Deals Gap – Ride With Tank

Category Archives: Deals Gap

Deals Gap Memorial Day – Getting Ready

Posted on May 28, 2011 by Tank • 2 comments

What a nightmare getting ready for this trip has been.

In addition to all the usual stuff, I needed to replace my chain and sprockets and my back tire. The tire was in stock at my local dealer, but I needed to order the chain kit. I ordered it from the great folks at Dual Sport Touring. Trouble struck when I found out the chain kits were on backorder. Francois
told me he would get it to me in time, but I was worried. True to his word, the kit, along with the rivit tool I needed, was scheduled to be delivered on Tuesday, plenty early for a Friday morning departure.

I took the back wheel off Monday night and took it to work with me on Tuesday. On the way home from work I stopped at my dealer to get the tire mounted. Junior looked me straight in the eye and said he could mount it on Thursday. i told him I had made arrangements to have this done on Tuesday, but he said nobody told him that. We were at a standoff. In the end, he thought the wheel was on the bike and when he found out I had the wheel in hand we were good to go!

I had a message that MG wanted me to call him, so while junior mounted the tire I called MG. Originally, my reservation started on Sunday, but they had a cancellation so I changed my first night to Saturday. When I called MG they said it was a mistake, there was no Saturday cancellation so I had no room until Sunday. They felt really bad about it, but I can’t really complain because they have gone out of there way for me so many times in the past, so I figured i would just change my plans a bit.

With the tire on the wheel, I headed out to the garage to get the project started. I got as much as I could get done without the parts and tools, and at that exact moment UPS pulled up and blew the horn. He brought the box straight to the garage and I quickly checked it – everything was there, and they appeared to be the right parts! I got the sprockets on and opened up the tool to rivit the chain. There are two pins included, one to break the chain and one to rivit the chain. I could not tell the difference between the two. They looked exactly the same. The reason they looked the same is because they were the same! Screwed again! Now I was in a real jam, with just two days to get things going. I called Motion Pro, and with a little begging on my part, they agreed to send me a pin next day air, but it would not ship until Wednesday. That means Thursday night delivery, with a Friday morning departure!

i racked my brain trying to figure out where I could get a pin or a tool. My closest option was my buddy Dave, but he lives about 100 miles away. Eventually, I remembered that Mark had a tool, so I called him crying like a little girl. Not only did he have one, but he said he would head out right away and deliver it to me! I told him I don’t expect him to go out of his way like that, so I jumped in the xcar and picked it up.

The tool worked great, and I got everything back together for a midnight test ride. Everything was good, and my heart returned to its normal rate. Francois, Motion Pro, Gollans, and Mark all came through for me and everything is a go! I turned the room cancellation into a plus by changing my route to the Blue Ridge Parkway, my favorite ride in the world. The only downside is I will miss the 50 racing at the Gap Saturday night, but all in all the beginning of my trip should be even more fun than I had originally planned! I hope I have all the problems and bad luck out of the way now, so all I have to do is have fun for the next 11 days!

Category: Deals Gap

Deals Gap, May 2009

Posted on June 4, 2009 by Tank • 0 comment

Well my first big adventure of the year is over. I went to the Gap with a bunch of folks from RideOhio.org and it was a really great time.

We had quite a bit of rain, but it really did not hurt the fun very much. The best thing about having a bunch of friends with you is that you can still have a lot of fun even if it is raining.

As always the staff and management of the Deals Gap Motorcycle Resort went out of their way to insure we all had a great time. I know I say this all the time, but these folks are just good people. They take such great care of their guests it is unreal. I have stayed in a lot of different places but I have never stayed anywhere that I felt more welcome.

I have to admit we behaved badly a few nights. What with all the rain we were left with nothing more to do than consume enormous quantities of alcohol and I hope we did not make a lot of noise and disturb any people who were trying to get some sleep. I know the one night most everybody who was spending the night was drinking with us so hopefully we did not disturb anybodys sleep.

There have been some menu additions to the Dragon Grill. They still have all the old favorites, but the new additions are great! The best thing is the Key Lime pie. It is spectacular. It is honestly the best I have ever eaten. They also have poppers on the menu. I loves me some poppers, and these are super good. They have also added cheese sticks. They are basically bread sticks with cheese inside. I think they would be better with some garlic butter on them, but they are still pretty good. There was another new desert item as well, but I don’t remember what it was because all I ate was Key Lime Pie. The controversial item for me was Sweet Potato Pancakes. I think I was pretty closed minded about them because pancakes are pretty dear to me. Cathy got an order and I tried a bite but didn’t really like them. Ben seemed so disappointed when he asked me how I liked them and I said “They’re OK”. The last morning Cathy got them again and got full after eating half of them. I finished them off and I have to admit that the more I ate the better I liked them. I suspect the first time I tried them there was not enough butter on them. I like a lot of butter. I often bring my own butter because I will use a whole stick of butter on my cakes and it must cost Brad a ton of money when I use 40 or 50 of those individual packages. Next visit I will bring a stick of butter and try them again, and I believe I will be able to say that the Sweet Potato Pancakes get the Tank Seal of Approval.

A very special friend made me lemon bars again and brought them to me fresh from her oven! That is the best food I ever get down there not just because they are delicious, but also because I appreciate the gesture so very much.

As I write this the great state of Tennessee is paving 93 pulloffs along the Gap and I just can’t express how good I think this will be! I can’t wait until they are finished! Take some time and send TDOT an email and let them know how much we appreciate how well they take care of our road at TDOT.Comments@tn.gov! This should greatly reduce the amount of gravel in the road and should encourage slower traffic to pull over and let faster traffic around. It will also make it far safer to pull over on our bikes to do some bike watching.

The best thing about my trip as always is getting to spend time with my friends as well as making new friends. It was great to see some of the locals that I have not seen since last year and it was great to spend some time with all my friends. I made several new friends that I hope to run into many more times!

To finish up I am just going to post up some of my favorite pictures from the trip.