The New And Improved Unofficial R65 Forum V2
General Category => Totally Off-Topic Discussions, Rants, Tire & Oil Threads, Etc. => Topic started by: Lucky_Lou on August 17, 2017, 12:43:40 AM
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Going to be here at the end of September along with other interesting places.
It was part of a "Deal" struck with Her Indoors for our USA trip, the compromise ..... we will be on 4 wheels not 2 as Wifey wont ride.
Lou
http://tailofthedragonmaps.com/tail-of-the-dragon-loop/
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Hi Lou. Enjoy yourself but not too much. I live a few hours away and that stretch of roadway has become so popular and so many idiots think they can treat it like a raceway that it has become the most patrolled road in the state. If the speed limit sign says 30 mph and you are doing 31 mph you will get a hefty fine. Please don't ask me how I know.
Check a map. There are other roads just a few miles away in the same area that are every bit as twisty but don't have a reputation. Any one of them will give you more thrills than you could ask for.
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I have driven it twice. By car 1st in my TR3A and the the wife's Pontiac Soltices. Have been in the area on the bikes but it was on a weeken. Won't even try to on a weekend. To many fouls for me. When ever I get up the way during the week will ride then. To many other great roads to ride than worrying about what is coming around the next turn on the dragon.
Don
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Lou,
If you're in the Deals Gap area you MUST do the Cherohala Skyway...one of the best roads I've ridden in a car and on motorcycle!
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Lou, too bad you won't be able to do it on two wheels! :'( But, one must listen to "She Who Must Be Obeyed" whether it makes sense or not! Maybe somebody down that way might led you a set of wheels for a quick trip?
Suraklyn and I spent a weekend riding the Dragon and surrounding twisties a few years ago and it was a BLAST!
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Lou,
If you're in the Deals Gap area you MUST do the Cherohala Skyway...one of the best roads I've ridden in a car and on motorcycle!
Going to be driving out from Nashville via Chattanooga and Tellico Plains which then takes us on the Skyway. I may leave the Dragon alone and scoot round the Moonshiner 28 if there are too many "Hot heads" out on the road.
Lou
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I have driven it twice. By car 1st in my TR3A and the the wife's Pontiac Soltices. Have been in the area on the bikes but it was on a weeken. Won't even try to on a weekend. To many fouls for me. When ever I get up the way during the week will ride then. To many other great roads to ride than worrying about what is coming around the next turn on the dragon.
Don
Lucky you, the TR3A.... has to be one of the best fun cars ever built, here in the UK you wont get any change from £30k if you are lucky enough to find one. My Dad had a Sunbeam Alpine which was another lovely classic from that period.
Lou
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My Dad had a Sunbeam Alpine which was another lovely classic from that period.
Your version of "lovely" and mine diverge somewhat. A Sunbeam Alpine was in fact my first car. Lest that strike you as odd, a workmate of my father used three Alpines to build one and was looking for a way to divest himself of the remnants and I thought the Alpine was "neat".
My parents allowed me to buy the thing as they thought it would be a good lesson for me and they also thought I had Buckley's chance of ever putting it back together.
They underestimated both how much I had learned and how determined I was.
I had the thing screwed back together and able to be registered just in time to go for my driver's licence test (which sensibly I did not do in the Alpine, but in my mother's Morris 1100 ( a vehicle that the USA was smart enough to prevent import of).
I briefly used the Alpine as a "daily driver" for when I couldn't ride a motorcycle, but it was so problematic (particularly in wet weather) that I bought another car that started, stopped when it was supposed to and which had a proper roof to keep rain and wind out.
Some random memories of the Alpine:-
The "X" chassis was so weak that if you accidentally parked with one wheel as little as 1" higher than the others after 30 minutes you couldn't open the doors.
Armstrong lever-action shocks are an instrument of torture
Laycock De-Normanville overdrive units - enough said, anyone who has ever had one of the blasted things knows...
Cross-flow radiators with the filler insufficiently above the radiator.
Lucas electrics and Smiths instruments (the only things that come close in motorcycle world are Spanish Femsa magnetos and Italian Veglia instruments
Wire wheels with splines made of cheddar cheese.
etc.
But on a fine day when the cursed thing was running well and a member of the opposite sex was accompanying, it was a very fine thing indeed.
I actually refused to believe that the Tiger could be as bad as the Alpine and in a complicated deal I sold the Alpine and ended up with cash and a "fixer-upper" Tiger. In today's world a newly licenced driver is not allowed to drive such things. I am put in mind of the test-pilot report on the Westlands Pterodactyl - "Access to the cockpit is difficult, it should be made impossible."
