On May 26 I traveled to Robbinsville, N.C. with my son and one of my brothers for three days of
riding in North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia and South Carolina. We trailered our bikes down to
Robbinsville from the Northeast and stayed at Dragon's Rest Cabins. The bikes we rode were my 2013
ZX-14, my son on a 2004 ZX-6R and my brother on a 1985 Goldwing.
The first day (27th) consisted of a trip up and down the Dragon, a trip out and back on the Cherohala
and a second trip up and down the Dragon. What a fantastic day apart from a minor mishap on The
Dragon for my son which resulted in only cosmetic damage to his 636 - nothing Gorilla tape couldn't
fix. The weather forecast 24 hours out showed an 80% chance of rain; instead we had wall to wall
sunshine throughout the day - God is good! Traffic on the Cherohala was pretty light which allowed my
son and I to rail through at a pretty good pace - good enough for me to rash the lower right fairing
and send sparks my sons way on several occasions - giddy up!
The second day consisted of Moonshiner 28 from Deal's Gap down to Wayah Rd to Hywy 64 to 76 on into Georgia and South Carolina. We then took 28 on back to Robbinsville. We got pretty soaked by some heavy rain in the afternoon but had a great day anyway.
The third day consisted of US 129 to the Foothills Parkway. On the run up The Dragon we were passed
by 30 to 50 Vipers going in the other direction. The sound of all those big V-8's was just
fantastic. From the Foothills Pkwy we took Wears Valley Rd to Little River Rd. I have been on Little River Road on previous occasions where the traffic was terrible; on this occasion it was a great ride without a great deal of rolling road blocks. At the end of the day my son and I did one last run up and down The Dragon.
Prior to the trip I dumped the Metzeler Sportech M5's that came on the bike in favor of Pirelli
Diablo Rosso Corsa's. I've run Pirelli's on my 636 (track bike) and really like them. On the 14
however the wear rate is quite high - I'll be lucky to get 3k miles out of them. I'll probably switch
back to the Metzelers since the wear rate on them was much better and the grip was quite good for a
tire designed more for sport-tour.