Murrin’s Musings
DRAGON HYPE???
Written by Steve Murrin, The Original Biker Lawyer
At first I did not understand all the hype. Everyone gets so worked up about “The Tail of The Dragon”. What with the “I splayed the Dragon” T- shirts, bumper stickers, window decals, flags, songs, etc… O.K. O.K., there are a lot of turns. A little over 300 in the 11.1 miles between Tab Cat Bridge and Deal’s Gap. I’ve probably done the dragon a few dozen times in my life and it seems to get shorter and shorter to me. I guess that is just how things go as you get older! I’ve ridden the Dragon on my Harley bagger back in the mid 90’s, on Ducati’s and Suzuki’s and recently went up with an adventure touring BMW. Some riding pals and I stayed at the Fontana Dam Lodge which had a great Amber Bock on tap at the bar, a pool, two restaurants, clean comfortable rooms and all for under a hundred bucks per night. I guess the allure is not so much those 300 plus turns, but the surrounding culture of motorcycling that permeates those hills.
I think on this last trip it was the people who ventured to this Mecca of riding that really intrigued me. Like Catholics to the Vatican or surfers to Big Sur or even rednecks to Talladega Speedway, it’s just a classic cult ‘must do’. On my last trip which was a few weeks ago I met a group that flew over from Japan and rented bikes in Chattanooga just to ride the Dragon and the Cherohala Skyway. We also met a group of German students who took a week from their “Holiday” to ride the dragon on rented Harleys. I had a beer and burger in Deal’s Gap with the “New York City Hispanic Riders” who were a club of Puerto Rican sport bikers (from New City of course) equally represented by as many solo females as males on high powered Japanese sport bikes of all makes. Truly a global biker riding destination. The ‘Cherohala loop’ was by far a more challenging ride with its long swooping turns and a total of over 100 miles. A great day trip with good stops along the way for ribs, homemade jam to bring back to the kids and higher speed limit.
I did witness two accidents which were both minor. One guy had obvious carburetion problems and upon pulling out of the parking lot of the Deal’s Gap store experienced engine sputter on hard acceleration while leaned into his turn and dumped his bike in the street. He used curse words I’ve never heard. Understandable. The other was the classic low side too hot in a corner and we came across this poor bloke standing roadside with Honda Hawk down in a ditch. Everyone stopped to help. Understandable. As I had gone to the Gap with some of my YAHOO rowdy friends I felt compelled as I usually do with small group rides to “brief” everyone on a bit of safety, road surface condition, weather, and general perils of this particular venue. Our bikes were from all genres including Eric the nut on his ’48 Panhead with hand shift on the tank, very interesting to watch. This time I also provided each guy with a down load from www.tailofthedragon.com showing a listing of every fatality from each of the Dragon’s curves. The site even identifies the cause of the wreck and type of bike involved. A sobering reminder of the Dragon’s potential calamities. I recommend this web site to anyone venturing off to the Dragon. It’s packed with useful information and updated every day.
For me the Dragon’s curves are too tight. Many switchbacks and declining radius curves get monotonous. The 30 mile per hour limit is not far off the mark and at 40 to 50 miles per hour speeds are about max given a relative lack of straights or banking. Say what you want about how fast you claim to have run the Dragon but the fastest speed recorded on the Dragon was recorded by the Deals Gap Riding Society and was a 22 minute round trip run, which averaged out to 11 minutes (50.7 mph average). The overall record was 18 minutes, or 9 minutes one-way (62 mph average). In the overall scheme of things that’s really just not that fast. Notwithstanding this run was recorded in the early 90’s when traffic was much lighter and patrol by authorities was very light. Last month we saw Johnny Law every 10 minutes. Generally behind some poor schmuck getting a yellow souvenir.
It’s no replacement for a track day at Road Atlanta or Barber Motorsports track when fast is what you want but then again those tracks don’t have black bears and deer to watch out for, hundred year old lodges to stay in, good amber boch beer roadside, or a mix of bikes and people from all over the world with a common cause, slaying the dragon! When you go make sure you wear your gear, bring your camera, and stop roadside to enjoy the mountains and the people. That’s what makes all the difference.
Well signing off for now, and remember, ride hard, ride safe and when life lets you, ride ‘Full Throttle’.
Written by; Steve Murrin, The Original Biker Lawyer