You asked for it!
MAJOR HIGHWAYS
AR7 from Hot Springs to Harrison. It's about 120 miles of beautiful scenery and good twisties. The center strech between Dover (N of Russellville) to Ola is kinda boring, but the rest is a lot of fun. The road surface is one of the best and the "cop count" is low.
AR23 from Ozark (on I-40) to Eureka Springs. The first leg from Ozark to AR16 is known as the "Pig Trail". It used to be the route U of A students took to Fayetteville. Road surfaces are good to fair (some areas are being repaved). Traffic and cop count is low.
AR21 from Clarksville to Berryville. Real good. Has some great straight aways that you can "let it out". Wide sweepers and some tight twisties. Real good surface and real low traffic.
OLD AR71 from Alma (I-40) to Fayetteville. I-540 / New AR71, has made this into an abandoned highway. The 12 mile leg from Alma to Mountainburg SUCKS. Crappy surfaces and a lot of traffic / cops. The 24 mile leg from Mountainburg to Winslow is sexual. 3 and 4 lane 15 to 25 mph sweepers. If you don't drag a toe slide on your boots through here... you ain't riding!
MINOR HIGHWAYS
AR16 from AR23 at St. Paul to AR7 at Deer. Some parts are better than AR23... some aren't.
AR14 from Omaha (N of Harrison & AR65) to Mt. View. This one could wear your a$$ out.
AR5 from Mt. View to Mt. Home. Not Arkansas' best twisty, but still pretty good.
HIDDEN TREASURES
AR123 from AR164 (N in between Russellville and Clarksville) to AR7 at Pelsor. 23 to 28 miles of nirvana. Zero traffic and cops. Good road surface. NOTE: AR123 continues NE from Lurton (AR7) for about 11 mile of great new pavement and... withouth warning, turns to gravel!
AR154 from AR7 at Centerville to AR9 at Oppelo. This goes over Petit Jean Mt. / Park.
AR16 / AR9 from Clinton to Mt. View. 1st leg to Shirley is the best part.
AR263 from AR92 by Brownsville to AR14 by Big Flat. Has some really great parts and some really bad surfaces (especially around Fox to Onia).
AR58 fro AR14 (E of Mt. View - fun too) to AR69 at Sage. The folks at Sony PlayStation must have designed this road. From AR14 to Guion is real wide and has some 40 mph chacains (sp?) that you can FLY on. County deputies like to hang around just N of Guion. It's gets a lot tighter from Guion to Sage.
THE HOLY GRAIL
AR341 from AR14 by Big Flat to AR5 by Norfork. The 17 miles starting from AR14 is the best part. The road surface isn't as good fro the last 7 or 8 miles.
Cycle World's Editor, David Edwards, in the Jan. issue, called AR341... EROTIC! It was probably this highway that made him say in the Feb. issue (101 thing to do before you die), TOUR ARKANSAS (reason #10!).
As you can tell Mt.Veiw is kind of an "epicenter" of good highways. Many of our best are within 25 miles of Mt. View. There's a Best Western right in the middle of town (at the intersection of AR5-9-14). There are a few more hotels / motels (most N of the BW) and several fast food places. Heck, there's even a Wal-Mart near by.
There are a LOT of state troopers, county duputies and local law in this area. Be cool or be busted. They are forgiving up to a point, but it's not worth pushing the issue.
One road to avoid at all costs is AR9 from Mt. View to Melbourne. There is ALWAYS gravel in every apex and there's no place to turn off, once you get on it. It's always a nightmare.
I hope that gave you some ideas. There are several others, they just don't come to mind. There are some who'd debate my selections and that's what makes Arkansas so fun to ride. We have so many great roads, we can argue on which ones are better than others.
[This message has been edited by redelk (edited 28 January 2000).]
