Posts Tagged ‘front royal virginia’

Explore Skyline Drive: A Must for Motorcycle Lovers

Posted: October 7, 2024 in Motorcycle, Motorcycle advocacy, Motorcycle Rides, motorcycle touring, motorcycle tourism
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If you ride a motorcycle you need to add Skyline Drive to your Bucket List!

Skyline Drive, part of the Shenandoah National Park, is one of the jewels of the National Park system.  It is 105 miles of vistas, twists, turns and occasional wildlife. It is possible you will see deer, turkeys, squirrels, or even bears!

This year we toured the entire length of Skyline Drive, south to north, a few weeks before peak fall color.  Traffic was quite light, and the overlooks had few if any other travelers. 

We stopped for lunch at the Loft Mountain Wayside. My wife and I shared a delish smash burger with a side of giant onion rings.  We have traveled this road many times and have never had a bad meal at any of the restaurants.

Fall Colors on Skyline Drive

I have said it before, Skyline Drive proves that riding in a car is like watching a movie, riding a motorcycle is being in the movie. Riding this road in the fall will prove that to anyone.

One thing everyone should know is that during fall, when the leaves are at their most colorful, the road become packed with “leaf peepers”. 

The 35 MPH speed limit becomes difficult to reach due to all the vehicles. I would avoid the area unless you are ok with spending the entire day on the parkway (emphasis on park).

Riding Skyline in the spring or fall can be cool experience. By cool I mean that the temperature can be 10-15 degrees cooler than the valleys below. Throw an extra shirt on just to be safe. Also, the road is not cleared of leaves, ride carefully especially in the mornings when the leaves are damp from dew.

Front Royal, Virginia

When you are at the northern terminus of the park you are in Front Royal, Virginia.  There is a lot of great riding in that area as well, spend a couple days exploring the area and the town, Main Street is a must see.

When we arrived home, we had ridden about half the day and 251 miles.  Another great day on a motorcycle.

Riding Front Royal

Fort Valley Road Ride                   Thrill and Chill Ride

Be on the lookout for BEARS!!

Motorcycle Riding Around Front Royal: Thrill and Chill Ride

Posted: February 21, 2024 in Motorcycle, Motorcycle advocacy, Motorcycle Rides, motorcycle touring
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front royal thrill and chill

Front Royal, Virginia is the northern terminus of Skyline Drive, one of the premier byways of America. Ten thousand or more motorcyclists pass through Front Royal on their way to or from Skyline Drive each year.

What those motorcyclists don’t know is that the riding around Front Royal is amazing!  If you are riding to or from Skyline Drive, you owe it to yourself to stop to visit Front Royal and ride our local roads.

Look for my other documented ride in the Front Royal area here.

Mountain Passes and Valley Riding

This “Thrill and Chill” ride gets its name from the Thrills of riding two mountain passes and the Chill of cruising through parts of the Shenandoah Valley.

Heading south out of town you will be cruising through local farmland, vineyards, and quaint small towns.  During this part of the ride, you will have spectacular views of the steep, rugged tree-lined mountains to your west. If you are lucky, you will get glimpses of Skyline Drive high above you.

Before long you will see that same mountain in front of you growing larger and taller with each mile. The twists and turns on this pass are as good as any twisty road in America. For those that enjoy mountain riding here is a chance to drag your pegs and experience the fun of flipping your motorcycle through turns.  But be careful, this is a high crash area and there is a sign at the bottom pointing out that fact.

Passing under Skyline Drive and down the other side puts you back in the valley and just a chill cruise to Luray, Virginia.  Continuing south you will pass through more verdant farmland and more charming small-town America until you reach Elkton and turn east back towards the looming mountain.

As with the first mountain pass this is a mountain riding lovers heaven. Miles of climbing with tight right and left corners and a long-twisted descent will put a big smile on anyone’s face.

Before long you will be heading north again via the valley roads until you make it back to Front Royal again. This is a 3-hour(ish) ride covering 145 miles.

Local Highlights

Front Royal Visitor Center

Multiple Vineyards and Breweries

Multiple Farm to Market Shops

Luray Caverns

Luray Rescue Zoo

The Route

From the Front Royal Visitor Center

Right onto Main Street

Right onto Commerce Avenue = US 522

Right onto US 522/211

At Sperryville continue straight on US 211

Right on Ramp to US 340

Left on US 340 through Luray to Elkton

At Elkton Left onto US 33

Left onto US 29

At Madison stoplight intersection of US 29 and Virginia 687

          Left onto VA 687 immediate merge onto Business 29

          At the east end of Madison, Left onto VA 231 (Blue Ridge Parkway)  This is easy to miss you will need to watch.

Left onto US 522

At Sperryville turn right onto US211/522

Left onto US 522

Left onto Front Royal Main Street

Front Royal Virginia Polar Bear Motorcycle Ride

Posted: January 3, 2024 in Motorcycle, Motorcycle Rides, motorcycle touring
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Weather, snow, ice or freezing rain permitting the wife and I like to go out for a motorcycle ride each New Year’s Day.  It has been a 50/50 proposition most years for these rides, but this year the forecast looked cold but ridable. Good weather for Polar Bears and nut cases like us.

At about 11AM we set out with our friend and neighbor Mark for a 90-mile ride.  The sky was dark and overcast and looked heavy with moisture but, the weather folks reported that there was only a very low chance of precipitation. The temperature was 39F degrees, a very wet, damp feeling 39 degrees.  

Leaving Front Royal, VA we headed east towards the town of Warrenton, which is not named after me sadly. I was quickly reminded of one of the failings of my Sena Outrush (Harley version) motorcycle helmet, the visor is not pinlock ready and I had, yet again, not ordered the replacement.  Because of that I had to The Sena communication package worked well the entire ride as all three of us were paired and could talk as we rode.

