A fall ride on "Tail of the Dragon" in the Smokey Mountains

[mark1101]

US 129 on a nice fall day

[mark1101]

The river at the Tenessee end of the Dragon.

[mark1101]

318 curves in 11 miles

[HDBRbuilder]

I've been to the dragon many times over the years...twistiest section of pavement in North America...318 curves in 11 miles! Beautiful scenery in that area, especially in the fall! Too bad most of the folks who go there are only interested in boogeying through Deal's Gap and ignore the beauty around them!

One year for a Memorial day weekend gathering of friends from the old AOL Cycle World chat room, I left Fort Smith, AR after work on a Friday evening at 7pm Central time, and got to the store at the NC end ot the dragon at 7am Eastern time, after an all-nite run doing 1160 miles to get there. This is a pic of my bike a few minutes after I got there that morning...still not unpacked yet from the trip!

[dtel]

Unbelievable road, we have been on it only once, in the summer. it was empty we never seen another car or bike.

Even the bar restaurant about half way through was closed, I would guess it only opens for events ?

I would love to drive it on a bike or sports car, heck even a fast go-cart would be fun, DO NOT go on this road if you get motion sickness, you hardly get out of one curve and go into another nonstop.

[mark1101]

You think you go out into the middle of nowhere in the mountains on a motorcycle.............and no one knows. Ha ha. I have collected over 122 pictures of myself from 4 different photographer's websites of me on the Dragon last Thursday.............good thing I didn't have anyone on the back!! That would be a tough one to explain.

We do 2 trips a year in the mountains with our customers who like to ride. There were a few of us this time. We do one in April and one in October...........always a blast.........no wrecks yet.

HDBRBuilder...........it's good to see you around here again. I enjoy your posts and stories. I didn't know you rode too. That ride from AR to Deal's Gap overnight is another legendary story I'm sure. Nice sport touring bike by the way. I have to let those things go by me on the Dragon. I don't push it too much on the Harley..............I do look at the surrounding beuaty. We have customers that just make everything a race. Not real easy to deal with sometimes.

[JL Sargent]

Hey Mark, the picture from behind the bike, the upper travel bag. How does that work? Mounted to a frame or backpack? Great ride!

[Schu]

When I lived in Memphis I just had to go try this legendary road. Having driven some of the best that the west coast has to offer, I was not that impressed by the dragon. on the west coast we like our roads open and fast(higher average MPH rating) than that of the dragon. don't get me wrong, it's a bucket list road but just not one that is really great.

the smokey mountain themselves are wonderful.

[mark1101]

The bag is mounted to a pad that goes under the seat and has some plastic connectors sticking out on each side. It quickly attaches and detaches and I just carry it into the hotel. best money I ever spent on a travel bag. I have had 5 days of clothes in it plus my laptop. It has a rain bonnet on top that unzips and pulls over the whole thing.

I actually have a back rest that you cna't see in the pictures and the bag has a sleeve that goes over it for extra stability. There are also 2 ties downs that attach the bag to the rear luggage rack that you can't see either. If you try to move the bag it shakes the whole bike. It's really on there.

Of course I can't htink of the brand name right now. If you are interested send me an email and I'll get it for you.

[mark1101]

I need to do some west coast riding. We have sales staff and customer rides out there as well and they say the same thing. They get tired of 30 MPH all day in the mountains. They want to ride 85 all day on long rodes with rock formations.........stuff like that.

Our mountain trips are 700-900 miles in 3 days. Their west cost trips are 2000 in 3 days.

Still, I never get tired of the smokies. The Dragon is one road. There are many others. Cherohala skyway, Moonshiner, Foothills Parkway just to name a couple. These are all different and simply beautiful this time of year.

Sometimes this happens........not so beautiful.

