#BestMotorcycleRoads #MotorcyclePodcast

Episode 007: Route Highlight - 2019 North Carolina - Andy Griffith Museum 🏍️

Hop on and join Tom and Todd on a spectacular motorcycling journey to the Andy Griffith Museum in North Carolina! With over 30 years of riding experience and 15 years of trip planning under their helmets, they're here to share invaluable insights, tips, and stories.

In this episode, they dive deep into the essentials of motorcycle travel, from gear reviews (ear protection's a must!) to the game-changing features of the latest GPS devices. They also touch on planning and safety tips, ensuring your next ride is not just exhilarating but safe.

But it's not all about the gear and planning. They take you through the scenic routes of their 2019 North Carolina trip, including unexpected gems like the Corvette Museum (where they witnessed the aftermath of the infamous sinkhole incident), and the breathtaking Bristol Speedway, a spontaneous yet memorable detour.

They even discuss the practical aspects of group riding, like maintaining spacing and being predictable - vital for every rider's safety. Plus, there's a segment on roadside dining, where they share their experience with a gigantic tenderloin in Edinburgh, Indiana.

The episode wraps up with their final thoughts on the trip, emphasizing the importance of flexibility and the joy of discovering unexpected treasures along the way.

🔊 Tune in for a mix of practical advice, personal experiences, and a whole lot of motorcycling passion. Whether you're a seasoned rider or just starting out, there's something here for everyone.

👍 Like, subscribe, and share this episode with your fellow riders. And don't forget to check out our website for more information and to join the BMR crew. Keep riding and stay adventurous!

(00:00) we went splunking in Bowling Green for buried [Music] treasure hello and welcome to best motorcycle roads I'm Tom and I'm Todd we have over 30 years of motorcycling experience and 15 years of planning and riding motorcycle trips we're here to share with you everything we've learned over those years our goal at best Motorcycle Roads is simple make your next motorcycle trip the best it can be we'll dive into technology planning packing the routes other tips and everything in between from essential

(01:12) before but uh man I wish that when I when we first started riding bikes I would have worn just just those little foam earplugs yeah um the wind noise I think is what it is for me and I I'm known for raring bikes without much windshield and it's a big difference uh the just that white noise I guess it probably would be called it's it's hard on the hearing for sure um I just go buy a big bag at the hardware store or a big box of them keep them in the yeah you tweet make them small put them in and they

(02:18) couldn't recommend it more like I said if you want to start with the cheap ones they're they're not even a dollar prepare I don't think but so yeah totally big recommendation there so and then secondly maybe just some of the GPS is um not necessarily any but um so since I was starting to ride this 2022 Gold Wing they got carplay and Android auto on the dash unbelievable Game Changer and then right about the same time as I got that um they started to come out with the The Handlebar mounted versions at reasonable prices um yeah

(03:22) then it's just connected and you can use your handset and man the one on the golden wing it's a little clunky to figure out all the the button this would be a lot easier with the with the you know with touch but it's so nice though um popping back and forth it reads to you you can talk to it through the headset um so this is this is a standalone 5 in yeah yep mounted on The Handlebar it's like another GPS it's waterproof has a little sun shade on some of them wow you plug it in you plug it into the bike bike turns on you turn

(04:23) but it's a no-brainer again I mean the cameras having video yeah um having the tire pressures monitors we've talked about the tire problems that we' had before yeah 300 bucks even for that uh I think it's pretty slick yeah I mean I think it's a must have all right you've talked me into it well you can get a new bike though like you can get with that too so maybe I'll do that in by the time you had a seat in one of these Todd you're pretty much all the way to a new bike all right

(05:23) uh look at the brakes uh check all the lights um check your oil levels your coolant levels and all that kind of stuff it's all vital you know for for your safety and weather awareness um you know adjust your riding style in in bad weather you know give yourself some more space slow down uh because a puddle in the road if if you're doing 55 60 miles an hour it can cause you to H hydroplane pretty easily so uh you know just slow down give yourself some more distance between Riders and between cars I've

(06:24) what you wouldn't want to do is get down there and it not be open or you know certain roads are closed certain Bridges um things like that um just kind of look ahead great great points Tom um you know know your know your limits uh as a rider and you know don't push it stay in your comfort zone yeah um the worst thing would be to go on a long motorcycle trip find a nice technical Road and then lay your bike down uh you know hurt your bike hurt yourself uh hurt your friends uh want everyone coming back in one

(07:29) ride some there's a close call and maybe it's not super close but again I know we preach and continue to talk about helmet communicators but holy moly is it great to be like car car car you know like you know cuz who knows that person might be looking over here car coming from over here you know so um same thing with Road I know I've had a couple close calls with just almost getting off the edge because I was trying to figure out our next thing so yeah just um helmet communicators paying attention staying

(08:31) is about 750 mil from where we start off in Iowa so it's one of these trips and I think we've mentioned this before but sometimes you can have alternate routes this one was no alternates because it was like it was going to take us the full we really had to push it to get there and then you got to come back um so I think it was a 5-day trip for us and it was all you know we were just rolling um those those whole trips so um a number of great places for us from our Vantage Point coming a little bit from

(09:32) Dozen my bad um and then the first night so if we look at day one we stayed overnight the first night in French Lick Indiana home of Larry Bird um and there's um also the French Lick Springs Hotel I guess we didn't stay there it's quite a fancy place but they're known for their Mineral Springs um that they have in there so but it was kind of fun you know to stay in there day two we kind of we hit a couple different towns along the way Santa Claus Indiana which was kind of cool there's a toy shop and

