i don't know if it's the same anymore, but at the time it was legal and encouraged to camp out anywhere along the road on the Blueridge Parkway.. which was pretty cool... and though the miles weren't that great, it took several days to pull this off. Of course we jumped down and road "the tail of the dragon" in Deal's gap.. https://tailofthedragon.com/ for y'all not familiar- a lot of commercials for cars are filmed in that area, and people come from across the globe to ride it... it is...... challenging. I've ridden it on a cruiser (HD Road King), a crotch rocket (CBR900RR), and a VTwin Drag bike (totally custom VTX1800 well over the 1800 advertised cc's and QUICK in an 1/8th mile).... the sport bike was the only 'comfortable' tool to ride that with; i was worn out after each of them, though. It is a workout.
Riding solo was my usual gig, but... a group no larger than six is a LOT of fun in the right place. There was a pass nearing Mt Mitchell in NC that is breathtaking. the road empties you from a short tunnel to a stretch built atop a stone abutment hanging on the side of a mountain, turns into a bridge and picks up the ridge line of the next mountain, and for a while there it seems you're riding into a cloud- or certainly heading that direction- then the bridge makes it seem that is exactly what you're doing- riding in the clouds... I don't know for certain, but i was told that stretch of road was lost in a mudslide the area is known for and reconstructed... it's remade, according to this source (a buddy who lives in the region- who is police in Ashe County NC) but with less fanfare and flare for dramatics the original had.
I used to a fair number of group rides. In both NorCal and then SoCal I had found an owner's club for the specific motorcycle I had (Suzuki SV650S, a 650-cc V-twin sportbike), and we did a lot of them.
One epic day I left my house in San Jose, met the guys up in Napa, we rode all over Napa, Clear, Lake, and Sonoma counties for the entire day. I got back to my apartment in San Jose, and then rode from there up to my girlfriend's place in Burlingame. All told it was a 450 mile day, which is NOT comfortable when you're 6'5" on a sportbike lol. But it was an awesome day of riding.
We did a lot of group rides, and that could be a lot of fun because you basically had guides for the roads you'd never experienced. And generally it was done in a way to have one experienced rider riding "sweep" at the back of the pack to make sure everyone was accounted for.
I will say that I've ridden the
Angeles Crest Highway, which is kinda the West Coast's equivalent of Deal's Gap. But I suspect that both it, and Deal's Gap, are victims of their own popularity. Traffic on Angeles Crest is too heavy. And although the route is one of the most scenic drives/rides you'll ever have, I found for motorcycling the road was too "wide open" for spirited riding on a sportbike without
significantly exceeding the speed limit, which is dangerous both for all the traffic and for all the police presence a road like that will attract on a summer weekday.
I much preferred tighter roads. The sort of roads where you could feel like you were "pushing it" a little without exceeding 60-70 mph.
I do remember one day, on
Glendora Mountain Road. It was a really fun road, really tight and technical so you could have a lot of fun without having to ride at crazy speeds. The road is basically all uphill, get to the top, and ride it right back down. One day I was there and found a pack of "gravity bikes"
"gravity bikes".
When I got to the top and took a break, I saw them all take off down the hill. I ended up getting back on the bike for my descent shortly thereafter, and started to catch up to them. I recall I went around one of them in a corner, and then in the very next corner, the dude took me on the outside! I'm sitting there thinking "I've got horsepower, shouldn't I be winning?" All told it took 1-2 miles to actually make may way through the pack, and then once we hit a slightly flatter portion of the road, I left them behind.
But the whole "gravity bike" think looked like a lot of fun from that experience.
