Total Distance including Dragon runs:
1,789 Miles
Top Speed:
99.4 MPH
Gas Station Junk Food Consumed:
A shitload!
Funny Moment:
Got called a Hose Head by a Harley Rider! LOL, he got it! ;-)
Day 1:
Well... I had a great trip down to the dragon. The trip didn't quite happen as I had planned, but it worked out in the end and actually worked out for the best.
I originally planned on two days on the Blue Ridge Parkway, leaving Thursday morning, then finishing up Friday down at the Dragon with Saturday meant for the dragon runs. Google however must plan on piss stops every 15 minutes for 5 minutes each, because I did the entire Parkway on Thursday. It wasn't easy, I was pushing it, but. Google time on the Parkway equaled nearly 18 hours. My time on the parkway equaled 10 hours. 479 miles and what a drive! Holy Crap! What an amazing drive! Do it once! You will not regret it! The Parkway is no slouch for twisties, but the beauty is what it's there for. Especially the southern end with the highest point of just over 6000 feet. That's where these photos were taken around sunset on Thursday:
About an hour or so after I got those shots, I was approaching Robbinsville, NC where I had reservations for the next night, since I thought the Blue Ridge was not ending until the next day. They had an opening so I was able to crash Thursday after 14 hours of driving. I have to say, the Z is quite a comfortable ride!
Day 2:
The car was trashed from 700 miles of driving yesterday, but there's a self-serve car wash in Robbinsville that I took advantage of. I brought my bucket and wash gear so sprayed the car down and got to work. Had her all shiny and new for my first ever trek on the Dragon! Headed north on US129 out of Robbinsville. It quickly get's twisty, but the speed limit is 55 with mainly sweepers. This is about a 15 mile trek to the start of the Dragon. You know when you are getting close to the Dragon! Signs warning truckers to turn around are prevalent and after crossing the Cheoah bridge, there's a climb through some warm up bends. This takes you to the Deals Gap Motorcycle Resort (Pic Below):
and shortly after all hell breaks loose! This is the craziest road I've ever been on bar none! I made 3 trips through the dragon. The first one I took it easy just to see what it was all about. The return trip (southbound) I set my video camera up in the cockpit and hit it a bit harder. After that 2nd trip, I headed down the Cherohala Skyway which is another fun, scenic drive that I'd compare to the Blue Ridge. I finished that off, found a gas station with some food and after a nice conversation with some folks from California, headed back to the Dragon for my third run of the day.
For this run, I set the video camera outside to catch the LF wheel and suspension work. I was a bit more adventures this run, but still didn't work the engine that hard, keeping it in 3rd mostly. 2nd gear really would have been ideal. Maybe next time with an oil cooler.
I'll have the videos up soon, although video just doesn't give you any sense of being there, other than seeing the bends. I can say from someone who watched a lot of similar videos, watching videos of the dragon is one thing (and quite boring actually). Being there, driving it is a whole different animal!
Oh and for fun... Some picks of the Z at the Bristol Speedway!
There's a Z event in May. I highly suggest we make it a point to be there as a group! Much fun will be had fursure! ;-)
Videos:
These are long videos guys, thus I kept them off Youtube. By keeping them off Youtube I unfortunalty can not embed them here, so I'm just including links to the vids. Honestly this is probably like having to go watch your relatives vacation home movies as it's quite boring, at least in my opinion, if you weren't there. Both vids are well over 15 minutes in length as I included nearly the entire 11 mile run in both. But here they are anyway (at least for me to watch). ;-)
Video 1 = Interior (if it stutters, click pause and allow it to download)
http://lancewilliams.net/videos/tail...on%202009.html
Video 2 = Exterior (if it stutters, click pause and allow it to download) - can't help the wind noise, so I turned the sound down a bit.
http://lancewilliams.net/videos/tail...0exterior.html
US129 Photos:
http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/Thum...75116&g=00&s=0
http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/Thum...116&g=00&s=375
Still waiting on Kill Boy...