3000 miles through central PA., WV & SE OH

[Peter from Sch'dy]

Just returned home to Tribes Hill, NY after 11 days of riding in PA, WV, NY & OH. Went with my brother on his '93 SP111 (67000 miles) and friend Max on his '04 FZ1 (51000 miles). I rode my '07 Norge (65000miles). We all averaged about 45-50mpg and rode about 300 miles a day. Non ethanol fuel not yet available where we were, except in NY. I have to say that after going to the Parkersburg area for the 4th time in 7 years, this time I was disappointed with the massive amount of truck traffic and the poor overall condition of the roads. Notable among these was WV 74, 18, 23, 7, 20 and OH 555.  WV74 in particular was scary going north, but might have been deadly in the southbound lane as sections of pavement literally the size of a truck were crushed and pulverized leaving holes lurking in blind corners where even the most skillful drivers can't avoid them. Counted 27 large dump trucks just on our one trip up this path. Even county roads were beaten to within an inch of their lives. WV16 was generally good. OH 555, a famous twisty, was rendered gravelly on right handers and harsh near the edges by large numbers of flatbeds, fresh water and brine trucks. We saw them every day and all day. I guess the disappointment stems from previous years trips without the mentioned impediments and very good road condition. WV in the Marlinton area, WV 219, 150, and 39 were by contrast, quite nice with less trucks and good surface. I hope once the drilling boom has subsided the OH and WV roads will be repaired to their previous glory. Pa Rt6 was very nice the entire way as was PA44 and 287(all repaved recently). On a happy note I finally seem to have cured the CARC leak. I bought a set of 5203 pinion shims from MG Cycle and two sets, 98089a472/404 from McMaster-Carr, one set 1mm and the other 2mm thick. My bike required 0.2340" total which when installed between the inner pinion races left 0.001" axial clearance with the nut tightened to 50ft/lbs. and the seal nut up against the outboard outer race and tightened to 75 ft/lbs. both nuts secured with Loctite Blue 242 as well as the specified locking devices. No overheating or leaks in 3000 miles with the hardest test being PA219 limited access passing Johnstown which was taken at 80mph for about 40 miles.  I'm pulling the magnetic drain plug tomorrow to see if it's covered with swarf or what...

Best,
Peter

[Waltr]

  It's a shame our elected officials can always find money to spend overseas but none for declining American infrastructure. 

[Perazzimx14]

WV is my favorite place to ride and quickly becoming a place of focus when I retire.. Truly Gods country.

119, 19, 250, 33, 50, 216, 16, 28 and many others that I have traveled pavement has been excellent. My favorite road at the moment is route 16 out of Beckley heading towards Marion VA. In VA its called the "Back of the Dragon" and in total is over 100 miles of amazing twisties. You travel through some very depressed areas of Appalachia like War, Cucumber and Mullen's. But the roads are nice, people are friendly, traffic is almost non-existent and the mountains are amazing.   

[Antietam Classic Cycle]

WV is my favorite place to ride and quickly becoming a place of focus when I retire.. Truly Gods country.

 :1:  Maybe we can be neighbors in our old age. 

[Peter from Sch'dy]

Couldn't agree more with high quality of eastern/central WV roads. Out towards the west however, they are currently gruesome.
     Just drained the CARC and found nothing on the magnet so hope to have finally solved the pinion seal issue after many failed attempts. No more oil on the bottom of the swingarm.

Best,
Peter

[Lannis]

Got back yesterday from my annual ride on my BSA (this time my 1961 A10) from home in Central Virginia to northeast Ohio for the Ohio Valley BSA OC summer rally (Jack Arnold's old stomping grounds).

Summary -

From Appomattox, VA 26, the Tye River cutoff, US 29, VA 151/6, US 250 to Waynesboro VA, US 340, VA 253 to Harrisonburg were nice.   US 33 from Harrisonburg, VA to Elkins, WV was in really nice shape and a good ride even in the rain and some fog.     US 250 from Elkins to Fairmont was pretty good.   

But north of Fairmont, US 250 to Moundsville was a broken up mess, hammered to death by the fracking trucks.   It's a 40 MPH pot-hole-dodging exercise  I stopped in Cameron, WV for lunch and talked about it with some of the locals.   

I think Wayne Orwig was right, despite my objections.   They say that "not much" of the huge amount of money that is spent on those wells and pipelines stays in the area.   A few local boys are buying new F350 duallies and double-wide trailers with their wages, but the roads are beat up badly and they know of no plans to fix them.   

Up north of Moundsville, Ohio Rt 7 from Wheeling to East Liverpool is all "under construction", they're blasting back the cliffs to widen the road along the river, so it should be in good shape in a year or two ....

Going home, I took Ohio 7 down to Hannibal Ohio and crossed over to New Martinsville WV and picked up WV 20 over to US 19.   20's not in very good shape either.   This was Sunday and I didn't see much big truck traffic, but "road slips" and potholes announced that they had been there.    Took back roads like WV 76 back down to Phillipi and Elkins.    US 250 from Elkins to Staunton is in good shape - there are lots of chip-seal patches on the asphalt which LOOK like loose gravel but they're smooth and hard and you can hustle along smoothly once you realize that there's no gravel clattering under your fenders.

There's probably $400M worth of road repairs that need to be done to fix what fracking traffic has done to the local roads.   I'll bet no one is figuring that into the price of Marcellus Shale natural gas .......