(10:33) and that was quite a sight to see and there was there was a lot going on there yeah it was right right in the middle of the museum it just it opened up the floor floor fell in and all these cars went down and and it was a large Cavern it was a big hole it was a big hole yeah yeah um one of my favorite Parts about that is they kind of put a port hole in yeah and you could look down because they actually didn't take all the cars out which is kind of neat yeah yeah they kind of glassed over it so you could

(11:27) entire Museum I I didn't know all the changes and Innovations they had made along the way and yeah there there were some great looking cars in there oh my gosh I think one of the neest things I think now and I I don't know what year they went to the Mid Engine Corvette you know the current Corvette but they've been working on that from like 70s like they were trying to find a Mid Engine Corvette that whole time and it just wasn't working out they were trying to turn it into you know modern day

(12:21) the way out to to Mayberry a little bit underwhelming um for me I think my anticipation of what I was going to see was bigger than the thing but the museum was pretty cool I mean you got to walk through it was kind of like a do your own like um with headphone kind of thing and you got to hear you know so it was kind of like take your own pace which was nice so and there was some cool things to see for sure but it was just okay yeah it was just all right yeah but then on the way this is kind of one of our audibles that we found um

(13:22) turns because it was in the movie Cars yep it's a it's it's a short track so that yeah it's like a half mile a half mile track and uh I think in cars they made it look like it was a mile long oval but um so we went back and the gate was open there was nobody there that day uh there wasn't a car in the parking lot and it was like the whole thing was wide open in fact we rode our motorcycles like right up under the the stands the bleachers like underneath and and and got out and walked into the stands and

(14:24) Honestly though I don't think that there was I don't there was nothing stopping us from doing that probably nothing stopping us but we would have been on camera I'm thinking for sure ah you know whatever it would have been worth it yeah what's I mean the gate is open is it really illegal well good point we should go back we should go back oh so that was now they're going to lock that was a great day great find great kind of uh ad hoc add-on and then I think on the way back home we hit uh

(15:18) or something that sounds somay we'll get there yeah yeah yeah and then you know the last day a lot of times we're beaten at home and so there wasn't a whole lot the last day but really good trip lot you know didn't go down to the tail Dragon we were in the neighborhood we kind of stayed north of that um but yeah that that's fun to pick a theme um stick with it um we also like to do t-shirts you know we usually try to do a t-shirt but I don't know if I ever told you this but the t-shirt that I had for This was um

(16:16) that's cool we need to make sure we keep doing that something fun that we do make make shirts and it's birthdays it's whatevers and you know like we we do I mean we always ride well not always but seems like we always end up riding on our birthday right Labor Day time is usually our birthday time and you know so yeah um but the shirts are fun um you know now it's gotten to the point now where people are just wearing only shirt for tri shirts yeah because we have so many now but uh they're totally worth it

(17:21) topics and anything else you have on your mind today's roadside Q&A comes from James and and um James has a question that uh we have firsthand knowledge well this okay so it's he wants to know you know if there's any great places to eat you know that uh that are very memorable and on this trip right this SCP was perfect we we found a memorable place to eat and U well why don't you tell the story because so I was looking up places you know just trying to find unique places to eat that're local cuz we try to do

(18:34) folded so honestly it was that big and you could have put four buns on it and still not even maybe six it would have held like I'll bet 12 buns would have finally covered that whole thing it was so gigantic but what was also interesting about this is we had talked about stopping there on our way yep but we didn't NP so we said we're going to make sure we hit that on the way back well our friend Chris had to leave a day early right okay and Chris is one of these guys that always wants to you know surprise you and do something nice and

(19:36) yesterday and he he paid for all your meals so thank you Chris oh my gosh but that was awesome I don't know how he set that up or how he how he got that accomplished but uh can I just imagine them saying so you're saying that someone's going to come in here tomorrow tomorrow someone's going to come yeah what the so yeah Big T I would give it a shot yeah um I ate it I finished her uh it was a lot I was not even close there's another place that has a big tender line too I think I was telling about in Iowa and

(20:40) ajoy these are the things like you say I just it's a Memory you know I mean what an you know an experience and you know we've been talking about it for years now so indeed edber Diner do it so now is the last mile it's kind of how we close the episode we talk about the things that we've liked the most about the trips um so Todd what what what do you like what was the well for this you know this trip you planned out to um you know the Andy Griffith Museum yeah you know whether we were Andy Griffith fans

(21:42) great places you know hit along the way and on the way back absolutely um I would I would agree like the flexibility of finding the speedway was awesome I like the Corvette museum but I ALS it was I shouldn't bash the whole any group of things the town was cool uh it was yeah and it just kind of had a cool little Vibe um you know I think we lock walked around I think we kind of hit it in a bad time of the day too I think things were starting to kind of close down a little bit it was like later afternoon yeah so I think it would have

(22:46) but uh getting pictures of those things you got to do it so yeah so check out the next episode overcoming challenges on the road how to be prepared to be prepared um if this episode revved up your day don't keep it to yourself like subscribe and share it with your crew we're about the thrill of the ride and the bonds it creates keep the spirit of Adventure alive and remember bikes friends and endless roads the stories ride forever take [Music] care