BDazzler's 2014 trips

I didn't get any pictures, but I took a long ride for me. I had a meet up in Cleveland, OH, so I took advantage of the situation and rode the FZ1. It was 420 miles for me one way. I did it in about 7 hours with 3 fill ups. I spent a few nights there and then made the reverse trip. 840 miles total. Unfortunately, it was ALL interstate slab. I know there are some good rides up by Cleveland, but I was unable to do any. It did save me $80-$100 in gas cost vs my Santa Fe. I spent about $100-$120 on gas. It averaged $3.87/gal. I made it 120-140 miles before F-Trip and filled up promptly. It was still great to be out riding. I forgot earplugs on the way. I was very sorry I didn't stop to buy some. I bought some on the way home. Traffic was moving at 80-90 mph everywhere. It was just the standard speed. Luckily no run-ins with LEO's. Only a few miles of moderate rain. I didn't even get wet. I used a Battery Tender adapter to run a cigarette lighter socket from my battery to keep my phone charged. I used it for GPS and music through my Scala Rider G4 system bluetooth with my phone in the top, clear plastic pocket in the tank bag. It worked great, except my phone over heated a few times. I need to get a RAM mount.

Next big known trip is with a group that invited me to go to the Dragon and northern GA with them the first week of Sept. I plan on getting new Michelin Pilot Power 3 tires for that trip.

That's awesome Troy. I've been pretty stumped over the gas mileages on the new bike. It's kind of all over the place. I rode to PA at 75/85 mph the whole way and averaged 41mpg. Sunday I went up to Harriman at 55/60 and only was able to get 37mpg. It seems to vary from tank to tank. This current tank I'm going to run all the way til empty so I can see what I get on a full tank. The mileage and tank capacity is the only thing I miss about the Gen and the YZF. I feel like I'm always putting gas in this bike.

Hey! Another trip report thread! Woohoo! Keep it up

NO PICTURES!?!?!?!? oke:
Oh well, guess we'll let it slide, after all, what's there to take pictures of around Cleveland , Ohio??? LOL
(except for maybe the Air Force Museum??)

Sadly, my trip was all about covering miles. It was all interstate slab with 3 gas stops each way. I stayed at a friends house for 3 nights and didn't touch my bike until the ride home. It was the same way, just covering ground quickly. I wish it had been more of a touring ride, but alas. At least I was on 2 wheels.

420 miles on the slab OMG.

I had a trip planned to the Dragon over Memorial Day but my ride partner had to bail out with family issues. One day I will get there again.

Fuel mileage will bounce all over the place depending on winds, speeds and agressiveness. I have averaged anywhere between 44 to 33 mpg riding back and forth to Chicago.

Troy, we should hook up for a Brown County ride.

OldBiker said:

420 miles on the slab OMG.

I had a trip planned to the Dragon over Memorial Day but my ride partner had to bail out with family issues. One day I will get there again.

Fuel mileage will bounce all over the place depending on winds, speeds and agressiveness. I have averaged anywhere between 44 to 33 mpg riding back and forth to Chicago.

Troy, we should hook up for a Brown County ride.

Click to expand...

I'm always up for Brown County, IN. It can be done as a day trip, but I have 1-2 hour head start on you. I'll look into some dates. Let me know what works for you, or at least what doesn't. I'll try to do the same.

As far as gas mileage, I've seen 29-42 mpg. With normal riding/commuting, I get about 34-36 mpg. I didn't get to keep track of my mpg on my trip because my Fuelly app was not working right. I usually filled up with 3.7-3.9 gal after 120-140 miles. That's about 30-38 which seems about right. It was a constant 80-90 mph with my large, V-Stream windshield. Everyone was driving very fast.

Sorry your Dragon ride didn't happen. I'm hoping to go with a group the first week of Sept.

The only weekend I have booked is Aug. 8-10 when I'm going to Indy for the MotoGP. Also the weekends of July 12 and 19.

Are you planning a week for the Dragon?

BDazzler how do you like that Rifle windshield and is it the sport touring one?

Thanks,

Greg

I have been to the Dragon and it was great. I'm sorry I didn't keep up and post each night. This will just be a quick post and I should be able to get more detailed after I get home.

As I write this, it's 6:42 am EDT on Saturday, September 6, 2014. We are currently in Blairsville, GA for our second night.

