Virginia to Mississippi - 2500 miles (and a crash!)

harryhendo · Jun 30, 2023

Hi Folks,

I set out on Saturday June 17th from Charlottesville, Virginia to Natchez, Mississippi. I stopped first in North Carolina to visit some cousins, taking the Blue Ridge Parkway from Virginia into North Carolina. The slope repair in Roanoke is completed (!!!) so that section is now open. Hooray!

One can always find a Baptist church to park at and get a rest:

Then down into North Carolina, and rain all through North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Miserable camping and miserable riding. But the skies cleared in Alabama, and I followed the Tennessee River, stopping at the Guntersville Dam in northern Alabama. These dams are amazing, considering they were built almost 100 years ago!

That's the Tennessee River below, from a bluff above.

I continued along northern Alabama, with clear skies and great riding. This sign has a cautionary tale written on it...

Where else but in Alabama can you ride the Tammy Wynette Highway?

Unfortunately, most of the small towns are disappearing in the USA.

I camped out in Mississippi along the Tallahachee River. It is also dammed for "flood control".

I loved the campsite, so left my tent up and took a ride all the way west to the Mississippi River. However, the inevitable happened. After 40 years of accident free riding, I came around a left curve, just like the hundred others I rode that day, and it leveled out on the top. I went wide to the right and got into some gravel, and I was down, face planted on the road, riding into a ditch. The big C ring "wing" on the side of bike took most of the force, thankfully, but my leg got pretty beat up, as did my left arm. I was wearing a kevlar mesh shirt with armor and kevlar lined jeans, which saved me a lot of road rash, but not bruising. The EMTs came out from Old Miss in Oxford and declared me of sound mind and body and just put two bandaids on me. Told me I was very luckly. The bike is torn up on the left side. Mirror, turn signal gone, windshield cracked, the mid body work all torn up. Even the left rear pannier interior was all cracked up. But the bike started right up and I rode it out of the ditch back to camp where I licked my wounds.

I decided to ride back into Kentucky on less challenging roads, so got on the Natchez Trace Parkway and followed it up through Mississippi, Alabama, then into Tennessee. It's not a challenging road, very pleasant to ride, and no stop lights. No gravel either.

I then rode into Kentucky, and took some really back country roads. One in particular, route 89 between Livingston KY and Winchester KY is about 90 miles of in-the-hollow back roads. Calling it a road is probably an exaggeration. It's more like a path with some pavement. Gorgeous!!!

I make it back into Virginia, following the Greenbriar River on route 10 for quite a while, and was back in Charlottesville after 2500 miles over 12 days of riding. I'm pretty sore, but I took the bike apart and discovered a lot more broken than I assumed... about $1300 in parts to fix it. That bike is amazing. It took that crash and ran eagerly and flawlessly for days of tough riding through Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Virginia. It's definitely worth fixing up and getting back on.

The bike stripped of all its broken bits.

Overall, I rode 2480 miles, and got an average of 66 MPG. It is a testament to Honda engineering that it could get torn up and keep going without issue, getting me home safe and sore.

ARKNT · Jun 30, 2023

Started as a nice trip but sorry about the accident. Glad you were not hurt badly.
The bike can be fixed. Getting parts may start getting difficult with the age of the NT.

Arknt

Yoda · Jun 30, 2023

All the gear, all the time. It paid off for you, sir!
Thankfully, you were not hurt any worse. Broken bones and bad rash take a long time to heal.
Good luck patching your NT back together.

DirtFlier · Jun 30, 2023

Glad to hear you survived your little mishap without serious injury. Plastic parts can always be found but the Ol Bod can take longer to recover.

mikesim · Jun 30, 2023

Harry, glad you are OK and enjoyed your trip in spite of the misfortune. Having the right gear sure helped in the injuries you received. The bike can be fixed but you may find some of the tupperware may be hard to come by, but it can be found. Some of the plastic bits may be able to be repaired.

Mike

junglejim · Jul 1, 2023

Thanks for the ride report. Too bad about your crash, but telling us about it may save someone here from doing the same.

I like your pace of about 200 miles per day. I usually go twice that far and ride right past things that I should should and see. That part of the Country certainly has a lot to offer to a touring rider both in terms of scenery and unique people to meet. I also like that you rode the back roads which often have the most to offer.

