- Week 2024 Beat the Heat Scooter rally

[klaviator]

On Sunday morning I Loaded my scooter and stuff into my truck and headed to Maggie Valley, NC for the 5th annual BTH event. High temperatures in Northern Alabama had been in the 90s with heat indexes over 100. The forecast for Maggie Valley was highs in the 70s and lows in the 50s or 60s. That is the reason we named this rally "beat the heat".

I got to MV early in the afternoon and several others were already there.

Dave on a Kymco Xciting 400.

Eddie had numnbers on his Sym Citycom 300 because he rode it in the scooter cannonball this year.

Scooters kept rolling in.

Greg and Candi stopped by with their dogs on a MG V85TT. Greg has now made it to all five BTH events.

.

 

[klaviator]

In the evening a bunch of us headed up to Waterrock Knob to catch the sunset.

.

.

.

.

.

.

 

[klaviator]

It was pretty chilly up there and I put on a jacket to stay warm. What a nice change from Alabama where I would have been sweating.

Mo pics.

The view looking away from the sunset was nice too.

.

.

More of the sunset.

.

.

.

 

[klaviator]

On Monday most of us split into a couple of groups to ride the "southern Highlands" route. I call it this because much of the ride is at high elevation and also it goes through the town of Highlands, NC. I led the "fast' group. We started by riding up to the BRP.

This was some of my group. We were waiting for the rest to catch up.

The first part of the BRP was a long uphill climb. I was able to run it all around 45 MPH which happens to be the speed limit. I remember many year ago when I was much younger I would run this road at 60+ MPH on my EX500. Now 45 feels plenty fast.

At some point well past Waterrock Knob I stopped to regroup and a few riders pulled in behind me and we waited. I took a pic of Mark and Dawn. We met years ago through the MaxiScoots forum.

We waited for a while but no one else came.

Oh OH! I headed back and was hoping it was just a flat tire or mechanical issue. Unfortunately one of the riders had crashed just past Waterrock knob in a curve. He was on the ground an awake but they had called an ambulance. His scooter was toast. The front wheel had been ripped off.

We were all standing around there. Candace took charge and said most of us should head off. She and a few others would stay and the ambulance was on the way. So we headed off. Withing a few minutes we passed at least a half a dozen emergency vehicles coming the other way.

It was a while before we knew the riders status but from what I know he had no life threatening injuries. A few broken ribs and probably a concussion. He was wearing good riding gear and I'm sure that made a difference.

So this ride was not off to a great start. Another rider in my group was @Capt Scoots on a Vespa GTS. He had his check engine light come on. He decided to disconnect the battery and reconnect it to see if the light would go away.

The light didn't go out but his scooter was running fine so we continued on. At the exit for 74 I got off and stopped on the side of the road. A couple more pulled in and then @Capt Scoots came by. He didn't see us and just rode by as we were waving out harms trying to get his attention.

This day was not off to a good start.

Mark and Dawn came along. We waited a bit and headed off. We found out later that @Capt Scoots ended up having a good ride on his own.

We ride to Sylva and stooped for gas. Then we continued. I was stopped at a light and Mark came up behind me and said the rider on the AK550 had pulled off and waved him on.

Great. Another issue

He quickly caught up. I found out later that he thought he had lost a hearing aid but it had just turned off.

 

[klaviator]

At this point we had a group of six. Besudes myself on my ADV150 there was Don @dp064 on his KPV150, Mark on a Tmax530, Dawn on a Can AM Ryker, Tony @tonymarchman on a Vespa 250 GTS and Tom @Super Dirt Dud on a Kymco AK550. As you can see a diverse group of bikes.

We headed up Culhowee Mountain road, one of my favorites

I didn't get any pics. Don shot some video and I'm looking forward to seeing that. I had a great run. This road climbs up the mountain with numerous switchback marked at 10 MPH. In some cases they are back to back. My scooter was pulling really well up the hill and I felt like I was riding well

At one point I passed a NC state trooper coming the other way

I'm not used seeing the Po Po on this road. I think that was the only traffic we saw. It was great getting a clean run as passing is very difficult on this road, especially when you only have 14 HP.

Here's a very short video that that will give you an idea of the riding we did. It was shot by a guy riding a KPV150.



I pulled over near the top and let the rest catch up and we continued to the park on a very scenic lake.

The "slow" group was already there.

 

[klaviator]

After the break at the lake we headed towards cashiers for lunch.

When we got to Cashiers we found the BBQ place we planned on eating at was closed. Some ended up at another BBQ joint but my group ate at a Mexican place which was really good.

After lunch we had plenty of good riding to do.

We stopped at Bridal Veil Falls.

.

 

[klaviator]

We rode more twisty roads and stopped at another scenic spot.

.

I didn't get vary many pics while riding but I did get a few.

Over the shoulder.

