Riding the Dragon

Midway through the Dragon
Originally uploaded by joshherl

I made the most enjoyable purchase of my life on 9/19. As you might see, I purchased a '93 Honda ST1100 with several nice upgrades. To complete this purchase I flew one way to the Charlotte airport where I met the guy I purchased it from. In about an hour we had the paperwork completed and I was on the road back to Indy. Given that NC and TN contain some of the best motorcycling roads in the country, I had to take the long way to ride US 129, the most popular road in America, which many call the "Dragon".

My route began by riding to Asheville and spending the night. On Saturday morning I got off to an early start and was on the highway before 8am. After riding some very enjoyable 2 and 4 lane, I finally entered the Nanatahalla river recreation area. This was pretty cool and I really wanted to stop and go whitewater kayaking. Maybe someday I can get a portable yak to carry on the bike, but I digress.
I was a little confused when the road narrowed and became quite twisty. It seemed like I was on the Dragon, but it was just a basic warmup. Upon beginning the official ride I learned quickly what a cornering beast the ST1100 is. As I carved up one turn after another, I began to get stuck behind one Harley after another. Unfortunately one of the many shortcomings of the Harley is their inability to corner at any reasonable speed. Add the weight of a big Harley chick on the back and suddenly you are barely moving through the turns. I stopped 3 or 4 times to let traffic get ahead so that I could enjoy the ride. Eventually I caught up to them, but it made the ride a lot more enjoyable. As I re-entered civilization near Knoxville, traffic pickup up dramatically. The duration of the ride was smooth and uneventful with one more overnight stay a little south of Lexington. Sunday morning I made short work of the last couple hundred miles and arrived home early in the afternoon. All in all, this was a fantastic ride. I really enjoyed the freedom of just being on the bike and doing whatever I wanted as I traveled. I've now had my ST for about 2 weeks and have over 1,500 miles on it. I expect that I will be putting a whole lot of miles on this bike over the next several years.