Deals Gap Trip 2011

The last couple of years myself and a friend have been going down south to ride the great roads in NC, TN and northern GA. The last couple of times we've had various people tag along but none of them have ever made the entire trip for one reason or another. This year was no different. Also, this was my first year riding something other than my VFR. Needless to say, I was a little nervous about taking my 'under powered, little' WRR /X that far south. I wondered how it would handle some of the long stretches of slab, the endless twisties, the elevation changes in the mountains and the miles that would be required in such a short time. I would soon find out! Anyway, on with the pics.

This was me in 2010 on the Dragon riding my VFR. I did almost 2500 miles in 5 days last year without a single problem with machine or rider.


This years weapon.
All loaded up waiting for my friends' arrival to begin our trip.


Headed down through Maryland on some back roads and ended up taking a little Ferry ride. We waited for 25 minutes in 90 degree heat for a 5 minute ride.


Ended up finding some dirt and gravel roads through MD. The other guys weren't to happy with my GPS route. Oops.


Finally made it to Skyline Dr.


We rode Skyline and started a little bit of the Blue Ridge Parkway and got a room for the night.


The next day we got up and continued riding down the B.R. Prkwy. The weather was perfect!




One of the stops along the Blue Ridge this guy walked over to us and proceeded to sit down next to us. He never said a word or asked for anything. It was sort of strange.


Finally made it to N.C.!


This year's tag-a-long rider had a minor off. Well, it would have been more minor had he been wearing the proper gear. This 25mph low side resulted in some pretty good road rash and would end his trip. I used to always preach ATGATT. But at the end of the day it's a free country and people will wear what they want. Unbelievably, after the crash he said he still won't wear gear in the hot weather.


...and then there was 2. It was probably a good thing as the roads are much more technical down south as a lot of you know. Our tag'a'long friend would have been in way over his head. A thought I had before the trip when I heard he was coming. Anyway, This was taken somewhere along the Cherohala.


Made it to the Dragon. It wasn't to crowded as it was later in the day.


Did a couple of passes on the Dragon.






Got back to the store and saw this. Well that's not good.


Since it was on the right side and I didn't see any oil on my tire, I decided to ride the dragon a few more times while I had the chance. I picked up the pace a bit on the next few passes.




I don't have to many other picture after that. We had allotted 2 days to get home via the B.R. Prkwy and Skyline Dr. But based on my fork issue we decided to cut out some of the back roads and started to slab it home. I rode 500 miles of the dreaded interstate doing 75-80 the entire way. By the time I got home my right fork felt like it had no oil left in it and my GYTR pipe was cracked.

Front


Back


Overall the WR did great! We did 2200 miles in 4 days! It was so much fun in the tight technical roads that NC and TN have to offer. I would have liked a little more power in some places but for the most part the bike was fine. I was able to carry so much more speed into and through the turns than in years past on other bikes. I was sold on the bike before the trip because of its dirt capabilities. But even more so now that it handles the street and long distance rides so well too! This bike really can go 'ANYWHERE' and do it all!

It is currently apart getting some repairs done to it.


But once it's back together, I'll put the R wheels back on and get back to some dirt action!

Nice pics. One question: what made you switch to the WR? Wouldn't the other/ex bike be more suitable for a trip like this?

A little history: I got back into dirt early last year after a nearly 20 year hiatus. I bought a DRZ400 but I hated that bike and bought an XR650 instead. But it was way to heavy off road. I then bought the WRR. Once I started riding dirt again my VFR just sat. I had it owned it for 3-4 years and didn't ride it for 6 months. That had previously been unheard of as it was my daily rider. So I decided to sell it and stick with dirt. That left me with only the R in the garage. I was planning on purchasing something else for the street this year. However, over the winter I was offered the X wheels for a great price. So I bought them and started using the bike for commuting during the week with the X setup and switching to the R wheels for dirt on the weekends. It's performed great in all aspects for me and I haven't really wanted anything else. So basically, I didn't switch to the WRR on purpose. It just sort of happened that way. Down the line I'll probably get something else. But for now, I'm perfectly content. Sorry for the long winded answer.

trav72 wrote:

Sorry for the long winded answer.

Don't be sorry, it's a very good answer!

Kudos on the brief trip report, very nice.

And for averaging 550 miles per day, including the Dragon and some dirt. Not sure I could do that on any bike, let alone my WR250X!

Good RR Trav.

deerHater wrote:

And for averaging 550 miles per day, including the Dragon and some dirt. Not sure I could do that on any bike, let alone my WR250X!

The miles weren't as easy as they were on the VFR last year that's for sure. Not because of wind blast or anything. But because of the seat. I had a nice Sargent on my VFR and I have a seat concepts seat with firm foam on the WR. Well, it's not firm enough and really started to get soft after hours of use. It started to feel like I was sitting on the plastic pan and became pretty painful. It's obviously better than the stock seat. But it's no where near the quality of my previous Sargent or Corbin seats. Next time I'll have to add an airhawk or similar. Something I was hoping to avoid by purchasing the seatconcepts seat. The only thing that save me were the endless twisty's that had me constantly moving around on the seat. But I didn't sit right for a day or so from the 500 mile slab ride home.