I was invited by 3 others to join them on a trip to the Dragon and northern GA. I am on my 2007 FZ1, Bob (former 2009 FZ1 owner) is now on a Harley-Davidson Road Glide, John has a first gen V-Max and Jim has a Honda VTX 1800 with a trailer for this trip. We left home Tuesday afternoon and stopped in Kentucky for the night. We then headed to the dragon. One of the guys, Jim, pulled a trailer with a tent and we camped at Deals Gap. Him was riding a Honda VTX 1800 with a car tire on the rear. Before getting to Deal's Gap, Jim's battery died when we pulled off for gas. Luckily there was a motorcycle shop right next to the gas station and he was able to buy a new battery.

We hit the Dragon and on my first run I got over zealous and crossed the center line 3 times. Eek! One time resulted in a trip through a ditch on the other side of the road. I didn't go down and road it back onto the road with out incident. I was very lucky there was next to no traffic on a Wednesday afternoon. I never crossed the centerline again.

We camped that night and it rained on the tent. We met some fellows from Belgium who were renting HD's. We sat around the campfire and chatted. We got up, packed the tent and started riding. Sadly, Jim wasn't feeling well and decided he needed to go home. He took the trailer and tent, so we got this motel room in GA instead of camping again. Jim made it home ok, but hit some very heavy rain on the way. He got checked out and has bronchitis.

Before Jim left, John managed to add to the tree of shame with his V-Max. He came into a corner hot and locked the back tire. His bike slid over into a ditch and stood up against the wall. There was minor damage to him and his bike. Bent bars, busted speedo housing, and a few other minor items, but still rideable. The other guys don't wear gear, so John got a little road rash on his elbow and a sore shoulder. He was very lucky. We got his bars straightened out and taped up his speedo. Good to go.

I have a video of Bob riding my FZ1 and I'm on his HD. He had me pass him halfway through the run. I scraped the left floorboard several times, but I didn't push it too hard. I really think it would lean more with higher pegs. Second gear worked great for the HD. I just used first gear on the FZ1. There we are: Bob, John, Jim and myself.

As Jim headed for home, the rest of us made it to GA with the weather holding for us. Blood Mountain is a great ride. There is a nice little greasy spoon at the bottom. The owner, Robin is quite a character.

I'd love to tell more, but it will have to wait. I've been composing this for about 45 minutes and it's time to hit the road.

I will commend you for your honesty in your post. That is not, however, going to stop me from chewing you a new asshole!

BDazzler said:

We hit the Dragon and on my first run I got over zealous and crossed the center line 3 times. Eek! One time resulted in a trip through a ditch on the other side of the road. I didn't go down and road it back onto the road with out incident. I was very lucky there was next to no traffic on a Wednesday afternoon. I never crossed the centerline again.


Before Jim left, John managed to add to the tree of shame with his V-Max. He came into a corner hot and locked the back tire. His bike slid over into a ditch and stood up against the wall. There was minor damage to him and his bike. Bent bars, busted speedo housing, and a few other minor items, but still rideable. The other guys don't wear gear, so John got a little road rash on his elbow and a sore shoulder. He was very lucky. We got his bars straightened out and taped up his speedo. Good to go.

Click to expand...

I traveled about 6,000 miles this past June to ride the Dragon and you are exactly the kind of guy I'm glad we did not run into! I'm too old to spend time in a NC/TN hospital and too young to be in a morgue, whether of my own doing, or someone else's. I will be the first to admit that I am not an accomplished rider when it comes to technical corners. I live on the prairies. I can say though, that I never crossed the center line when riding the Dragon, Rattler, Cherahola or any other roads! I had fun and got my chicken strips to the width of a dime.
If you and your buddies feel the need to push yourselves to the limit when you ride, do us all a favor and take your riding to a track day!

I'm just glad everyone is ok!

What did you think of the road overall? Did you enjoy it enough to come back?

Glad you guys are all ok, and looking forward to more pictures!

Oh, and I agree - it takes a bit of courage to admit your mistakes publicly. I am confident that y'all learned from the experiences and are better riders for it. I feel like I have learned from all of mine, and there have been more than a few!

Safe travels to you guys!

Glad you're all safe and not too damaged! It's a dragon that bites and can be tough to tame but if you take the first few runs at slower speeds, you can add a little speed later. Keep the rubber side down and the pictures coming!

