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Heading to The Dragon

tsuintx

New member
Starting a five day trip from DFW to The Dragon early tomorrow morning with five other guys. Plan is to reach Madison, Alabama by tomorrow night where we have rooms booked. Yeah, no camping for us old guys. LOL... Long stretch, for sure!

Thursday is a short one from Madison to Robbinsville, NC for two night in there. After checking into the hotel, we'll head on over to Dragon and ride it maybe once or twice. Friday is flexible day and plans call for at least some stretch of Blue Ridge Parkway, maybe Wheels Through Time museum etc.

On Saturday we'll start to head back west and overnight in new Albany, MS. Potential places to see along the way are Dragon again, Cherohola Parkway and maybe even one certain place in Lynchburg, TN.

Sunday will then be just somewhat boring ride back to DFW.

Altogether we're probably going to hit about 2500 miles when this thing is done. We'll see how the oldie but goldie oilhead will fare in the company of newer Hondas, HD's and a 2016 K1600GTL. I'm sure she'll hold her own.

Changed oil and filter this past weekend even though they weren't due yet. Still need to do a few more checks tonight and she should be good to go. This will be by far the longest trip I've ever taken with a bike and I'm not even as much concerned about the bike than I am about the driver. Or his butt. LOL... The factory seat is not known to be the most comfortable one in long trips, but not much I can do about that now anymore.
 
If you come across a bike store, may find a Airhawk pillow that would help.
Also a Alaskan sheepskin does wonders, both are great, with sheepskin over the
pillow. Maybe next time...
Good luck on your trip! Pictures are expected...:thumb
 
Watch out for the cruisers on the Dragon. They all think they can ride, but............:).

For sure. And the guys with bikes with number plates off-loaded from their trailers and itching to have a go at it. These folks mixing with the cruisers on a weekend day are truly scary. Weekday should be fine. I would not go back on Saturday. There are too many better roads around that area to waste time on the dragon on a weekend.
 
Weekday should be fine. I would not go back on Saturday. There are too many better roads around that area to waste time on the dragon on a weekend.

Yup. That's the reason we planned the trip so that we'd be there already Thursday to hopefully be able to avoid those certain guys out there and maybe get even couple of runs.
 
Starting a five day trip from DFW to The Dragon early tomorrow morning with five other guys. Plan is to reach Madison, Alabama by tomorrow night where we have rooms booked. Yeah, no camping for us old guys. LOL... Long stretch, for sure!

Thursday is a short one from Madison to Robbinsville, NC for two night in there. After checking into the hotel, we'll head on over to Dragon and ride it maybe once or twice. Friday is flexible day and plans call for at least some stretch of Blue Ridge Parkway, maybe Wheels Through Time museum etc.

On Saturday we'll start to head back west and overnight in new Albany, MS. Potential places to see along the way are Dragon again, Cherohola Parkway and maybe even one certain place in Lynchburg, TN.

Sunday will then be just somewhat boring ride back to DFW.

Altogether we're probably going to hit about 2500 miles when this thing is done. We'll see how the oldie but goldie oilhead will fare in the company of newer Hondas, HD's and a 2016 K1600GTL. I'm sure she'll hold her own.

Changed oil and filter this past weekend even though they weren't due yet. Still need to do a few more checks tonight and she should be good to go. This will be by far the longest trip I've ever taken with a bike and I'm not even as much concerned about the bike than I am about the driver. Or his butt. LOL... The factory seat is not known to be the most comfortable one in long trips, but not much I can do about that now anymore.

I have done a similar trip this May from Austin on my R1200R, however had a bit more time (9 days), did 3,000 mls and went up to Ashville, NC. It was amazing! Northern Georgia is also fun. Enjoy!
 
Robbinsville in dry county

Make sure you stop and buy your beer before you get to Robbinsville, dry town!!!

georgeRun2.jpg
 
If you still have the stock seat setup (gasp!), have you tried a spacer inserted between the front mounts and the frame? This decreases the tilt that imperils the tender bits. You'll also need slightly longer screws. Some people just stack a few washers in there; you can also use 1/8" or 3/16" thickness depending on your personal need.

Seat Spacer.jpg
 
Make sure you stop and buy your beer before you get to Robbinsville, dry town!!!

Yup. Beverage stop is planned before Robbinsville. :thumb

Be sure to ride the Cherohala Skyway while you are in the area.

