Looking at the number of people who visit this page, it reminds me that many of you are not full-fledged “members” of the MSTA. That’s OK by me, you don’t have to be and I’m still happy to see you here. BUT, it also means that you might not be familiar with just what it is like to attend one of our ” rallies ” or ” Just for Fun” events. These are not typical “biker” events. We meet….we ride….we socialize. We don’t go there for the “party”. We don’t go there for the “RIDE” we go there for the “RIDING”.
Take a past year’s event for example. The annual TriSTAR Rally in Sparta, NC.
“This past Thursday I met my pal, Luis, in Butler Kentucky around 9:30. We then rode our bikes (he on a VFR, me on my FZ6) to Sparta, NC. We used almost all backroads, and along the way rode through the Red River Gorge area, Whitesburg, Ky (with a stop at the Mountain Mist Moonshine store to pick up a shirt), through Virginia on “The Crooked Road”, and various other backroads to Sparta. We arrived about 7pm and found already about 15 other bikes there….even though the rally runs Friday through Sunday, “officially “. After unpacking the bikes and getting something cold to drink, we accompanied a couple of other attendees…Jon and Woovis…on a walk downtown to a local BBQ place for dinner. After dinner we walked back to the hotel and joined several other members in a general bull session until well after dark. It’s at times like this that introductions are made, new friendships are formed, and riding plans for the next day are decided upon. The cool of the evening.
Friday morning, Luis and I along with Joe from SC and Ron from Ohio, mounted our bikes and headed out with the intention of doing some “tire testing”. We rode back up route 58 from Mouth of Wilson to Demarcus. Taking us up past Highlands Park and near Mt. Mitchell. 
we made a stop in Shady Valley,
we rode a bit of the Snake…US RT 421… we did a stop at the original Mast General store outside of Boone, NC and had lunch next door at a fantastic little sandwich shop. We found a new favorite in north SR194 out of Boone, NC. Finally, we arrived back at the hotel around 4, having logged a very fulfilling and fun 250 miles of “tire testing”. MSTA rallies are always centered around riding and thus are located right in the heart of the best riding roads to be found in the US. It may be the Ozarks of Arkansas/Missouri, the Appalachian Mts, SE Ohio, Eastern Kentucky, the Texas Hill Country, the Rocky Mts., or elsewhere, but they are always headquartered within areas of great roads and spectacular scenery. Places that many dream of visiting some day. We just do it on our motorcycles!
After a shower, a change, and some rehydration, it was time for dinner. By this time almost all of the other attendees had she on up and the parking lot was filled with bikes. I counted 72 different bikes, and there were all kinds there….lots and lots of sportbikes and sport-touring bikes, cruisers from HD and Indian, a couple of dual sports, and even 3 CanAms. We all sat down under the tents provided by the hotel, at the tables provided by them as well. And enjoyed a cookout provided by and prepared by various members….a big tip of the hat here to Geoffrey Greene, who took on the task of organizing and hosting the event this year….GREAT JOB!! After dinner, there was a whole more rehydration and storytelling going on, discussions and comments on bikes, rides, roads, and of course, tires. Several hours later everyone was in their rooms sleeping and dreaming of even more riding to be done on Saturday.
Saturday came and 3 of us set out to seek more great and challenging roads…all in the name of doing proper tire testing, you see…..to ride. This time it was me, Joe, and Keith from NC. Luis had injured himself on Friday with a strained muscle in his calf, and decided to rest it. Since Joe had never ridden in the area before, and Keith wanted to revisit the store in Burke’s Garden, we decided to head that way. This route took us up Va16, aka the “Back of the Dragon”, to Tazewell, Va. What a fantastic road this is….33 miles of twists, turns, switchbacks, hairpins, sweepers, up, down, sideways, you name it. FUN FUN FUN! We only got behind cars a couple of times the whole way and really had little problem getting around them. Once we got up to Tazewell, it was only a short distance to Burke’s Garden Rd.
Burke’s Garden is an isolated little bit of heaven. It was formed when a meteorite fell into the adjoining mountains and carved out about a 20 miles circle that is hemmed in by hills in every direction. 
There is only one paved road in and out, and the area supports a small population of farms. There is no industry and only the one store/restaurant, which is run by some very friendly Amish people. They are famous for their fresh baked goods (especially the bread and pies), sandwiches, and homemade butter and jellies. As you can see from the pictures, the views off the porch are beautiful!
After a stop for some pie, we rode back out over the mountain (the road in/out is a fantastic little bit of twisty all by itself) and continued our loop. While I was sitting on the porch at the store, I had noticed on my map a little curvy bit of road east of there that was not part of the “official” route but looked worth checking out anyways.
I think that I forgot to mention that as part of the rally fee…25 dollars…we got a packet of maps and directions which outlined about 10 different suggested routes. All done up by members who live and ride in the area. This is in addition to the Friday night cookout and Saturday night BBQ, and the door prizes.
Back to the story……so we decided to take this new road on the way back to the hotel. Wow am I glad we did! Not only was it extremely twisty, but the pavement on the vast majority of it couldn’t have been more than a week old! It was like a racetrack and there was almost nobody living in the area. Not being familiar with the road, we kept our speed down and exercised caution, but it was still a whole lot of fun. WooHoo! From there we continued on the route back to the hotel, added some more detours on some interesting looking roads, and finally arrived back at the hotel by late afternoon, having put our tires though a 235 mile “test”……all under sunny skies and temps in the upper 70’s.
Dinner that night was pulled pork BBQ from the local joint, with all the sides. Served under the tents…all you could eat and more. If anyone goes away hungry from these events, it’s their own fault! Following dinner was the standard introduction of various members of the EC and other volunteer positions in the club, the very important recognition of all of the members that are military veterans, and then the drawings for door prizes. Keith was the big winner of a set of Dunlop tires! Congratulations Keith and thank you Dunlop!
Although the ” rally ” goes on through Monday, Memorial Day, some attendees choose to leave Sunday. Luis and I were in that camp. Sunday morning dawned cool and damp. The tropical depression off of the Carolina’s pushing rain north into the part of the country we occupied. We took off at 7 in the morning and donning our rain gear, pushed onward. By the time reached Abington, Va the rain had stopped and except for about 10 miles through Jackson, Ky., we had sun and nice temps the rest of the way home to NKY and Cincinnati respectively.
All told we did 1100-1200 miles over the 4 days with almost no problems of any kind. Results of the “tire testing”….I love my RoadSmarts and Luis loves his T30s. Joe and Keith love their Michelins. But Keith will now need to test the free Dunlops he won, and I won a free room given away as a fund raiser for the Ride for Kids charity we support. So, we will be returning next year for more “testing”.
Hope to see you there!”
The annual TriSTAR rally happens every Memorial Day Weekend. It is held in Sparta, NC, The Allegany Inn is the host hotel. You can find more information about our events, and their dates, by clicking on the link for the Rally Calendar found at the top of this page.