2014 Covered Bridges of New Hampshire Tour - Oct 18th

Yamaha FJR Motorcycle Forum

Help Support Yamaha FJR Motorcycle Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Fred W

1 Wheel Drive
FJR Supporter
Joined
Nov 9, 2006
Messages
17,696
Reaction score
3,872
Location
Eastern VT
Hey... NERDS!! (New England Riders Doing Stuff)

We have not run this little day ride for a while now, so I thought that maybe there would be some interest in doing so again this year? It's getting near foliage time in Cow Hampshire and we all know what happens after that. The white scourge!! Time for a last fling for the fall before the onset of W.
weirdsmiley.gif


For those not already familiar with the ride, this is a very casual group ride with a primary focus being on the foliage and the New England scenery. Definitely not ridden at a sporting pace. It will be very pillion friendly since we make several stops for photos and gabbing along the way.

We'll be riding the traditional route, which means we'll be meeting up at the Fiddleheads Cafe in Hancock, NH. This is a little gem of a place that makes a killer breakfast if you arrive early enough, or you can just grab a good cuppa Joe during the meet and greet before we head out.

The plan will be for kickstands up at 9:45AM, so plan accordingly. From there we will take many scenic roads to the south and west of rural New Hampshire and visit at least a dozen Covered Bridges throughout the day, most of which we will actually be able to ride through.

There will be a lunch stop at Diamond Pizza in Walpole, NH (bring cash - no cards are accepted) which is pretty cheap and good grub, and then we will wind ourselves back to the north and east. We may hit a few (very choice) dirt roads if there is no moisture, that have some spectacularly scenic views, but there is nothing here to get nervous about. Just smooth gravel roads

The route will end up at the intersection of Route 202 and Route 127 in Hopkinton (at the Dunkin Donuts) That is a nice central location that allows everyone an easy exit to whatever direction they are headed home. We'll be headed back down towards Manchester from there if folks want to continue to follow us there.

The primary date will be Saturday October 18th, with a tentative rain date of Sunday the 19th. I don't think the foliage or the weather will be very conducive much later than that if that weekend turns out to be a total washout. But in the past we've usually been able to squeak it in.

So tell your friends... Do not have to be on an FJR, but do have to not be a butt head.

If we happen to have too many folks on the ride we can split into multiple groups, but we've run this with a lot of bikes before and it not been a problem due to the light traffic and rural roads we'll be covering

Bring your camera!

PS - I will post up GPS routes for those as anal as me to follow along on as soon as I do a test run!

 
Last edited by a moderator:
[edit]

I decided to throw a few new wrinkles in on the traditional ride route. No added unpaved sections, but a few more back roads without lines.

Links to the updated GPS routes are below:

2014 Covered Bridges Tour.gdb - Garmin proprietary format

2014 Covered Bridges Tour.gpx - Generic GPs eXchange format

(right click, file save as, etc.)

Route Preview:

Click the below map for an interactive version in a new window



 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hey... New England Riders Doing Stuff (NERDS)
We have not run this little day ride for a while now, so I thought that maybe there is some interest in doing so again this year? It's getting near foliage time in Cow Hampshire and we all know what happens after that. The white scourge!! Time for a last fling for the fall before the onset of W. :weirdsmiley:

For those not already familiar with the ride, this is a very casual group ride with a primary focus being on the foliage and the New England scenery. Definitely not ridden at a sporting pace. It will be very pillion friendly since we make several stops for photos and gabbing along the way.

We'll be riding the traditional route, which means we'll be meeting up at the Fiddleheads Cafe in Hancock, NH. This is a little gem of a place that makes a killer breakfast if you arrive early enough, or you can just grab a good cuppa Joe during the meet and greet before we head out.

The plan will be for kickstands up at 9:45AM, so plan accordingly. From there we will take many scenic roads to the south and west of rural New Hampshire and visit at least a dozen Covered Bridges throughout the day, most of which we will actually be able to ride through.

