I live about 45 miles from the Dragon but had yet to ride it. So since it was so nice out today and I had the day off, I decided to go!

Man, what a ride! They say that motorcyclist come from all over the US to ride that 11 mile ribbon of asphalt...Today I saw bikes from TX, Wisconsin, OK, and FL.

To be honest I had a grin on my face the whole time like a kid on a carnival ride!

Has anyone else ridden it? It's on the TN/NC stateline.

On vacation in michigan I ran into a guy with a T-shirt from there.  The back of the shirt had a map of sorts, with the Dragon in red.  Looks like it'd be a hell of a lot of fun.

Actually riders from around the world come to run the Dragon.

I haven't done it yet, but some do it at INCREDIBLE speeds...

Quoted: Quoted: On vacation in michigan I ran into a guy with a T-shirt from there.  The back of the shirt had a map of sorts, with the Dragon in red.  Looks like it'd be a hell of a lot of fun. we have some fun roads up here

Yeah, you do.  Especially up towards Houghton and Eagle Harbor in 'da UP

Then again, the ozarks have some fun roads too, and they're much closer to me.  But MO generally has crappy roads, so the fun roads here are best done in a good handling car. Wouldn't want to try some of them on a bike with MO's habit of "patching" potholes by just dumping oil on the asphalt and hoping the problem goes away.

The Dragon is a great road, I've done it several times.  It's very tight with no long straights so 35mph is fast on it.  Be very careful not to go across center, there may be someone coming the other direction and most all the corners are blind.  Ride it during the week if you can.  It's packed with sport bike riders (squids) on the weekend.

Another road in the same area I actually like better is the Cherohala Skyway.  It's a new (5-6 years old) road at a high elevation in the mountains between Robbinsville, NC and Tellico Plains, TN.  You have to have a pretty new map to see it.  You can ride it faster than the Dragon, all the curves are long sweepers and there is not much traffic.  It's about 50 miles long.

I had never been on US421 between Bristol, TN and Boone, NC until a few weeks ago.  It's the best kept secret in great roads.  There are two mountain ranges you go over and both are a lot like the Dragon.  There is a little town called Shady Valey in between the mountains with a country store that caters to the bikers.  Not much traffic and very senic roads in all directions.  Take highway 133 north from Shadey Valley to see the "World's Shortest Tunnel".

I drive down this section of road on the way to a mtn biking destination. I've only driven it in a car once. Trucks most of the time. This is one great section of road! There are a lot of other great drives in and around the Smokies too.