[HDBRbuilder]

Yeah, Mark, I've been riding since I got my first bike in 1966 (1967 Yamaha YL-1 Twin-jet 100)...it was a little screamer! Lots of miles on bikes over the years...the 1983 Beemer in the pic has over 100,000 miles and countng...and has been all over the USA and in Canada a few times, too! Deal's Gap store/campground was dry when the pic was taken and the tank bag has 12 bottles of St. Pauli Girl in it that I hauled in from AR...LOL! Long drive to the closest liquor store. I don't drink and drive/ride, but I do imbibe a bit once I am done riding for the day!

I can turn you on to lots of great rides at any speeds you like to go...we need to compare notes...ever done Beartooth Pass in Montana?...or ridden up the west side of Flaming Gorge...going up into Wyoming from NorthEast Utah, just west of Dinosaur, CO??...great long FAST sweepers on that ride![]

[JL Sargent]

Thanks for the info Mark. I use some expensive test equipment that I carry to customers locations with my work and would like to ride the bike on some days. I'm concerned about bike vibration and looking for ways to protect this equipment against it.One idea I had was a backpack like you see the sport bike guys use. That would certainly reduce idle vibration on the test equipment. Anyway, your setup sure looks nice and might be one way to accomplish this.

[tigerwoodKhorns]

I need to do some west coast riding. We have sales staff and customer rides out there as well and they say the same thing. They get tired of 30 MPH all day in the mountains. They want to ride 85 all day on long rodes with rock formations.........stuff like that.

We have winding roads out west. I just got back from a trip to Prescott, 158 turns in 12 miles on Route 89A. Here are soem google images.

http://www.google.com/search?q=89a&hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-us&prmd=imvns&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=EISIUMrtHq6A2QXbm4GACA&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAQ&biw=1271&bih=848

Straight roads are no fun. Route 66 is boring in the straight sections.

Andy, I ride a hexhead, love it. Hope to get it well over 100,000 miles.

[Fish]

What an absolutely wonderful way to spend a day, or two.The mountains in the fall, it's beautiful as far as I'm concerned.I have friends that like to run 80, not me, I really enjoy seeing the sites along the way.Glad ya had a safe and fun ride.

[Cal Blacksmith]

I've been to the dragon many times over the years...twistiest section of pavement in North America...318 curves in 11 miles! Beautiful scenery in that area, especially in the fall! Too bad most of the folks who go there are only interested in boogeying through Deal's Gap and ignore the beauty around them!

It might be but I know the last 12 or so miles to the south west enterance of Yosemite National Park is some of the twistiest around also, I don't think there is more than 100 feet of straight road anyplace on that section except for where it goes through the tiny town of FishCamp.

[Islander]

Yeah, Mark, I've been riding since I got my first bike in 1966 (1967 Yamaha YL-1 Twin-jet 100)...it was a little screamer! Lots of miles on bikes over the years...

The mention of the YL-1 sure brings back memories. My first bike was a Yamaha YCS-1 180. It would cruise at 65 mph, so that's the speed I rode it at, practically everywhere. Luckily, it had the same size brakes as the YR-1 350.

After a couple of years on the 180, I got a 350 R-5, then an RD400, and finally an FZ750, which later became an FZ1000. For track use, I had a TD-3 in the '70s, and a couple of RZ350s in the '80s, as well as the FZ750, which I kept for the street after I stopped racing.

Getting back to the original topic, I tried twice to ride the Blue Ridge Parkway, which is popular with lots of riders in southern Ontario, where I used to live. On both occasions, my riding buddy managed to crash his bike near the start of the ride, his FJR600 in 1987, and his CBR900 in 1992.

I had to rent a truck to transport him (due to his leg injuries) and our bikes back to Canada the first time, and the second time we had to wait several days for new fork tubes to arrive for his FireBlade, so our vacation time ran out.

The opportunity never came up again. I could have gone alone another time, but never got around to it.

Anyway, I had a lot of fun with the RZ350s. This picture is from Turn One at Shannonville, Ontario:

[Tom Adams]

Schu said: "it's a bucket list road but just not one that is really great."

