durk

Day 1 all ready to begin my trip

I had a couple of guys that wanted to go, but they have this thing called work. My one nice perk being a teacher is my whole summer is mine.

So after reading about all of your trips to the dragon I finally went for it. I left on Sunday around 1pm and headed for Charleston, WV. Nothing spectacular on my route there, just some routes I often hit when I head south (rt 170 S off of 154, WV rt 88 S, WV rt 250 S). On Monday I headed to Tazewell, VA to ride the Back of the Dragon into Marion, VA. From there I went Bristol, TN to ride the Snake into Mountain City, TN. Then I headed to my hotel in Johnson City, TN. Outside of the rain I ran into the roads were all awesome, including the roads I took to get to the back of the dragon. On Tuesday I headed to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Beautiful views, but different style of riding for me. It was relaxing. I did not find myself wanting to push it into the corners, just kind of took it easy with rpm always in the lower range. It was a good time and then some point after Ashville, NC the sky opened up. My intent was to ride the parkway longer and then head to the tail. So I just got off the parkway early and made my way to the tail. I made it to Robbinsville around 6 and grabbed dinner. I then ran 129 up and took some foots @deals gap & killboy. Nobody was around so it was easy to do as I please. Then I made my first trip through the dragon. It was awesome, I primarily had the road to myself. I then headed to my hotel in Knoxville,TN. On Wednesday I took the Cherohala Skyway/Tail of the Dragon loop and I included part of the moonshiner 28 route. Great times, but there was a huge downer as well. I discovered an oil leak as I was looking at the Fontana Dam. Continued on to the tail and it seemed to be getting worse. I went ahead & did lunch, grabbed souvenirs and went for it on the dragon. After my run I made the call not to ride it again as I was oiling my rear tire as I rode. Thursday was all about getting home. 550 miles of primarily highway. Ended up having to stop in Sunbury, OH because I discovered my oil leak was now severe. My filter seal was shot. Thankfully AutoZone carries a k & n that fits my rr. After 1.5 hours I had spun off the old filter and put on a new one. Made it home safe and sound. Can't wait to do it again next year. I have to give Danimal credit for this route. When I was originally gonna go with him he shared his route and it sounded awesome and it did not disappoint. If I can figure out how to post pics I will do so later.

That's a beautiful bike.

Thanks for sharing your experience. Every time I read 1 of these posts I get more and more determined to make it there.

Sam the only rumbling I hear is coming from your exhaust. Its a Honda and if I remember right it has super low miles (saw your c-list link in a different thread). You have nothing to worry about. I have owned multiple CBRs and never had any issues. I had one with over 30,000 miles and the only time I had it in to be serviced was to sync the carbs. Other than that I just kept the oil changed, chained lubed, and good tires on it. Its never a bad idea to have somebody look it over, but if it were mine I wouldn't. Go ride the thing and enjoy it is my suggestion. Good luck on the rain stopping. My yard is now a duck pond.

Sounds like a good deal to me. That bike blue books at $5900. I just picked up 1 to flip.

I have been using maxima chain wax for a couple of years now and it sucks as far as I am concerned. It flings off typically on first ride, its sticky, dirt and grime cling to it, and it does not keep the chain lubed. I've tried preheating chain leaving it sit over night, all that crap and still no luck. The last couple of times I thought my chain was going and it has less than 3-4k miles on it. It was making a horrible noise. I cleaned it with kerosene as I always do, took it for a preheat run and it was fine. I attribute it to the chain wax holding crap on to it. Made me think of this post and I am now trying wd40 method. Now if it ever stops raining around here i'll test it out and see what I think. I just know I'm done with what I have been using. May go back to Honda's chain lube as somebody mentioned on here, because I did use it back in the day and don't remember any issues. Back then I was young though and not as on tune with my bike, so could have been crap too. I'll see how the wd method works. Thanks for those of you that suggested it.

In my little town its not too bad because the title department and BMV are all in the same building. Once you find the bike you want ask the seller as others have mentioned on here. Hopefully they will have some knowledge of what needs to be done and how to get it done in their town. Good luck.

Glad you sold your bike. I have a couple of questions if you don't mind. Did it sell for your asking price, and did you get paid in cash? Did it sell based on your posting here or elsewhere? I am asking because I have a bike I plan sell to that's worth like $6000. I am concerned that few are going to be able to come up with that kind of cash in my area.

Thanx for sharing all this. Makes me want to make sure I make it to the gap this year. Never been there, but it looks and sounds awesome. So much so that I plan to do it solo if necessary.

Thanks John. I plan to be there.

I am a high school teacher and often think we need to add a course to the schedule just for common sense. I see crazy things like this from both the students and teachers often.

JC I would luv to make this trip, but I am 3 hrs from your departure. Anyway you could push the departure time back a little? It wud be great to get to know some fellow believer riders. Totally understand if you want to keep your time schedule.

I had an 01 F4i and it would occasionally not fire, but would just crank. I had an older battery so I would drain it fast. What I attributed it to was a bad connection at the kill switch. What I did was spray some electronic contact cleaner down in the crevices around the kill switch, hooked it up to a battery charger and it would fire and run fine. This typically happened after I washed the bike. You could give it a try, but I would be getting that battery checked out. If nothing else, charge the battery overnight and see how the bike reacts. If you don't have a charger I think I saw where AutoZone will charge batteries for free check it out.

Seeing that video and reading about that crazy chic running down that motorcyclist just confirms my idea to stay away from the crazies. Too many wack jobs out there.

I think you need a new battery as well. It is running fine when you pop start it because your charging system is in good working order, but my guess is if you keep pop starting it soon won't be. If you have a battery charger hook it up at 10amps and see if bike will start. If it does I would say you definitely need a new battery.