OT: The Western Dragon
 

I have read all about the Great Smoky Mountains, and the Tail of the Dragon, and in the videos it looks like a ton of fun...and work! Here in Colorado we have our share of great driving roads, including the Western Dragon, which is 30 minutes from my house.

The Western Dragon is 31 miles long, including 341 turns, and has scenery that is out of this world (my profile pic was shot there). It took me about 33 minutes to complete. The halfway point is Echo Lake, which is also the entrance to Mount Evans. I will upload a video of that drive when Mount Evans opens. It is incredible.

Keep in mind as you watch this video that this is one of my top 5 routes. We have multiple "Dragon level" routes like this, depending on how long you want your drive to last. This is definitely one of my favorites, but it is far from the only option here.

Regarding this drive, a few comments. First, I got lucky and there was very little traffic. There were 3 vehicles in front of me the entire drive, and 2 pulled over to let me pass. The truck at about the 7 minute mark did not pull over, so you might want to forward about 3 minutes or so, although there are some good sections, even at slow speeds to see.

As far as my driving goes, there were a few times I crossed the double yellow. One was to pass when a Prius waved me around. Another was as I was coming into a hairpin and saw a big rock. In both of those instances, visibility was excellent, and risk was zero. The only real transgression was around a blind hairpin where I just took the turn wrong. I am not making any excuses. I was not happy about that, and I will make sure it doesn't happen again. I was lucky nobody was coming the other way, even though I was no more than a foot or two over the line. I don't want my fun to ruin someone else's life.

Hopefully you can see from the video that I wasn't driving too crazy. Mostly just enjoying those 341 turns, the engine and the scenery. Well, my wife was enjoying the scenery. I was busy.

Let me know what you think of the route.


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You're late:corn:

Thank you for sharing , here is a good link for drives in the Northeast

http://www.motorcycleroads.com/best/?c=108
Be great thread for best driving roads

you're a lucky man to have that road nearby and to have a wife that doesn't mind being a passenger for spirited driving.

Nice, Rob! I'll have to give that a go sometime :)

From your video, the 'western dragon' looks like a nice road but no where near comparable to the Smokey's Dragon regarding curves and excitement. Also, even though the Smokey's tail is only 11 miles long, there are just as amazing roads with less traffic around Deal's Gap.

LOL technical difficulties!

I saw that. Good source!

She keeps me honest. :cheers:

Grant, you have to drive this road! Next time we are going to come from the other direction.

Thanks for the feedback. I agree that they have totally different characters. At least from the videos I have seen of the Tail. Also, about the same turns into a 1/3 of the distance. That is going to show up! But I think both offer different, engaging driving experiences.

Looks amazing. Thanks for sharing Rob

A great late spring, summertime, early fall drive is HWY 14 out of Ft Collins to Walden, then HWY 125 to Granby. Not much traffic once you get a little ways up 14.

We have so many fun drives though.

I would agree that there are some better roads than the Dragon. I love the run along 28 going from the east end of the Dragon to Fontana Dam and then over towards Robbinsville.

I love the Cherohola (?spelling) skyway. Wish we could shut it down for a while and run it in both directions. A guy can dream

Great drive! I've done the first part of that, but need to do the whole loop. I need to make a list of runs to do this Spring/Summer.

Glad you liked it! I am going to create videos of all the drives eventually.

We could create a production company, spend some $$'s and shut it down for a video shoot. :icon107:

'The Obsessed Cherohala'. Matt? :cheers:

You are a stickler, aren't you? :roflmao:

Sure! I will record as many as I can.

I will check it out! Thanks.

No, just anxious to see the video. Thanks for sharing. I am hoping to get out your way in the future.

That would be awesome, Alan. Maybe after I put up 7 or 8 of these videos enough people will want to come out.

I'm in..

:roflmao:

I'd love to head out there some time to drive.

Tal

Here's a small taste of road I drive every once in a while. It is part of a 2 hour loop we do.

Going to have to check this out..! Thanks..

Some nice roads you have @robmypro

Thanks buddy. Pretty much any direction is great here.

That's a route that I'm very familiar with :thumbup:

Golden Gate Canyon to the 119 to the 72 and back to the 93. That is a fun loop, isn't it Grant. :rockon:

Extremely fun, but I haven't done it in awhile since I got speeding tickets 3 times in a row :mad:

Okay that sucks. Sorry about that!

