Blue Ridge Parkway August 29

[AKRefugee]

Got this info off another site. I have verified the information and it is correct.

 

Just FYI - There will be a huge BICYCLE ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway on Sunday, August 29th. This is for the area roughly from Blowing Rock, past Grandfather Mountain and the Linville Cove Viaduct, to the Linville Falls highway exit, basically mile markers 290 - 320. The bicycles will also be traveling on sections of Hwy 221 and other roads in that area. It is an event to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Blue Ridge Parkway. I have no idea how many bicyclists will actually be participating, but please be careful if you are riding or driving in that area. A motorcycle-bicycle "meeting" is a huge hazard for both sets of 2 wheels.

 

Ride safe!

[OB-1]

Take a cattle prod along if you're going to ride where those bicyclists are! My wife and I wished we would have had one when we ran in to several thousand of the pesky boogers strung out on US550 from Ouray to Durango, CO, in June. They made travel downright dangerous!

[Venturous Randy]

Weekend before last while on the BRP, I encountered a couple of cars going 15 to 20mph when I came up to them. In front was a bicycle just pedelling along. At first, I thought the lead car was with the biker, but no, he was afraid to pass because it was a double yellow line. After passing a couple of good places for him to pass, I finally hit the air horns and finally the biker started frantically waving him around. He finally passed the biker and went on, and the next chance I had, I passed the idiot in the car.

It ain't just people on bikes, there are some real stupid people in cars too.

RandyA

[CaptainJoe]

Common sense...

When I rode a bike, back in the day, we yeilded to licensed vehicles. Today, bike riders ride one foot from the center line and dare you to pass. Its all about common courtesy...

A farmer on a tractor has the right of way also, but, the common sense to pull over to the side when he gets a string of cars behind him...

[OB-1]

My wife's comments, or a view from the passenger seat, on the bicyclist we had to deal with on US550:

"And then there were bicycles….! For over seventy miles, on very steep, twisty black-top, there were literally thousands of Kool-Aid drinkin’ bicyclists!! They wanted the whole highway, too! There were cops on motorcycles trying to ride herd on ‘em; trying to keep ‘em in single file to the right of the traffic. It wasn’t workin’!!! It was bicycle day for thousands of these plastic headgear-wearin’, bike shop fashion-wearin;, one track minds sitting on a little bit of a butt seat; paying no attention to the string of campers, pickups pullin’ trailers, and mad tourists behind them on a 10% grade downhill!!! They’ve got to be some brave cuss’s because they’d be a tangled up mess of plastic and shiny spokes, if one of them brake-burnin’ motor homes would have lost their grip comin’ off the mountain!! We were wishin’ we had a cattle prod… We’d have given ‘em a thrill they weren’t expecting on bike day over Red Mt. Pass!"

[Guest scarylarry]

Some roads bicyclists should not be allow on the road they cause to much of a traffic jam and don't care..

Cattle prod.......hmmmmmmm.......gives me a some ideas

[AKRefugee]

Bump since closer to the date

[stardbog]

Hey AKRefuge, Thanks for heads up. I was going to ride BRP on sunday, but will wait until monday. I'll start from Virginia side going in to North Carolina.

[Yammer Dan]

Bicyclists seem to be gaining a attitude lately. I've came across a few of them that will hug the center line and try to keep you from passing. Maybe they got treated badly by a few cagers but taking it out on everybody.

[eazyduzzit]

It doesn't matter where you ride when you're on a bicycle. You'll still piss people off. I rode to work a lot when I was younger and trying to work through grieving for my son. The only time I felt any peace was when I was doing something physical like running, playing basketball or riding my bike.

I could be riding on the edge of the blacktop giving cars plenty of room, and they would run me off the road, yell obscenities, throw things at me, or pass me and immediately make a right turn in front of me, causing me to have to slide my tires to keep from hitting them. I would have thought motorcycle riders would have been a little cooler about it than what I've read here.