Brief STAR Report from Brian Wood:

The 2011 STAR in Johnson City, TN, was the first STAR event I’ve been able to attend (oh, the shame!), but will not be my last (I hope). Despite the distance from our California home, my wife, Kellie, and I were able to overlap the STAR trip with other business we had nearby in North Carolina and fit STAR into our schedule and travel plans. We had a great time and a very positive experience and in short, would highly recommend future STAR’s to other sport touring minded riders. If you want some details, read on…

Arrival, hotel check-in, and event registration were quick, easy, and smooth. It was fun to pull up to a hotel and find it already lined with motorcycles (the front drive was blocked off for motorcycle access only) and bunches of MSTA members already milling around, chatting and catching up with each other. When we first got to the registration room it looked a bit chaotic and we figured we were in for a long wait in line, but the organizers had their act together and we were out of there in short order. No sweat. And, we got to find out who else from CA was there – Keith & MaryJane Lazz, and… Don Clark!

We had previously arranged for a rental bike (thanks to Greg at Sportbikes4hire.com for helping us out), so it was fun to have a bike delivered (in the rain) to the hotel, ready to ride on Sunday morning, the 26th. I had recently totaled my 2005 ST1300 (that’s another story, sniff), and one of the potential replacement models was the Kawasaki Concours 1400 – so that was what we rented. What better way to evaluate a bike than 800+ miles over several days of twisty roads and highways? We received a black 2008 model in very good condition with a top box (primarily as a backrest for Kellie) – perfect. The tires appeared a bit worn and I warned Greg I was hard on tires, but he assured me they would last through the trip or he would arrange for replacements. No problem.

So, we packed a bit of extra gear, mounted the GPS with all the pre-loaded STAR routes (thanks to Jim Randall) and headed out for a break-in ride (us, not the bike). Frankly, all the routes looked more ambitious than we wanted to try on our first ride on a new bike, in and out of rain, on unfamiliar roads, so we just wandered around and got lost, visited a few tourist-type attractions (including the Dickson-Williams Mansion, and the East Tennessee State University Natural History Museum’s Gray Fossil Site), then had the GPS lead us back. The bike worked out great (other than my cooked shins), so we were really looking forward to longer rides over the next few days.

Sunday night was the official Welcome Ceremonies and start of STAR and the New Members Meeting (I attended just to see what would be covered) before we headed into town for food (plenty of restaurants within walking distance of the hotel. After dinner we attended an informational session on Touring Overseas (among many session tracks that were available) before retiring for the night, looking forward to the next day’s activities.

Monday morning Kellie attended the Ladies Meet and Greet and enjoyed the presentation by Stayin’ Safe, among other topics. After breakfast we skipped the invitational lunch ride and demos (thanks to Kingsport Cycles for providing demo bikes all through the event) and headed out on a promising loop called “South Twisty.” Of course, we added a few zigs and zags to push the route well over the 200 miles mapped on the GPS, but enjoyed it all. We avoided rain for most of the day, but dried out quickly after we did hit a few showers. It was interesting to see how many times we crisscrossed the Tennessee/North Carolina border on that route! After dinner that night I attended the informative “State of the MSTA Members Meeting” and socialized a bit with members I’d never met in person before – fun stuff. To top it off, I was totally surprised when awards for various activities and things were handed out and I received an award for best state website! Now I guess I have to keep up on maintaining it…

Tuesday started out with the State Directors and Volunteers Meeting before heading out on the Lunch Ride to Breaks Interstate Park on the border of Virginia and Kentucky. We stuck with the suggested route to get there and were pleasantly surprised with some really off the beaten path routes (read, nearly dirt roads). I don’t mind riding that stuff, though I’m sure some other members were uncomfortable. Still, I’m told that everyone made it through okay (many figured out a more mainstream route), and we had a great gathering at the restaurant in Breaks Interstate Park. The scenery in the park was great and we had a nice time catching up with Don Clark on things.

