2009...( 5 ) Killed on The Dragon ( 7 ) Killed on The Hellbender

Record year for death's on these two roads . This year and last has had the most law enforcement I've ever seen on these roads and I took my first pass through The Dragon and Hellbender in 1978 Below is a copy/paste from this weeks Killboy Highlights.

The crowd and skill set has changed for sure though, with a lot more novice riders coming out now that everyone knows the police have ran off all those pesky fast guys. As stated, this year we've had a record 5 fatalities, one due to speed, beating 2008's record of 4...we had never seen more than 3 in one year before that, although in 2007 we did have the 3 for that year all within a 24 hour period...itself a record. There have been 7 on Hwy 28, and we used to see MAYBE one, if any out there. I can almost guarantee that none of those were people traveling over the posted speed limit.

I don't mind scraping parts once in a while, but I know the roads I'm doing it on. Not sure I would want to scrape any on my first trip down the dragon. Thanks for the reminder to be careful

Jerry

Check the thread out on the VRCC about this topic...Click link below
http://www.valkyrieforum.com/bbs/index.php/topic,9685.0.html

Okay ... so give some advice if you don't mind. I'm hoping to make it out there next year. I've been riding for most of my life (even though I went w/o a bike for 20 years - needless to say, I did little riding during that time.) I have put about 25,000 on my bike in the past 2.5 years that I have owned it. I've ridden mountain roads (went up Pikes Peak last year as well as other roads in the Rockies), and some nice twisties in the Hill Country of Texas. All the states in my signature map I have traveled to since April 07. So I don't consider myself a novice, but at the same time ...... Any and all advice is welcomed.

PS-one of the things I am doing to prepare is to ride some of the tight twisites in my area to hone my skills, and know the limits of my bike better.

onei wrote:Okay ... so give some advice if you don't mind. I'm hoping to make it out there next year. I've been riding for most of my life (even though I went w/o a bike for 20 years - needless to say, I did little riding during that time.) I have put about 25,000 on my bike in the past 2.5 years that I have owned it. I've ridden mountain roads (went up Pikes Peak last year as well as other roads in the Rockies), and some nice twisties in the Hill Country of Texas. All the states in my signature map I have traveled to since April 07. So I don't consider myself a novice, but at the same time ...... Any and all advice is welcomed.

PS-one of the things I am doing to prepare is to ride some of the tight twisites in my area to hone my skills, and know the limits of my bike better.

It's not death and destruction and soon as you hit The Dragon in fact we have much better roads for the art of motorcycling here but The Dragon is famous. Folks from all over the world come to ride it and those numbers are the biggest reason we have so many crashes. Some folks just don't need to be ridin' these roads. Five deaths is a record for any year on The Dragon and the only reason The Hellbender is having more is the police presence in the last couple years on 129.Take a look at the link below its from this weeks front page of one of the guys that make's a living taking pictures on The Dragon.What do you see from all the riders ?????? They are all looking where they want to go ( its that simple ) always look where you want to go and if you do go down stay on the brakes till the end cause the slower you get it the less its gonna hurt.You will be fine just ride your ride and no one elses when a faster bike comes up on you move over and wave him by NEVER try to stay in front by going faster there's a reason he's up your tail-pipe in the first place ...He's going faster....And if you come up on a slower rider lay back till he waves you by or you get a safe shot around the Harley guys are bad to stay in the way and try to go faster thats why they end up on their ass in hospital or dead.Best advice I can give and I'm no expert is " Always Look Where You Want To Go " .

http://www.us129photos.com/

Smokin'joeVRCCDS#0005 wrote:
It's not death and destruction and soon as you hit The Dragon in fact we have much better roads for the art of motorcycling here but The Dragon is famous. Folks from all over the world come to ride it and those numbers are the biggest reason we have so many crashes. Some folks just don't need to be ridin' these roads. Five deaths is a record for any year on The Dragon and the only reason The Hellbender is having more is the police presence in the last couple years on 129.Take a look at the link below its from this weeks front page of one of the guys that make's a living taking pictures on The Dragon.What do you see from all the riders ?????? They are all looking where they want to go ( its that simple ) always look where you want to go and if you do go down stay on the brakes till the end cause the slower you get it the less its gonna hurt.You will be fine just ride your ride and no one elses when a faster bike comes up on you move over and wave him by NEVER try to stay in front by going faster there's a reason he's up your tail-pipe in the first place ...He's going faster....And if you come up on a slower rider lay back till he waves you by or you get a safe shot around the Harley guys are bad to stay in the way and try to go faster thats why they end up on their ass in hospital or dead.Best advice I can give and I'm no expert is " Always Look Where You Want To Go " .

In my opinion you qualify as an expert, sounds like yall had a big time on the FCR. I hated to have to cancel but as you can see in the champions thread it was worth staying home for. Looking forward to sharing the wind with you brother.

See you out there
Smokey

We had a great turn-out of motorcycle sold out two motels in fact but the weather sucked it was cold and raining much of the weekend. We got in about 150 miles saturday with dry roads and cut the ride short when it started to spit snow. This was the 6th year we've had this ride and the worse weather of any of those years . Guess people did'nt mind cause we already have Miss Reba near SELL OUT for " The Fall Color Ride 2010 " .We'll be in west Tennessee on Nov.6-7-8 for the " Shiloh National Military Park Ride-In " keeping fingers crossed for nice cool temps and dry roads.

http://www.google.com/calendar/event?eid=MDhmamtlOTNkdmQ3ZXZpOTIyNHRsazl0NmcgMjQzZ3N1dHNubnZyMmxqb2hsdm1sZDlhYmdAZw

Don't override.

Don't try to keep up or in front of anybody.

Just chill, relax, and enjoy YOUR ride.

In other words 'use a little common sense'. I've seen the 'little boy' come out in experienced riders, and that can be scary.

It's cages also, back in August some idiot in a 2009 Mustang tried to take 2 of us out by driving into the corner too hard and locking up the ABS and sliding 3/4 across our lane.

MT

All good advice in the above posts. My wife and I ride the DT and 28 quite often and MY advice is to "go out to enjoy the ride. Be polite and as Joe said above, move over when it is safe to". Don't let the tailgaters intimidate you to make irrational mistakes. They can do it for themselves. Just ride your own ride. JMHO Semper-fi MIke