Riding the Tail of the Dragon.....Again.

Carolyn and I are making a grand tour of the US by automobile, but halfway through the trip I met with Orv and Mike, who flew to Atlanta, and we rented motorcycles.  They had never ridden the famous Tail of the Dragon like I did five years ago on my bucket list ride across the US (see the Oct 10 and 11, 2011 posts on this blog).  I knew there were other good roads in the area and so I plotted a route for us and we planned on a two-day ride from the Eaglerider rental shop up into the Smoky mountains and the Blue Ridge Parkway.

You get to choose what motorcycle you want to rent, and I had trouble making the choice because none of the available bikes appealed to me much.  The problem is that the adventure-bike craze has become so pervasive that that was about the only choice other than some big sport touring bikes or cruisers.  At first I chose a Suzuki Vstrom, but I went to a local shop in Vancouver and saw that it was going to be too tall and heavy......typical of an adventure bike. So I called the rental shop back and asked to change to a BMW F650GS.  This is also an adventure type bike, but is a lighter single cylinder model with, I hoped, a lower seat height.

Came the morning when we went to pick up the bikes and I find they do not have a BMW F650GS available for me.  The only choice was back to the Vstrom, but with a low seat option. I was not a happy camper, because even with the low seat I was on tippy toes, and the bike felt top heavy.   Here is a picture of it with my tank bag and tail pack on it:

Here are some pics as we were about to leave the rental shop:

Once we got underway, the bike was not so bad.  It was very comfortable, with great wind protection, and a natural "sit up and beg" seating position.  It was fine for traveling straight roads, but as I suspected, the bars were too high and far back for aggressive riding in the twisties.  The brakes were nothing to brag about either.  The single front brake on my CBR 500R is much better than the twin rotors on the Suzuki.  But, whatever, that was the bike I had and that was the bike I was going to make work.  Power with the Suzuki was no problem, as it probably had another 20 HP over my CBR. Every time I came to a stop, though, I had to carefully plan the point at which I would have to put my feet down so as to not fall over.......a bit stressful.

We had a fairly straight slog up to the north from Atlanta to get to the mountains, and the first road we did that was a true motorcycle road was the Cherohala Skyway out of Tellico Plains, Tenn.  I had also ridden this road before and I knew it would get the guys excitement up a bit.  In general, the roads in this area of the country are ideal for motorcycling.......besides the curves and scenery, the pavement is unusually smooth and traffic is light.  This is no secret and we began to see more motorcycles than cars, which was generally the case for the rest of the two days until we started back toward Atlanta.

Eventually we got to the Deal's Gap motorcycle resort, which is the start of the Dragon.  We checked into the motel there and then went to ride the famous "318 curves in 11 miles".  Tight curves they are, too, and I had the Suzuki in second gear much of the time with the engine screaming.  All three of us had helmet intercoms and I heard lots of whooping and hollering in my helmet. We rode to the end and then back at a more sedate pace, because it is hard to maintain that level of concentration and excitement for too long.  (might be an age related problem, though).  Here are a couple of pictures from the resort:

The rooms were pretty plain, but clean.  Our three person room had a double bed and a bunk bed.  Guess who got the top bunk?  Yep, the little agile(?) guy.

The shower curtain even carried out the theme:

We just had to get pictures of the famous "Tree Of Shame" that is made of crashed motorcycle parts collected along the road and even some rashed clothing:

I expected there would be a big biker party the night we stayed there and was looking forward to it, but it was actually dead quiet and dull.  The restaurant even closed at 6pm and we had to go down the road to get something to eat.  Maybe they have had problems in the past with too much rowdiness.

The next day we had about a 340 mile day and had to get the bikes back by 6pm, so we had to keep moving.  Normally it would not be hard to make that distance in the given time, but I was worried about the infamous Atlanta traffic at rush hour.  We got up on the Blue Ridge Parkway and I took a couple of pictures at viewpoints:

Notice the road below and the beginning of Autumn colors.  This was at about 5,000 feet.

At 3pm Mike's GPS had an estimated arrival time at the rental place of 5pm, so it looked like we were in good shape.  But then we hit the traffic and the ETA began to get later and later.  We ended up getting there about seven minutes late, but Mike had called ahead and got his wife to tell them to wait for us.

It was a great ride on good roads with good friends.  My only regret is that I couldn't do it on my own bike, or at least one that fit me better, but in the end I DIDN'T DROP IT!