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Ride to Two Wheels of Suches for Italian Motorcycle Days

TacomaJD

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Rode up to Murphy NC Saturday and stayed the night, hit the casino that night, got up the next morning and rode down to Suches GA to meet my buddy at the Italian bike event there. Some really cool bikes there. So many good roads around that area. Rode about 450 miles between the 2 days. Still loving the new NC, although I am tired of those oem Dunlops. Lol. They got a little tacky after running hard through the mountains. They grip decently on dry roads, terribly on wet roads, and I hate the flatter profile of the rear compared to sport tires.

Anyways, here's a photo dump. Fun weekend. Subtitles above pictures.

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Dodging the rain.
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It came a flood for about 15 minutes! Pulled in gas station to get gas, went in to use the restroom, came back out and it was pouring. Perfect timing.
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Murphy Motel, cheap and mostly clean. Hard to stay anywhere for $67 including taxes anymore.
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At Two Wheels waiting on my buddy to arrive.
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The guy who owned this had a prosthetic left arm.
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Clutch and brake setup on the right handlebar. Always interesting to see adapted bikes.
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Beautiful bike.
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Carbon fiber wheels! *drool*
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Another beautiful bike.
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All the exposed moving parts on the engine is super cool.
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Awesomeness.
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Front porch sitting still waiting on my buddy....LOL
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He finally arrived.
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Lunch time at Bub-Ba-Que's somewhere in GA. Best pulled pork sandwich with hot & spicy sauce and pickles I've ever had. NC is a big bike until parked next to a Multistrada Pike's Peak.
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Dunlop Trailmax D609F doin' work. HA.
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Nice photos!!! :D

As for the OEM Dunlops, I swapped mine for a set of Michelin ROAD 5 tires and am loving them.

Of course 2 nails in the OEM rear tire and uneven wear of the front Dunlop were added inspiration to change out the Dunlops. My wife had Bridgestone Battle Wings on her 2016 NC700x and I changed those out to the ROAD 5 tires at the same time. She also had really uneven tire wear on the front tire. The rear still had tread but as I was committed to changing out 3 tires I figured it was best to swap all 4. When its time to replace your Dunlops you may want to consider the Michelin ROAD 5, its an excellent tire on dry roads and amazing on wet.
 
Nice photos!!! :D

As for the OEM Dunlops, I swapped mine for a set of Michelin ROAD 5 tires and am loving them.

Of course 2 nails in the OEM rear tire and uneven wear of the front Dunlop were added inspiration to change out the Dunlops. My wife had Bridgestone Battle Wings on her 2016 NC700x and I changed those out to the ROAD 5 tires at the same time. She also had really uneven tire wear on the front tire. The rear still had tread but as I was committed to changing out 3 tires I figured it was best to swap all 4. When its time to replace your Dunlops you may want to consider the Michelin ROAD 5, its an excellent tire on dry roads and amazing on wet.

I have a set of road 5's sitting in the shop with about 60-70% tread, but the rear has a slight flat spot where the previous owner of my other NC apparently drove straight roads all the time. I took them off when I started going to the track on it last year and they have been sitting in the shop ever since. I didn't really like the way they felt on the road, think it is the michelin soft carcass thing (ACT). Like it was difficult to hold a good line through curves when riding really hard. Of course I know flat spots will provide that feeling, but I'm talking about after leaned past the flat spot riding on edge of tire, it just felt weird. Now they have the Road 5 GT out for heavier bikes like ours, maybe that would be a good solution, little stiffer carcass.

I will likely run these oem dunlops a little longer til the rear is slick in middle, because I'm a cheapo thrifty tire man and hate wasting tires....LOL.....then because of that too, I likely will put on the Road 5's I have in the shop and wear them out.....unless I just feel like dropping $300 more on good street tires, then I want to try the new Dunlop Roadsmart 4 tires. I'm really a Dunlop fan, I like the feedback they build into their sportier tires. Harder carcass, more of a planted feel. To me anyways.
 
The Road 5 rear is working well for me. I like the riding experience better than what I had for the Road 4. But I notice the carcass thing sometimes on sharp leans. No biggie for the type of riding I normally do... One thing I notice that my Avon Trailrider never did is getting a slightly lumpy ride after doing gravel or chipcoat until most of the bits get flung out, and there's been a couple times where I picked out gravel after getting home. I'm not sure if it's got a slightly taller crest versus the Trailrider's more sportlike cross-section. Anyway, I'll have to get 13,000 or more miles out of it here to match the Trailrider's miles per dollar – and to beat the satisfaction for the Avon tire all around, more miles yet.
 
