginia border and will take us all the way to Bristol, TN.  While Bristol is a famous town with a lot to see,  It's also a very active place, so we're going to cleverly work our way around the population center and use some back country roads to find 421, also known as The Snake™.  This is a famous route that stretches from Holston Lake the sleepy town of Mountain City, TN, with a pit stop right in the center at the Shady Valley General Store. It climbs and descends two separate mountain-lets, with gnarly but well-engineered mountain-style twisties all throughout.  We'll stop in at the General store, of course, just for a short rest, drinks, and a souvenir if you like! Turning North after the Snake will take us up 91 N, which will climb through rock-cut roads and follow a winding river back up to the Virginia Border.  Lunch at the Wicked Chicken, a great place with a Great atmosphere and a lot of good food!  After gassing up and carrying on, we'll return to Tennessee via 133, and pass through the worlds shortest tunnel!  It sounds silly, but it's really quite the sight. From there we'll carry on all the way down to Elizabethton and it's smooth sailing all the way back to Kingsport.  

Sadly I haven't captured any video of The Snake™ on my recent trips, but it's in perfect condition, and the blacktop is grippy and exciting. The closest we ever got to getting to ride this road at a past rally was last year in Marion, but it was just a bridge too far at the time.  Get yourself on this ride if you've never had the chance to come here!

[rdprdp01]

Ride Day 1   

The official first day for most attendees to the 2025 Cb1100 East Coast Rally!  

After some thought and lots and lots of on site testing, I've determined that this will be the best possible introduction for everybody the flavor of Tennessee.  It contains some Country scenery, Local attractions, good food, and an honest-to-goodness Tshirt road! 

https://maps.app.goo.gl/urs9bV569Tm33ghN7



The day will start out with us leaving town by the most expedient means so that we can make it to our portion of the legendary Highway 58.  This is a cross country highway that twists through rural landscapes and foothills across multiple southeastern states.  The bit we're concerned with starts just across the Virginia border and will take us all the way to Bristol, TN.  While Bristol is a famous town with a lot to see,  It's also a very active place, so we're going to cleverly work our way around the population center and use some back country roads to find 421, also known as The Snake™.  This is a famous route that stretches from Holston Lake the sleepy town of Mountain City, TN, with a pit stop right in the center at the Shady Valley General Store. It climbs and descends two separate mountain-lets, with gnarly but well-engineered mountain-style twisties all throughout.  We'll stop in at the General store, of course, just for a short rest, drinks, and a souvenir if you like! Turning North after the Snake will take us up 91 N, which will climb through rock-cut roads and follow a winding river back up to the Virginia Border.  Lunch at the Wicked Chicken, a great place with a Great atmosphere and a lot of good food!  After gassing up and carrying on, we'll return to Tennessee via 133, and pass through the worlds shortest tunnel!  It sounds silly, but it's really quite the sight. From there we'll carry on all the way down to Elizabethton and it's smooth sailing all the way back to Kingsport.  

Sadly I haven't captured any video of The Snake™ on my recent trips, but it's in perfect condition, and the blacktop is grippy and exciting. The closest we ever got to getting to ride this road at a past rally was last year in Marion, but it was just a bridge too far at the time.  Get yourself on this ride if you've never had the chance to come here!

Great planning.Everyone will have a great time! David

[misterprofessionality]

Ride Day 2   

This was the one That I worked the hardest to make sure it was both passable and fun, because it was the one that worried me the most.  We're going to be headed down into North Carolina to ride some roads that, despite two whole rallies in NC, we still haven't covered!  Its amazing what a bottomless well that place is. However, once again Helene is going to stick her nose into our business.  Many of the roads I would have chosen or would have liked to use are going to be off limits, so I've managed to string together a series of fun rides into something resembling a moderate distance, all of which are verified by to be safe and fun! So, after much deliberation It occurred to me to place this route on Day 2, so that it could have the maximum benefit of being on the lowest traffic day of the week. 

https://maps.app.goo.gl/iQqBCffRJfdpBKA29



The day starts leaving directly out of Kingsport by way of 93 and 81.  93 will be a short hop but isn't interesting in any way, while 81 starts right in with the scenic and the smooth and the engaging turns. This is still a leisurely ride, though, meant to take us past Historic Jonesboro (don't worry, we'll visit that on another day). After we make it all the way down to Erwin, we'll finally pickup the legendary 19W , which is a border crossing country highway that's a hidden Gem.  I took a select few people down this road last year when we were in Marion, and those that tried it gave it glowing reviews! It climbs up into a small mountain and then drops back into the river valley where some of Helene's devastation was at its very worst.  Entire communities were wiped off the map, roads erased, bridges torn down, ect.  The good news is, the road and bridges themselves down this road have all been repaired and are even covered in gorgeous brand new pavement, so the ride itself is phenomenal.  The scenery however....Let's it'll be a different kind of sight seeing.  You'll get a chance to see first hand what all happened down there and what it meant to the lives of the people that live along these roads we love to ride. Take special note as we ride along the lower half of 19w  by the river of the hundreds of tiny stacks of river stones, each one a memorial. 

