Well I was bored last night, so I decided to FINALLY upload a few of my videos from when I went to Deals Gap last year (May '06). It was actually a year ago yesterday that I left on that trip! So a year later finally getting my videos up, hahaha. Anyways, I apologize ahead of time for the really crappy video quality... USB SUCKS for video transfer, I've gotta go get a firewire cable and port... I hear it works much better. That's why it's kinda choppy, especially towards the end. Also I don't know why the audio keeps changing tones.. does it on both my computers and I can't figure out why.

For those that may or may not have seen the pics, here's all the pics from that trip...
https://cbrforum.com/m_107933/tm.htm

Anyways, on to the vids. First one isn't real fast paces (well, neither was the second either... I wasn't pushing it too hard), but I had just woke up so I was still half asleep, LOL. This was Route 28, leaving Fontana Village Resort where we stayed at, and going to the "Crossroads of Time", which is the Deals Gap Motorcycle Resort, located at the Rt. 28/Rt. 129 junction, which is the bottom of the Dragon We went there every morning to eat breakfast before heading out for the day. And yes, I know my cornering skillz aren't exactly the greatest, but hey it's my first time up there and I'm from Florida, what do you expect? haha

Enjoy!

Can you spot the lucky squirrel?


Second vid is THE Tail of the Dragon Rt. 129. See if you can spot my "OH ****!!" moment. I'll give a hint, it's right after the Tennessee state line sign


That's all for now... I've got alot more vids (7 full MiniDV tapes in LP mode) but some didn't turn out too good cuz I didin't realize the camera zoomed in when I changed tapes [:@] Oh yea and forgot to mention, stupid photobucket cuts the vids off at 9:59, so that's why they just kinda stop all of a sudden. Not missing much though, the first one is 12 mins long, and the second is 16 but I get stuck behind a big group of crusiers going 20 mph for the rest of the way up right after the vid cuts off, so nothing too exciting to see

 

Awesome videos! What time did you go out in the first one there's no traffic! Nice dodging of the small furry creature and nice keepin cool and recovery from what looked like your rear tire going out?? I want to go there one day.

 

Thanks!! First one was about 8:30 am on a... wednesday I think. We purposly scheduled our trip to be there during the weekdays, cuz the weekends are much heavier traffic on the dragon. During the week it's empty! We usually left at 8:00 every morning and didn't get back until 6-7:00. This was our last day of riding (of 4 days), and I was sooo exhausted that I woke up a lil late, that's why I'm all by myself heading to the crossroads.

You're right about my near mishap... rear tire started to slide out. I felt like such a dumbass, cuz it was completely my fault. I wasn't thinking, first thing starting out with cold tires, I got a lil too excited and leaned a lil too far on those cold tires, and out she went! [:-] Scraped the peg too. Made for a nice pucker moment, but luckily was able regain grip and kept on going without any other incident... phew! Lesson learned!!

I can't wait to go back!!

 

cool vids! and wow, you were leaning that thing over! i havent gotten the ***** to lean mine much at all.

very cool vids my friend!

 

Thanks bro! The leaning will come with practice... it feels unnatural and just takes some getting used to, just like countersteering. When I first started riding I didn't do any mad leans either, just came the more practice I got. Just take it slow and get some miles under your belt, and soon enough you'll be leaning over without even thinking about it. Like anything else, time and practice practice practice Same thing goes for getting a knee down, which I still haven't learned to do yet

 

I tried to watch it but that high pitched hissing sound was driving me nuts

 

Two Questions:

Tires? Specifics please...Brand, Model, Miles

Gear? Pants with pucks, Right? You werent rolling like that in jeans, right?
I havent been through there on my bike yet (its high on my list).
Fine...three questions:
You seemed to use 2nd gear, but 1st could have handled those speeds.
Why not 1st the turns and 2nd the few "straights"?

 

Tires at that time were Metzeler Roadtec Z6's... sport touring tires. I think they had about 3000 miles or so on them.

Gear, I had draggin jeans... no pucks though. I wasn't hanging off or getting a knee down anyways... hell I don't even know how yet (no place to practice here in FL). Had my Joe Rocket mesh jacket, with about 6 layers on under it cuz it was freaking coold!! Joe Rocket gloves and Icon super duty boots too.

At the beginning of the dragon it's not quite as tight as it is farther up, so I was using 2nd and 3rd gear. But as you could see in the video, once it started getting tighter and got some inclined switchbacks, I had to downshift mid turn a few times. So then I decided to just keep it in 2nd. 1st gear is a little too much, plus I don't like to stay in 1st anyways cuz it gets kinda jerky. 2nd was real nice... gave me enough torque to accelrate smoothly out of a turn even going up a hill, and I could still get enough speed without totally winding it out

 

dayum! i'd be afraid to tackle the dragon with any type of jeans mang! good stuff!

 

Nice vids! That squirrel almost bought it too in the first vid hahaha. What's causing that alternating hissing sound? Is that something with the camera?