The Dragon

This was posted on another site, thought gixxer folk might be interested too: A post yesterday by Pirate on the K-Bikes site re: The Dragon Dude... the closing of the dragon may have been a GOOD thing..(it was closed due to a tractor trailer accident) a blessing in disguise. I arrived Friday not one hour after they reopened.... and everything went down hill from there... Sunday morning I returned from a two day stay in Robbinsville. Had decided to blow off work to do a few days of riding. Drove down godawful early Friday morning with both the KS and R1 (left the MV at home) and lofty plans of riding the dragon for about 1/2 the stay and the Cherohala Skyway for the other half.. Things didn't go as expected. Ordinarily, on Fridays this time of year there are about 200 bikes at the Crossroads of Time by 11am.. about 3/4 of them sportbikes.. . When I arrived Friday around 11:30 I was one of 4 sportbikes there...All the rest were cruisers. Very odd as it was perfect weather... no chance of rain. One pass on the Dragon explained the ghost town... I passed NINE marked and un-marked police on the one pass out and each had a bike pulled over being ticketed. I got to the overlook and asked the few there what was going on and they said the Tennessee law enforcement had gotten a multi-thousand dollar grant from the governor to pay for as much overtime necessary to stop the madness which is the Tail of the Dragon. One local said it had been this way for the last 3 weeks with no end in sight.... Geezz.. Time to call it a day. On the way back I rode my R1 like I was tiptoeing through a minefield ...as slow as I'm possibly capable of and still got stopped and ticketed. . About 1/2 way through the 11 miles I hear a siren behind me and see the blue lights so I pull over. I had been doing only 35mph. I take my helmet off and walk back to his car and say... "I know you aren't stopping me for speeding.. I was going only 35mph.!" He informed me that I was speeding..(apparent ly the speed limit is 30.. DOH!) and on top of that.. he said I passed a lessor bike over a double yellow somewhere in the last 6 miles, which I honestly didn't remember but I pass everyone so I really don't pay attention to such details....plus. . he said he couldn't read my plate which is a registration violation. The young state trooper grabs my license, registration, and an insurance card and heads back to his car. I thought he might nail me for not having insurance but apparently he didn't make the call to the insurance company (it was my BMW carrier card). He comes over to me.. looks me up and down... it's hot, humid, and I'm wearing full leathers He says.. "You look like you've been riding longer than I've been an officer so I'm gonna let you off on the speeding AND crossing the double yellow. He wrote a ticket only for the plate issue. All in all... could have been worse... I spoke to a few fellow riders when I got back to the Crossroads of Time and in Robbinsville. Most had gotten tickets within the last few hours or days and swore they wouldn't be back. One local had a semi- plausible theory and explained it thusly... It all started about a month ago when there was a multi-page article in Motorcyclist showing Killboy's (the local Dragon photographer) best crash photos. Apparently this really pissed off both the Tennessee law enforcement people AND the gov of Tennessee. It made them (they think) look incompetent. Rather than stand idly by... (according to the guy I spoke with).. they decided enough is enough and not only were they going to shut the sportbike crowd down but they were gonna try to put Killboy out of business. Why Killboy? They seem to think it's his pics that are attracting the crazies to the area. So far, Killboy (Darryl Cannon) hasn't "technically" broken any laws, but he's been skirting a fine line. There is a Tn law on the books about operating a roadside biz, but Killboy doesn't actually exchange any monies from where he and his staff are taking pictures so they are, for now, beyond the reach of the law. I was told the gov is trying to close a loophole and/or change the Tn statutes in order to put him out of business AND... is working on some sort of legislation that would turn Hwy 129 (the Dragon) into a state park.. If this happens.. the Tail of the Dragon as we know it will cease to exist.... THAT is their goal. I spoke to Darryl Cannon, the Killboy himself tonight and he blows off this theory. He says he had heard the crackdown was coming 6 months ago and believes is not related to the Motorcyclist article. Another contributing factor he says is that there were 3 deaths within 24 hours recently. No fatalities for 11 months prior. 1 guy on a sportbike and a couple on a trike were killed in separate accidents. More details can be found on the Killboy website at www.tailofthedragon.com IMHO....One important factor that drives all of this is envy. Millions of dollars are being spent annually by motorcyclists visiting the area but virtually 100% of it is going to NC..Tennessee isn't seeing a thin dime except for the tickets being written. Why? Because 99.9% of the Dragon is in Tennessee, but it ends in NC where all the lodging, food, gas, shops, etc, etc..are located. Tennessee on the other hand is spending millions of dollars for officers to patrol the 11 mile stretch of twisty road, (2) 24-hour a day on-call helicopters for life-flighting downed riders out, and all they are getting in return is roadside carnage, full emergency rooms, and relentless complaints from non-motorcyclists. No wonder they are pissed. It's like they are paying for the perpetual party but aren't being invited. Where will all this animosity end?? I have no idea. I am hoping this onslaught of policing will die down after a few weeks... but I fear the worst. I've been saying for years that it's simply too good to be true... Lets just hope things subside before our annual Deals Gap Rally next month. Before I end this rant... Has anyone ever wondered why, when the 5 or 6 NC side motels are consistently booked with motorcyclists. .. and most of the restaurants are packed on weekends .. and the local stores are selling Dragon tees as fast as they can print them why not one entrepreneur on the Tennessee side of the Dragon has thought about building a motel to cash in on the "commodity" which is the Tail of the Dragon? or Opened a Dragon-based store like the Crossroads of Time? I would assume that if Tennessee was getting their fair share of the money pie they'd be less likely to scare off the cash cows... I could be wrong. Opinions? I'd appreciate any updated reports from anyone who visits the area after this post. I won't waste my time going back until the situation changes..

