North Carolina vs. New Hampshire?

So...the opportunity is at hand for me to relocate from New Hampshire to North Carolina with my present employer. I've lived in New England most of my life and consider it home. However, the thought of moving to a place where I can ride pretty much twelve months of the year is appealing. I shouldn't let motorcycles dictate my entire life, but it gets pretty close. Work will move me, help with house sale/purchase, and I keep my present job. So, no dilemas there. They make it really easy.

I'm writing here to try to get an insight to the riding community in NC. I'd be living and working in the Raleigh/Durham area. I don't know much about it and only know a handful of work colleagues that are there. And what do they know about riding???

I know there are really good country roads for street rides. The Dragon isn’t too far! But I also like to hit the trails and gravel tracks. Is there much dual sporting to be done? Are there a lot of restrictions to off highway vehicles? Are there race tracks around for the occasional track day?

Any feedback would be appreciated. I’ll be going down there in a couple of weeks for my “discovery visit”. I’ll need to make a decision soon after that. If anyone from the area could provide some info, opinion, knowledge, it would be great.

Thanks a lot.

Traitor.

I'm in the western part of the state, and it is pretty much riding weather all year round. I only sat out a week or two last year in the worst weather.

Fantastic pavement abounds, including the Blue Ridge Parkway and countless rural roads.

Lots of off road opportunites too, but depending on where you are they can be limited. I've found a lot of interesting trails that are limited to hiking/horses/MTNBikes, mainly in the national forests or rec areas. TONS of gravel/dirt Forest Service roads.

I'll let someone who knows more about the specific area you are interested in fill you in more.

Pretty good home for a motorcyclist, though.

THANKS! This is sounding pretty good...

yeah...yeah... Is your bike put up for the season yet, Joe.

We're riding at Airhead's on Sunday. Come with??

NC Dualsport ride

Well, just what the doctor ordered!

Hell no! Although the wasted front MT21 I have on there is making things interesting with the sand on the roads.

I'd love to, but I think I'm slated to take my little girl ice-skating for the first time. Doing something like the CroMag woods ride?

Great riding just South of you around the Uwharrie National Forest. Nice roads. Limited off raod. Look me up.

I LOVE NC!That being said,I love the western part the most.Lots of stree riding if thats your thins,and LOTS of dirt,forest service,trails type stuff.If you get down this way....look me up.I ride about every other weekend.

EVILONE

P.S.Do a search for Me,DirtDog,or Dlrides,we do lots of ride reports,usualy together

I left southern NH for Raleigh back when it wasn't fashionable to do so. You remember the 80s - MTV played music and Michael Jackson was black. It wasn't long before I decided the only reason people stayed up north was because they just didn't know any better.

Yes, the riding season is alot longer. There are some great rural roads just outside Wake County. Uwharrie and Nantahala have OHV trails http://www.cs.unca.edu/nfsnc/recreation/recreate.htm and of course the mountains provide endless twisties. For some reason NCDOT proudly proclaims they have the 3rd highest percentage of paved roads in the country - nothing to be proud of in my opinion. This means we have fewer public dirt roads to explore - especially in the central part of the state. The mountains and the beach have most of them.

There is a small group of us in Raleigh that do a 3 day camping/riding trip to the mountains every spring and the beach every fall - sometimes vice-versa. And of course there are plenty of impromptu local rides - we're going tomorrow - forcast high is 71.

I'll drop you a PM with my contact info. Let me know when you're in town & we'll have a beer.

Welcome!

Stay home,........if it's not a lateral move (floor sweeping, etc.) don't even think about it. Whos gonna keep an eye on the ol' lady on the scooter in wolfe town??

You'll be back. Everyone comes back home to New England. It took me 14 years to come back. Best of luck either way.

Gary (ICE Ride 2006)

I live north of Orlando, but visit the NC/TN/N.GA area as often as possible. The roads are stunning, the scenery divine; what's not to like?

I'm from Boston, so I know a bit about NE; beautiful three months of the year. Not that winter is ugly, mind you, it's just damned difficult to ride on ice ....

Congrats on the job offer; if you decide to go with it, I'm rather certain you won't be disappointed ... good luck!

You can pretty much forget about doing the TransLab in four days if you move down there! .....

On the other hand,
You`ll be saving a bunddle on Polaris rear snow flaps!

Right on K2 ride!! (glad to see you're still around!)

Still around here & not planning on moving South like someone we all know!

I believe Driller`s posts from Georgia may be a bad influence on the lad!

We moved from Upstate NY to Western NC close to 18 months ago and it was a great nmove for us all.

When that white stuff comes down it can stay for months. A couple from England did a winter time house swap with some friends of ours in NY State two years ago and he said to me, "Fred, we have been here two weeks and we haven't seen a blade of grass yet"!

I know which couple got the best deal that year 'cos I am from England myself and the winters are much milder in the UK than NY.

Come to NC but try to get a job a bit further west if you can.

Regards.. Fred

I frequent a kayaking board and this same topic comes up. NC is famous in the whitewater world and people ask, "Should I move to Raleigh/Durham?" The motorcycle case is almost exactly parallel. There is cool stuff in small doses in the Triangle, but it is suburban sprawl run amok, nor does it have "the goods." There are some beautiful touring roads in a daytrip distance, but Raleigh is a full three hours from the Blue Ridge when things are going right. That's where the stuff like the Kancamagus Highway is.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not knocking the place. I used to live in Durham and Chapel Hill, and I enjoyed it. I commuted 12 months of the year by motorcycle, and one winter I did not resort to the car, except for groceries and road trips. The cultural amenities are great, but getting stuffed by some douchebag in a 50,000 dollar car gets old quick.

I do miss my summer trips to NH.

Good Luck!

Here's some visual of my own experience of north vs. south;
clockwise from top left;

Minnesota "springfever" circa late '70s
Carolina Christmas Eve circa 2006
WNC dual sporting from left; EVILONE, Kwakhead, Gaston Gagne, yours truly circa 12/06
Leaving SC for Daytona Bike Week circa 3/04

We get a bit of snow now and then but who lets that stop 'em?

Oh yeah...I've had 4 of my co-workers do exactly the opposite in the past 5 yrs.....transfered from CLT to MHT:huh

I lived in Raleigh for 3.5 years before moving to TN last year. That area is a series of suburbs masquerading as a big city. The traffic sucks and the drivers suck worse. Being a motorcyclist there was more stressful than fun. You'll notice alot of people leave on the weekends to get to the good places for outdoors activities. However, if you like to shop and spend most of your time/money indoors its a great place to live. Lots of Yankees come there and think its a great place because they don't know any better. Sprawling stripmall housefarm would be an apt description. Western NC is where the good stuff is located. People ask if I miss Raleigh and I always respond, "Not one bit". YMMV