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I run Avon Cobras on my cruiser. Avon makes good tires.

There is a vid of a guy on a large touring bike doing a stats comparison of the michelin road family and the dunlop roadsmart 3 tires. Said he got 18k miles out of roadsmart 3's, and his bike is much heavier than the NC.

 
With Covid precautions I feel safe traveling and staying at TWO though my favored destination is near Waynesville, NC. I’ve been up to Suches twice in 3 months. Maybe we could meet one weekend up there. It’s ~435 miles for me and a pleasant trip the way I go, mostly two lane country roads.

We’ve had this discussion before - I couldn’t abide Michelin during the Pilot Road 2, 3, 4 era but the Road 5 has changed my mind. The RT I bought was riding on a pair and after wearing them out I bought another set. Yes, still a very supple carcass but much of the vagueness in cornering is gone while retaining the utter confidence they give in the wet.
 
Great pics. TWO was all gravel during my 24 years working/living in ATL. Have several thousand miles on GA, NC and TN mountain roads on a PC800 and ST1300A............a lot of very good memories.
Bridgestone Battlax tires are my tire of choice on all my bikes. They handled all those roads quite well and stuck like glue. I had both sides of the ST ground down going to the limit on several occasions.
 
The C word and masks need put in the trash bin (w the N word) of history ASAP.
I'm in tears watching rnc this week. Very proud and lucky to live in the USA.
I can’t decode the meaning of your comments with certainty, but in any case, I am very certain we don’t want to turn this into a political thread.
 
Second statement is just as opaque as the first. Which is probably just as well ; }
 
And, back to the original topic, Thanks for sharing the pics TJD. I have spent a few days in that area. Plenty of great roads. Your take on the OEM dunlops makes me want to wear mine out asap. :)
 
Good one dduelin.
Silver is not my color of choice in cars or bikes but your set up w/the top box JD finds me staring at it as in a trance. I've caught myself doing this more than once.
The black/silver layout has such a clean look. But......I still like my 2017, especially w/DCT.
 
Good one dduelin.
Silver is not my color of choice in cars or bikes but your set up w/the top box JD finds me staring at it as in a trance. I've caught myself doing this more than once.
The black/silver layout has such a clean look. But......I still like my 2017, especially w/DCT.

Thanks Fred. I really hesitated to inquire about it when I first saw it on facebook marketplace, because it is so similarly colored to my other one, but I kept staring at it. It was too good of a deal to pass up with all the oem luggage, givi handguards, low miles, 1 owner, etc. It looks much better in person than pics, color matches really good with the oem luggage accessories. I'm pretty happy with it.

What's funny is that I have the oem luggage minus the top box for my other bike that is only used for track riding now, I've thought about selling all of it, but I figure if I ever want to sell that bike in the future, having oem luggage will help it sell.

Between the frunk and the top box on the newer bike, I have all the storage I need for a 1 or 2 night trip. I won't use the side cases unless staying gone longer than a couple days, or the girlfriend goes with me. So there's essentially 4 side cases sitting in my shop that won't get used often now....haha. I really like the top box though, and being able to sit things down in it, rather than bending down and messing with stuffing things in the side cases. I also like that I can stow my helmet and jacket safely in it too when I'm not carrying much in it.
 
I really like the top box though, and being able to sit things down in it, rather than bending down and messing with stuffing things in the side cases. I also like that I can stow my helmet and jacket safely in it too when I'm not carrying much in it.
Big topcases for the win in many cases ; } ...As you said, convenient to use, great for errand-running and shopping, lots of storage for carrying hiking clothing and day pack or whatever, saves the sidecases for long trips where a lot more storage yet is needed – and they can serve in making any bloatocycle easier to pick up when you are riding off the pavement too ; }
 
Yep! I've always thought they were ugly, still kinda do for the most part, but the convenience is currently outweighing cosmetics. LOL. Girlfriend likes the backrest aspect of it too when she rides on it. Hell I may end up getting rid of the cruiser if we keep riding this one! Idk, cruiser is awfully good for long trips in comfort where riding like a demon isn't really that important. BUT....it's gotten to the point of much needed maintenance and I really don't even want to mess with it. It's just pushed off to the side in the shop for now.
 
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