Thanks for the comments, guys. I got home last night around 6:30pm central time. I'm not afraid to tell the truth. I got caught up in the moment and pushed too hard on the first run. I got lucky and nothing bad happened. I never crossed a center line the rest of the trip. You can see my pics on killboy.com from Wednesday, Sept 3, 2014 from 2:18pm, 4:48pm and 5:00pm under the sportbike category. I'll try to post a few more pics from the rest of the trip, but I really didn't take many. My phone was packed away and difficult to get out very often.

That night we slept in the tent. We visited the fire pit and talked with several others (just one other tent that arrived very late). There were about 4 older guys from Denmark that had rented HD's to ride around. We got rained on a bit that night in the tent, but nothing too bad. We woke for breakfast and watched about 10-20 NC state cops pull in on their BMW's. They had some ritual they did before getting off the bikes. I couldn't see too well from the tent area. I didn't even know they were cops until I got close to the bikes. I later saw one at a gas station and chatted for a second about seeing them at breakfast. We then took all the necessary pictures of the camp, signs, dragons, Killboy area, etc. We left and headed out for GA. It was such a beautiful ride. Twisties all the way. We intended to camp the next 2 nights also, but Jim (pulling the trailer) was coming down with bronchitis and had to go back home. He got rained on pretty hard on his way home, but made it in safely Thursday night. We landed in Blairsville, GA and stayed on the square in a $60 a night motel for 2 nights. I was anxious to hit Blood Mountain. It was great for a faster pace with some tight turns and 2 lanes for slower traffic in the right places. I found out several of the roads there (180, 60, 129 and maybe a few others) compose what some call the Head of the Dragon. They were all very exciting.

We stopped at a few specialty shops the other guys had been to before. The Road Glide could go almost 250 miles on its 6 gallon tank, so he didn't top off every time the V-Max needed gas (every 100 miles), but I did. Funny thing is the Road Glide ran out of gas on our way back to the motel, but was able to cough and sputter to a gas pump just in time and about 8 miles from the motel. We stayed there a bit too long with dark, heavy clouds moving in. Just as we were leaving, the clouds let loose. We didn't put on our rain gear and were soaked when we got back to the motel. Of course, it stopped shortly after we arrived and didn't rain again in GA. It was surprising how lucky we were with weather considering the predictions of rain almost every day.

There was a little cafe at the bottom of Blood Mountain called Turner's Corner Cafe, est 1928. I had some of the best peach cobbler with ice cream I've ever had. The staff was very friendly and goofy. It was a fun time. If you are there, say hi to Robin for me. I have some pics on my phone I'll try to post.



We were able to do a bit of laundry the last night in GA at the motel and repack everything.

I'll back track a bit to keep my mechanical problem in one thought. It started shortly after leaving the Dragon. On the way to GA, we stopped for gas. My bike had been running great. After filling up, I started the beast up and it didn't seem right at all. I killed it trying to take off. I got moving with the group thinking things would clear up. Then I suspected bad gas. I got the other 2 guys to pull over with me to check things out. It sounded like a twin in stead of the I-4. I was sure I had lost a cylinder. After feeling the exhaust headers, it was clear that cylinder 1 (the far left) was cooler than the restand was not firing. Luckily it was on the outside and the coil pack could be removed without removing the radiator. We thought it was a bad spark plug. I rode my new triple on to GA. We found a AutoZone and bought a new spark plug, borrowed some tool and set out to change the plug. After a closer inspection of the coil, we could see it was the problem. I'm not at all good with engines, but the other guys are, so they helped me out and wrapped some electrical tape around the coil to try to insulate it and get the spark to the plug. IT WORKED, yeah! For about a mile, boo. We bought some high quality tape and some dielectric grease to better patch the coil. That also worked for about a mile. One more attempt was made using more tape wrapped tighter. That succeeded for about 0.5 miles. We called around, but no one had a coil pack except Clearwater, FL and CA from what we were told. After sleeping on it and riding a day and a half on 3 cylinders, I decided to have one sent overnight from CA to Sloan's Motorcycle at 2233 NW Broad Sr. Murfreesboro, TN since were were headed to Nashville. We got a late start for TN the next day and I didn't think we would make the 4:00pm closing time to pick up the part. Rain was expected, and when we stopped for gas, it was looking bad. We dawned our rain gear and set out. It rained on us for a few miles 2 times. My outer jacket and pants got wet, but I was dry except for the massive sweating. The gear dried out quickly on the outside within 10 miles of dry riding, the sweat, however, stuck with me. We pulled into Sloan's just before 4:30 eastern time. I checked out back where they were going to leave it, but it wasn't there! PANIC! Then we realized Murfreesboro, TN was on central time and it was 3:30! Yeah! I was able to pick up the part! Bob ended up buying a Shoei Quest helmet while we were there and John drooled over the Moto Guzzi California 1400 he would like to buy. We again gassed up, removed the rain liner from my jacket (the pants were too much of a pain) and finished the trip to Nashville.