Lannis

[Lannis]

WV is my favorite place to ride and quickly becoming a place of focus when I retire.. Truly Gods country.

One thing I do notice is that many of the "locals" (those folks that pull out behind you from a side road or a house, or pull into one) drive WAY too fast on those roads.   Even after I get into a "groove" on the bike and am riding probably a bit faster than most people would drive on a given stretch of crooked curvy road, I will often find a rattletrap Chevy pickup or Honda Accord immediately on my taillight, whereupon I pull over and let them go by, and they disappear quickly into the distance.

Any idea that they may be more skillful or perceptive than I, however, is soon dispelled by the multitude of cheap, tawdry little flowerdy crosses "In Memory Of" someone or other every mile or two, on a stake or tacked to a tree. 

I guess people haven't figured out that if they would slow down, they'd still have their loved ones with them, instead of crying over a little plastic cross among the weeds and trash on the roadside ....

But no one seems to learn.

Lannis

[Perazzimx14]

One thing I do notice is that many of the "locals" (those folks that pull out behind you from a side road or a house, or pull into one) drive WAY too fast on those roads.   Even after I get into a "groove" on the bike and am riding probably a bit faster than most people would drive on a given stretch of crooked curvy road, I will often find a rattletrap Chevy pickup or Honda Accord immediately on my taillight, whereupon I pull over and let them go by, and they disappear quickly into the distance.

Any idea that they may be more skillful or perceptive than I, however, is soon dispelled by the multitude of cheap, tawdry little flowerdy crosses "In Memory Of" someone or other every mile or two, on a stake or tacked to a tree. 

I guess people haven't figured out that if they would slow down, they'd still have their loved ones with them, instead of crying over a little plastic cross among the weeds and trash on the roadside ....

But no one seems to learn.

Lannis

I see no more memorials in WV than I do in PA. Posted speeds in WV do seem to be generally 15 to 20moh higher than similar roads in PA.

[Antietam Classic Cycle]

I see no more memorials in WV than I do in PA. Posted speeds in WV do seem to be generally 15 to 20moh higher than similar roads in PA.

I see more in MD than anywhere else. Always puzzles me - why would you want to remember where a loved one met a violent end? <shrug>

[Peter from Sch'dy]

One thing I do notice is that many of the "locals" (those folks that pull out behind you from a side road or a house, or pull into one) drive WAY too fast on those roads.   Even after I get into a "groove" on the bike and am riding probably a bit faster than most people would drive on a given stretch of crooked curvy road, I will often find a rattletrap Chevy pickup or Honda Accord immediately on my taillight, whereupon I pull over and let them go by, and they disappear quickly into the distance.

Any idea that they may be more skillful or perceptive than I, however, is soon dispelled by the multitude of cheap, tawdry little flowerdy crosses "In Memory Of" someone or other every mile or two, on a stake or tacked to a tree. 

I guess people haven't figured out that if they would slow down, they'd still have their loved ones with them, instead of crying over a little plastic cross among the weeds and trash on the roadside ....

But no one seems to learn.

Lannis

I also found this phenomenon. In TN Cherokee National Forest on the way north towards Tellico on Kimsey Mtn. Rd. Had a clapped out Pinto, for heavens sake, appear right behind me as I was going as fast as I was comfortable. 1.25 lane where local knowledge is king if speed is your goal. Perhaps safety is secondary to locals on their way home from work. Two roads in Edray WV, Back Mountain Rd. and Woodrow Road also come to mind. At least the surface conditions were good.

Best,
Peter

[Lannis]

I see no more memorials in WV than I do in PA. Posted speeds in WV do seem to be generally 15 to 20moh higher than similar roads in PA.

I don't think that the phenomenon depends on state lines.    Most of West Virginia, southwest Virginia, western Maryland, eastern Kentucky, southwest Pennsylvania, and southeast Ohio has the same issues.   Narrow, curvy roads, a culture that admires fast, dangerous driving, and a maudlin, sentimental mindset that would prefer to mourn and cry and plant little memorials than to train and prevent ....

Lannis

[ohiorider]

I see no more memorials in WV than I do in PA. Posted speeds in WV do seem to be generally 15 to 20moh higher than similar roads in PA.

Born and raised in Charleston WV.  Have to agree with you.  WV 'curvy signs' post an honest speed.  Unlike where I now live (Ohio,) where 35mph means 55, and 40 means 70.  In West Virginia, when I was growing up, 40 meant 40, 25 meant 25, and the really serious ones were "15mph"  Because they really meant it.  Just something about us hillbillies .... ask us, we give it to you straight.  Clue: 40 = 40.

[Bill Hagan]

I don't think that the phenomenon depends on state lines.    Most of West Virginia, southwest Virginia, western Maryland, eastern Kentucky, southwest Pennsylvania, and southeast Ohio has the same issues.   Narrow, curvy roads, a culture that admires fast, dangerous driving, and a maudlin, sentimental mindset that would prefer to mourn and cry and plant little memorials than to train and prevent ....

Lannis

I sense that you have an anti-Scotch-Irish animus, Lannis.   

Bill (O')Hagan

[Lannis]

I sense that you have an anti-Scotch-Irish animus, Lannis.   

Bill (O')Hagan

Nope, a Border Collie and they're from northern England .....   

Lannis