front royal virginia | I JUST WANT 2 RIDE!!

Posts Tagged ‘front royal virginia’

Motorcycles and Front Royal, Virginia

Posted: July 12, 2022 in Motorcycle, Motorcycle advocacy, Motorcycle Rides, motorcycle touring
Tags: front royal virginia, Harley, Harley Davidson, local motorcycle rides, Motorcycle, motorcycle blog, Motorcycle Ride, motorcycle riding, motorcycle riding front royal, motorcycle riding in virginia, motorcycle riding skyline drive national park, motorcycle safety, motorcycle touring, riding a harley Davidson in virginia, sport bike, Sportbike, sportbike touring, virginia Beer museum

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
Tags: cooter's dukes of hazzard museum, drift racing, dukes of hazzard, front royal virginia, Harley, Harley Davidson, Motorcycle, motorcycle blog, Motorcycle Ride, Motorcycle rides in front royal va, motorcycle riding, motorcycle riding in Shenandoah valley, motorcycle riding in virginia, motorcycle touring, race track, shenandoah speedway racetrack, sport bike, Sportbike

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.