North Carolina is also known for car racing, moon shine as it is for basketball i.e. UNC.
The movie "Thunder Road" was filmed there with Robert Mitchum and they showed a scene where the Feds went off a huge waterfall near Lake Toxaway, "Toxaway Falls." Moonshiner's where real! Transylvania County was dry in the day! In other words there where no bars and you couldn't buy beer, wine anywhere except for Henry Carr's back door! He also sold the Moon! I even played golf with him when I was growing up! As a teen you learn these things!
My father owned Coleman Tire Co., in Brevard and was part owner of Tire Brands Inc., including Sonic Tires & Big O Tires a nation wide company. He loved car racing and he would take me along at a very young age. I can't remember at what age, I was too young? I just know that racing is in my blood! He also tested his tires on the very twisted roads and in all types weather, rain, snow, leaves, etc... Thomas Leslie Coleman Sr. taught me how to carve the sharp turns by "feeling" the tires load and flex as they where the key to making the turns without getting killed with speed.
Sonic was the first radial tire made in the U.S.A. They didn't catch on for a long time, due to GM not wanting to change the way they made their cars! GM didn't care about saving gas, safer tires or better tread wear. They didn't want to change the way they made their tanks!
That is going on in the bike industry today! The big guys don't wish to change their ways!
If you where wondering about Sonic logo? That's right, Sonic logo that is used for all the drive in was sold to them by Tire Brands Inc. I grew up w/ the Sonic logo on all my dads trucks and I am talking about semi trucks that went to Olk, to get the tire rubber for tires to be made. The guy who owned a small drive in Olk., saw the name so many times, on so many semis he wanted to buy the name and did!
My dad would also take me on the steep mountains just north-west of Brevard, N.C., an area known as Coontree Mountain, Pisgah Forest, some of the highest steepest mountains on the east coast during the month of Oct., hunting season. The kicker here, not during the day, but at night, in the rain, and it could very cold and even be snowing. In Oct., the ground is covered with about a one-foot of leaves due to the jungle of hardwood trees. Put water or snow on that foot deep leaves and you bet your flash light is going to point up to the sky more than you know! You might even fall off the mountain, or fall clear down to a stream as everything is about a 45-dgree slope!
It could be said to know what is needed to play on the steeps of mountains you need to grow up playing on them. How else can you learn how to balance on them. You don't learn balance on the flats!
We didn't just race our bikes on roads, but trails way before they made
mtb bikes! After all, the cars races on the dirt. Car racing in North Carolina is a big deal!
If we could not race our bikes outside on the streets or on trails when it rained and it rained a lot in Brevard, we would race for hours in the bottom of a house, in the basement "Real Short Track" Ha!
Enough! Go to www.blueridgeadventures.net to check it out!
Sorry, Brevard, N.C. is where I grew up! It hits a nerve when I see or think of the place where I spent the first 18 years of my life. If you have not been there, go check it out, the area is one pretty place!
"I will never forget the time I rode my bike through Brevard College and two girls pulled off their tops "showing all", I then rode my bike right into the back of a parked car" I will not tell you what was hurt after hitting the stem!"
WN users Biship and Koerber go one, two!
October 16, Stage 2: White Squirrel Loop: 59.5km
Bishop (Monavie/Cannondale ) remain atop overall pro standings!
Pro Men| 1 | Jeremiah Bishop WN fitted | 3:30:47 | |
| 2 | Sam Koerber WN fitted | 0:00:45 |
