Best roads for 'flying'

[Edge]

Hey everyone.

I've been watching the forums and sites for many, many months, finally 'enlisted' and here's my first post.

I think I've found the perfect road for flying...check this out. I received this in an e-mail and thought it would be a good topic here. Anyone know this location? Any other roads on which we can fly??

[CelticFlyer]

Great post! First or otherwise. I do have some ideas, but I'd like to illustrate them with pix, as you have. I wish I knew where that road was!

[cpaddock]

On Maui, its the Hana Highway (coastal, 250 curves in 50 miles) and the Haleakala highway (sea level to 10,000' in 30 miles).
Alooooha!

[MVRacing]

Hummm, wonder what it would cost to ship my V1 over? =D Way cool!!

[cpaddock]

Howzit MV! I happen to be a Washingtonian transplant of nearly 30 years. born and raised in Vancouver, WA. Moved here from Republic, WA. (That's 30 miles from Canada,
60 miles from Idaho. 4,000 feet elev. and COLD! I expect to spend around $1,500 to ship my V1 plus cost of building a solid crate. I would never consider shipping her naked.
I don't think I'll be able to wait for a Hawaii dealership to open, but maybe Ian and Co.
are hip to the potential here.... Anyway, come on over and I'll let you fly my V1, after
signing a waiver and a massive deposit. :)

[Baja_Traveler]

I can't come close to that pic. The road up to Palomar Observatory is the best I can do.

I just read in the paper that regular gas has hit $4.55 a gallon there... You'll need the VV sooner rather than later! :confused:

[Miracleman89]

The Coronado Trail in South East Arizona. These are just a couple of pictures my mother-in-law took over a year ago when she came to visit! Hope you enjoy!

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb249/Miracleman89/Coronado%20Trail/DSCN0002212.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb249/Miracleman89/Coronado%20Trail/DSCN00456401.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb249/Miracleman89/Coronado%20Trail/DSCN00456302.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb249/Miracleman89/Coronado%20Trail/DSCN00034563271.jpg

Here is a good article on it:
http://www.roadtripamerica.com/drives/Coronado-Trail.htm

and here is another:
http://www.azcentral.com/travel/drives/articles/south-coronado-CR.html

If all goes according to plan I will host a V1 rally once we all have them!

[MVRacing]

cpaddock,
Just may take you up on that :) Been to Stone Rose many times in Republic.
How the heck did you end up there?

[CelticFlyer]

This is the first road that comes to mind, for me. It's Lombard Street in San Francisco. It's crazy! I've got to scare up a pic of me going down that stretch of it in my '05 Mustang a couple of years ago.

http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee299/GrabberOrange/lombard-street-picture.jpg

[MVRacing]

Hey MM,
Your place & the Coronado Trail looks like a great place for a late fall or early spring "Fly-in" .... get us out of the cold, wet, Northwest. Nice photos, thanks!!

[MVRacing]

Celtic,
That would be a really cool shot with 20 or so "Vhatevers' leaning their way down!

[Miracleman89]

I was actually thinking fall! Great minds think alike!

[CelticFlyer]

Celtic,
That would be a really cool shot with 20 or so "Vhatevers' leaning their way down!

Yeah, that would be pretty cool. Only trouble is, the speed limit is like 5 mph on that part of the road! You'd probably never have the opportunity to "lean" at all. But if it were cordoned off for a group of V1s, I bet it would be a hoot.

MiracleMan, those pix are choice! Maybe Ian & Company can get some V1 marketing photos taken there! I especially like that tight loop in the fourth pic. =y:

[bhicks]

Hey guys, try the 'Dragon' in North Carolina and Tennesse, 318 curves in 11 miles.
www.tailofthedragon.com

[Miracleman89]

bhicks- the tail would be cool but guard rails are for wimps! LOL check the pics again of the Coronado Trail! The guard rails stop about a mile or so into the trip! Then all you see is shear drop offs!

[MarkH]

Tennessee highway 48 from Dickson to Centerville is a great curvy road thats just about a blast to drive. My Corvette approves whole heartedly.

