Deals Gap run

[Thundurburd]

I've been killing some time on the internet so I thought I might as well post this in case someone would be interested. Deals Gap is a resort right on the Dragon and is linked below. The tailofthedragon website is for motorcycle tourism in the whole area and is a very extensive site.

Deals Gap Resort
Tail of the Dragon Website

I plotted out the Dragon/Cherohala Loop on Google to get a perspective on the distance and time involved. The corresponding tailofthedragon map is here, my google map links are below.

Cherohala Loop
Cherohala Loop with Hellbender28

I found a few other maps, kind of big chunks of road but interesting.

Maggie Valley & Blue Ridge Parkway Loop
North Georgia Ruby Rim including Warwoman Road

A few variations...
Variation of Maggie Valley & Blue Ridge
Variation without Maggie Valley

[cms58]

Hopefully I can get some time off from the slave chamber to meet fellow riders. Sure would be great, I live two hours away from the dragon. I have seen pics, and read reports of SMOKEY THE THP saturating the area. I want to ride the run, only time will tell if I can get time off.

[Thundurburd]

Originally Posted by cms58

I have seen pics, and read reports of SMOKEY THE THP saturating the area.

It was recently posted on the Tailofthedragon.com site that money has been budgeted to do it again this summer. Last year there were as many as 14 LEOs on the Dragon on the weekends.

[Clint]

Which is why we should wait for Monday.

[1badbaker]

So it turns out that my boss is going to be in D.C. that week. Also, someone else has those days requested off too. Which means that I can't leave work for any of the time that you guys are going to be down here.

I hope that it's a good ride. Be safe, hopefully next time I can come along.

[Thundurburd]

Originally Posted by RowdyRed94

Which is why we should wait for Monday.

That sounds like a good plan.

[Clint]

Bummer, Ben. Should we call you and tell you how much fun we're having?

[Rickster]

I definitely agree with riding it on Monday, but that doesn't mean we can't meander through there on the W/E too, in fact with as close as were going to be, we'll probably wind up going through it at least once every day were there.

This is a road that really doesn't require you breaking the speed limit on in order to have fun, there literally are no straightaways, just some turns that are less sharp than others.

I will admit though, it was more fun on the V Strom than it was on the HD.

[frostbitevinnie]

I would like to find some out of the way, not normally ridden country roads. I won't enjoy sharing the road with 1000 idiots. I will have to do a search and find some of those hidden country roads.

[Rickster]

I'll have to get a GPS lock on the road we rode last year that we nic-named the Minnie Dragon, it was about 7 miles from end to end, and I don't think we saw more than about a half dozen other vehicles the whole way up & back.

In any case, at the most you only have to deal with 2 idiots at a time, the one in front of you, and the one behind you.

In the half dozen times I've been up & down it, (twice in the rain) I only had one problem. 3 sport bikes overtook me from behind & before I realized they were there, (I would have moved over) the lead bike went blasting past me, he didn't cut me off or anything like that, but it gave me quite a start. I pulled to the right side and let the other two past & they gave chase to their leader, a half mile further down, all three of them were down. They all seemed OK, so I just waived & smiled as I went on by.

[frostbitevinnie]

I think we should avoid Indianapolis. I went through there last year and from what I remember it would be a bit difficult to negotiate with a group. Maybe we should detour through Terra Haute>Bloomington>then Louisville? I was playing with Clints map but could not figure out how to save it. It would add 20 miles but a lot easier to navigate and stop if needed.

Also is everybody happy with the reservations that I made? It would be nice to know a little early on so I am not stuck with a large cottage on my credit card.

[tricker]

you've done good with the reservations vinnie

[Thundurburd]

Last summer was pretty bad with a lot of freeway work going on with I-70 in the Indianapolis downtown area. I started to use the I-465 pypass and it worked ok even as I passed through the area on about 3 to 4:00 friday afternoons, but I never was there during the 5 to 6:00pm rush hour. Get there at the wrong time and it all could be a big parking lot.

BTW, to save a google map go to the upper right just above the map and click on the "Link to this page," then copy (ctrl-C) the text under "Paste link in email or IM" already highlighted. Sometimes these text strings are very long.

[Clint]

To save the map after making changes, us the "link to this map" link at upper right.

Vinnie, I was leaning toward a six-day trip to save some money, but I'll go along with you guys. Thanks for making the reservation, and I'll get you my share as soon as I can commit (which will hopefully be this week).

Let's talk about lodging on the way there and back (5/30 and 6/4).

[Rickster]

Vinnie, I'm OK with the reservations, but I would like to request a "no smoking" in the rooms policy, that is if we even have any smokers in the group.

If you guys are hoping to make it past Indy on the first day, we also should talk about how fast we are going to ride, and how long/often the stops are going to be.

I have found that trying to make up time by going fast is not as productive as limiting your self to shorter stops.

If a trip is going to take 18 hours driving the speed limit, it can be shortened up approximately 1 hour & 23 min by driving 5 mph over, but the next 5 mph increase is only going to save you about an hour more, because you've shortened up the time your going to be on the road, so you would have to bump your speed up to about 14 over to save a second hour and 20 something min. Clint's the math wiz and I'm sure he could get out his calculator and give you the exact numbers, but I think mine are pretty close & you get the idea.

Any way, in light traffic I like to ride 5 over the limit, in heavy traffic I go with whatever speed the traffic is moving at. If anyone in the group is against riding over the limit, I'm happy to slow down, and in light traffic if y'all want to go faster, I'm good for as much as 9 over the limit (on the GPS), but in heavy traffic with a group, it's best to go with the flow no matter how fast they go, otherwise we will be having people cutting into the group, and we'll get separated.