As you can guess I am even less of a fan of the Tiger than the Alpine - to my dismay it had all the hated faults of the Alpine whilst being able to reach "warp factor 10" on straight level roads. Fortunately I found someone else with a desire to own it.
And if you think my review of what some people mistakenly believe was the Rootes Group's finest accomplishment (it wasn't, the Hillman GT or Hustler in Australia was) ask me for my opinion of Vincent Rapide. Shadows and Lightnings.
Mind you, in the here and now I'd own any off the above in a heartbeat for the "right" price.
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My first car was a 1972 Humber sceptre, same 1725cc engine and output as the Hunter GT with twin Strombergs and overdrive on 3rd and 4th. The only problem I had with the overdrive was when some dumb mechanic put in thick gear oil and when operated the gear would change a further half a mile further down the road. Refilling with engine oil fixed it.
Setting up the twin carbs was fun. There was so much slack in the mechanism you had to sort of pre-load one side to get them both opening together. Then I had to rebuild the engine when a big end bearing shell welded itself to the crank journal 200 miles from home.
It was a great 1st car and a I learned a lot in my time with it.
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I like the direction this thread has taken... our first cars.
Mine was a Blue 1968 Ford Cortina then i progresed to a Hillman Imp California.. two tone Green and White (babe magnet [smiley=cool.gif]). i had to rebuild the gearbox which suprizingly still worked after i tinkered with it and had some bits left over after re assembley.
Lou
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My first car was a 1966 Datsun 1600 Roadster (Fairlady outside the US). Pale yellow convertible, 4 cylinder 5 speed and with your backside just inches from the ground everything seemed like you were flying. I could hang my arm over the top of the door and lean out a little and almost touch the ground.
Damn it was fun to drive but it had two flaws. One it had two sidedraft SU carbs that had to be sync'd weekly. They were the fiddliest things I had ever seen but I learned a lot about engines with multiple carbs. Two it had a needle bearing in the flywheel for the transmission input shaft to ride on that was poorly lubricated. Bearing failed, input shaft shifted and goodby 1st and 2nd gear. After the 3rd 300 mile plus trip to a salvage yard to buy a used gearbox I sold it and moved on to a VW Kombi.
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I sold it and moved on to a VW Kombi.
I'm very fond of Kombis, I got even more fond of them once I bought one with a Type IV engine.
We still harbour one which has now, at great expense to the management, not only had a ground up restoration, but had the EA82T Subaru engine removed and replaced with a Type IV (albeit a late Type IV with hydraulic cam followers, wasserboxer oil pump, external cooler with its own scavenge pump and additional 2lt of oil. Sylvia set sail in early march and drove it to Western Australia, she almost made it back too. After 18,000km the front pump in the Auto Union automatic disintegrated at Mackay, 780km from home, so the journey finished on a truck.
To borrow from Maxwell Smart "missed it by that much".
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Well I made it... the accomodation at Tapoco was well worth the effort had a great time in the Smokey Mountains and only saw one Cop all weekend. The Skyway was much better than the Dragon too much concentration required on the bends and there was the occasion hot head to dodge. I have some photos to post but struggling with my phone so I will post them later when I get home in a couple of weeks. Lou
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Lou, if you want to take a pit-stop in Texas I'd be more than happy to throw some ribs or a brisket on the smoker.
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PM sent Justin....
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Replied with e-mail...
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Many thanks Justin.. i still think you should make the wall mounted BMW rondel ....damn the torpedoes. Lou
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Lou - It was great fun having you and your lovely wife stop by. As far as the "wall art", remember, I still have to live here so maybe out in the garage! ;)
Come back anytime!
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Well survived the Dragon.. Just quite hard work concentration required on them bends plus dodging the occasional idiot...on one of the limited straight bits a Harley decided to do a U turn in front of me and stalled it in the middle of the road, those who know the road will understand the stupidity of that move. There are limited view points , the lake is one of them.
I much prefered the Skyway plenty of bends safe pull off areas and the excellent Thunder Mountain café.
Thanks again Justin for the Hospitality, Managed to see some of our Dallas/Denton members too... had a great trip drove over 1500 miles only on the Interstate when I had to be.
Lou
I see Photobucket are trying to extract funds from me... I will find another way...
https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipNEytFhrihZP9LQ-fO-GFQ6XvFXP2aMtcuKgiQ0
https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipMLI_IknEMEp0UVwLiTx70MEJNEHE6z7EKtmVf-
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Glad you enjoyed the Skyway...great 30 miles of pavement in a car or on a motorcycle!