Ride With Tank

2. The People

I always meet the most interesting people there. These are people who live and breathe motorcycles. These are not posers. They don’t ride motorcycles to impress people. They ride because they love to ride. The area is the greatest place in the world to ride motorcycles, so everyone is always in a great mood.

3. The Businesses

Almost without exception the businesses are run by people who see their customers as more than just customers. Most really want to see the visitors have a great time, and will do whatever it takes to help them have a good time. Some say they are just there to make money, but how many people stop at the Deals Gap Motorcycle Resort and use the bathrooms, sit on the benches, take pictures of the tree, but never spend any money? Lots of them. They provide an excellent service even to those who spend no money there. The photographers are out there providing first aid, pulling bikes out of ditches, sweeping the road. Sure they sell pictures as well, but we have all looked at many more pictures of ourselves than we have bought.

4. The Area

There are so many great roads and so much great scenery in the area. Mountains, waterfalls, rivers, forests, and items of historical interest. Great places to eat an inexpensive meal. If you enjoy the more touristy type places Gatlinburg in all its tourist glory is just up the road. Hiking, swimming, kayaking, tubing, fishing – its all right here within a 50 mile drive. Gambling in Cherokee. You can get tired of the hustle and bustle of Gatlinburg and an hour later be all along on a quiet and peaceful mountainside.

I made a couple of trips down in the spring, and they were not as good as they could have been. The reason for this was a small percentage of people who did not seem to understand how to behave. This could not be blamed just on sport bike riders or Harley riders or sports car drivers. There were people in each of these categories that were just riding over their heads or without consideration for others. There is no magical number that is a safe speed for people on this road. I came around a lot of turns to find someone in my lane and most of them were traveling under the speed limit. I saw lots of people riding under 30mph who were endangering themselves and others. There was also a serious lack of patience from the faster riders. I saw guys trying to pass lines of traffic that were literally 40 to 50 cars and motorcycles long. They were making very bad passes due to impatience. For the first time I really did not feel safe on the road. For the first time ever I left the road not because I was tired or traffic was too heavy, but because I felt riding was too risky. I was not the only one feeling this way. Many people were saying that they would never return. I actually felt that a greater police presence was needed.

THP started patrolling the area heavier. 1 to 3 cars on the weekends from around 11:00AM till around 5:00PM. I have to admit I was a little nervous about the situation, but they seemed to be very reasonable. I think it was a good thing because last week everything was back to normal. Mornings and evenings where great times to enjoy the road and weekend days were great times to enjoy the show. The slower people where letting the faster people pass. The fast guys were going fast, but never putting anybody else in danger. Everybody was riding with courtesy and within their limits. I was so happy that things had returned to normal and we had a very excellent week.

Now it appears to me as if things have swung too far the other way. What appears to be happening now looks an awful lot like harassment. They appear to be looking for ways to issue tickets instead of looking for ways to make the area safer. The kind of manpower they are putting on this 9 mile stretch of road is more suited to a riot situation, and I have never seen any evidence of rioting in the area. Setting the speed limit at 30mph and enforcing it is just silly. I kind of like the idea of a 30mph speed limit if the THP uses it in a sensible way. There are many, many people who can travel the road safely and without exposing anybody to any danger at 55mph. There many more people who put everyone at great risk without going over 30mph. Instead of enforcing some magical speed that someone decides is the safe speed they should be looking at how the person is driving or riding.

We have created the situation that exists now, the THP is just capitalizing on it. The main problem is the people who enjoy the road are bickering amongst themselves. Sport bike guys blame cruisers, cruisers blame sport bikes. Guys on touring bikes complain about the car drivers. It is mainly a tolerance issue. The guy on the Harley is dragging floorboards at 30mph and feels like he is running the road as fast as it can safely be run, so when a guy on a sportbike passes him at 50 the Harley guy sees this as reckless. Lets stop focusing on how fast the other guy is going and focus on HOW the other person is driving. When we see these people taking chances with other peoples lives lets all talk to them about it. People do this now, but there are not enough of them. We need to make people ashamed of sloppy driving. Yelling and screaming and calling names are not necessary, but a little talk at the overlook or the store will get the point across. Until we can police ourselves we will have to accept the THP policing us.