Posts Tagged ‘Winchester’

HOG Motorcycle Rally, Curves to Cores

Posted: June 23, 2019 in Motorcycle, Motorcycle advocacy, Motorcycle Rides, Rally
Tags: , , , , ,
0

ijustwant2ride

I recently attended the Harley Owners Group (HOG) regional motorcycle rally. This year it was held in Winchester, VA.  Winchester is only an hour from my driveway there was no way I could miss this event.

The “Curves to Core” motorcycle rally organizers which put the event together really did a nice job. Why “Curves to Cores”?  I think the curves is self-explanatory, and the “Cores” is about a defining industry in the area.  This part of the Shenandoah Valley is a big apple growing area, providing a large part of the apples used in products across the North IMG_20190620_062955720America.

The organizers put a lot of work into making this event a success.  40+ motorcycle rides documented turn by turn AND with a memory stick full of GPS directions.  About half of this rides had an option for a guided tour version.  There were also scavenger hunts, poker runs and off bike events open to all attendees.

I chose 3 guided rides to participate in:

“Acting Like a Good Ole Boy”- A 130-mile ride crossing the Blue Ridge Mountains twice with a visit to “Cooter’s Garage and Duke’s of Hazzard Museum”.  If you are of a certain age you will remember the TV show following the daily troubles of Bo and Luke Duke.

“10 Turns of a Big Ole Yeee Haww” – A 90-mile loop ride with a stop at Summit Point Raceway. The highlight of this ride would be getting your Harley Davidson on the race track and letting it loose, so long as you did not run out of talent or floorboards (I have rubbed some of mine off and I had not been on a track).

“For Whom the Road Tolls” – A 80-mile ride on Snickersville Turnpike, the first toll road in America. Luckily it is no longer a toll road but it is a very, very quiet and scenic motorcycle ride though back country Virginia.

Unfortunately I was not able to do the track day ride.  I got an offer to test ride the Zero electric motorcycles.  Watch for a post about the Zeros in a future post.    IMG_20190619_102816460_HDR

I really enjoyed the other two rides and I will write about the rides in another post.

One of the day one activities was a scavenger hunt for large apples.  I called it apple picking.

We are currently scheduled to attend a second regional HOG rally in September, the “Hills and Hollows” rally in Johnstown City, TN.

Ride On, Ride Safe

 

Top 10 most expensive motorcycles sold at auction.

Posted: October 23, 2014 in Motorcycle, Motorcycle news
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
1

winchester-1910-

 

I wrote this article a few days ago.. and it is now out of date!!!!  The Harley Davidson “Captain America” bike from Easy Rider is now the most expensive motorcycle sold at auction.  Going for $1.35 million US this is reportable the bike that was destroyed at the end of the movie and rebuilt a few years later.  The “other” Captain America bike was stolen before the movie was finished and has never been seen again except for the fact that the man who authenticated this motorcycle as also authenticated another one as well….. hummmm.  Here is a link to help explain this crazy story.

…….

I ran across a couple interesting articles on motorcycles at Gizmag.com on this subject. I was quite surprised at what I found as I read about the results of motorcycle auctions. I will not go in a lot of details, you can use the links below to read that and you should. The link also discusses the content of the top 100 bikes sold at auction.

What surprised me the most was the fact that the number one most expensive bike was one of which I have never heard. The top ten are:

1 – US$580,000 – 1910 Winchester

2 – US$551,200 – 1915 Cyclone Board Track Racer

3 – US$480,000 – 1939 BMW RS255 Kompressor

4 – US$463,847 – 1922 Brough Superior SS80

5 – US$452,234 – 1926 Brough Superior SS100

6 – US$450,000 – 1958 Ariel 650 Cyclone

7 – US$448,156 – 1929 Brough Superior SS100

8 – US425,943 – 1939 Brough Superior SS100

9 – US$394,101 – 1934 Brough Superior SS100

10 – US$383,317 – 1949 Vincent Black Lightning

Turns out that the person who bought the bike was a gun collector. I am very aware of the collector’s value of the name Winchester as several folks that I know collect Winchester. According to what I read only about 200 were made and only a few survived.

top-10-most-collectible-motorcycle-marques-22

Winchester attempted to “diversify” and move into motorcycling along the lines of BSA and Royal Enfield which were also gun makers. Winchester had the bikes built and badged by another company and only stayed in the bike business for a few years. You can learn more about at the links below.