 

[klaviator]

We ended up back on the BRP.

.

That's it for pics from Monday. More coming up......

 

[south east okie]

Great pics and write up !!!

 

[klaviator]

Great pics and write up !!!

Thanks! More still to come.

 

[klaviator]

The plan for Tuesday was to split into 3 groups and ride the Marshall route. The Marshall route is best described as a curvoholic's wet dream. It is nearly non stop curves with little or no traffic. IMO it is this event's crown jewel. We have done it at every BTH so far and as long as I am around it will always be on the schedule.

I gave a ride brief a little before 9 and at nine my group was forming up. There were 12 riders in the fast group leaving the motel.

The first 10 miles of the ride are all four lane getting out of town. After that we had to detour from the normal route due to our normal route being closed due to construction. The detour is just as good as the normal route. As soon as we got off the four lane the non stop curves began.

Here we are regrouping at the end of a fantastic road.

The ride to the first stop is about 35 miles. This gives people a potty break as well as the opportunity to switch groups if they decide they picked the wrong one. A few riders took advantage of this. 35 miles may seem like a short ride but after the first 10 miles getting out of town it is nearly non stop intense curves

 

[klaviator]

The second group rolled in about 10 minutes after we did. It's cool watching all the scooters rolling in.

.

.

Someone counted 32 scooters.

.

 

[klaviator]

Someone who was at this event for the first time made the commented that the people who designed these roads didn't know how to design a straight road. I told him the best was yet to come. We soon headed off again. My group was now down to 9 riders. One peeled off to head for home and 2 decided to switch to a slower group.
I took a few over the shoulder shots on this next leg but not in the really twisty parts as I was busy riding

.

.

These next two were shot while stopped at a turn.

.

 

[klaviator]

We stopped for a break at a scenic spot on the river not far from the town of Marshall.

A better look at the background in the first pic.

The second group arrived some time later.

I'm sure this spot has never seen this many scooters at one time.

.

 

[klaviator]

Then we were off towards the lunch stop. This leg of the ride IMO had the best roads of the day. Nearly non stop curves with almost no traffic.

My pics were taken when the road was relatively straight.

Lunch was at the Wagon Wheel in Mars Hill. This car was parked outside.

The food was very good and the service outstanding.

 

[klaviator]

More riding after lunch. My group was now down to 8.

.

.

A pic of the group.

This ended up being another 185 mile ride.

Back at the motel. Must be something interesting going on here.

Last pic of the day, JRowland stopped by for a bit.

 

[klaviator]

The plan was for 4 full days of riding but it looked like day 4 would be rained out so day 3 would be the last day of riding. We moved the ride planned for Thursday to Wednesday. A few riders decided to ride another route but most of us would do this route which was to ride to the High point of the BRP, take a group pic and then do a fun loop of twisties. Three of the normal "fast" group took off early. Some of the fast group from Tuesday headed home early so they wouldn't have to ride in the rain. That left just two riders riding with me that day.

.

Some other riders went by while we were stopped.

Our next stop was the high point of the BRP.

Group photo by the sign.

I counted 22 bikes, 10 less than at Trust the day before.

 

[klaviator]

We headed North on the Parkway but soon exited and rode some roads much twistier. I didn't get any pics until our next stop which was a county park.

A little later the next group rolled in.

.

This Elite 250 was really cool. They sold these in the USA from 85 to 90 so this scooter was at least 33 years old.

.

 

[klaviator]

Father and son! I wish I had been able to do something like this when I was JT's age.

We had a real mix of bikes and riders.

.

After the break we rode 281 to 64 and turned left. 281 is miles of non stop curves and we didn't have any traffic. 64 on the other hand always has traffic. We had a few good miles and came up behind a string of slow moving vehicles. I pulled over hoping to create a gap so we could have some fun. As soon as I pulled over Chip hopped off his scooter and said I'm freezing and took off his mesh jacket and added some layers. I think it is hard for people who haven't ridden this area to comprehend being cold in the deep south in August but that happens every year that we do this event. I don't think we saw above 70 degrees until near the lunch stop. High 50s and low 60s in mesh riding gear is cold

I was glad I wasn't wearing mesh gear and I was still cold.

We never did get that gap in traffic so we continued on until we ran into a unexpected and unforecasted rain shower. We stopped and put on rain gear and continued on taking a left on to 215. A mile or so up 215 the rain stopped and the road was dry so we had a great run up 215

We had a clean run until we got near the BRP were we came up behind a car and also there was still some fog. The car turned off on to the BRP so we had a great run until we stopped at the waterfalls on 215.

It's more impressive in real life than in my pic.

Looking up at the bridge.

The guy on the bridge took this pic.

 

[klaviator]

Soon the other groups rolled in.

.

Before continuing the ride I moved my scooter to get this pic:

This allowed one of the slow groups to take off ahead of us. I snapped some pics.

.