Small Scooters are only good for riding around town.

[klaviator]

I guess that small scooters are designed for urban transportation.  With their small size, low weight and not much power scooters are often thought of by riders of "real bikes" as boring, slow and only good for low speed, around town riding. 

Well I guess I am weird or something.  I use mine for more, a lot more. 

Yes, I did buy my first scooter, A Kymco Super 8 150 to commute around town.  Once I discovered how much fun it was to ride I soon found myself riding it places where most people wouldn't expect a small scooter to be ridden.  After 33,300+ miles I sold that Super 8 but not before buying a replacement.

Recently I decided to take that replacement scooter out and do some things it wasn't really designed for.  I headed up to Tellico Plains, Tennessee.  My plan was to escape the heat of Alabama and ride some mountain roads.  On of those mountain roads would be probably the most famous motorcycle road in the world.  Riders come from all over the world on exotic motorcycles and cars to "slay the dragon"!  Could I do it on a tiny 150cc scooter?

I left early on Sunday morning, made it to the Cherohala Mountain trail Campground, set up my tent and headed out for a ride.  I started by riding over the Cherohala Skyway which climbs to nearly 6000 feet before descending back down in North Carolina. 

I made it over the Skyway and was cruising along when I saw a single headlight behind me.  I thought he would pass but he didn't.  Finally he pulled beside me and signaled he wanted to talk.  So I pulled over and stopped.  I was expecting to be asked directions but instead he said: "You're klaviator."  It turns out he had been following my ongoing ride report on ADV and knew I would be in the area so when he saw me on my white scooter he turned around and chased me down.  We talked for a few minutes and then headed off in separate directions.  Pretty cool and not the first time this has happened to me. 

I took a pic before we rode off.

[klaviator]

I continued towards Deal's Gap.  There are some very scenic and curvy roads in the area.



17 cents a gallon?  That's even before my time although I do remember 28 cents per gallon.



I got to the Deal's gap motorcycle resort, parked and took a break.



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It was pretty quiet here.  The parking lot is often filled with all kinds of motorcycles and occasionally a scooter but rarely any scooters as small as mine.

While hanging out there i ran into some old friends from Virginia that I used to ride with back in my sportbike days.  After talking a bit we decided to ride through the "dragon".  That's the tourist term for US129 at Deal's Gap which is claimed to have 318 curves in 11 miles.  We rode 9.3 miles to the overlook and took a break.

My two friends:



The guy on the left is 70 years old and still rides a motorcycle with around 150 horsepower!

Another pic with me in it.



Then I headed back to Tellico Plains.  I had a chance to practice one of my other hobbies; Scootography. 

[klaviator]

I got on the road fairly early the next morning and headed towards Deal's Gap. 



The early morning light was great for taking pictures.



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After riding around 65 miles of curvy roads in the cool morning air I got to Deal's Gap where I ate a great breakfast.

[john grinsel]

I see nothing wrong with using small displacement scooter for everything---need to stay in slow lane, understand there are performance limits----last time working in Korea, my Daelim 125 scooter provided transportation/fun while my Kawasaki Concours rested in my shed----of 4 2 stroke Vespas, I liked 150 best--smoother than 200, took wide open on Autobahn all day.

Advancing age means I may look at a Like next spring.

[klaviator]

On the mountain roads I was on this weekend there are mostly two lane roads, no fast lane or slow lane.  Even on my 150cc scooter I was going faster than a lot of the traffic there.  Luckily many of the drivers were courteous and would pull over and pass when I came up behind them. 

After breakfast I hung out a bit with my two friends whe were stating at the Deal's Gap Motorcycle Resort.  Two of us needed to make phone calls.  There is no signal at Deal's Gap so we rode down 28 to Fontana where there is a signal.  28 is a fun, twisty road.  For some reason I was not quite able to keep up with my friends, I can't quite figure out why



Afterwards we split up.  They continued down 28 while I took a super twisty local road that few of the tourists know about so it has no traffic on it.

We met up back at Deal's gap, hung out a bit then I we went off riding again. I went back to ride that twisty road again. I took a little detour to this spot.



Then I turned off on a road I had never ridden before. This road would be phenomenal if it didn't have a real rough surface. When I get a new dual sport bike I'll come back and ride it again.

All this riding was making my scooter thirsty so I treated it to some Jet Fuel!



Then it was back to Deal's Gap before heading out again. Then time it was to one of my favorite local picture spots.



Then it was time to ride some curves!



On roads like this the limiting factor on how fast you can ride is not how much power your bike has, it is rider skill and how much cornering clearance your bike has.



Another thing small scooters aren't really designed for is riding off road.  Well I wanted to see where this trail went, so I rode it.



Then it was back to Deal's Gap to hang out a bit.  It's an interesting place to hang out and watch bikes and people.



 A group of Boss Hoss motorcycles rode in.



485 HP



Despite all the horsepower I'll bet these bikes were incredibly slow on any kind of twisty road.



Then it was time to head back to the campground.  I rode the dragon one more time.  I stopped to take a picture of one of the hundreds of curves.



I only rode a little over 200 miles that day but given how curvy the roads were it was a lot of fun.

[leomagnus]

Those are some awesome pictures Klav. I have mostly beach scenery around here, although I may take a ride through the NH/VT area one of these years. Its hard to find people to ride with in my area, especially on scooters.

Dean

[klaviator]

Those are some awesome pictures Klav. I have mostly beach scenery around here, although I may take a ride through the NH/VT area one of these years. Its hard to find people to ride with in my area, especially on scooters.

