NEW2elec,
I took four days this past week and rode my 2016 SR out to western NC, got home last night. On Wednesday I rode 344 miles in northern GA. Check out Butler Motorcycle Maps; Southern Appalachia and Motorcycle Adventures Book 1 for some great roads to get on. From Robbinsville, NC I rode down to Clayton, GA and rode a loop east of there and came back to Clayton. Then went to Helen, GA and rode west of Helen before coming back to Helen and then heading back to my hotel in Robbinsville. No problems charging at the Sema Charge station in Helen, used it twice. In my opinion the 2016 SR does extremely well in those mountains. The torque pulling out of turns is awesome! The brakes and suspension are a lot better than what was on my 2014 SR. If you come into a tight turn a little too hot it is a lot easier to slow down on the 2016 SR than I could the 2014. As far as tires go the stock tires do really well. When I got out to Deals Gap on Tuesday I rode the Dragon a few times. When you look closely at the tires after a few trips back and forth on the Dragon your tires look a lot like tires do that have been rode hard on a track. But that stickiness comes at a price and right now with a bit over 6300 miles on the SR the front tire is down to the wear bars.
The charging station situation out there is mixed. In Clayton both Fromage (not powered up) and Beechwood Inn (inop Blink) did not work out. Ended up going up to York House Inn. Costs $10.00 to charge each time but at that point I wasn't going to complain as there weren't many options left. The Sema Charge in Helen worked great, $4.00 an hour. Good place to charge, lots of places to eat in close walking distance and there is a lot of great riding in the area. There is also a charging station at the Snowbird Mountain Lodge which is right at the end of the Cherohala Skyway (east side). I charged there hoping to get some miles on the Cherohala but got rained out.
On Thursday I went back up to Deals Gap and then got on the Foothills Parkway, over the 321, then on TN 73. Great ride!!!!!!!!!! Made it to Gatlinburg then down to Cherokee where I charged up after riding 112 miles and still had 10% SOC remaining.
How much fun some of these roads are depends on traffic! I got really lucky on TN 73. Other riders I talked to about this said traffic was bad and that the road wasn't any fun. Riding in a lot of areas out there is best done mid week if possible. This time of year things are crazy on the weekends. The only road I saw heavy traffic was 441 from Gatlinburg to Cherokee. Sure can't complain considering how much riding I did.
Had an awesome ride this week, put 1284 miles in four full days on my SR.