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Motorcycle Riding Around Front Royal: Thrill and Chill Ride

Posted: February 21, 2024 in Motorcycle, Motorcycle advocacy, Motorcycle Rides, motorcycle touring
Tags: front royal virginia, Harley, Harley Davidson, Laury virginia, Motorcycle, motorcycle blog, motorcycle high crash area, Motorcycle Ride, motorcycle ride in virgina, motorcycle rides in front royal virginia, motorcycle rides near skyline drive, motorcycle riding, motorcycle safety, motorcycle skyline drive, motorcycle touring, motorcycle touring blog, motorcycle touring in virginia, shenandoah national park, shenandoah river, Skyline Drive, sport bike, Sportbike

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

Motocycle Rides: The Raptor in the cold with rain and snow.

Posted: October 12, 2023 in Motorcycle, Motorcycle Rides, motorcycle touring
Tags: GPS, Harley, Harley Davidson, Motocycle Rides: The Raptor in the cold with rain and snow, Motorcycle, motorcycle blog, Motorcycle Ride, motorcycle ride to Senica rocks, motorcycle riding, motorcycle riding in cold, motorcycle riding the raptor us route 250, motorcycle safety, motorcycle tour, motorcycle touring, motorcycle touring blog, motorcycle touring in virginia, motorcycle touring in west virginia, riding the raptor us route 250, Senica rocks, shoeshow ski resort, snow on the motorcycle, snowshoe wv, sport bike, Sportbike, Staunton va, switchback, tail of the dragon, The Raptor, US Route 250

Over the Columbus federal holiday weekend Debbie and I took our first long ride on the new motorcycle (I will be posting about the new motorcycle soon). The weather was supposed to be cool but not terrible. However, cool turned into cold and cold turned to a mix of rain and snow.

This was also likely the last overnight trip of the season as we head, quickly, into winter! Winter sucks!

Sunday morning, we pulled out and headed south to Staunton, Virginia. Our goal was to ride “The Raptor”, 88 miles across 8 mountains with sections of twisties that rival the Tail of the Dragon.

The Raptor lived up to its appearance on the map. Multiple up and down hill switchbacks, tight twisty turns many exceeding 90 degrees. In other words, it is a lot of fun for riders that like this type of road. This is also a road, like the Tail of the Dragon, that if you don’t pay attention, AND ride within your abilities, you could get yourself into trouble.

There’s nothing quite like riding US Route 250, the Raptor, on a motorcycle. It’s a thrilling experience that takes you through some of the most scenic and challenging roads in the country. You’ll encounter twists and turns, mountains and valleys, forests, and farms, as you cruise along this stretch of asphalt.

When we finished The Raptor, I wanted to turn around and head back to do it again. But the temperature had dropped, and Debbie wanted to head to the hotel. Alas, I was relying on the GPS and did not realize it was set to “Scenic” not fastest. OPPS! About an hour into what I thought was to be, at most, a 30 minute trip I realized my mistake. 20 minutes later we made it to the Corduroy Inn and Lodge at Snowshoe, WV, our stop for the night.

At this point I started to understand fully (not that I did not already know from being there multiple times) that we were at a ski resort. Debbie and I started laughing about our situation and quickly made for the Inn.

The next morning, I walked out to see how the weather impacted the bike and parking lot. There was some snow on the motorcycle, but the parking lot was good to go, with no ice or snow. Also, upon check out we were told we should have used the parking garage… thanks guys we will know for next time.

By the way, our room at the Corduroy Inn was genuinely nice, we would stay there again.

Pulling out we headed first to Senica Rocks for breakfast and the view. It was cooling off even more and starting to rain so we spent little time on the view.

Back on the road we headed to the house and made it home on a filthy and wet motorcycle and looking forward to warm showers!

200 Mile Motorcycle Ride to No Where

Posted: August 19, 2022 in Uncategorized
Tags: fort valley road, Harley Davidson, Motorcycle, motorcycle blog, Motorcycle Ride, motorcycle riding, motorcycle riding in virginia, motorcycle safety, motorcycle touring, motorcycle touring in virginia, sena outrush helmet, shenandoah national park, Skyline Drive, sport bike, Sportbike, where to ride your motorcycle, where to ride your motorcycle in virginia

We have not been getting out on the motorcycle a lot, nowhere near what I want. Between work (new job) and life (covid, weddings, etc.) I am way behind on this year’s riding. I hope to change that with less than half the year remaining.

But we did get the motorcycle out for good ride a few weekends ago.

That morning we set out with new helmets (Harley Davidson/Sena Outrush), new jackets and I had a new pair of Kevlar lined riding pants. Each of those products will get a separate post. For this motorcycle ride there was no real destination, I had only a road to start on, “Fort Valley Road” or State Road 678.

Fort Valley Road is, at the start, a quite twisty road with stone cliffs on one side and a drop into Passage Creek on the other. After a while the valley widens to allow for farmland and the road goes from twisty to rolling hills with a few tight turns thrown in for fun.

We rode Fort Valley Road to the end and then made our way into Luray, VA. Riding through downtown Luray it is evident that we need to come back and spend some time here.

Taking State Route 211 out of Luray, we crossed through Shenandoah National Park, and under Skyline Drive. The ride up and down the mountain is normally spectacular, this day not so much. There has been a lot of thunderstorms recently and there were several places where gravel had washed onto the road requiring slower speeds and more attention. In one spot there was several inches of water running across the road.

After coming off the mountain we decided to ride over to Culpepper, VA for lunch. Culpepper is another of those small towns in which we need to spend some time. That day we did not get to lunch in town as every spot we checked had a line and many were closed (it was a Sunday).

By now the day was getting quite warm, it was over 90F. Luckily our route back to home was via a scenic mostly tree covered route. We did not take a direct route but wandered through a dozen back roads until we ended back in Front Royal.

It was an awesome day to be out on a motorcycle ride!

Ride On, Ride Safe