Dean

Let's face it, the vast majority of small scooter owners just ride them around town, or barely ride them at all.  Getting them to actually go out on a ride is like pulling teeth.  But there are a few who actually ride.  There are some who ride way more than I do.  There is one guy on ADV who has two Honda Elite 110 scooters.  I think one of them has over 80,000 miles on it.  He recently bought a new Honda Super Cub (125cc) in Little Rock, Ar and rode it back to California in a few days! 

The problem is finding those other scooter riders.  I have had good luck on the Adventure Rider forum.  In August I set up a ride in Maggie Valley, NC.  I got 9 other riders from OH, MI, FL, TN, AL and SC to join me.  So if you want to find other scooter riders to join you check for local forums or groups on Face Book.  I would also check out the Battle Scooters forum on ADV:  https://advrider.com/f/forums/battle-scooters.36/

[klaviator]

I got on the road at 7:30 the next morning hoping for good light for pictures. I went over the Skyway it was coooold.  Well it wouldn't have been cold if I had been dressed properly.  I did get some pics.



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[DanH]

You're living my dream, buddy. Great pictures. I tried to visualize your ride from Tellico Plains to Deal's Gap on this map. I'm not sure which stretch of road is the "dragon" in need of slaying?

[klaviator]

You're living my dream, buddy. Great pictures. I tried to visualize your ride from Tellico Plains to Deal's Gap on this map. I'm not sure which stretch of road is the "dragon" in need of slaying?

The map you posted only shows a very small part of the "dragon".  The dragon, also called the "tail of the Dragon" is mostly in TN and is shown on the following map:




The Dragon has all the hype and is a fun road but there are more twisty and challenging roads in the area that have far less traffic.  The dragon is a huge tourist attraction.  There are multiple photographers wet up taking everyone's pic as they ride through.  There are hundreds of different "dragon" T shirts sold in the area so you can buy a t shirt and prove to everyone that you "slew the dragon."  Normally I tend to mostly ride the less crowded roads but on this trip I just felt like hanging around Deal's Gap and riding the local roads.

[klaviator]

Another interesting thing in the area is the "fugitive dam".  If you saw the movie "the fugitive" then you may remember the dam that Harrison Ford jumped from.  That dam is the Cheoh Dam which around a mile from Deal's Gap.  I didn't take a pic of it on this trip but here's one from a previous ride.

[klaviator]

I took a couple of more pics on 143 between the Skyway and Robbinsville.  BTW, 143 is a great twisty road and I like it batter than the Skyway itself.



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Then I stopped at the McDs in Robbinsville for breakfast.

[klaviator]

US129 runs through Robbinsville and goes to Deal's Gap where it becomes "the dragon" for 11 miles.  I29 is the route the vast majority of people take to get from Robbinsville to Deal's Gap.

They don't know what they are missing.  There are some nice detours along the way.  I took a couple of them.



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This walking bridge over the Cheoah River is right off of 129.



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This bridge is off of 129 and leads to a couple of long dead end gravel roads.



I stopped at the Deal's Gap Motorcycle resort and hung out a bit.  Then it was time for a run through the dragon.  I pulled out of the parking lot, started up the hill, and lost power.

Uh Oh!

But I was pretty sure I knew what it was.  I rolled back into the parking lot, removed the pet carrier and one cowling.  Yep, the spark plug cap had come loose.  I put it back on and headed off again. 

I rode part of the way through and came to this:



One lane was closed ahead.  I didn't feel like waiting right now so I turned around, rode a bunch of curves then stopped and took a break.  I had a bag of nuts and some water so I had lunch beside the road watching bikes go by.

Then it was time to ride some more.  I rode past the construction which was a crew repairing a guardrail.  I decided to take a little side trip to check out a scenic spot on the little Tennessee River.




I headed back up towards Deal's Gap.  One of the things about the dragon is that there are a lot of accidents there.  I wasn't surprised to see the evidence of a previous crash so I turned around and checked it out.



It wasn't so much a crash as a near crash.  It looks like the car took out a small sapling but then stopped.

[CROSSBOLT]

Just like the difference between a pilot and an Aviator....the 10 dollar junk fiddle sounds like a Stratevarius in  Master's hand....nice pictures! ADVrider is a world forum, very active, night and day!

[klaviator]

As I was taking the skidmark pics a couple of tiny motorcycles, a Grom and a Z125 went by headed for the overlook.  I have always wondered how a small scooter would compare to those bikes so I went after them.  I caught up to them at the overlook.  They were getting ready to ride back through the dragon.  The Z125 took off so I followed.  It was pretty much every thing I could do to keep up.  I suspect he was running flat out as well.  It was full throttle down every straight, brake then lean through the curves.  It was basically a race......in slow motion.  We caught up to a couple of cars but they pulled over and let us pass.  The guy in the Grom eventually caught up to us.  The Grom was heavily modified and a bit faster.  It had a loud exhaust and sounded like a much bigger bike.  I let the Grom by and followed.  I managed to snap a pic on one of the straights.



There are a bunch of photographers set up on this road.  Afterwards I bought one of the pics taken during this run.



When we got to Deal's Gap I got a pic with the Z125 in it but the Grom was off getting gas.



That run was the highlight of my trip.  Yes we were running flat out on public roads but we were on tiny underpowered bikes and not really going very fast.  If I ran my Versys flat out through the dragon I'd be approaching triple digit speeds in some spots.  That's one of the nice things about riding a small scooter.