| Author | Message | ||
     Xring |
I'll post a more complete road report later, but took Mon-Tues-Wed off of work and did the Blue Ridge Parkway from just north of Lexington, VA to Asheville, NC, then west to the Dragon; ran the Dragon twice and came back home (approximately) the same way. My main points of interest on this trip are: -My XB9S got freakish gas mileage on the BRP (I averaged about 55 mph and got over 65 mpg the whole way.) -Ran into a torrential thunderstorm on Tuesday evening west of Statesville, NC. Ran right through with no problems, other than getting really, really wet. -Only mechanical glitch is a small oil leak coming from a fitting on the engine side of one of the oil cooler lines. Made it home OK. -The stock seat is an instrument of evil. Logged 1296 miles from 9AM Monday to 4PM Wednesday. More later, Bill | ||
| Harley_jethro |
Greetings X, When my buddy and I keep an average speed of 55-60mph we also get ~62mpg. Did hit a highway stretch one afternoon with the tach steadily above 4000 and barely broke 50mpg. Not sure what to do about the seat. Perhaps replacing it with plywood for short trips may increase the appreciation of the stock item for long trips. Regards, Jethro | ||
| Truk |
I have XB9R and was at Deals Gap Monday. Sounds like I just missed you. My trip from Columbia, SC was only 1 1/2 days (Sunday & MOnday) and 521 miles. I have Heli bars and Buell touring seat. Seat worked fine, much better than the stock seat. No bike problems at all. Also caught some rain Monday evening, but bike did great | ||
| Rubberdown |
I was at the Dragon Thursday and Saturday. Got 9 runs in. Wet and dry. Not on the Buell though, big blue BMW cruiser/tourer. It was fun. Would have been more fun on the XB. | ||
| Rubberdown |
Check killboy.com for your pics. | ||
| Alstroker |
I am going to ride the Gap in August for the first time. How is the traffic there? Is it crowded? | ||
| Edonis |
Massively crowded on weekends and holidays, try to go during the normal week at all costs. | ||
| Silversurfer05 |
I am going to the dragon with a few buddies from school at the end of next month. I am excited. | ||
| Xring |
Not much traffic when I was there. Most of the cagers pulled over when I came up on them, and that only happened 2 or 3 times; one wouldn't pull over, so I would just pull off for a minute or two, then catch him again. More Harleys and Gold Wings than anything else when I was there. Most people were very nice about letting me by. I would recommend running NC 28 if you don't use it to get to the Dragon. It adds a few miles, and parts of it are twisted like the Dragon. Hey Truk, I saw a blue 9R there and the owner was from Chicago. He also had the Buell touring seat and said it was good. Good luck, Bill | ||
| Rubberdown |
Law enforcement is heavy on Hwy 28. | ||
| Cataract2 |
Law enforcement is heavy on Hwy 28. Thanks for the heads up. | ||
| Truk |
Xring - I missed the Blue XB9R too. Mine is white. While I was there I was the only Buell that I saw I got there about 11:00am on Monday. Ran the Dragon, had lunch, then some one had a wreck. Was told it was a Gold Trike, which was slowing things down as they were taking care of the situation. Hope all were OK, didn't see any mention on Tail of the Dragon web site, so my guess is that all are fine, or at least wasn't too serious. Then it started raining a bit, so I headed back down Hwy 28 at about 1-1:30. Ditto on the Hwy 28 law enforcement warning, especially around Franklin.... "Don't ask me how I know" Hwy 28 is a great road.....but there is a part that has some tar snakes for a bit...be careful on those especially during the summer |