There will be a lunch stop at Diamond Pizza in Walpole, NH (bring cash - no cards are accepted) which is pretty cheap and good, and then we will wind ourselves back to the north and east. We may hit a few (very choice) dirt roads if there is no moisture, that have some spectacularly scenic views, but there is nothing here to get nervous about. Just smooth gravel roads

The route will end up at the intersection of Route 102 and Route 127 in Hopkinton (at the Dunkin Donuts) That is a nice central location that allows everyone an easy exit to whatever direction they are headed home. We'll be headed back down towards Manchester from there if folks want to continue to follow us there.

The primary date will be Saturday the 11th, with a tentative rain date of Sunday the 11th. I don't think the foliage or the weather will be very conducive much later than that if that weekend turns out to be a total washout. But in the past we've usually been able to squeak it in.

So tell your friends... Do not have to be on an FJR, but do have to not be a butt head.

If we happen to have too many folks on the ride we can split into multiple groups, but we've run this with a lot of bikes before and it not been a problem due to the light traffic and rurla roads we'll be covering
Hmmmm....Thanksgiving weekend for me (and my Gerbings liner seems to be working ) :rolleyes:

 
Yeah, Columbus didn't discover Canada, just North America.
rolleyes.gif
Give thanks for that!
bleh.gif


C'mon down.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Sounds like fun Fred. This will give me incentive to fix my crusty Yamaha. Well my crusty Penske three way shock. Yes I broke it again.
uhoh.gif


 
Already committed this weekend so we are out
no.gif
. Have a safe ride and I hope it's nice and warm this year.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Gimme a shout. Maybe we can put our two brains together and figure out what the hell is happening
It pissed out it's oil in NovaScotia and I rode it home bouncing most of the way. Put together four years ago for me by GP and rebuilt two years ago by the new GP. I don't have great hopes that it can be rebuilt now. It's making awful creaking noise and is not moving very much.

I'll throw the stock back in and ask the suspension guys in Boston to look the penske this winter.

 
This ride is going to be fun and I wish I could be there, but I have a previous commitment that weekend that I can't break.

 
Seems like many folks are busy on the long, Columbus Day holiday weekend. How would it work for folks if we pushed it out a week to October 18th? That would have the added advantage of NOT being the weekend of the fall foliage festival in Warner, which is s town we normally ride through to get to one of the bridges (Dalton Bridge)

We may be slightly past prime foliage by then, and it may mean a bit more chill in the air, but that usually doesn't bother any of us. I could do it either weekend.

 
I got stupid stuff on the calendar for both weekends but hopefully nothing that can't be worked around. Either way though it might be a week-of decision for me.

 
OK, I'm going to make a "command decision" and push this ride out from Columbus Day Weekend to the following Saturday, October 18th (rain date of Sunday the 19th) for a couple of reasons:

One is that the Columbus Day long weekend seems to present conflicts for most of the gang. The other, and perhaps equally important reason is that Warner NH holds their big Fall Foliage hoopty on Columbus Day weekend, and we need to run right through town to get to one of the bridges. We have done it then before, but it does cause some "delays".

Plus, maybe the traffic will be a bit lighter as all the southern New Englanders (all the Massholes and Connectikooks) have their own colored trees back home to look at.

I'm going to go back and edit my original post (and the thread title) with these new dates and hopefully this dialog will not become too confusing.

Hope this will allow some more of you to make it!

 
We'll the new date makes this a possibility!

For Columbus Day weekend we Massholes will be getting up close and personal with the foliage in the NH Whites, but right now there's nothing on the calendar for the following weekend.

 
I'm still in. Ok to bring a couple of non FJR buddies? Make sure to ask if his BMW is a Yamaha!
Yes, absolutely. Last time we ran this (2012?) I extended an invite on the NER forum but nobody from there showed up. You've been on enough of these rides to know the drill. It'll be run at a pretty sedate pace conducive to picture taking and lookin' around.

We'll the new date makes this a possibility!
For Columbus Day weekend we Massholes will be getting up close and personal with the foliage in the NH Whites, but right now there's nothing on the calendar for the following weekend.

Should be pretty busy up in the Whites that long weekend. The big reason this ride is run down in the Monadnock region is to avoid the tour bus loads of leaf peepers that flood the more popular northern regions. Be sure and leave some colored leaves for the rest of us.

PS - If Josie and I weren't Massholes ourselves (in exile) we couldn't use such a seemingly offensive term.
wink.png


 
Last edited by a moderator:
Top