Deals Gap - Day 1

So I went to deals gap March 24-25, 2007 with a group of Evo's and bikers on my 600RR. The weekend was fun but so much fucked up shit went wrong. The plan was to meet at 6am and leave around 7 on Saturday, get to deal's gap in the afternoon and run it once or twice the same day, hang out and get wasted Saturday night, then run the dragon and the skyway a few times on Sunday and leave in the afternoon and get home late night.

I tried to borrow a co-workers truck but then I find out that it breaks down after every two hours and since it was last notice, I didn't have enough time to fix the coolant problem (rust/calcium deposits in the coolant passages in the block is the most likely reason). We had another SUV to haul a small enclosed trailer that fits 2 bikes, but they were already reserved for two other people. We didn't leave till 8am because the driver of the SUV woke up late, then had problems leaving because the trailer detached on the road when we left waffle house... (Doh!)

So it was 3 bikers riding on our 600rr's, the SUV with trailer (+2 bike), 3 Evo's, 1 M3, and 1 WRX. We had to stop every hour because one of the 600rr riders is running a small front sprocket and larger rear sprocket so his rpm's at highway speeds are high. He could only go for like 90 miles till his gas tank is gone. And riding hours on end on the 600rr, the most uncomfortable street bike ever made, is an ass-hurting experience. After 20 mins, it becomes uncomfortable, now 6+ hours was insane.

We ended up speeding a little bit and got ahead of the SUV with the trailer. We stopped at Winston-Salem and find out that the transmission went out on the SUV and was stuck near Burlington. One of the girl's bike was on the trailer so another biker gave her a ride all the way back to Burlington to pick it up and ride it back and all the way to the dragon. We must have waited 3 hours so we just went near by mall and ended up being shopping bitches for the girls that were there. Two Evo's and the WRX guys didn't want to wait so they went ahead of us. This was also a good resting stop to take some nice photos.


We finally didn't roll out again till a bit after noon. But before we rolled out, we get a call that one of the Evo's that was ahead blew his tire out on the road near Asheville. We ended up being 10 exits behind them when they finally got back on the road.

A quarter-sized hole in the tire also plagued our trip.

Mid-afternoon, we arrived near Asheville and took a quick pit stop that turned out to be the wrong exit to get some gas. Apparently, there was a major accident right near the on ramp intersections on the road. Our BP gas station was right in front of the scene. They took over 20 minutes to lay down sand and clean up the mess when we were there. Stupidly, I turned off my engine but left the high beams on so it killed my battery right when the police allowed us to go. My friend had to push my bike a bit and I did a rolling start and headed our way back on I40.


Along the way, the boring highway with all of the long ass straight a ways, I gave one of the girls in the EVO’s my camera and she took some highway shots.

Me without my jacket, but with my new back protector I bought the day before. It was 80 degrees out and being in full black leather suit made me sweat my heart out. Every gas stop we took, I had to drink a large Gatorade.

Some wacky weirdo that rode with us… He’s suppose to be one of our friends, but I really don’t want to be scene with someone who wears a red clown nose when riding… lol

Me being stupid again; the pictures don’t really show the full effect of what I was doing, but let me tell you this. I was being stupid… It’s a three lane highway and after Ashville, the road starts to be a three lane twisty road… Yeah those shots, we were going 120+ easily and cutting 3 lanes of traffic. Once more… idiotic… but I blame myself for being young…


About an hour left from the dragon. It was getting pretty dark so we wanted to get there asap.

Some forest fire that could be scene on the highway.

Funny enough, we ran into another one of our friends near the dragon. The NSX club had a nice dragon run the same weekend. He was telling us that earlier that day, one of the NSX god fucked up when a bike crossed the double yellow lines and collided head on. The biker wasn’t seriously injured, but he definitely wasn’t fine either. He also got a ticket for crossing the lines. The NSX guy also warned us about troopers being up the road with radar, so we went 55mph on that stretch of the hwy all the way to the dragon.

We finally got there around 6pm, but first we head to the cabin/hotel and dropped our gear and then took a little trial spin on deals gap. That was probably the most fun ever. Damn switch backs were brutal, especially right after a long 300+ mile trip. I almost wrecked a few times but kept my cool, the other bikers were going at their own pace and I was taking the curves hard and fast. After I hit two dips in the road at one curve and jumped over to the on coming lane and almost ran into a yellow Ducati, I slowed down a bit after that.

On the way up the dragon, we ran behind an ambulance – no ordinary ambulance. This guy was crazy! I mean he was taking curves fast! Most of the 5, 10, 15mph, he was taking them at 20-45! That is no small feat for an ambulance. I actually had to lean over a few times just to keep up with him!

About 2/3 into the dragon, I had to stop and pull over. I couldn’t take any more curves. I was seriously dead tired and my whole body was aching from just the shear physical punishment my body was going through. I could not believe how my legs and arm muscles were burning.

My friend and I finally rested for a bit and took to the dragon once more. The sun was setting so it was time to get some dinner and call it a night. I was still riding the curves like a mad man, even though I was fatigued. Damn, I’m surprised I didn’t wreck that night. Luckily, the whole road was pretty much empty around that time. We headed back to our cabin after dinner at about 9pm. The original plan was to hang out, have ourselves a party and get drunk, but everyone of us was so dead tired from the day’s episode and omens; we just went to bed at 10pm.