Now if you look at all of the top 100 most expensive bikes sold you would find that:

Brough Superiors in top 100 – 23

Vincent-HRDs in top 100 – 14

Harley-Davidsons in top 100 – 9

BMWs in top 100 – 8

Crockers in top 100 – 7

Indians in top 100 – 5

Ducatis in top 100 – 4

Flying Merkels in Top 100 – 4

Hendersons in Top 100 – 2

Iver Johnsons in Top 100 – 2

Hildebrand & Wolfmüllers in Top 100 – 2

 

To read more on the Winchester click here.

To read more on the Top 100 click here.

 

Motorcycle Ride to Winchester Motosports

Posted: October 19, 2013 in Motorcycle Rides
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
1

Well this was the first day of the fall that I needed chaps for a motorcycle ride.  Pulling out at 7:45 AM the temp was 45F, cool before I began moving.  My wife had to work today so I followed her to her favorite breakfast stop Chick-fil-a.

Shenandoah River

Shenandoah River

After eating our breakfast she went to work and I began my ride.  With my destination of Winchester Motosports set I had no particular route in mind, so I decided to take “River Road”, County road 606, which I picked up at its intersection with VA Route 7.  This road follows the Shenandoah River for about 10 miles.  The views are picturesque now but in a few weeks when the leaves reach their peak color it will be spectacular!

When 606 leaves the river (and changes names several time) you weave through backcountry Virginia until you reach the intersection of US Route 50 and 606.  I was tempted to turn around and ride 606 again but I moved on towards the Royal Enfield dealership.

As I mentioned a few posts ago I found Winchester Motosports when I looked at the new Royal Enfield Continental GT website.  I thought it would be neat and visit the store and check out the bikes they had on hand.

When I arrived I meet Ed and the owner Carl. Turns out that Winchester Motosports is not only a Royal Enfield dealer but is also a Moto Guzzi dealer.  They are also one of the largest motorcycle consignment resellers in Northern Virginia.  They were also, at one time, dealers in Victory and Triumph bikes.

Carl is a very gregarious guy who, you can easily tell, absolutely loves what he does.  His knowledge of the bikes he sells (or sold) is immense.  I really enjoyed my conversations with Ed and Carl!  If you are interested in Enfield’s, Moto Guzzi or a used bike of any kind I would consider Winchester Motosports as a first stop. WP_20131019_026

After ogling the bikes for a bit it was time to start for home as the weatherman said that rain was coming in the afternoon.  Weaving through more back roads, I ended up on US 340 and then hoped on VA Route 9.  About an hour or so later I was back in Leesburg.  Round, trip I put on 125 miles on a pleasant, but cool, fall day.

There was one big negative on today’s ride.  I dropped by phone and now the screen is krap and the pictures are not right.  Nearly all the photos on this site have been taken with my Nokia 928 phone.  I have been very happy with this phone and camera.

 

Another Motorcycle Ride to No Where in Particular (or, An Impact with a Stink Bug!)

Posted: October 7, 2013 in Motorcycle, Motorcycle Rides, motorcycle touring
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
0

My friend Doug and I linked up this past weekend to going riding.  We had no particular place in mind and decided to scoot over to Winchester Harley Davidson to look at the 2014 bikes.  

We rode west on US 7 and then cut across VA 601(the Secret Blue-Ridge Mountain Northern Stretch) to US 50 where we continued west until we reached the dealership.  We spent nearly an hour at the dealership looking at their bikes and merchandise.  They did not have very many of the “Project Rushmore” 2014 bikes, with the exception of Street Glides. They had six or seven of the new Street Glides in most of the available colors, in particular I really like the Big Blue Pearl paint.  As we were leaving the dealership we decided to visit the Gander Mountain outdoor center.  

Doug rides a Suzuki Intruder without a windscreen and on the way to Gander Mountain he had an olfactory impact with a stink bug at about 60 MPH.  His telling of the incident was particularly funny in that he was getting a strange smell, off and on, during the ride over to Gander Mountain and attributed it to the normal smells of riding.  Once in the store the smell was following him around until he noticed it was coming from his shirt!  A quick trip the restroom fixed that issue.  I am sure if we were members of a motorcycle club he would have a new nickname! 

After riding through “Old Town” Winchester we meandered through the border area of Virginia and West Virginia.  I would bet we crossed the state line no less than 10 times.  We traveled several “really” back roads including “Smokey Hollow Road” and “Il Pugh Road” until we emerged onto Route 11 (the same Route 11 as the Potato Chip ride).  We took Route 11 north to Charles Town, WV and then Route 9 (same Route 9 that Debbie and I rode) back to Leesburg. 

I put a bit over 175 miles on the bike that day and Doug and I both agree that we need to do it again soon.  Like a dummy I forgot to take pictures on this ride!

 

 

 

 

 

Motorcycle Ride to PAW PAW

Posted: August 20, 2013 in Motorcycle Rides
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
2

Well, Paw Paw, West Virginia was not the intended destination, in fact, we just went out to ride.