Thanks - I always used to go really early in morning, but somehow the cops were on the same schedule.

I think the motorcycle guys like that route and they are cop magnets.

Trying to be a good boy, so the insurance rates will be acceptable for the GT3...

Do you use a radar/laser detector?

Valentine One. Always let's me know when to pull over to receive the ticket :icon501:

No offense intended to Mike V (big car enthusiast) - just tough when you are not following another car and the roads are so curvy with very short line-of-sight between yourself and the radar/laser source...

So true! Had me :roflmao: I also try and use Waze, but also not as useful in rural areas with little traffic.

I have debated installing mine (Uniden), but I figure there will be no way to get out of a ticket if I have it and get pulled over. I drove around with it in my Lexus for a few weeks and noticed nothing but laser. I just put it back in the box.

Nice roads Rob. Thank you for sharing.

Anytime Bronson. It was just a small section, but the elevation changes and 180's are pretty cool.

Here is a route I just discovered. Literally starts 2 minutes from my house. Ride lasted about 45 minutes, so this is a good one when I only have an hour to spare.

FYI, I sped up some sections due to being stuck behind a really slow car.

ALP laser jammer setup = worth the price of admission

I took a long look at that one, Tony. It is illegal in Colorado, but then again, so is speeding.

Does possession of a jammer carry points assessment against your license? Wonder if jammer info is passed on to insurance carrier like speeding tix?

I found this...

(3) Radar jamming devices are subject to seizure by any peace officer and may be confiscated and destroyed by order of the court in which a violation of this section is charged.

(4) A violation of subsection (1) of this section is a class 2 misdemeanor traffic offense, punishable as provided in section 42-4-1701 (3) (a) (II) (A).

Sec. 501. General penalty

Any person who willfully and knowingly does or causes or suffers to be done any act, matter, or thing, in this chapter prohibited or declared to be unlawful, or who willfully and knowingly omits or fails to do any act, matter, or thing in this chapter required to be done, or willfully and knowingly causes or suffers such omission or failure, shall, upon conviction thereof, be punished for such offense, for which no penalty (other than a forfeiture) is provided in this chapter, by a fine of not more than $10,000 or by imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year, or both; except that any person, having been once convicted of an offense punishable under this section, who is subsequently convicted of violating any provision of this chapter punishable under this section, shall be punished by a fine of not more than $10,000 or by imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or both.

Interesting, found this bill that has been signed by Governor Hick - no mention of points, but probably does have some:

https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/defau...030_signed.pdf

Probably safest to continue to confine my speeding to HPR :icon501:

The thing about 1-2 years in jail was sort of a no go for me.

GT3's need a little more room to stretch their legs than afforded in the prison yard :roflmao:

:D

I didn't want to worry about getting pulled over, and having them find the jammer. The law says they can rip it out on the spot, and that seems like more than I am willing to deal with. So...drive sane on the road without detector and hope my wife smiling is enough!

I'd come visit you. :icon107:

And let me guess, Bronson. You'd offer to drive my car occasionally, too. :D

What are friends for? LOL

They treat them here like they treat radar jammers, seriously. I had one installed on a car here years ago before the law was passed. After it was passed, eventually turned it off. Not worth it. Esp in places like those canyon runs, cops will get a rough estimate just from a visual and if they see no reading or a weird result on the gun you're dead meat. Plus some modern guns can tell if they are being jammed.

Pro tip, low cross section front end like a GT3 and no front plate helps buy some time.

Deleted.

I hear you. I would not feel good being pulled over after jamming a cop. Anything and everything bad that can happen is going to happen. I just run w/o detectors, keep it sane, and be really cool if i get pulled over. The only other time i was pulled over the cop was a car guy, and we ended up shooting the **** for 20 minutes. Just got a warning. If i had a detector, the conversation would have been very different.

Too much laser here in Colorado.

Speaking of Colorado...it was 72 degrees yesterday, so we took the GT3 out for a little drive. Woke up today to 5 inches of snow. That's Colorado.

