Lakeview and I drove that road last year in
Big Blue (an '08 Chevy Express van with our two XS650Cs inside) and it
is truly a beautiful road, but the number and sharpness of the curves plus the virtual lack of
any shoulders for a good portion of it - make it a potentially very dangerous stretch as well.
There are plenty of skilled riders with really good sport bikes on that road and the record is around 62 MPH for a one-way run. Skilled amateurs on sport bikes have been known to average 50 MPH - under
ideal conditions. However, we're not all folks like that and we don't all ride bikes like they did, and conditions are usually not ideal - so don't expect to get those numbers any time you show up at the north or south end of Rte. 129.
Most people are on touring bikes or their daily rides - but you still see them taking (or
trying to take) 20-30 MPH corners at 50 MPH and the results are predictable and obvious from the photos. I'm not all that fast and so I may be all wet in this assessment, but I would say that if you could
average 25-30 MPH for the roughly 10-15 miles of the Dragon, you would be doing pretty well. On a larger, heavier bike with less ground clearance / lean angle geometry like an H-D, Gold Wing or ST1300.....well, judge for yourself from the photos.
Keep in mind that it is only 11-15 miles long so even at 25-30 MPH, you'll be done a one-way pass in around 30 minutes which leave you plenty of time to sit around lying to your buddies or for a change of underwear.
As for road conditions, well...in our roughly 45 minute pass southwards through the Dragon in the van, Lakeview and I saw a very large black bear ambling along the middle of the road (certainly big enough to knock you off a motorcycle should you hit it) and then 5 minutes later, we came tooling around a corner and found a 12 foot long, 6" dia. tree (geeezzz!!!!
) laying mostly across the entire roadway.
We stopped and ran back to pull the tree off the road and throw it down the 200 foot ravine (holy crap!!) that was
less than a foot (bloody he!!!) from the pavement and in the process, I got a really nice case of poison ivy which really got going three days later - making the drive home absolutely delightful
. So much for public service -
BUT - if some poor rider or even a person driving a small car like an MG or a Miata had hit that tree, there almost certainly would have been a bad crash.
Here are a couple of good websites put out by some of the local folks that contain some wise advice:
I'm not saying I won't go back (in fact, I
will go back) - but I won't be in too much of a hurry when I ride the Dragon on my bike.
Pete