After that we'll get a timely rest stop at a colorful general store called Price's Creek.  Get your bathroom brakes, get your snacks, because after this it could be a minute before we find a suitable place to rest.  Continuing down 19E for a little ways, we'll bypass both 197 and the famous hwy 80, both of which are stunningly fun roads but are unfortunately damaged beyond any hope of safe riding. Instead we'll continue a little further and use Penland road.  This is a nice little secret country road that's in top condition (Special Thanks to The A-Man for personally verifying this road was good).  After we've made the cross over to 226 we can follow it north through twisty mountains and river runners all the way back too Tennessee and the tiny town of Hampton, where ***lunch*** awaits at Libby's Restaurant.  This is a pretty standard country diner with everything you might need.  We'll stay a while and get all our energy back before making the return to Kingsport. 

That's not to say our return will be boring, however.  I've managed to scout out a few fun and less traveled back roads that wind between the suburbs of Johnson City and Kingsport in order to keep us out of the worst of way of the Local Fauna.  We'll pass by some attractive farm and river country, over a dam bridge (Suhawk this ride's for you), and finally back into city of Kingsport for the end of the day. All told this is a pretty big day at 172 Miles, and while i haven't chosen to bore you with a list of all the stops we could make to rest, I'm going to make every effort to keep people energetic and hydrated throughout.  

See below for a video of the most recent run on 19W! Below that I've also included a video we took from NC 80, showing the ride before we got to the heinous gravel patches that ultimately made me strike it from the itinerary for good.

[misterprofessionality]

Ride Day 3 

Today's the day the main group will venture far into Virginia for the first time, even reaching as far as to cross the Kentucky Border! This run is going to include some good roads that would have been found on the Day 0 ride, but takes us in a different direction to tackle much more mountainous roads and get some stellar overlook views into Kentucky after lunch.  This one was actually the very first route that I tested, because I was most excited to try it, and even though we were forced to do the whole thing in a car due to inclement weather, it did not disappoint. 

https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZDgHr7qfnSuJtQDk7?g_st=ac



We'll start first by riding directly out of town by the fastest means until we cross the VA border headed into Gate City.  This is a cute little neighboring town with nothing much to see, but it will take us out into he VA countryside as efficiently as possible. From here we're going to pick up 72, which day 0 riders will already be familiar with.  It's good enough to do twice, don't worry. We will, however, split off from 72 briefly to make a short stop at the old Bush Mill.  It's a cute little landmark of an old water driven mill and a great photo op with a small museum in the mill that should be open if anybody wants to take a peek inside. Following this, we'll ride up 71 to 774 (another surprisingly awesome little stretch with great engineering) until we rejoin 72.  This leg of the journey will carry us all the way up to Norton VA, where we can have a bathroom stop in the event there's no bathroom available at the mill. We're going to veer off into some secluded rural country again after this to take on the narrowest road of the day, a series of 3 digit roads that will get twistier and twistier as we climb up into the higher elevations one couple mile stretch of this road does shed its center line, but it gets it back in no time, and the quality of the pavement is passable and fun. Eventually this road will stop climbing and drop us off at hwy 119, which is a stunning ridge runner type road in Kentucky with some excellent views.  This one will lead right to our Lunch stop at the Pine Mountain Grill, a very popular stop for motorcyclists in this area.  Check out the menu, this place has anything you could want! 


https://maps.app.goo.gl/aW8m4H9LNdg5HC626

After that it's time to get some Fuel and head right back to 119 (also a road that's good enough to ride twice).  We'll briefly pull off to the Falcon overlook for some great pictures and look out across the Kentucky Landscape before saddling up and finally riding on to our next destination:  The Dragon Slayer!



While not the longest, This one will likely be the most intense, fun, and exciting stretch of pavement on the entire 5 day agenda. Route 160, crossing back over the VA/KY border over Black Mountain is a relentless cascade of steep banked curves and excellent pavement.  Once it starts you're stuck on this roller coaster for a good 9 miles, so save your energy! This is the perfect road for getting into that motorcycle flow state. It will eventually drop us back down in the town of Big Stone Gap VA, and where we will pick up some much higher speed highways and make all haste back into  Tennessee to return to the hotel.  Being that this is perhaps the longest day of the week, I wanted to make sure we could all rest easy after the Monster that is 160. 


Hope to see the whole group on this one!! Stay tuned for upcoming ride previews!

[rdprdp01]

Great planning which will result in an even better day! David

[Redbird]

i've just booked a room for this Rally!  This is my 2nd try for an East Coast Rally.  The 1st was for the Arkansas rally but my dog picked that time to become seriously ill so I had to cancel.  I haven't decided whether I will trailer my bike or just drive my car, but my plan is to be there!

Oh, if it is not too late a size Large T-shirt would be great.

[misterprofessionality]

Thats awesome! Im sending the shirt order today so you snuck in just in time!

Where are you coming out from?

[Redbird]

I'm coming from Colorado. I can combine this with a visit to my son and his family in Chattanooga.

[misterprofessionality]

Whoooooaaaa somebody get this guy an award for miles travelled!

[deltamark]

I'm planning to make it there for a few nights with Hank, my canine monkey, although we'll be staying at a different hotel. Look forward to seeing everyone at the evening round circle chats!