There really is no space on the Tennesse side before mile-marker eleven (the beginning of the dragon) because of the high-banks on one side and existing parking areas on the other. And there is definetly not any place after mile-marker eleven and the NC state border. I don't see how the THP can rationalize spending a million dollars because their jealous of NC getting millions of dollars in revenue. And Killboy is correct about the crackdown being planned months before. The three deaths occured almost two weeks into the THP's official crackdown and it was another two weeks before they arrived in full force with the entire goon squad. I live close to the dragon and the THP does this ever summer, but they are just throwing more money at it as the dragon's notoriety spreads.

This is not new. This exact same thing has been done before by the THP. 3-4 years ago, THP set up a sting to catch speeders. It ended up being just sportbike and ricers. All the harley type riders were not stopped, even though they did the same thing the sportbikers did. Go figure. I have the video to that sting saved on a disc somewhere.

Damn, a group of us were planning a trip down there to experience the DRAGON at illegal speeds. NOT ANYMORE.:headshake I can stay home and have the cops try to ruin our party. Dont need to make a 10 hour trip to get a speeding ticket. I have nothing against cops, my bro is a CO and I ride with many off duty cops. Another reason to take it too the TRACK!!!!:thumbup: :arsenal l

Check it....... http://gsxr.com/showthread.php?p=502416#post502416

http://www.wate.com/global/video/WorldNowASX.asp?playerType=native&ClipID1=1658441&h1=Troopers%20working%20to%20tame%20th

I used to want to ride the Dragon, but I've heard too many stories of squids riding like idiots and endangering everyone else.......now I have even more reason to avoid it. I

Yeh, I've been hearing about this for a while:headshake It sucks a big fat one if you ask me. My friends and I have been planning a trip up there and are supposed to be going in about a month but, I don't know that we will with all this rediculous mess going on. I was really looking foward to the trip too:headshake

i leave tomorrow for another bike rally. I have heard so many bad things lately. I plan to spend most of my time on the sky way not the dragon

I went up to the deals gap in May this year. The 5th of May actually. And it was the best trip I have ever had. I saw 1 cop, 1 COP ON THREE DAYS OF RIDING THE DRAGON! The cop was sitting with killboy most of the time on the sides of the road watching us fly by in the corners..... I can understand why they are doing this stupid shit. It was a great time up there, and yes, I was speeding, yes, and....so fucking what. I am putting MY life in danger, yes yes I know, well I could run into someone..and yada yada. I think Deals Gap should be a use at your own risk place. Thats pretty simple. I'm glad I got the chance to conquer that bitch 15 times and walk away with no broken bones and a sport bike in one piece. But all in all, if they want to be dicks about "chasing the sport bike crowd away" be my guest. I have had a track day recently, and for the 150 bucks to go all out in a safe manner, thats the way to go. I love the track, I can safely do my insane riding and dragging knee when I want, and not worry about anyone but myself. More power to them for being cocks about the Gap. It will pass just like everything else. I will go back to the dragon, and I will speed, and killboy will still be there taking pictures.......its a publicity stunt for a little while...it will pass....