In fact just about any Tennessee country road is great fun. The Natchez Trace Parkway is really scenic and twisty too. Just don't even think about speeding. The limit is 45 and is patrolled extensively by Tenn State Police.

[cpaddock]

Well MV, I was part of an extended family in the early 70's and we decided to go back to the land, live the good life, commune with nature. Unfortunately, the property we picked was at the base of a north-facing mountain! Check out "A change of heart" thread for more about this part of my life. I left Republic in 1980 and followed a skirt to Maui. Don't remember a "Stone Rose"....is that a cafe? We had the New Dawn Deli and the Lost Dog Cafe. That whole NE corner of Washington is "God's Country". Maui ain't half bad either...
I live on a 16 acre tropical fruit and flower farm on the North Shore (Wet) across Hana
Highway from Jaws, the famous surf break with occasional 60 footers!
Aloooooha!

[CelticFlyer]

I've heard that biking in Maui can be treacherous if you take your eyes off the road. :confused:

I scrounged up a couple of pix of me driving down Lombard Street in SF. (Actually, they're snapshots from a video.) There's a constant stream of traffic there, just because everyone wants to drive down what they say is "the world's most winding road."

http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee299/GrabberOrange/ChrisonLombard2.jpg

http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee299/GrabberOrange/ChrisonLombard1.jpg

[cpaddock]

CF, you read correctly regarding bike safety on Maui. My friend's wife was killed by a car,
and we recently had a "bike down the volcano" tour person go under a bus when they drifted across the line in a switchback. They put a moratorium on the tours for a while.
Of course, even more people kill themselves on rice rockets here every year and its not due to the road conditions. Its alcohol, speed, meth, speed, macho madness that do the trick. I'll admit keeping your eyes on the road can be a challenge when there's a whale
breaching under a rainbow with wind surfers and bikini babes to distract you. Its kind of like hiking in the wilderness. Great scenery, but you better watch your step!

[nvrblu]

Hey MM,
Your place & the Coronado Trail looks like a great place for a late fall or early spring "Fly-in" .... get us out of the cold, wet, Northwest. Nice photos, thanks!!


I drove that road last April in my Lotus Elise. A lot of time was in 2nd gear. It was fun but tiring. About 80-90 miles of nearly continuous curves.

There was snow along the side of the road at the north end and still some cinder on the roads (they don't use salt in AZ). I had to dodge a couple of wild turkeys and stopped for one that refused to leave the middel of the road.

[MVRacing]

I drove that road last April in my Lotus Elise. A lot of time was in 2nd gear. It was fun but tiring. About 80-90 miles of nearly continuous curves.

There was snow along the side of the road at the north end and still some cinder on the roads (they don't use salt in AZ). I had to dodge a couple of wild turkeys and stopped for one that refused to leave the middel of the road.

Hey nvrblu,
Have a friend in Fountain Hills, that close to you? Have spent a lot of time on the track in a few Lotus Elise's....fun car. The race school up here in Seattle uses them.

[Miracleman89]

Yeah it can get tiring but that is why I had planed for some stops along the way! Get out stretch take photos maybe do a barbecue or lunch kinda thing and for those who were interested maybe even do some camping!

[beeson]

In a remote area of NE Oregon/SE Washington is a state Hwy (Hwy3 in Ore., Hwy 129 in Wash.) known locally as the Rattlesnake. It goes from 4000 feet in OR to 1300 feet at the Grande Ronde River back up to 3900 feet in WA. It is not for the faint of heart. And there are few guard rails.

My second choice would be the Lolo Pass road in Idaho. Beautiful scenery along the Clearwater and Lochsa Rivers. The road is 88 miles of twisties and high speed sweepers. It's a fabulous ride for the road and the scenery.

An good tale told around the BMW motorcycle rallies about this road. The rivers along this Hwy have numerous signs saying the fishing is Catch and Release only. A cyclist having a little too much fun on this great hwy got pulled over by the men in blue. As the officer walked up to him the cyclist asked if he could go now. The officer as the tale goes, said something to the equivalent of "What!?!?" To which the cyclist replies "Well all the signs say Catch and Release Only, so can I go now?"