After lunch Kellie and I decided to deviate from the “planned” routes and head up into Kentucky before heading east into Virginia and down through the far northwest corner of North Carolina before heading back into Tennessee. Well, that was the plan anyway. Our little excursion into Kentucky was great and some of the better roads and scenery we’d enjoyed so far. However, as we dipped back down into Virginia we got hit with a full-on storm that left us drenched for two hours. While we had some light raingear to put on over our mesh suits, we still ended up soaked in pretty short order and decided to cut our trip a little short by skipping the detour into North Carolina and heading pretty much straight back into Tennessee and the dry comfort of the hotel. It wasn’t until I was looking at maps later that I realized we could have taken a short, 16 mile detour and hit West Virginia briefly as well. It would have been fun to hit five states in one day, but the weather wasn’t cooperating. Oh well.

Wednesday morning we geared up again (mostly dry after spending the night draped over the room a/c unit) and headed out for an abbreviated version of the “Shady Valley” route – once again hitting three states in just a few hours. Fun stuff, but we had to be back early to turn the bike back in to Sportbikes4hire (they came and picked the bike up at the hotel). It wasn’t until midway through the ride that we stopped for a break and I noticed the shoulders of the rear tire were bald. Oops! They had a little tread when we started, but all the twisties took care of that. No time to arrange for new tires, and the front was worn down to the tread bars as well, so we took things easy for the last 100 or so miles back to the hotel. When Sportbikes4hire picked up the bike, the guy stated (imagine your best East Tennessee accent), “Dayum, that tire’s gone!” I told them so…

Anyway, we had a relaxing afternoon before the whole group gathered for the official “STAR ’11 Group Picture” event in the parking lot, followed by the banquet in the hotel. The food was very good (though the logistics for getting the food left a bit to be desired) and we enjoyed the awards, keynote speaker (Eric Trow of Stayin’ Safe) and general entertainment. Fun stuff.

The next morning we loaded up our borrowed car and headed back to North Carolina. We didn’t want to just slab it back, however, so we headed down to Asheville before taking the Blue Ridge Parkway for much of the way back. Beautiful scenery and very little traffic.

Looking back on the trip, all the volunteers, officers, and others who worked to put this event together should be praised for a job well done. There was obviously a lot of planning and effort behind the scenes and it showed. Sure there were glitches and issues and snags, but overall it went very well and we had a wonderful time. The roads were great, scenery was beautiful, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. It was nice having a few vendors there (without being swamped in commercial crap), the informational sessions were good additions to the schedule, and everyone was great to work with. Our only complaint (and it’s a weak one) was that so many of the twisty roads followed rivers and streams (down in the valley) instead of ridges and mountain tops where the views really are. We saw a lot of green, but not a lot of vistas. Oh well, next year’s STAR should make up for that (Avon, Colorado!).

Okay, so I’ve had a lot of people ask how I liked the Concours… In short, great bike and we really enjoyed our time on it – as a rental. It was comfortable, handled great, had immensely fun power, and suited our purposes well. I didn’t even mind the stupid ignition key/fob thingie (though I don’t see why Kawasaki thinks it improves anything). But… the fuel range was disappointing and was a deal killer for me as a commuter bike. I’m so used to getting 300+ miles on my ST1300 that it was very frustrating to start having to think about gas after about 150 miles as it typically needed a refill by 190 miles. I know that isn’t terrible for a “regular” bike, but I really need something that goes further on a tank of gas. Still, I’d be happy to rent one again – if nothing else, just to hammer the throttle in 2nd gear getting onto the freeway.

I’m sure there are more pictures cropping up on the main MSTA site and forum, but I posted a few of my own pictures in our California MSTA photo album site (http://picasaweb.google.com/calif.msta/2011062530STARJohnsonCity). I hope you get the opportunity to attend a STAR in the future, it was a very worthwhile experience.