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My first Bike trip

 

2 out of 5 of my regular riding friends decided to go for our first longish ride together.
We covered roughly 900 miles over 3 days.

Me: new bike, newish rider, 3+ years experience
Rider 1: new bike, experienced rider, 20+ years experience
Rider 2: newish bike, experienced rider, 10+ years experience
Rider 3: newish bike, newish rider, 5+ years experience


I've been dealing with back pains, wrist pains and neck pains both on an off the bike.  My wife also became a pain in the ass with her notion that our trip was a waste of time since we could just ride our regular haunting grounds again or do another state park closer to home. Probably the most mechanical of the bunch (there are 2 other riders with more mechanical ability than me but they couldn't make the trip)

Rider 1 purchased a new used bike and was eager to try it out on a longer trip. He had no family issues since he was riding before he had a family.

Rider 2 has a serious yearning to ride anywhere and everywhere, but not an ounce of mechanical skill/knowledge

Rider 3 was about to sell his bike after his wife's unrelenting nagging to stop riding and sell, his dream for the last few years was to ride Skyline drive in the Shenandoa National park, our destination for the bike trip and the only rider living relatively close to the skyline drive.

Of the 4 riders on this trip, 2 bikes had dangerously low tire pressure (rider 1 and 3) one bike had to be taken to the shop to have it's tire pressure checked (rider 2) along with an oil change and general safety inspection.  I wonder if some of these guys should even be riding.  Shouldn't a rider have some additional involvement with the ownership of their machines for their own safety and peace of mind?

We all thoroughly enjoyed the trip despite the wide temperature swings with the elevation changes.  Though the park has speed limits that are relatively low (max speed limit was 45) no one felt like they were hampered in any way although rider 1 did fall asleep at one point.

The sheer size of the park cannot be under estimated.  It has gas station and restaurants in the park and most people won't have enough time to get from one end of the park to the other in a day's ride/drive.  We did it by reducing our scenic overlook stops, but still had a long drive to get back to our hotel rooms at the end of the day.

Click to view map of Skyline drive



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