In the meantime, a week ago I read a post from a guy on SMJ looking for rides, east of Pittsburgh, or possibly in WV. I posted a reply to the effect, "if you want to ride WV, c'mon down to my place and I will show you some roads which are guaranteed to satisfy". The guy sent me a PM right away, and next thing I knew, I had a riding partner for the next day. I went to bed that night wondering just who the hell was going to show up. I had no clue. Well, that guy turned out to be el-mar (pronounced exactly as it is spelled!). Straight from Germany by way of East Pittsburgh. And he was riding an MZ. I quickly sized him up as a competent rider. Knowing that (or thinking it, anyway) opened the door to call my good riding buddy, TyMarp. Well, that day has its own story, but it sets the stage for the ride we did today. Let's just say el-mar was very happy with the riding we showed him around here, and we clicked with him as a rider and as a new friend.
FWD to this week, plans were made with Dom to finally get together for an SM ride. I invited el-mar and Tim (TyMarp) to come along. We all convened here at my place around 11 AM and hit the road by about 11:30. We did my prefered run of Potomac State Forest to Kitzmiller to Elk Garden, old Route 46 around Jennings Randolph Lake to Bloomington, and then Savage River Road to Westernport Road.
Proof of Dom in one piece with his KTM in one piece!
At the same stop, TyMarp with his naked Versys, el-mar's MZ in the background. Also, Westernport Road in the background. The bridge goes over the Savage, which is actually quite mild at that spot.
From there we ran up the wicked little stretch of Westernport Road, over Three Mile Mountain, and made our way down to Westernport, then onto old 46 and into Keyser to top up with fuel, grab a bite, and ingest some caffiene.
From there we took Limestone Road out of Keyser to Knobbly Road, south. Both of those roads are gnarly and grizzled, narrow, but with decent, if patchy, pavement. They also feature a multitude of wild roller coaster like turns with plenty of humps and bumps in between. In other words, perfect for supermoto.
South of Route 50, Knobbly Road gets even better. It is hard to describe just why it is so pleasing, but it is. It features more roller coaster humps, bumps, and turns, the kind that are greater than 90 degrees as they wind up a tight hill, or plunge down a little hill as they suck you in faster, as you try to hang on to your hat. About the mid point of this stretch of Knobbly is a fairly good sized jump. If you are going too fast, it requires a bit of a Bubba scrub to keep from landing too far out into the flat bottom. el-mar and I were running a pretty good pace up front and el-mar wasn't quite expecting the launch. He handled it fine but it gave him a bit of a surprise.
We turned right onto Greenland Gap Road and pulled over for a short break, checking out the scenery along Patterson Creek, under a canopy of trees. After our break, we made quick work to get up to Scherr and to hit the mountain pass up to Mount Storm on Route 42. There had been a small thunder storm before we got there and we had to dodge a few damp patches, but got a pretty clear run before encountering a line of cars about halfway up. We pulled over, let the traffic clear and then finished the rest of the climb. It was clear and dry to the top.
At Route 50, we headed west with the destination goals being the Route 50 pass west of Aurora and the next pass west of Macomber. Along the way, we encountered quite a bit of traffic and a few good turns too. We also encountered an FJR13 and an FZ6. They initially pulled out in between el-mar and me, and Tim and Dom; pulled out with out even looking.
No worries, we were looking out for them. el-mar and I got around the traffic and had a good, hard run along some of the nice curves. Once clear of Gormania, we slowed the pace and waited for Tim and Dom to catch back up. In the meantime, the FJR and FZ caught up to us. I waved them past and they romped off. Soon enough Tim and Dom caught up and traffic cleared so we picked the pace back up. Just before Aurora we began to catch the FJ and FZ. We were just cruising, certainly not off our heads. Our little bikes were no match for the big road bikes in a straight line, so we sat behind them. As we approached the descending pass west of Aurora, I started to get excited and tried to show the FJ and FZ we wanted through. Of course that just made them pick up the pace. Whatever. They actually rode a decent pace, but, yeah, they were holding us up. Still no worries. I would back off, then make a run forward, having my fun. However, at one point the FJ got all sorts of excited and passed the FZ, around the outside, in a turn. 
And he took off. I stayed behind the FZ but would have happily passed if invited to. At the bottom of the pass, the FJ motioned the FZ back around and then proceeded to give me the finger, long and strong. 
Oh well, sorry guys, didn't mean to ruin your day. They pulled over at the next gas station which gave us a pretty clear shot at the pass west of Macomber. And what a pass it is. We ran it up, then turned around and did it east bound. Nothing more too exciting happened. We parted ways with Dom, who headed north, then made our way back to my place to load up el-mar's bike and to say good bye. Great day guys!
Here is el-mar's bike loaded up, ready for the trip home:
Here is the DRZ, scrubbed up post ride:
Raised some true sticky fuzz on the tires today!
and I have been wanting to put together a Dual Sport Ride which is similar to what you guys have already been doing below.
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