Deals Gap Motorcycle Trip July 2000
In July of 2000, Karen and I took a ride up to Deal's Gap (also see Tail Of The Dragon). It's a bikers dream of turns and curves, 11 miles of 318 turns that range from Hairpins to S-Turns. Its mainly geared for crotch rockets that can handle excessive leans. I did leave some chrome from the bottom of my pipes; loaded cruisers just don't fair well on tightly banked turns.
At this point we were in Tennessee and a long way from home. I actually charted this out so we would hit Deals Gap first and then we would work our way west to Monroe TN for gas, then east back into North Carolina. We drove along the Cherohala Skyway (max elevation was about 5600 feet). I got some killer gas mileage up there, around 70mpg. The bike automatically leaned out the fuel mixture as it compensated for the lack of oxygen.
The Cherohala was beautiful but the surrounding sky was hazy from smog or something, so the "distance" pictures weren't that great. The weather was perfect for the trip, warm with lots of sun. We made it back to the hotel around 6pm, ready for dinner (delivered pizza).
This ride was the best one we've had so far. The Nomad soaked up the road and eased out all the bumps, unlike the VN750. I can't fault the 750 too much, she was good for stealth and speed. Highway speed (ok, a little excessive too) in a matter of seconds.
Going home was a pleasurable ride too. We encountered no problems heading back to Virginia. We almost got bagged for speeding (90 - 100mph), but the distance factor helped; plus we were about 40 miles from the VA line and I really didn't feel like getting stopped by Barney Fife in North Cacalacky. So as Barney was attempting to cross the median, I laid into the throttle a little bit more to increase our distance.
This trip was a 3 dayer - next time we do this its gonna be a week long trip and I'll have a video cam strapped to my front forks.
Trip Stats
Chesapeake VA to Franklin NC: 480 miles in 8hrs
Deals Gap ride: 208 miles in 7hrs
Total Trip Mileage: 1200 miles
