Just wanted to post about something I descovered on this trip that lots of you probably already know. I hadn’t really seen anything posted about it tho.
Anyone who has been to Maggie Valley is familiar with some of the tight, twisty, technical roads in that area. The C14 is right at home on those roads. What I didn’t know, I learned completely by accident. We arrived on Monday afternoon, checked into our room, unloaded the bikes from the trailer, geared up and headed out for a ride. Had a great time riding and exploring some new roads (new to us) northwest of Maggie Valley. My wife doesn’t have the best night vision and prefers to get back by dark. If not, we need to slow the pace of the ride way down.
As it was getting close to sunset, we realized how far away from the hotel we were. We ended up cutting across east on the foot hills parkway over to I-40. Shortly after getting on the interstate, a BMW 5 series goes flying past us. There was absolutely no other vehicles anywhere in site, so my wife and I both kicked it up a few notches and followed him thru the sweepers on I-40 south. Next thing I know, the BMW is kicking it up a few more notches so we do too. We were flying thru those sweepers! The Concours would just lay right over and hold a line perfectly. It just felt so comfortable and relaxed rolling thru the curves at a fairly high rate of speed. It felt like the type of riding the Concours was truly built for.
Even tho it does really well on the tighter curves, it has never felt as “at home” as it did for those few miles on I-40. I don’t know how else to describe it. Rolling thru long sweeping curves near or above the triple digit mark seems to be the Concours’ happy place. Kind of like how every motor has its RPM if just feels best running at.