...its a publicity stunt for a little while...it will pass.... Yeah, they will see how profitable it is writing so many tickets and decide they are tired of the income... :hmmm:

Yeah, they will see how profitable it is writing so many tickets and decide they are tired of the income... :hmmm: :funny: :laughingr Those bastards:arsenal

Yeah, they will see how profitable it is writing so many tickets and decide they are tired of the income... :hmmm: considering it has been tried before I would say that it will eventually end. I live 2 hours from the dragon and I ride it fairly often. Some weekends you will see 10 cops and others you won't see any. As soon as it gets cold they will get sick of sitting out in the cold and not seeing any sportbikes and by next year they will see something else that will take there interest. The same rumour goes around on our local ride which is as close as you can get to the dragon with out really going. It is Ga State Hwy. 60,180, and 129(a.k.a. Blood Mountain) Every year some idiot wrecks and all of the stores up there say that they heard that the cops were gonna start Patrolling and they do start for about a month then they leave and stay gone awhile.

considering it has been tried before I would say that it will eventually end. I live 2 hours from the dragon and I ride it fairly often. Some weekends you will see 10 cops and others you won't see any. As soon as it gets cold they will get sick of sitting out in the cold and not seeing any sportbikes and by next year they will see something else that will take there interest. The same rumour goes around on our local ride which is as close as you can get to the dragon with out really going. It is Ga State Hwy. 60,180, and 129(a.k.a. Blood Mountain) Every year some idiot wrecks and all of the stores up there say that they heard that the cops were gonna start Patrolling and they do start for about a month then they leave and stay gone awhile. They have only done something like this scale one time, not every year. THe one year they did try it, they made the mistake of targeting sportbikes....so many cases were dismissed and it embarassed them. They have learned their lesson now, and are pulling over everybody, so they can get the sportbikes' charges to hold up in court. Again, they have NOT done this before. WHen they did before, was a one weekend "sting." They were not given state money specifically for this before, and have now. Although they say this is a "grant" that was given to them, I feel it was an investment that will pay off in the end, financially.

It can't possibly "pay off." Bikers may be crazy, but we are not really stupid. If der-coppers are camped out on the Dragon, people will go someplace else to play. Its not like that's the only twisty road in a mountain somewhere.

It can't possibly "pay off." Bikers may be crazy, but we are not really stupid. If der-coppers are camped out on the Dragon, people will go someplace else to play. Its not like that's the only twisty road in a mountain somewhere. Find a more twisty road that gets the same traffic. There's not one anywhere around. also...it's profitable to write tickets. Look into how Blount county said they'd not patrol the gap...then 3 months later said they couldn't afford not to.

I sent an email, and here it is. As I am a avid reader of many online forums, I came across the issue of the Dragon's Tail being obscenely watched, and a huge amount of Police hassling tourists. I am sorry to say, I will now be cancelling my plans to take a 3 day vacation to the local area, and spend my money elsewhere. I read that so far, you have costed the local community thousands of dollars from tourist money. While lining the pockets of yourselves, with the fine money. If the government was really concerned about the saftey of people, you would outlaw smoking, and drinking, as I can provide statistics that will show that cigarettes kill hundreds of thousands more people a year, than what drinving over or close to the speed limit. Studies have also shown that the most dangerous roads, are those where speed limits are posted at 60 mph plus. There is an obvious reason why this area is being ticketed, and it's not for safety. Why don't you release the info on how much money from fines you generated in the past few months? Thanks but no thanks for your time

Just on the Gap Thursday, saw four cops on the way up sitting waiting for speeders or other violators of the law. Its was crap having to watch out for the cops and not enjoying the road. Had to keep it at 30m.p.h. cause you dont know where the next copper is. Funny thing is on the way down saw a cop tail gating a car then about four bikes passed me going the other way a cop comes wipin up behind them, coming on my side of the double yellow(thats real safe) And behind him was a semi who left me about 2 ft of my lane,but thats O.K. harass the people on bikes. Dont go and waste your time and money until all this b.s. is over if it ever is I was going to go into Tennessee and eat lunch or what not but I decided I am going to not spend any money in tenn. If they are going to harass people for no reason. What a day on my vacation!