Nashville didn't offer much riding, but we took a taxi from the Dury Inn near the airport to downtown to sample some live music. It was a good time and we stayed out until things closed at 2:30 am. Street hotdogs are good after 3:00 am. I got up at 9:00am, had some free breakfast, showered, packed and we started the interstate trip home. Bob and I traded bikes for 40-60 miles. He had owned a 2009 cobalt blue FZ1 for a short time. I road his Road Glide through the Dragon and he took my FZ1. Now I thought I'd see the comfort and reasons to have a big HD. Sadly, the Road Glide seating position made my low back hurt after about 10 miles, and I never felt comfortable. I had some hip pain too. The floor boards and highway pegs offered little relief for me. The taller than stock screen kept most air out of my helmet and cause some occasional buffeting. The highway pegs made me feel like I was waiting on a Gynecologist. The air filter on the right side kept my right knee pushed out and the heel-toe shifter kept my left foot from the back edge of the floorboard. I was shocked to find the Road Glide so uncomfortable for me on the highway and more capable than I'd expected on the twisties.



We were tired, but happy for the ride and to be home. We only had a few minor bouts with rain and with all the problems we had, they were all the best outcomes that could be expected. I'm back on 4 cylinders. I'll take some pictures of the bad coil for those interested.

Dustin said:

I'm just glad everyone is ok!

What did you think of the road overall? Did you enjoy it enough to come back?

Click to expand...

I would have stayed longer and ridden the Dragon more the next day, but all the roads around there are amazing. I can't imagine it would be fun when it is crowded with lots of traffic, but on a Wednesday, it was great for us. I don't know that every Wednesday is that way, but I'm pretty sure most weekends would be crowded. I'd go back for sure.

The pavement is in good condition, there is very little debris on the road and cars almost always pulled over at the first opportunity. The other guys had done the Blue Ridge Parkway before and had plans for GA, so I didn't get to do it. I've heard great things about it too. I really enjoyed the Dragon the most, but there are so many great and amazing roads around that area, you can't get board. Everyone was super friendly. I highly recommend it, at least when it's not crowded.

RangerG said:

I will commend you for your honesty in your post. That is not, however, going to stop me from chewing you a new asshole!

I traveled about 6,000 miles this past June to ride the Dragon and you are exactly the kind of guy I'm glad we did not run into! I'm too old to spend time in a NC/TN hospital and too young to be in a morgue, whether of my own doing, or someone else's. I will be the first to admit that I am not an accomplished rider when it comes to technical corners. I live on the prairies. I can say though, that I never crossed the center line when riding the Dragon, Rattler, Cherahola or any other roads! I had fun and got my chicken strips to the width of a dime.
If you and your buddies feel the need to push yourselves to the limit when you ride, do us all a favor and take your riding to a track day!

Click to expand...

I hear you. I wish there was a track close to me and I could fit my fat body into the required leathers. That would be the proper way to do more aggressive riding. I pushed too hard the first time through. I fixed that and luckily didn't have to pay a price for the lesson. Thanks for your concern. I'm happy you were able to stay within the lines everytime. You are a better rider than me.

BDazzler said:

You are a better rider than me.

Click to expand...

Let's not get carried away! I just stayed within my riding ability and rode at my own pace. Two of us rode at about the same speed, but our third rider was always well behind, traveling at a pace he was comfortable with. We all had a blast and I will be back some day.

RangerG said:

Let's not get carried away! I just stayed within my riding ability and rode at my own pace. Two of us rode at about the same speed, but our third rider was always well behind, traveling at a pace he was comfortable with. We all had a blast and I will be back some day.

Click to expand...

I'd say staying within your ability makes you a better rider. I'll give you credit. Im not being a smart ass, I do mean it.

I thought you rode well when we did Lake Bloomington, although it's no Tail of the Dragon but it's a good practice area.

It sounds like you had some real adventures on your trip. I'm sort of bummed that my trip fell through but then there's always next year.

If it helps, I got drenched riding back from Indy after the MotoGP. The gear worked except I forgot that the outer pockets on the jacket are mesh and I had my wallet in there .