You know.....I say the same thing as Schu when I get on a road that kicks my @ss. I guess Schu is either Mick Dohann or Joey Dunlap in disguise if US129 doesn't impress him. sigh......some folks. Anyhow........

As some of you, I've been on that snakey bitof road more times than I can count. Enough times that I can just about put most of the turns together in my head. Alas, me bones don't heal so fast and aches & pains remind me that I really am not invicible. So I take a slower pace and stop often to watch others and the scenery.

HDBR => He!! yeah!! That's what I'm talking about! Your BMW. R80RT?? A long time biking buddy of mine has an R90RT and I've ridden it many times. It's a nice mileage eater. My Ex had a K75RT and that was a neat scoot. I've got an FJR1300. Plenty fast for me.

Two years ago I went to an AMA Pro Series Flat Track race in Maryville, TN and we were staying in Robinsville, NC. After the race we went back the way we came which meant riding US129 IN THE DARK at 12:30 at night. The three of us decided in short order we couldn't ride together due to the headlight from the bike behind creating havoc with our "night vision". So we put some distance between us. OMG! Riding that thing in pitch black darkness is like being in another world. At one point I started getting a bit of vertigo from all the left/right/left/left/right and had to slow way down to get my inner ear right. That was a scary moment feeling like you don't know which way is up or down. And I wasn't the only one that got that feeling. But, we survived and it's a good memory. One thing all of us agreed upon was that you cannot have too much lighting on your bike in a situation like that.

sigh.......so many roads - so little time.

[HDBRbuilder]

Schu said: "it's a bucket list road but just not one that is really great."

You know.....I say the same thing as Schu when I get on a road that kicks my @ss. I guess Schu is either Mick Dohann or Joey Dunlap in disguise if US129 doesn't impress him. sigh......some folks. Anyhow........

As some of you, I've been on that snakey bitof road more times than I can count. Enough times that I can just about put most of the turns together in my head. Alas, me bones don't heal so fast and aches & pains remind me that I really am not invicible. So I take a slower pace and stop often to watch others and the scenery.

HDBR => He!! yeah!! That's what I'm talking about! Your BMW. R80RT?? A long time biking buddy of mine has an R90RT and I've ridden it many times. It's a nice mileage eater. My Ex had a K75RT and that was a neat scoot. I've got an FJR1300. Plenty fast for me.

Two years ago I went to an AMA Pro Series Flat Track race in Maryville, TN and we were staying in Robinsville, NC. After the race we went back the way we came which meant riding US129 IN THE DARK at 12:30 at night. The three of us decided in short order we couldn't ride together due to the headlight from the bike behind creating havoc with our "night vision". So we put some distance between us. OMG! Riding that thing in pitch black darkness is like being in another world. At one point I started getting a bit of vertigo from all the left/right/left/left/right and had to slow way down to get my inner ear right. That was a scary moment feeling like you don't know which way is up or down. And I wasn't the only one that got that feeling. But, we survived and it's a good memory. One thing all of us agreed upon was that you cannot have too much lighting on your bike in a situation like that.

sigh.......so many roads - so little time.

My Beemer is a 1983 R100RT 60th Anniversary Edition, next to the last year of early R100RT series production. The early R100RT bikes had the same engine as the R100RS, which had the big carbs (40mm Bing CV), large exhaust valves (40mm), larger ID headers with dual crossovers, made through the 1984 model year, then the R100 (998cc) version of the RT was discontinued and went to just the R80 (800cc) twin engine. Most folks believe this was because BMW wasn't selling enough of its K100 bikes so they decided to just make 1000cc available in the K series). Customer-driven return to the R100RT production took place with its re-introduction to the line-up circa 1988, but it was not the same engine, being basically just a punched-out R80, with 38mm Exhaust valves, single header crossover and 32mm Bing CV carbs. Trust me, the early version has much more bottom end torque and can roll up those mountains like they aren't there!

-Andy