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Detroit, 9:46 PM
Tue Dec 8
27 posts in the last 24 hours
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03/12/09
It was a bit scary at the time, but I can laugh about it now. Don't know if he does though.
03/12/09
Can't ride it, leave it parked. Simple.
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03/12/09
I've been on it one time, in a car, post-near-death bike accident, and I can say I'm glad to have not attempted it on two-wheels only because of the boneheads riding it. Even in a car, knowing the respect that road is not given had me looking, almost waiting, for someone to be on the wrong side of the road, mid-corner.
Pictures can't show just how tight that road is. I see why it's two-wheeled Mecca for the area, but I've been on better, less-traveled roads in Colorado. Cottonwood pass comes to mind, immediately.
The key is you have to look where you WANT to go. People look where they're going and sure enough, that's where they go.
My wife and I were two-up on a '91 ST1100 in a group of ST's. Mine was called FaSTer MaSTer, and we were known as being aggressive riders. Not stupid, mind you, just not afraid of the road.
We were behind a guy on a couple year newer machine in CO. Holmes was leaned over pretty good, heading into the classic decreasing-radius corner, and when I thought he was fine, then he stood it up, went up a dirt driveway, smacked into a fence, and flipped over, with the bike, onto a large rock.
Two-up, with inherently less clearance and more mass, we still made it through the same corner, at the same speed, though we did scrap more of the right-side peg off than homeboy. We also has a crankcase with less ventilation afterward.
This taught me first-hand, trust the tires. You will drag hard stuff before the tires give up, unless something else is at work. See my earlier comment on the genius behind putting non-absorbent cement powder on diesel fuel spills.
Fookin' Oregonians.
Oh, and some of the best bikes in the twisties are dual-sports converted to canyon carving. I had an XL600V with street tires and slightly tweaked suspension. What it lacked in top speed it MORE than made up for in the corners. Guys with double the HP were always amazed I was with them at the stops on a ride. Yeah...I catch up in the corners...where it's really fun!
03/12/09
03/12/09
If you're lucky, you're only 100 feet down a cliff. This just means you had less time to think about it before dying. Some of the drop-offs in that part of the world must have vehicles at the bottom nobody knows about.
Independence Pass...the only place in the state you're pretty much guaranteed to find snow, roadside, in August.
03/12/09
03/12/09
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03/12/09
THE TREE OF SHAME
03/12/09
PROOF
wondering how people can tolerate the annoying
PROOF
in the picture getting in the way of things
PROOF
See, isn't that bothersome?
Oh, I'm forwarding this to my friends at the Motorcycle Safety Foundation, lol.
03/12/09
03/12/09
He probably got target fixated also- look where you want to go, NOT at what you DON'T want to hit.
I have been on the Dragon multiple times- all on 650cc pre-1983 vintage Japanese model motorcycles. This is a road that really demands your full attention and actually benefits for riding a smaller sized motorcycle.
I have seen people on road race cycles with race slicks and clip on flash light headlamp, one guy in a wheel chair ~riding~ a VW powered trike that cut both lanes in switch backs, full sized RVs, triple axle dump trucks!!!, Northstar powered and Fieros, Miatas of all stripes, Harley style choppers that had to practically stop in the switch backs because of garbage/no suspension, and even the paramedics carrying a guy away in an ambulance who had launched his GXSR1100 over the side in the last turn before the gas station at the end.
I can only imagine that onboard video cams combined with the ease of posting to the internet has driven far more noodle heads there then ever before.
Two words: counter steer. This is the most needed technique of riding the Dragon at 129/29. 129 past the Dragon is far more relaxing as are some of the roads from that area down to even Murphy, NC
I am in the Middle Tennessee area and formerly lived north of Chattanooga, TN hence the ease of riding over there...
03/12/09
"his riding ability was under the performance capability of the cycle"
This guy was either under-skilled, or just genetically possessing "slow twitch" synapses that predispose him to a "freeze response" in dangerous situations.
...Which I finally realized was my problem, after years and years of attempting to increase my skill level.
My motorcycling experience: 1980-1996, R.I.P.
03/12/09
*PROOF*
*BLAMMO*
*BOFFO*
*SMACKAROO*
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03/12/09
It's too crowded, too complicated. Renting an Elise for this particular road is stupid.
[www.mulhollandraceway.org]
Take an Elise up to California's Nurburgring, the canyons of the San Fernando Valley and the ever popular Glendora Mountain Road.
Roads like this are a genuinely bad idea for this exact reason-- amount of traffic and POLICE POLICE POLICE... In case you didn't know, Tail of the dragon is HEAVILY patrolled... or, so I'm told.
Rent an Elise and go to an AutoX to thrash.
03/12/09
Motorcycle replacement - don't bother buddy
Seeing if Chevy Trucks are really built "Like a Rock"...
... the hard way! - Priceless!
03/12/09
Of course, to potentially save the rider's life, he'd have to put 2 wheels of his precious 4x4 onto the DIRT!
Then again, on a road that curvy, in a vehicle that dynamically inept, he was probably white knuckling at 15 mph just to keep all four wheels on the ground.
Fucking cagers.
03/12/09
Heart click to you, allways supporting bikers, even if the sucker is no knee-dragger.
03/12/09
03/12/09
But then we wouldn't have this great thread.
03/13/09
What's a cager?
03/13/09
03/12/09
[killboy.blogspot.com]