[waboom]

it might be way out in left field, and it certainly isn't a long cruise, but... Nurburgring.

Although I don't know if I'd have the stones to do it with all the weekend Porsche drivers out there at the same time!

[Miracleman89]

Well once someone has tapped the system and figured out how to modify the V1 for super speed I say bring on the Porsche drivers! I bet the v1 would out do a porsche in the corners!

[nvrblu]

Hey nvrblu,
Have a friend in Fountain Hills, that close to you? Have spent a lot of time on the track in a few Lotus Elise's....fun car. The race school up here in Seattle uses them.

I'm about 8-10 miles from Fountain Hills... straight line. It's about twice that far by road because the Salt River bed and indian reservation are in between.

[Jack Willard]

I can surely recommend Hwy 49 above Nevada City, CA, up through Downieville and along the Yuba river. There is a reason I moved up here into the northern Sierra mountains near Truckee and Lake Tahoe.

The best ride I ever had was North of Spokane, WA, into and through Banff National Park in British Columbia. Now that's a place I could stay forever!

[shooter]

Highway 129 in Tennessee, aka Tail of the Dragon. There is no better road in North America to take advantage of the Carver/V1 Over 300 twisty bends in 11 miles.

I was there on my bike with these guys the day they filmed this. Back in 2005 when I rode all around the US on my bike

http://www.webbikeworld.magnify.net/item/4LSHDRQLCTTZ0BCB

[Jack Willard]

Hey Shooter,

Add tall pine trees, lots of uphill and downhill, the occasional traveling over a bridge or alongside a mountain stream/river (think whitewater), waterfalls, and you get what all the mountain roads are like here.

Or, there's always the central to north coast Highway 1 overlooking the Pacific ocean. Nothing but continuous curves.

Gawd, I can hardly wait to try those again in a V1!

[Miracleman89]

another bump for hwy 191:
From Morenci, US-191 winds into the mountains. I counted 435 curves between the city limit and the town of Alpine, 92 miles away. There are twice that many lesser curves, what I'd call "directional adjustments." You climb from about 3500 feet to almost 9000 in elevation. The route passes the vast lands of the San Carlos Apache Tribe, the Blue River Primitive Area, and the pine and aspen forests of the White Mountains.

[Shhted]

Highway 76 between Caledonia, MN and Houston, MN.
Otto Road in Waupaca County, WI.
Just about any Alphabet Road in Southwestern WI.

[Bulldog]

Highway 550 Between Silverton Colorado and Ouray Colorado. It is a 1 hour drive and is only 24 miles between them. They call it the million dollar highway, because it cost a million per mile to pave 30+ years ago.

[Miracleman89]

I am telling you, all you tail of the dragon people need to come check out the Coronado trail aka HWY 191!

[Mark Tomlinson]

Just got back from visiting my son in Northern Kentucky. As we wove and rose and dove through the roads, I often thought about how great a road trip in the V1 would be! Can't name any one road, though. All of them are excellent.

[beeson]

Bulldog, Hwy 550 is a beautiful drive, but isn't the speed limit posted at 25?? I went over that road a few years ago on my BMW motorcycle. I was going about 28-29 when I met a state trooper and he started pointing down with his finger telling me to slow down!!!!!! He was dead serious about that 25 mph limit. I did love the scenery though.

[Miracleman89]

Well the only thing that keeps the speed limit in check on HWY 191 is the curves!

[Bulldog]

Well beeson, your right those are the posted limits but have done that route on a harley and not a problem, but the leaning action would be GREAT. Never met a cop on that road before and I do that stretch every year about a dozen times or so.

[beeson]

Well Bulldog, Maybe I was just "lucky" but he was so emphatic with his gesture and it was my first time on the road that I decided to heed his warning. For all I knew there was a trooper ever few miles :-) If he was upset at 28 I didn't want to meet one when I was traveling at my normal speeds.

Also, I had heard that one reason for calling it the million dollar hwy was because it was paved with a rock that turned out to be a silver bearing ore. I have no idea if that is true or not.