We pulled out about ten in the morning (on the Ultra Limited) and head west on Route 7.  I noticed the exit for Virginia State Route 9 and decided, what the heck let’s see where Route 9 goes.  We knew it went north to Martinsburg, WV but that was about it.

Route 9 in Virginia is also known as Charles Town Pike and passes through rolling farmland and the towns of Paeonian Springs (which has a historic district) and Hillsboro.  Hillsboro sets in the middle of a gap in the Blue Ridge Mountains. A short climb out of Hillsboro and you have a great view of Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia.

motorcycle ride

RT 9 at WV/VA boarder

At this point VA Route 9 becomes WV Route 9 and also becomes a four line highway. While we did not take the road, by the looks of the area I can image that “old 9” down the mountain would be full of twistiness!  Crossing the Shenandoah River we scooted through Charles Town and Martinsburg, we did not stop to look around, today was just about riding. A little after Martinsburg the road becomes a 2 lane again.

When we reached Berkeley Springs we did stop.  Right in the middle of the town is the Berkeley Springs State Park. The town (its real name is Bath) was considered the country’s first spa and resort area because of the mineral spring producing 2,000 gallons a minute.  George Washington even visited the springs. Heck the town even has a castle!

Continuing on Route 9, up the mountain out of Berkeley Springs we summited to a spectacular view of the Potomac River in the valley below. We decided to have lunch across the street from the fabulous view at Panorama at the Peak restaurant. This is a farm to table, organic, restaurant and the food was awesome!

Back on the bike we rode down the mountain and into the Cacapon River Valley.  This stretch of road from Berkeley Springs to Paw Paw was very lightly traveled, I doubt that we passed a dozen cars.  It undulates along the Cacapon River and was just a very nice ride!

motorcycle ride

Riding in the Cacapon River valley

We reached the end of WV 9 when we hit Paw Paw.  It is a very small town at the intersection of WV 9 and 29 and was the point where we began our return trip.  We did not retrace our route instead we zigged and zagged through a variety of roads until we reached Route 7 at Winchester, VA.  After stopping at the Winchester Sonic restaurant for ice cream (I love there coconut milkshakes) we quickly made it back home.

We put in 198 miles on this trip with only a few stops….it was a great day with the wife and the bike!

New Market Civil War Battlefield via Dinosaur Land!

Posted: May 7, 2013 in Motorcycle news
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
3

This past weekend my wife and I rode from our home in Leesburg to the New Market Civil War Battlefield.  We rode west on US Route 7 then took Route 340 south to Luray, VA. On the way we passed the interesting roadside attraction of Dinosaur Land.  The place was not open when we stopped for a photo op but it looked very cool for small kids! Image

After posing a few minutes with T-Rex we contained south on 340 passing through rolling farm county and small towns of the Shenandoah Valley.  The largest town we passed through was Front Royal, which is also the northern entrance to Skyline Drive. We have done the Skyline Drive before but I am sure we will do it again this summer, it is just a too nice a ride not to do it as often as possible. (Route 340 south of Front Royal is also known as the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Highway to honor the Civil War General.)

Rolling past Front Royal we soon arrived in Luray, VA and our next intersection.  Taking Route 211 west we passed the entrance to Luray Caverns, a US National Landmark.  We did not stop at the caverns on this trip but I am sure we will sometime in the future.

Image

Crossing under I-81 on 211 we were immediately at the entrance to the Virginia Museum of the Civil War and New Market Battlefield.  From the website “The Virginia Museum of the Civil War (VMCW) interprets the 1864 Battle of New Market with emphasis on the role of Virginia Military Institute Cadets and the Civil War in Virginia.”  The museum was quite nice with small displays on most of the major engagements of the war which occurred in Virginia.  They also have a

A couple of hours later we hopped back on the bike and traced our route back north.  We deviated a bit by riding to Grove’s Harley Davidson in Winchester, VA.  We arrived at the dealership about 15 minutes from closing and did not stay too long.   I was hoping to look at their helmets as I am in the market for a new one.  30 minute video “The Field of Lost Shoes” that focused mainly on the boy soldiers of the Virginia Military Institute role in the battle.

Turing right out of the dealership we took US 50 east to State route 601 also called the “Secret Blue Ridge Mountain Northern Stretch”.  This is a twisty section of road that connects US 50 and US 7.  This is a great short ride and well worth the side trip.  The views from the mountain are limited by the forest but you should be concentrating on the road anyway, right!

Our trip was 166 miles round trip and lasted a bit more than 7 hours.  Debbie and I had a nice motorcycle ride together but we still need to figure out the intercom system!