Everyone bring your own maps, because if we do get separated out of cell phone coverage, you will be on your own for a while.

How long/often do we want to stop?

On a 1000 mile trip, if we stop every 100 miles, that's ten stops. If those stops average 24 min, we have added 4 hours to our trip time. If we stretch the distance between stops to every 140 miles, we can eliminate 3 stops, saving us a little over an hour of our total ride time, and if we average our stop times to only 15 min, we can save another hour. Shorter stops is the key to making good time.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for slowing down & smelling the Roses, but it sounds like we all want to get there as quickly as we can, so these are a couple of things we need to consider.

My normal day on trips goes something like this, set the alarm for between 6 & 7, have the bike already gassed from the night before, so all I have to do is jump in my cloths, chug an energy drink, brush my teeth & go. I get a fast food breakfast at the first gas stop. The rest of the day, I make my gas stops as short as possible, except for the lunch stop where I like to take about a half hour, my dinner meal I take after I stop for the night.

So, what do the rest of you guys think about how fast you want to ride, and how far you want to go between stops?

[1badbaker]

That's alright Rowdy...I'm sure ya'll will be having a good time.

[Clint]

Great points and great questions for discussion, Rick. Silly me, assuming no one would be so rude as to smoke in the rooms.

My preferences:

• 5-8 mph over. 600-750 miles the first day. It takes time to work into long-distance riding, so I'd rather not kill myself the first day and have to deal with excessive soreness and fatigue the following days.
• My stomach can be fussy, so I like to eat every 4-6 hours. I can pack snacks to tide me over if the group wishes to do otherwise. I may need a 20 minute gas stop on occasion to eat something.
• I like to walk to work my leg muscles. Maybe not on the first day, but at some point in the other days I wouldn't mind taking a stroll after lunch or mid-afternoon. Could be in a downtown or hiking area. That really tends to refresh me, plus I don't find the need to ride every hour of every day. We're going to get at least 3000 miles on this trip regardless.

My suggestions for group riding:

• Talk about some basic hand signals. Update riders as they're added to the group.
• Talk about formation. As far as bike separation, I propose we treat each other as independent vehicles until we get to know each other's styles better. Generally, staggered with the lead bike inside suits me best. Lane position should be maintained except for passing maneuvers.
• As with snowmobiling, you're responsible for monitoring the rider behind you. You don't stop the ride unless you detect a problem with that rider, as in they fall behind or signal somehow. This way, unnecessary speculative stops are avoided.
• Rotate leaders after each stop. The lead rider sets the speed and chooses the next stop (within our agreed upon distance range).
• I propose 150-180 miles per segment (two hours on the interstate). It could be less if we're having muscle soreness problems. I'd hope we'd all be somewhat conditioned before this trip.

I hope everyone is putting some thought to bike maintenance. I flushed my brake fluid yesterday, and this morning I pulled the pads and decided the fronts need replacing. (I know, kinda got the order of operations backwards.) I'm also going to have to change tires before we leave. Upon closer inspection, I don't think the Stradas will take another 3,000. I'm probably going to put the Avons back on since they have good depth left. I'm probably going to try and change it myself at home. You may hear some swearing on occasion. I'll also go over the nuts and bolts before we leave. My bike doesn't tend to loosen up, but safety first, right?

[Rickster]

Originally Posted by RowdyRed94

Let's talk about lodging on the way there and back (5/30 and 6/4).

If we have good weather, no problems hooking up with each other, and no problems with any of the bikes, we should be able to make it past Indy before we stop the first night on the way down, but we can't really count on all those things happening, so I think we should just wing it, and stop when we get tired or it gets dark.

I've never had a problem finding a cheep motel ($50 to $75 a night for a room with 2 double beds) along the main interstates.

If your willing to use your 20% discount to rent the rooms, the rest of us can just pay you cash for our shares.

As far as hooking up with me goes, I was thinking I would just ride solo down 94 to where/when we are going to meet tricker.
He suggested Tomah, but I see on the map that 90, and 94 come together at the south end of town, so to keep him from needing to double back, I was thinking of just going to the next small town.

Oakdale is just a few miles further, and it looks like they have a gas/truck stop on the North East corner of the off ramp. Just go left at the top of the ramp (across the top of 94), than your first right into the parking lot.

[tricker]

On this end i'm game for whatever speed we go at. I'm going to go to the stealership about 3 weeks before we depart on this shin dig to make sure my bike doesn't fall apart on the trip. new tires are also getting thrown on. I'm pushing 7500 miles on what i believe to be the original tires. They won't last the trip.

Range. I can get about 160-170 miles per tank. I know i'm supposed to be able to switch to reserve on the fly but the way mine is set up its a banshee and a half even at a standstill. I hope my working out has increased my riding abilities.. so no worries on this end for that.

Riding down there
You kids have done way more group riding than i have. Ok anyone who has done group riding has done more than me so whatever you guy's choose i'll go with.

I can wake up at the crack of dawn now so basically give me 15 minutes and i can be fully awake and ready to go.

Thats all i got right now

Oh rick.. fyi the distance from 90/94 switch is like 1 1/2 to 2 miles. I suggested it cause i'm sure you might want to walk around for a minute or two. At that stop there's at least 4 gas stations w/in 1/2 mile and a hand full of fast food joints. Thats the route i used to take to college.. But if you think oakdale is better i'm game for that.

[Clint]

Originally Posted by Rickster

If your willing to use your 20% discount to rent the rooms, the rest of us can just pay you cash for our shares.

Affirmative. I'd like to try and choose a spot a few hours ahead of time so we're not wandering around in the dark, exhausted. Our GPS units should facilitate that. Maybe we can do it over a dinner stop.