Back of the Dragon Ride

Last week I left on Thursday afternoon to ride from Massachusetts to Tazwell Virginia. 800 miles each way is a long ride on a motorcycle in a short amount of time. I met 3 younger riders, all on MT 09s and all track riders. I'm 65, never been on the track and was the 4th best rider. We chose this area because it's so much less congested than the The Tail of the Dragon. It's also 32 miles vs 11 for the Tail. Beautiful area and the town has made themselves a motorcycle riding destination. We even met up with the mayor and welcomed us and asked to come back. Very laid back and comfortable place. Met up with my crew and had dinner on Friday night and then walked over to our hotel (The Old City Jail Hotel). Saturday morning we met up at the Back of the Dragon Facility. It's modern with, a bar, a store and huge amount of lounge / hang out space. There is a food truck out back that makes excellent food, way beyond what you'd expect from a truck. We took of from the to Rt 16 which is the actually BOTD route and is only 2 minutes away.

It starts out as a picturesque country road that is fast and winding. Nothing that challenging but fun. The 32 miles go up and down 2 mountains with a winding valley in the middle. Within about 10 minutes you start heading up the first mountain and the serious fun begins. The road becomes super technical and challenging. I did the Rim of the World in California on a MT 09 2 years ago and it was about the same level as this. The difference being that this time I was with 3 fast riders. Fortunately for me, my riding skills have gotten better than I realized. I had 1 secret weapon which allowed me to keep pace pretty easily. An MT 10 with Ohlins cartridges and K-Tech rear shock. Of course the 3 09s had similar suspension but the 10 is just a superior bike. The turns came so fast and were so radical you almost get to overload but once you adjust, it's a blast. Hairpin turns, back to back hairpin turns, blind corners, reduced radius blind corners, radical elevation changes, all which are unrelenting. You do this up 1 mountain and than down until you get to the valley between mountains which is like a rest period of sorts. Then you hit the 2nd mountain and the gnarly stuff begins again. Same as the first, unrelenting, ultra challenging riding. Eventually we came down the second mountain and stopped along side a beautiful mountain lake. You will encounter cars, trucks and Harleys throughout the ride but not too many. Most of the cars and trucks can only negotiate at 5 - 10 mph. That's how radical a lot of parts of this road is. Fortunately most pull over or it's easy to blast by them. Harleys are a mixed bag. They're all moving in slow motion, some will pull aside, the majority only ride up to the few scenic overviews and hang around and do whatever they do. But then.....there are the ones that don't want to be passed and get angry and try to make it difficult to pass. Fortunately, except for how much road they take up, they're defenseless against a sport bike and you pick a spot and drive around them. A few things of note. You don't have to be a GP caliber rider to ride here. It's beautiful and scenic and you can go at your own pace and have a great time and still be challenged but safe. If you have any ideas of trying to ride fast, make sure you have excellent tires. I had EBC brake pads and still put on a new set so that I had excellent trail braking feel. If your suspension is not good and set up correctly (not what you guess is correct) and you try and rip through a place like this, odds are you're going to crash. I frequently found myself leaned over further than I had ever been before and also realized my head was parallel to the pavement quite a few times. It's not a forgiving place to crash. If you don't have a total command of counter steering and trail braking, don't try and ride above a leisurely pace. Leisurely out here can be the ride of a lifetime. If you're an experienced rider and know how to ride fast, you'll fall in love with this place. The pavement / roads are in excellent condition. It's especially cool as you can experience how good an MT 10 is. 

This place is made for motorcycle vacations. There's not a lot of other things to do. It's all rural and farms everywhere. The other amazing thing is that as far and long as you want to ride, virtually every road is twisty and scenic. You're probably in the middle of a few hundred miles of non stop best rides you'll ever encounter through VA, TN, WV NC and KY.  We found good restaurants, friendly people everywhere we went. Another major note: Tazwell is the county seat so the sheriff dept is there. You see them occasionally around town but there appears to be zero speed limit enforcement. We rode like grannies in the town centers we encountered but other than that, we rode as fast as we wanted. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.      

Video that one of our crew took on the lower easy sections

Some pictures: