"Tail of the Dragon" in NC

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A little history on the road:

tailofthedragon.com

The Tail of the Dragon
by Ronald E. Johnson
The Tail of the Dragon, also known as Deals Gap or just the Dragon, is considered by many as one of the world’s best motorcycling and sports car roads. Anyone looking for an exciting piece of asphalt will enjoy this stretch of US 129 at the Tennessee/North Carolina state line…

There are 318 curves in the 11 miles located on the Tennessee side. Most of the time there is very little traffic and the vehicles that do use this road are primarily motorcycle riders and sports car drivers looking for the thrill of their lives. It is remote - there is very little evidence of human population within 20 miles in any direction. Most of the roadway is bounded by United States Forest Service property, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and forested land owned by Alcoa Aluminum who operates the dams located along US129.

In planning for ZDayz, May 19-21, 2006 down there, staff members had a weekend retreat last weekend to plan the event. One of my friends got bit on the dragon, as he was arriving. Too much throttle thru a curve in 2nd = Z in distress. :eek4dance :eek4dance :eek4dance

Luckily Buddy and his GF were OK and only minor damage to the Z was sustained (front bumper, one side skirt, and corner panel if you can believe that). Killboy.com was on hand at the very turn where he lost it and they got some good photos.

Buddy, happy as shit on his first run down the dragon

Buddy gave her a little too much throttle…

Uh oh this could be bad…

:eek4dance

Buddy: Fully Pwned by the dragon

And that aint no LITTLE hill

Had to get a little help

This is the worst of the damage, dayum was he lucky!

They say if you fall off the horse (or dragon as the case may be) get back up and ride that thang again…

Thought you guys would get a kick outta this. He’s very lucky to have not rolled, or gone straight over a cliff… :eek4dance

Some cool bike pics:

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I so badly wanted to run that on my motorcycle when I had it. Never made it though. Someday will try in a car.

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x2 I always did want to run the dragon and never did, maybe I’ll ride out with you guys this year

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We are going to ZDayz May 19-21 in 06 (I am going 17-21, to get some runs in when there aren’t 200+ Z’s on the dragon at the same time!)

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IBjinxxygetsarrested

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yeah I have been talking to some guys that have been down ther ethat I know. We want to make a trip late summer next year when we have nothing to do…

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They shut the road down for just vehicles running it. ie. If you have a Dodge Deisel Dually truck, they won’t let you on it. During the prime time months. Don’t think they give tickets for speeding on it, don’t think there is many locations to sit to give tickets. Plenty of places to drive off cliffs!!

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I was just there in September.

Note:

  1. They DON’T shut down the road for large vehicles. There’s legislation right now to keep commercial vehicles off of the road, but that hasn’t passed yet. We were on the third or fourth turn on the Deals Gap side of the Dragon and there was a huge Winnebago pulling a tandem enclosed trailer coming the other way…the entire way across the yellow.

  2. They DO give tickets. Once in a while cops will sit in the woods and videotape. They radio ahead to a cop sitting on the Tennessee side where you get pulled over. A guy from Johnstown (that didn’t go with us) got a $1600 fine from the Dragon.

  3. Don’t let a local see you cross the yellow. Not many locals hang out there during the busy season, but the few that are there will hang you (you’ll at least hear about it.) There’s signs all over the trees that say “Line Crossing Takes Lives…Don’t Do it.”

I would suggest riding through it a few times to get the feel of the road. It’s one thing to say that you’re going to tear through it…it’s another thing to do it. That road is NUTS. I couldn’t comprehend how people have died there until I saw it for myself. It’d be very easy to die there if you rode over your head. That hillside in those pictures with the Z…they’re all like that. The whole way to the bottom.

It’s definitely something that has to be seen, though. It’s becoming more and more like a tourist trap, but every road in that area is just as fun. If anyone goes to that area try routes like 221, 28, 221 alternate, 228, etc. TONS of fun.

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x2,

reading does wonders as well

http://www.tailofthedragon.com/legends.html

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LOL Yea, my friend Buddy, after being pulled out, got a ticket for crossing the yellow lines :scared: LOL Add insult to injury! :rofl: You just have to be cautious, and use your brain, unlike my pal there :ugh: LOL He laughs about it but OMG :ugh:

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C’mon down! We’d love to have ya join! :smiley: