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| 09-08-2009, 07:38 AM | #1 |
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Labor Day Trip to Tail of the Dragon
My son and I made a road trip yesterday to an area just north of the North Carolina border in Tennessee called Tail of the Dragon. There are many interesting roads in this area. You are in the Alleghany mountains. The Dragon is 11 miles long with 318 turns. Speed limit is 30 and 40 mph and that doesn't really limit you a lot, it is very tight. I may have hit 50 mph a few times but couldn't have gone past 60, there was just not enough straight road. There were TONs of motorcycles, most of which were Harleys who were going at the speed of a very old man in a Model A
 . I got behind one on the first time through. I waited for him to get ahead twice and once he got off for some reason so it did not good. The second time was better but I still caught him. I turned around and came back and did much better. I probably went 10 minutes before I had to slow down. First for a motorcyclist who was moving along pretty well and pulled over so I could pass. And then for a red Soltace who was held up by several vehicles. I have movies but need to figure out how to post. Hope you like the pictures.This area is a couple hours away from the Performance Center - an idea for anybody doing that.
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128i Convertible, MT, Alpine White, Black Top, Taupe Leatherette, Walnut, Sport
Ordered 5/22/09, Completed 6/4/09, At Port 6/9/09, On the Georgia Highway 6/13/09, Ship Arrived Charleston 6/24/09 at 10pm, PCD 7/21/09  |
| 09-08-2009, 12:16 PM | #3 |
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cant wait to make the trip myself
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| 09-08-2009, 04:31 PM | #5 |
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Lieutenant
 
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Great pics! Interested in seeing the videos. Any more info on the road? I'm down in that general area once or twice a year and would love to drive it. Sounds like lots of fun!
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| 09-08-2009, 04:50 PM | #6 |
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I need to hit that road up sometime. I've only heard great things.
Oh, and -1 to Harley riders who don't understand what a throttle is. And -1 to Harley Davidson that makes a bike that probably doesn't respond to throttle, braking or steering inputs. |
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| 09-08-2009, 07:25 PM | #7 |
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Brigadier General
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Absorber,
Best way to find the Dragon is to google "tail of the dragon, nc". You should find a website that will give you multiple maps including one entitled "Major Roads of Western North Carolina". I found it the most helpful. It shows scenic (slow speed) roads with a square. The dragon is almost due west of Asheville along 129 north of where 28 and 129 intersect. This is north and a little west of Robbinsville. We took 28 through the stretch labeled "hellbender" on the way there. We came down 64 past Waterfall run (got pictures of the second smaller one) through Highlands, Cashiers, and Rosman on the way home. We took 11, the Cherokee Foothills National Scenic Byway over to I-26 to get home. 11 was the only road labeled scenic where it had a 55 mph speed limit consistently. All the others had twisty sections where you had to come down around 25mph. I used 4th gear to quickly pass a silly minivan so I could make some time on 11. By that time we were getting tired and were ready do get home. Jim
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128i Convertible, MT, Alpine White, Black Top, Taupe Leatherette, Walnut, Sport
Ordered 5/22/09, Completed 6/4/09, At Port 6/9/09, On the Georgia Highway 6/13/09, Ship Arrived Charleston 6/24/09 at 10pm, PCD 7/21/09 |
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| 09-08-2009, 07:44 PM | #9 |
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Gorgeous 128i!
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| 09-08-2009, 08:27 PM | #10 |
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Major
 
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A dream of mine to some day make it to the tail of the dragon with my 2 wheels,
Duc 998. In order with a car to be fun, they would have to close down, or hold back the tons of motorcycles.
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-Diplomacy is saying, "nice doggie while trying to find a rock"-
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| 09-09-2009, 06:57 AM | #12 |
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The problem is not so much the motorcycles but the slow motorcycles. In my very limited experience they were Harleys. I followed an orange motorcycle I did not get the make of on my second run and he was going at nearly the speed I wanted to and he had a passenger. He was also kind enough to move over when there was a place so I could pass him. There were sport bikes probably going faster than I wanted to. And then there were the pokey Harleys with their open pipes.
What really held up the second run were a couple old coupes restored into roadsters. They looked neat but they were also going very slow. For a major holiday weekend, I think I was pretty lucky, however. It was busy but I still got to drive most of the way through once without obstruction. If you wanted a better run, I'm sure other weekends or during the week would be much better. Jim
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| 09-09-2009, 07:22 AM | #13 |
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I was up there Saturday, and was able to drive faster than I should have, the guys I was following were in the opposite lane and hitting 75 on the straights, I caught them on the corners
most of the bikes pulled over and let me buy, just a couple of times I had problems with sportbikes that "thought" they were going fast
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| 09-11-2009, 09:06 PM | #15 |
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are your calipers painted red?
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| 09-12-2009, 12:34 PM | #16 |
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ah yes...memories of deals gap. i did the run in a few different cars over the years. my 2003 VW GTI 1.8T was my favorite, mostly because i never took the Zed through there. i hope to make it up there sometime in the 135i and really enjoy myself. good times...good memories...great roads!
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Sounds like fun.
