Scooter'd never pull these Smokey Mountain switch-backs!

[Stig / Major Tom]

Was reminded how often my young wife & I rode the Berkshires in 1st gear on our white Honda 90 in the 60's.
I think I paid $280 new in Mass. (though that might have been for the Martin guitar?)
Needed 1st and 2nd gear a lot....including the descents with those drum brakes!
Scooter would never have worked....right? No engine braking would be a problem, as well.
Our rental Chrysler minivan is straining its guts out climbing the super steep switch backs to our rental cabin here in the Smokies.
Surely would need a motorcycle living up here.

That little aircooled Honda 90 never faltered.....

Stig

[TBR125]

A scooter can do it if needed to as I have done for the last few years. Definitely a place for light weights and a powerful contra spring. I think a k-pipe would be a neat machine for these hills.

[klaviator]

Was reminded how often my young wife & I rode the Berkshires in 1st gear on our white Honda 90 in the 60's.
I think I paid $280 new in Mass. (though that might have been for the Martin guitar?)
Needed 1st and 2nd gear a lot....including the descents with those drum brakes!
Scooter would never have worked....right? No engine braking would be a problem, as well.
Our rental Chrysler minivan is straining its guts out climbing the super steep switch backs to our rental cabin here in the Smokies.
Surely would need a motorcycle living up here.

That little aircooled Honda 90 never faltered.....

Stig

I ride those Smokey Mountain Switchbacks all the time on my scooters as well as my motorcycles.  The scooters work just fine, both uphill and downhill.  The motorcycles are faster but on the really tight curves I think the scooters are more fun.  I'll be headed for North Carolina tomorrow morning to ride a bunch of those switchbacks for 4 days next week along with around 30 other scooter riders.  I'm be riding my Like150i.  Its a little slow going up the steeper hills but I have yet to find a paved road so steep that it couldn't make it up the hill.

I'll be riding this road again this year:



One of the scooters riding with me last year was a Buddy 125.  It was slower than the Like but still did fine.

[klaviator]

The secret to riding those really tight and steep switchbacks on a scooter is to ride a good line around it and keep as much speed as possible. 

One of my favorite roads has this sign at the beginning.

[john grinsel]

Korea, few years ago, my new Daelim 125 rubber band drive scooter----one trail near my house, scooter would not pull, solution:  get off and run along side---trail was one lane, very steep.

[Stig / Major Tom]

Yeah, my fault for not being clear....
I'm not talking about winding and steep public roads. I'm talking about the private 'drives' which renters have to negotiate to reach their cabins.
Most of the steep reversals require a near full stop, using 100% of the car's turning radius to negotiate.  This repetitive full stop, full power
climbing would be brutal on a scooter after afew dozen.
The brakes would be stinking, if I still had any, by  the time I got down to the main road in the valley.
One more hair dryer, dog bowl or bottle of wine in the back of this new Chrysler would have sent it into "full arrest".
Again, the view is spectacular. ...and for only $200 you can ride the zip-line down....
Stig
 

[Stig / Major Tom]

I am simply amazed by a couple of the driveways I've seen coming down out of the trees to the main road here in the Smokies. The steepness and length of two of them are of the OMG category as they disappear up into the trees. I wouldn't roof a house that steep.
Daughter suggested maybe the wife lets the car down with a winch?
Crazy. Negotiating that every day....and in the rain!
Well, us northerners are easily impressed....
Stig

[TBR125]

I would love to come ride with the group klav but my job makes it harder to have extended fun rides.

I live here Stig and am still impressed. Don't know how ice is handled.

[randyo]

A scooter can do it if needed to as I have done for the last few years. Definitely a place for light weights and a powerful contra spring. I think a k-pipe would be a neat machine for these hills.

really a k-pipe, do you like rowing the shifter ?      but say Deals Gap, where it ain't really a lot of vertical,   I'm gonna hafta make a trailer for my k-pipe, that I can tow with my V-strom

[TBR125]

Can't be worse than a 4 speed Lifan ML-100.

[randyo]

Can't be worse than a 4 speed Lifan ML-100.

ok, I will admit, I would probably beat you in a race on the hill coming up to my house,  after about a third mile head start on 1%, and getting sometimes to 50mph, if the wind is going it the right direction, the next third mile is 18% quickly back to 3rd, then 2nd, and even into 1st sometimes, if I don't get a good start. If I'm not going 40+ at the bottom, I'll be in 1st before the top, then I hit the crest, and I'm right back up to 4th, I'm slower than a loaded dump truck

[klaviator]

Yeah, my fault for not being clear....
I'm not talking about winding and steep public roads. I'm talking about the private 'drives' which renters have to negotiate to reach their cabins.
Most of the steep reversals require a near full stop, using 100% of the car's turning radius to negotiate.  This repetitive full stop, full power
climbing would be brutal on a scooter after afew dozen.
The brakes would be stinking, if I still had any, by  the time I got down to the main road in the valley.
One more hair dryer, dog bowl or bottle of wine in the back of this new Chrysler would have sent it into "full arrest".
Again, the view is spectacular. ...and for only $200 you can ride the zip-line down....
Stig

If you can drive it in a minivan I'm pretty sure I can ride it on my scooter.  But I know what you are talking about.  If it's really steep and also gravel then I'd much rather do it on my KLX.  On the other hand I'd rather do one of those steep driveways on a small scooter than a big and heavy motorcycle.

A couple few years ago we had a family reunion and rented a cabin on a really steep mountainside near Gatlinburg.  The roads were so steep my mom was afraid to drive them and I ended up driving her car up and down the mountain.  I think some of the grades coming out of tight turns were probably around 30%.  I didn't bring a scooter on that trip but after driving and hiking those roads I really wished I had.  I still had my Super 8 at the time and it would have been a blast on those super steep, twisty and narrow roads.  My brother rides a Harley and he said no way would he want to ride those on his Harley.

[leomagnus]

Looks like fun Klav. I rode a lot of steep hills in Rome with 180 deg hairpin turns on my Honda 50 and 150. It was a blast, so I suspect you guys should have no problems. Just turn your head in the direction you want to go and trust you tire rubber...assuming you have good tires 

Dean

[Stig / Major Tom]

OK, you might only smoke the begeepers out of the scooter clutch going up....but I maintain you'd have no brakes left at the bottom of this private drive....requiring a very quick dismount as you shot, screaming, across both lanes of the highly traveled highway at the bottom. It is very much like coming off of a roof down there.
If you were lucky, the brakes would have melted in one of the stopping-switchbacks part way down and you'd just be in the shrubs up there.

Scooters have no engine braking.....
Major Tom

I watched HD's coming up yesterday....and the whole mountain could hear their 1st gear engine braking going down this morning. Popping loudly all the way down.

[randyo]

Scooters have no engine braking.....
Major Tom

  I'm confused, unless yer scooter is 2 stroke,  the belt drive in my 450i provides plenty of engine braking, even towing 1000 lbs down 18% grades