Phil Tarman · Jul 2, 2023

Like the others, I'm sorry you had your crash. I crashed my 2nd '99 Kawasaki Concours in 2008 after a deer decided she had to cross the road and nailed me in my front fender. I rode the bike home to Colorado from Canaan Valley State Park in WV. I really didn't think there was much wrong with it, but it cost $2800 to fix. Then in '16 I was on my original '10 NT going to Tombstone to ride the SCMA 3-Flags when a little-bitty mule dear buck clobbered me with his antlers. I didn't go down but I lost my left mirror, my windscreen, the instrument cowl, and the main fairing. I thought I could ride with my left hand all black and blue and sore, so like a fool I kept heading south for another 285 miles to Los Lunas, NM. The next day I figured out that my hand wasn't going to let me ride safely. I went to a clinic in Belen and spent about 4 hrs waiting for X-rays. The teck came out and told me that what I had was a "shattered hand." I think I was up to about 98K on the bike then, but good old State Farm paid for all the repairs -- $2800. My hand surgery only cost about $12K (plus another $2500 for physical therapy. I ended up trading that NT for another '10 that only had 21K on the clock. #1 NT was up to 139K miles by then.

Good luck with your insurance compant and with finding parts!

Moto-Kafe · Jul 3, 2023

Good Ride Report..........except for the boo-boo, of course.

Coyote Chris · Jul 3, 2023

I like the way you pack. But no big lids? They are way over priced and worth every penny. But at tbe end of the day, they were a marketing scam. Sell the bike new with big lids and see how many people purchased the small lids afterwards.

harryhendo · Jul 5, 2023

junglejim said:
I like your pace of about 200 miles per day. I usually go twice that far and ride right past things that I should should and see. That part of the Country certainly has a lot to offer to a touring rider both in terms of scenery and unique people to meet. I also like that you rode the back roads which often have the most to offer.

I like the way you pack. But no big lids?

Hi Folks, thanks for the kind words. I am slowly healing, but my left side is a multi color extravaganza of bruises and hematomas.

Regarding the parts, I found all of them online or at my local Honda dealer, to the tune of about $1300. So I'm in good shape there.

Regarding the pace, I ride for the journey, not the destination. So I take my time and try to limit myself to 200 or so miles per day, which usually turns out to be about 8 hours from camp to camp. I find that I can stop and talk to people and see the sights that way. Stop at a waterfall and cool off. Or talk to the locals. Like a guy in Mississippi who flew copters in 'Nam and now raises goats. Or the farmer who pulled a pipe from his truck bed and straightened out the gearshift lever for me. Or visiting the dams along the Tennessee River, or meeting the mayor of a small town in Georgia who offered me a job. It's a wide country full of interesting people, all who have a story and are more than happy to tell it.

As for packing, and having broken too many pannier latches (for example, on this trip I put a water bottle on top of a jacket inside the right pannier. The water bottle dropped down between the jacket and the lid after a bump, and on the next bump, fell further and broke a latch. It's not worth the frustration to even use the panniers! So I only store a rainsuit on one side, and the other is just empty. I use two roll top dry bags, one with clothing, and one with camping supplies (sleeping bag, pillow, tent, cot) and Roc strap them down to the back of the bike. I am seriously considering just removing the panniers and mounting some Givi panniers, but haven't figured out how.

harryhendo · Jul 27, 2023

The NT is fixed up now. It was about $1300 in parts, and a lot of patience (and swearing), but it is all buttoned up and looking good. The most expensive part was the "Middle Cowl", the long and complicated panel that runs from the headlight all the way to the footpeg ($600+), but all the parts were available. I only had one bolt leftover and no idea where it came from.

WVRider · Jul 27, 2023

Looks good. Glad you got it back in shape and ready to ride. Still a bunch of good weather to enjoy.

mikesim · Jul 27, 2023

harryhendo said:
I only had one bolt leftover and no idea where it came from.

Congrats on getting it back on the road. Oh, that leftover bolt? It was an extra......

Mike

Warren · Aug 3, 2023

Put that bolt in your tool kit. One day it will become obvious where it goes.