Correct. Radar jamming devices are illegal... I believe they're illegal in all 50 states since radar is governed by the FCC directly. There is definitely a clear delineation between the two. Or I should say the two if they existed, but I'm pretty sure there are no consumer radar jamming devices on the market.

AFAIK, laser jamming is only illegal in (google search): California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Virginia.

So yeah... Colorado, you're right, and I'm just too lazy to delete the above. :roflmao:

Anyway, ALP is technically a parking sensor and pretty discrete. I used to leave one of the boxes in my car in case I got stopped going through South Carolina because they're clearly labeled as parking sensors. They need to be flashed with different software in order to jam lasers. Also, the preferred method of use is called JTK (jam to kill) which means turning off your jammers once they notify you of a signal and you've slowed down to posted speed limit. Usually that can be done in a second or two with enough time for the LEO to get your speed and just think his gun had a quick moment of malfunction. Leaving them on all the time is considered a big No-no in the jamming community (RDForum.org) because it's essentially like thumbing your nose at LEO and making them more eager to do something to combat the practice.

Hey Tony, thanks for the info. Yeah, I have spent a fair amount of time over at rdforum.org and read the same thing about JTK. Definitely piss the cops off leaving them on.

I spent a lot of time thinking about this entire topic, and a buddy of mine is always giving me a ration for not using the one i have. He's in Australia, where they are illegal. Given the situation we have here in Colorado (laser jammers are illegal + cops use laser a lot), my general feelings are:

1. I don't like the focus that radar/laser detectors take away from driving my car. It seems like something was always chirping, and it became the main focus of driving the car.

2. It gave me a false sense of security, and I think my overall driving became more aggressive when I was using it. I don't think that was going to lead anywhere good.

3. In Colorado it is really easy to get a reckless driving ticket (25 mph over is reckless, and that is super easy in this car). Losing your license in this state is not Virginia easy, but it is still way too easy imo. So I want to make sure i keep things sane on the street. Having a device that lets me think I can get away with speeding is not good.

4. And then there's the ugliness of getting caught running a jammer. Fines, potential jail time (which I doubt I would get the first time), is just a really ugly event.

5. I spent some time reading police forums. Yeah, I have too much time on my hands. There were a lot of discussions around radar detectors, and every single cop said when they saw one in the car, it was a guaranteed ticket. Every time.

I add all this up, and I just think my best shot here in Colorado is to drive sane on the street, know when and where to have a little fun, and be really cool if/when I get pulled over. Going to the track has helped as well, as I don't feel the need to rip into the girl as often.

But it all depends on your area, and your specific set of circumstances.

I almost forgot. A few things I learned from reading those police forums...

1. Cops will ALMOST NEVER give a veteran a ticket. I mean, you really need to be trying to get one. So if I were a veteran, I would NEVER run a radar detector. You already have a get out of jail card. Be cool and you are going to walk away with a warning most of the time.

2. Cops will pull someone over and pretty much have their minds made up to give the driver a ticket, but in many cases they will decide not to because the driver is really cool. But the vast majority said that most of the time they were not going to give the driver a ticket, but because the guy was an asshole they decided to nail him.

3. Cops get pissed when you pull over in a place that puts them at risk. Don't make him get out of his car right next to traffic. If he sees you pull over into an area that maybe isn't ideal for your car (dirt, for example) he is going to feel a lot better about the encounter. I always start with hi officer, and is this a good spot for you?

4. Cops are definitely car guys. That can be an advantage! Just...don't be a dick!

Words to live by :thumbup:

Ha, reading that reminded me of this:

I'm so happy you got 5" of snow. :icon107: We had 2 feet last week, pretty well all melted now though.

You know Bronson, I was thinking of you when I took this photo this morning. I could just picture you staring out your window with snow up to your eyelids, with your GT3 is deep hybernation, while I am posting videos driving around flogging mine in sunny Colorado.

I threw you a bone this time. It was an act of mercy. :roflmao:


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Sorry Bronson, 60 degrees today. I am not sure my GT3 will survive the miles i am putting on her. lol

^Hey quesiton.. Do they put salt or a brine down on your roads before and after snowfall?

They were using Magnesium Chloride which i have read good and bad about.

^Ok, so similar to here.. They also use sand & salt mix here, which is murder on cars, :(
Your roads seem much cleaner, :thumbup:

Not too bad!

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