Complete Guide to MSTA Fly-By Week
August 20-26, 2018, at Marietta Ohio
Sport Touring Corner
By Norm Kern
This month, Motorcycle Sport Touring Association’s (MSTA) largest regional rally comes to Marietta, Ohio. Fly-By Week 2018, from Monday, August 20 through Sunday, August 26, offers a full-week celebration of motorcycle sport touring. Like other MSTA events, Fly-By Week is a riding rally during the day, so expect the parking lot to be empty, as attendees will all be out riding the twisty roads of southeast Ohio and northern West Virginia. Dining and socializing are done in the evening and there are plenty of fun activities on tap.
All roads lead to Fly-By Week- fun ways to get there
The southeast quarter of Ohio is filled with rolling countryside and great roads, so it’s easy to make your route to Fly-By Week into a personalized fun, twisty ride. To help you out, we’ve prepared routes to Fly-By Week from three different parts of Ohio.Fun routes to Fly-By Week They are available in both PDF map/instruction form as well as Garmin GPX format for GPS users. Download them at http://flybyweek.com/getthere.html
When to go
Fly-By Week 18 begins on Monday, August 20th and runs through Sunday, August 26. With more than fifteen suggested routes to choose from, you can ride a different route every day and still not do half of them in the entire week.
Don’t be discouraged if you can’t attend the whole week. The Fly-By started over 20 years ago as a weekend-only event, where many left after work on Friday, made a dash for Marietta so they could arrive Friday night, ride on Saturday, and go home Sunday.
Over the years, those who had a bit more time began arriving on Thursday. Being able to ride rally routes both Friday and Saturday doubles your riding opportunities at the rally, making the trip even more worthwhile.
Several years ago, several of us decided to make the Fly-By into a real vacation and spend the whole week there. The “early birds” had so much fun that we decided to open the event up for everyone who has the free time to spend and have expanded the rally to 2018’s Fly-By Week.
Fly-By Week activities
Every day is a riding day, but there are no large organized group rides at Fly-By Week. Attendees can choose one of the suggested routes, create their own, go sightseeing or whatever strikes their fancy. They can ride solo, with friends in small groups or sign up with one of the open groups if they are looking for someone to ride with.
Monday through Thursday we have planned a series of dinner excursions to nice restaurants in downtown Marietta using a shuttle service. In addition to fine dining, this is one of the best opportunities to make friends and get to know fellow members in an informal small-rally atmosphere.
Friday is the first big day of Fly-By Week. There will be lots of riders arriving throughout the afternoon and into the evening- many more folks to meet, bikes to look at and new people to ride with. The “outdoor lounge,” with tables and chairs under pop-ups located behind the west end of the hotel, becomes the major focal point of the rally. Fly-By Week Outdoor Lounge The traditional “brat burn” cookout will start around 6PM so everyone can enjoy a casual picnic-style dinner together and socialize. The grills will be kept going so if you don’t arrive until 8PM, you’ll still get a bite to eat. The Brat Burn
Saturday is the biggest riding day, so even if you can only come for the weekend, you’ll have a great day of riding with lots of fun folks. Since many attendees only get to ride one day, they want to take advantage and ride one of the longer routes. Having to be back at a fixed time for a large group dinner becomes a liability, so there will be no event dinner or cookout on Saturday evening. The hotel has a full-service restaurant and many attendees are planning to go to the excellent new Mexican restaurant that’s a few minutes walk down the street.
The Routes
Lots of routes to choose from
With more than 15 routes to choose from, how do you choose?
Routes fall into several categories-
Scenic Touring routes feature simple navigation, scenic views and easy roads.
Destination routes take you to great lunch stops and interesting places to visit.
Technical Twisty routes are for hard-core sport-touring riders who can take advantage of GPS navigation and include challenging back roads very few riders know about. If you don’t have a GPS and want to ride these routes, we’ll help you find someone to ride with who does.
The Adventure route (new for 2018) is a mostly gravel road route in and around Wayne National Forest, west of Marietta. Riders of both large and small dual-sport and adventure bikes will enjoy it.
This year’s routes vary in length from 130 to about 320 miles in length. All event registrants will be emailed a complete route guide PDF around August 6, so we can take road construction into account, yet give attendees plenty of time to review and plan. The PDF includes full descriptions, maps and instructions for the routes. Garmin GPX format route files, including tracks, will also be available to download for all routes.
Finding someone to ride with
For those who are looking for someone to ride with, we will have multiple sign-up sheets each day, so you can choose a group based on desired riding style etc.
Best Western Marietta Hotel 1808-08.jpg Our hotel offers a great place to stay at reasonable cost
Under new ownership this year, they are rolling out the red carpet for us. Double rooms are $75 plus tax and include the free breakfast buffet with good bacon and sausage, real scrambled eggs etc. There is also a full-service bar and restaurant in the hotel that has reasonably priced drinks and a menu of sandwiches and dinner entrees including great steaks and BBQ ribs. The MSTA room rate and block of rooms closes on August 10, so get your event registration and room booking in early!
ALL MONEY RAISED WILL BE DONATED TO THE RIDE FOR KIDS
Registration for MSTA members is $15.
NON-MSTA ATTENDEES: Your $30.00 registration fee includes a FREE 1-year membership in MSTA (regularly $39.00), in addition to your event registration.
Complete info and online registration: http://www.flybyweek.com
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Connect with local Ohio MSTA riders at these monthly breakfasts:
Southwest Ohio Breakfast, 9AM August 18
Village Family Restaurant
144 S. Main St.
Waynesville, OH 45068
Central Ohio Breakfast, 8AM, September 1
Portside Cafe
6515 S High St
Lockbourne, OH 43137
