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[TNCarters]

Ashamed to admit I turned my RGU over yesterday. Coming north out of Chattanooga a couple of us decided to not take interstate and turned the gps to avoid highway.  The gps proceeded to guide us up the worst switchback road I've ever seen. One lane 180 degree switchbacks with steep elevation change. At the next to last switchback I cut the corner a little too tight and turned her over while setting almost still. No bodily harm other than my pride.  Looks like the rear guard and front highway peg got scraped a bit and there's also a bit of scrape on the bottom edge of the painted lower fairing. Guess two main lessons learned, don't blindly follow the factory gps without checking out the road on a better map and secondly swing wider on tight switchbacks when traffic is clear.  It did not help any that one of our group was a new rider and we were trying to lookout for them. They were already shaken by the road and when I turned over it did not help at all.  This road made the Dragon, Devils Triangle and Hwy 30 in Spencer Tn look like child's play.

[262 CVO 16]

Pride,  Paint and Chrome aside- I'm glad you and everyone with you is safe and able to talk about it. After 30+ years on two wheels, I still constantly learn. Glad youre safe.

[JoeVibe]

Glad you didn't get hurt and it sounds like the bike took a minimal hit. Could have been much worse. We had two bikes on the ground on yesterdays chapter ride. Same kind of thing, tight slow speed U-turn got both of them.

[FLH91]

Sounds like you are lucky that you only have a little bit of bike damage. 

Now, can you tell me what road you were on so I can investigate it myself??

Dave

[JoeVibe]

Sounds like you are lucky that you only have a little bit of bike damage. 

Now, can you tell me what road you were on so I can investigate it myself??

Dave

I didn't want to seem insensitive but since Dave brought it up, I'd like to know too! 

[FLSTFI Dave]

Ron,

Glad your ok and did not get hurt.  Scrapes can be be fixed. 

30 near Spencer all the way to Decatur is a great road.  Like the others you mention also.

Curious as to where this road near Chattanooga is. 

[TNCarters]

This was a little road headed up the side of Signal Mountain north of the aquarium which google calls "W Road".  I was surprised the number of cars going through it.  They could go two wide in the straights but had to stop and go through the turns single file. There are not but about half a dozen hairpins on it but 2-3 are 1st gear and need to swing wide into the outer side of the turn.  When you find it on google zoom into the street view of the upper 3 hairpins.  If I had seen the entire road on my GPS before going through the first set of turns I'd have turned around as we had a new young lady with us on her first CVO Street Glide.  We had just run Hwy 30 at Spencer the day before with no problems.

[TNCarters]

I'm more upset with scratching the paint on the lower than the rear guard getting scratched.  The rear guard is easily replaced.  It was a slow lay down so didn't feel in any danger of getting my legs under the bike. To be honest I was surprised the front guard and peg did not protect the fairing lower.  The lower has a slight flair on the edge that touches down at the same time as the guard.

Joe and Dave, I know yall probably like a challenge but there is nothing fun about this road.

[CVODON]

Sorry to hear about the bike and I am glad no injuries to you, but how did the GPS even enter into this? You chose a non-interstate route and it took you on one, sounds like it did it's non-human job.

[TNCarters]

The curve that got me was one of the upper curves trying to go from inside of hairpin to iinside past the turn with cars waiting to go through the turn. In hindsight I should not have tried it watching out for a new rider and should have waited for traffic to clear so I could swing into the outer side of the hairpin.

[JCZ]

Sounds like you are lucky that you only have a little bit of bike damage. 

Now, can you tell me what road you were on so I can investigate it myself??

Dave

I'm with you guys.......if I were back east I'd have to go with you two.     Fortunately (unfortuneately for some) California has a number of those complete switchbacks that feels like they're riding on top of your head.  The Million Dollar Hwy. in Colorado has several of those, as well.

[TNCarters]

JCZ, Joe and Dave,  Not a good pic but attached is a Street View of the turn that got me trying to avoid swinging into the waiting cars. 

[Twolanerider]

Oh gawd, that ^ just sucks.  What a lousy road to ruin a nice spring day.  Don't sweat it.  We all have or all will someday drop one. 

[GregKhougaz]

Glad you're OK.  Sounds very repairable.  Curious though, how did the new rider do? 

[JCZ]

Nobody's judging you Tn.  I agree, we've all dropped them.....we just don't tell anybody.     By the way, the next time you're around a motorcycle rally, make it a point to look at the bottom edge of crash bars and the bottom corner/edges of the leg fairings.  If you're looking for it, you'll see a lot more barely noticable road rash than you realized.

At least you didn't fall over sitting at a red light.     And we're happy for you that no serious, major damage or injury.  Although sometimes that self pride can hurt more than physical injury. 

But I'll be the first to admit.....I like those roads that are interesting, challenging, different.....at my age, that's about the only thing that still gets me excited.