About 30 minutes into the ride, it started snowing! Soon snow was swirling in tiny tornados across the pavement.  It was not sticking to the pavement so onward we rode our iron horses into the cold and snow! 😊

At the halfway point the temperatures had not improved but the snow had slowed to just random flakes here and there. However, the cold was starting to penetrate, making us feel a little like the polar bears of this namesake ride. This ride, during a warmer time, is a great one for those that wish to visit Civil War historical site. There are many road markers directing you to those sites along the way.

Arriving back home it was a bit of a struggle to get off the motorcycle.  Instead of just swinging my leg over the back rest and off the bike, I had to slide it across the seat and off.  I had tightened in the cold and was quite stiff. Plus, it did not help that I had multiple layers of clothing and leather chaps in hopes to stay warm.

If you have been reading this blog for a long you might recall that I had called these rides “Frosty Balls” rides.  I can no longer do that as the new motorcycle has a heated seat! LOL Between the heated seats and the heated hand grips all I need is a heated body!

If you would like some tips for cold weather riding check this post out “9 Cold Weather Riding Tips”

For those of you that ride Harley Davidson models with the “Boom Box” system you can download our ride here “2024 Front Royal Polar Bear Ride“

Ride On, Ride Safe!

🏍️

Motorcycles and Front Royal, Virginia

Posted: July 12, 2022 in Motorcycle, Motorcycle advocacy, Motorcycle Rides, motorcycle touring
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I have ridden along many national parkways including the Natchez Trace (TN/MS), Great Lake Seaway Byway (NY), Blue Ridge Parkway (VA, NC) and, of course, the Skyline Drive Parkway (VA). I have also attended multiple motorcycle rallies along the east coast including Daytona.

Outside of rallies, I have never seen as many motorcycles in one location as I do in Front Royal, Virginia. During motorcycle riding season, it is not uncommon to see hundreds of motorcycles in Front Royal, either singular or riding in large groups daily. You can see these large numbers of motorcycles passing through almost every day but especially on weekends. In my opinion Front Royal could be the motorcycle destination of Virgina much like Tail of the Dragon in Tennessee.

Why are so many motorcycles passing through Front Royal? It is because the town is located at the northern terminus of Skyline Drive and about an hour from the nation’s capital.  All these motorcycle riders are passing through the town on the way to Skyline Drive or to parts unknown as they leave the Parkway.

By just passing through Front Royal motorcyclists are missing out on opportunities for some great local rides and the great local flavor.  For example, a rider can take a loop from Front Royal to Luray via Fort Valley Road. That ride would last about two+ hours, depending on stops, and would have you back in town by lunch time.

After lunch, mount the motorcycle and head south out of town to cross under Skyline Drive at it two gaps.  But be careful, they are quite technical, and the northern gap is designated as a high crash area. Two+ hours later you will be back in town with enough time to get to dinner and a stroll along main street.

After dinner, riders could visit the Virginia Beer Museum for brew and live music or Shenandoah Valley Axe Throwing for a unique activity or any of the many other venues in town.  Front Royal has lots of hotels and restaurants and a main street that could be considered a throw-back to another era. Check out the movie theater that has a 1950’s vibe with a state-of-the-art projector and sound system.

Front Royal may be the gateway to Skyline Drive, but it should also be a destination at the start or end of your motorcycle ride.  Stay a day or two, there are plenty of hotels and campgrounds, to explore both our local roads and our small-town atmosphere.

Motorcycle Ride to a racetrack or… my wife went drifting!

Posted: June 16, 2022 in Motorcycle, Motorcycle Rides, motorcycle touring
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Going for a spin!

A few weekends ago the wife and I took a motorcycle ride to Shenandoah Speedway racetrack.  A friend of mine was participating in a “drift” event.  For the few of you out there that might not know about drifting it is the sport of sliding your car sideways through a turn as fast as you can.  Quite exciting to watch a lot harder to do, unless you have plenty of practice and a car set up to do it properly.  My buddy has both the skills and the car.

The ride to the racetrack was great.  Bright blue skies with a few big puffy white clouds. The temp was not too hot or too cool making the ride with “ATGATT” comfortable. We left Front Royal going south on SR 340 in the spring green Shenandoah Valley.  With little traffic it was no time at all before we passed Luray Caverns. The Caverns are a very popular tourist destination and today their parking lot was full of hundreds of cars and lots of buses.

Just a short distance past Luray Caverns is “Cooter’s”!  For those of us of a certain age that remember the TV show The Dukes of Hazzard, Cooter’s is a museum of sorts celebrating the show.  The man who played Cooter, Ben Jones, is from the area and had collected a lot of memorabilia from the show which is on display including some of the cars with a General Lee replica out front.  By the way Cooter is also multi-term US Congressman.

My wife had never been to Cooter’s, so we pulled into its packed parking lot.  This day they had a Blue Grass and Folk music band playing, something they do on a regular basis.  We wondered around the facility for a bit with Rocky Top and Country Roads dancing in our ears.  The stop was a nice diversion back to our teen years.

Back on our steady stead we continued south on SR 340 until we reached the racetrack.  I knew we were close when I could see the plumes of white smoke and the smell of burning rubber in the air, drifting is very hard on tires.

It was not long before my wife was buckled in the race car and out on the track.  She was only able to get two laps in before they blew up the right rear tire.  Yet, those few laps were enough to give her an ear-to-ear smile.  She talked about it for many days later.

As the day got longer it was time to head to the house.  A 100+ mile motorcycle ride and a new experience for my wife made this a great day.


Ride on, Ride safe