After two years of trying to get back to the Gap, free time and good weather finally came together on the same day. It was a quick one day ride ( 554 miles) because the weather the following day promised to be bad (it was).
For this trip I avoided the super slab altogether. I rode over to west Georgia and picked up US 411 in Rome. Rode that highway all the way up to Ocoee, TN, then rode along the Ocoee River through eastern TN and followed the same road over into North Carolina.
It was a Friday so there weren't a great deal of bikes riding the Gap, I'd estimate about 40 bikes total while I was there. Enough to have plenty of people to talk motorcycles with, but not so many that you had to watch for passing riders all the way throught the Gap. I was riding the Honda ST1100 this time which was quite a bit heavier than the Interceptor I rode on the last ride. I learned quickly not to go as deep or as fast into the turns on the ST. The road was great. There were a good many sportbikes there but everyone was minding thier manners and making safe passes. I had time to make two trips through the Dragon and wished I had time to make four.
Only three heart stoppers throughout the trip. The first one was when I was following a guy that was carrying some type of door on the top of his car. He had his arm out the window trying to help hold the door on. I knew that being behind that guy was no place to be but before I could get around the guy the door came flying off. Luckily, the door went towards the right shoulder and I went toward the left lane. The second one was at the Gap when I took the ST into a curve a little too hard. No, make that a lot too hard. The third one really wasn't a hear stopper, just a State Troopers flashing lights and I figured I was due. This wasn't at the Gap but on the Hwy next to the Ocoee River on the trip home. I was going West, he was going East, he put on his brakes and turned on his lights, I pulled over and waited, but he didn't come back.
It was a great trip. Check out www.tailofthedragon.com for frequent updates on road conditions and other goings on at the Gap.
After two years of trying to work out the trip, I finally made it and it was well worth the ride from Gadsden (note to self: take the 1000-in-1 ride off of my list of things to do). The weather was absolutely perfect and except for some construction traffic north of Chattanooga, the ride was largely uneventful. Of course the great part of being on a motorcycle in construction traffic is passing all of those trucks and cars as they do little more than inch forward.
Finding US 129 was fairly easy. Coming up from Gadsden, I rode the interstate up to conserve time, hit US 411 at Sweetwater, TN and then (TN 72?) to US 129 and there is was...the dragon's road. The scenery before getting into the true twisties was great. I wish I had stopped and taken more pictures, but the several cars had been gracious enough to pull over and let me by and I hated to abuse their hospitality by repeatedly coming up on their bumpers.
Going into the true "dragon" area there were a couple of Tenneessee sheriff's patrol cars watching from the side of the road and all of the internet horror stories came to mind, but that was the last law enforcement I saw. Does the dragon really have 318 curves? I couldn't say...counting curves while riding through there would be like counting revolutions from inside a tornado. It was simply awesome, my arms were pumped like I had been riding motocross when I got to the Two Wheels Only campground and I didn't really ride that hard.
I would issue a few words of caution. 1. Watch out for debris on the road. 2. Go on a week day if possible. The traffic was very light and except for one truck stuck in a turn and one small section of road construction, I got to ride as hard as I wanted through the whole distance.
