Was wondering if anyone has rode the Dragon yet? I plan on doing it this summer on my Honda CBR. It will be about a 7 1/2 drive there from my house. I was reading on their website and it says it has 318 turns in 11 miles. There have been like 35 deaths there since 1995.......most of them coming from head on collisions or falling off the cliffs. With that being said I was wondering if anyone here has made the trip there yet?

 

My wife and I have been there 3 times over the past 5 years. We take motorcycle trips during the summer for 2 weeks and try to make it over there if we can. It is a great road, but there are lots of other nice roads in the area as well. It's not a road that I'd use to learn to take corners on.

 

35 deaths??? Seems very low. Had 11 last spring there. It has alot of tight corners. It is fun road and will wear you out if you take it fast. It will tell you quickly how out of shape you are.

 

There's 6 of us from Minnesota that are gonna trailer to Missouri in may and head there and then to northern Georgia. Meet up with some old college buddies on the way. Should be fun

 

I can't wait till this summer. I'm trying to make my plans now. I've got a friend that i'll probably go with. My question is do I ride there or trailer there? It's about 13-17 hrs from where I live in FL...

 

Trailer for sure. You will be beat up by the time you get there. The tail will wear you out, 318 turns is a lot to ride each way. Trust me, you won't regret trailering your bike at the end of the day.

 

I live 30 minutes from the dragon and while it is a very sweet road to ride every time I go I am reminded why people get hurt and worse out there. My first time there I helped a French guy pull his new at the time cbr 929 out from under the guardrail in a nasty hairpin. It broke the frame in half but he was ok. My next trip i was behind a car waiting for it to pull off and got passed by three guys on gixxers with chics on the back in a series of two blind curves, the last one just barely made it out of the way of being creamed by on coming traffic. I went to killboy.com to check out my pics for the day and found the gsxrs amazingly dragging there knees with the girls on the back sitting centered on the pillon holding on to the operator hanging off the side of the bike. If you watch some youtube vids of crashes on the dragon you will see the most common reason is stupid riding. People going to fast out of corners and now there carrying to much speed for the next. And if you ride the dragon you will most defiantly be witness to stupid riding. Anyway if any of you find yourself near the dragon let me know and I will let you know some must ride roads in the area with all the fun but not the traffic of the dragon. Check out killboy.com THe link is on this page. And that will give you an idea of how many bikes (and cops) travel this road daily. Enjoy the mountains and ride safe!

 

When you ride your bike on a trip you get so much more out of the experience than if you go in a cage. You meet great people, take the back roads and see parts of America that you'd miss if you trailer it. We've done 2 week trips every year for the last 5 years. Travel between 3k and 4k miles. We've traveled all over the southeast, midwest and northeast including Canada. It's a great way to go.

 

Thea Dragon is a fun road, def not for the newbies, or over egotistical. Big thing to remember are to stay in your lane, ride your ride, wear you gear. And in the summer make sure to drink plenty of water.

On a side note, its the 'Dragon' not tail of the dragon. Tail of the Dragon a lil store across from DGMR. Some of the locals may take offense

I live 2hrs from it n ride up several times a year n love it. Best times to ride the dragon is during the week in the early morning or late evening. Weekends are a mad house full of rubber necks, 16" stretched, lowered, n dragging the fairings showbikes, cruisers, etc.

 

I have been and its an awsome place to go but the cops are very bad and i have heard they will ride sport bikes and try to get you to race then bust you. definatly bring the trailer just in case you wipe out or breake down.