Will be done, for sure.

If you still have the stock seat setup (gasp!), have you tried a spacer inserted between the front mounts and the frame? This decreases the tilt that imperils the tender bits. You'll also need slightly longer screws. Some people just stack a few washers in there; you can also use 1/8" or 3/16" thickness depending on your personal need.

Thanks for the tips. I'll have to look into the modification after we get back. Still have the stock seat and after 700+ miles in one day I can say that at times it wasn't much fun... I have it at the highest setting and it was much better than the middle setting I used in the last trip back in May.
 
Great day! Cherohala Skyway was freaking awesome! :bow

Had a bit of extracurricular activity along the Cherohala Skyway when the Valkyrie of one of our guys just quit on him in the middle of a curve. Not a fun thing to happen when you hit the gas in order to make that big thing straighten itself after the curve.

Turns out that the battery was dead and that was caused by a faulty alternator. No warning signs at any point. It just up and quit. With the help of one guy in our group who is driving a replica Caterham kit car with Honda S2000 driveline, we managed to get him a new battery so he could drive the Valkyrie to the nearest town, Robbinsville, NC.

And lo and behold, the local shop even has a new alternator ready to go and will be installed in the morning.

All this and a couple of other things made us late in the schedule, so we had to skip Dragon today. Will be there tomorrow (well..., today, actually...) afternoon. Before that we'll head over to Blue Ridge Parkway for a bit.

And before heading to the dragon, I need to get a new front tire. Today's spiritied and sometimes somewhat high-speed riding caused the right side to wear quite considerable and I don't feel comfortable to do the dragon with it and then consider riding it home another 700+ miles.

We'll see in the morning what kind of tires, if any, the local shop has. Beggars can't be choosers at this point, I guess.

It was kind of amazing to see how fast the tire went downhill with the spirited cornering. Oh well... Live and elarn...
 
And before heading to the dragon, I need to get a new front tire. Today's spiritied and sometimes somewhat high-speed riding caused the right side to wear quite considerable and I don't feel comfortable to do the dragon with it and then consider riding it home another 700+ miles.

We'll see in the morning what kind of tires, if any, the local shop has. Beggars can't be choosers at this point, I guess.

It was kind of amazing to see how fast the tire went downhill with the spirited cornering. Oh well... Live and elarn...

What brand/type tire was on the bike that seemed to wear so quickly?
 
Rode about 40 miles of Blue Ridge Parkway this morning and Dragon once both ways.

Blue Ridge Parkway was awesome! Weather was a bit on the cool side, but not too bad. Afternoon runs at the Dragon were done in pretty much perfect weather. The word "perfect" can't be used to describe some of the other people over there, though...

First run was great and had to pass only a couple of people who nicely moved over, anyway. Coming back was a freaking pain! :banghead

I got stuck behind this man and a woman on their fancy new and obnoxiously loud Harleys with their stereos blasting, all of the chrome, all of the HD gear etc. etc. Other people let them pass, but they just couldn't slow down or pull over to let me pass. I tried riding pretty close to the lady to sort of nicely to ask her to move over, but to no avail and I didn't want to start taking any risks with them and pass them otherwise.

And the lady couldn't even ride that well. She was constantly missing shifts, veered to the opposing lane etc. It was like watching a train wreck happening live in front of me.

Okay... Rant over... Excellent day overall!

P.S. Trying to add pics, but for some reason my iPad and the site don't seem to see eye to eye hoe things work. Grrrrr.......,:banghead

Tomorrow we will unfortunately have to start the trek back to DFW, but we will start it by riding the Cherohala Skyway once more, so that'll ease the pain a little bit.

What brand/type tire was on the bike that seemed to wear so quickly?

Old one was a one year old Michelin Road Pilot 2 w/about 10K miles on it. After thinking about it, I think I might have had too low air pressure in it. I had it at the factory recommended 32psi, but probably should've had it a bit higher.

Anyway... A new Road Pilot 4 GT was installed by the local shop today and air pressure set at 38psi and what a freaking difference it made!!! The bike feels so kuch more responsive than before. But that is not to say that it was a POS before, either. But damn it's so nice to ride now. Just need to get the rear tire at some point after we get back.

Cost of the new tire was only about 20% higher than what I would've had to pay if I bought it online at home and had it installed by a friend of mine. I'm okay with that.
 
I got stuck behind this man and a woman on their fancy new and obnoxiously loud Harleys with their stereos blasting, all of the chrome, all of the HD gear etc. etc. <snip>

And the lady couldn't even ride that well. She was constantly missing shifts, veered to the opposing lane etc. It was like watching a train wreck happening live in front of me.

Okay... Rant over... Excellent day overall!

That is just like trying to ride Spearfish Canyon anytime around the time of Bike Week in Sturgis. I call it the "Great American Wobblefest".
 
I did the Dragon a number of years ago. I found it rather boring. I did it early on a weekday, so I had the whole road to myself. I was a little concerned about the cops and speeding, so pretty much kept it near the speed limit. At those speeds, on a motorcycle...again, I found it boring. Still, checked off the bucket list.

What was fun was leaving the Dragon (I was heading west to east) and riding the smaller roads in the Great Smokey Mountains on my way to Johnson City for the national rally that year. Now that was cool. I "aired" the bike out a bike and felt I could attack the turns/roads a bit more! :thumb
 
I did the Dragon a number of years ago. I found it rather boring. I did it early on a weekday, so I had the whole road to myself. I was a little concerned about the cops and speeding, so pretty much kept it near the speed limit. At those speeds, on a motorcycle...again, I found it boring. Still, checked off the bucket list.

What was fun was leaving the Dragon (I was heading west to east) and riding the smaller roads in the Great Smokey Mountains on my way to Johnson City for the national rally that year. Now that was cool. I "aired" the bike out a bike and felt I could attack the turns/roads a bit more! :thumb

+1 - same experience
 
Back when Pete was running the little store and camp sites at the corner and you could buy a T shirt - one style - one color - the Dragon was fun.

Then as in most things, humans ruined it with excess: excess speed; excess crashes; excess unlicensed race bikes; excess tickets; excess reductions to the speed limits; excess speed traps, excess poor riders looking for a notch in their belt; etc.

Not to mention Pete retired, sold the corner to big business and ruined that experience too.
 
Great day once again. Even though we are heading back home. Kickstands were up at 8am EDT and got to the hotel in New Albany, MS around 7.30pm CDT.

Cherohala Skyway was interesting, since most of it was covered by clouds and humidity was well over 100%, so riding was all about just trying to stay on the right side of the hedge. Especially on the NC side which had new asfalt on it. Clouds were so thick at times that you could barely see the bike in front of you that was maybe 50-60 feet away.

Still went through some really nice county roads after heading out of Tellico Plains. The rest was then just cruising on some bigger roads with a short stint on Natchez Trace Parkway. Still staying off interstates, though. Started to get first signs of hurricane Nate about 30 minutes from the hotel. Nothing bad, just some sprinkles.

Tomorrow morning will be a different thing, though... We're planning to leave around 8am and chance of rain is around 80%. Might have to start with full rain gear.

Again... Pics have to follow when I'm home, since I just can't upload them at the moment.
 
I did the Dragon a number of years ago. I found it rather boring. I did it early on a weekday, so I had the whole road to myself. I was a little concerned about the cops and speeding, so pretty much kept it near the speed limit. At those speeds, on a motorcycle...again, I found it boring. Still, checked off the bucket list.

What was fun was leaving the Dragon (I was heading west to east) and riding the smaller roads in the Great Smokey Mountains on my way to Johnson City for the national rally that year. Now that was cool. I "aired" the bike out a bike and felt I could attack the turns/roads a bit more! :thumb

+1 - same experience

Back when Pete was running the little store and camp sites at the corner and you could buy a T shirt - one style - one color - the Dragon was fun.

Then as in most things, humans ruined it with excess: excess speed; excess crashes; excess unlicensed race bikes; excess tickets; excess reductions to the speed limits; excess speed traps, excess poor riders looking for a notch in their belt; etc.

Not to mention Pete retired, sold the corner to big business and ruined that experience too.

Yeah, I can only imagine what it must've been quite a few years ago. Now that I've been there, I don't think I need to go there again. I enjoyed Cherohala Skyway and Blue Ridge Parkway more. A lot of people on those, too, but definitely not as congested. And of course we were not there during the high season, so that makes a difference, too.

Not to mention some of the regular county roads our guy was able plot for us for the trip. Those were hell of a lot of fun, too! Good thing is that he used to live in Atlanta and had been in the the are many times.
 
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