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M.O.M's ZX6R.com Dragon Adventure Thread

13K views 136 replies 30 participants last post by  MistressOfMayhem 
#1 · (Edited)
Well folks, I never thought we'd reach this point in our relationship... but we have. Yyyyyesssss... :devious some of you have declared so much love for me that you are willing to let me join in on the annual festivities at the Dragon. Now, I ain't gonna lie... making this trip happen with all of the other excitement going on in my life right now is one hell of an accomplishment and I never thought I'd come this close, much less actually make it, but I'm poppin' up this thread to start the story. In true Mayhem fashion... well... shit's just chaotic. I ain't done shit for preparing. Like everything else in my life, I'm comin' into it skidding sideways with a foot out, a sinister grin, and a giggle: "WwwwwEEEEEEEEEEwwwwwww!!!" That's right folks, if you have to be organized, punctual, and anal retentive about your life... well you probably shouldn't be flyin' with the Mistress. But that's why I'm on this ride solo... at 100% ready to kick ass, take names, and meet my forum friends... and even some of my hater-club (Lutter, is that you?) :p :devious.

So with that said: I've got about a week to get myself packed, sorted and organized... and really what will happen is I will be running down a terminal in wobbly high heeled sandals with some duct taped, zip-tied, wonky-wheeled, fucked up, pink polka dotted, 20 dollar luggage that I bought on clearance somewhere, leaving scuffs in the tile and half tumbling behind me while the other hand flails a middle finger at the pursuing, overweight TSA agents "Hold that plane, bitches, I'm goin' to Georgia!"

"Georgia? What's the reason for your visit, miss?"

"... Mayhem and debauchery on two wheels... what else?" :2fingerlol:

Get ready for me suckaz... I'm packin'... and I'm bringin' whiskey and sass.

Edit: The story... well the ZX6R.com version... begins on page 5 of this thread.
 
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#100 ·
Whoever rented those houses had a real sense of humor! Those driveways were just waiting for someone to bitchslap! The off camber sloped gravel bind curve that gets u on the road was a dose of reality too!

I have never stayed at a cabin that was so dangerous for a motorcycle in my life!
 
#101 ·
Did you also ride home Friday? In the rain.
 
#114 ·
Laughed herself into a stupor....:sigh:

Great story telling Rose. :thumbup: :cheers:
 
#112 · (Edited)
Hahahahahah!!!!

Michael did just fine... even if he did wake up in the middle of the night talking shit to some phantom entity and having me consider for a just a brief moment: "Shit... I hope this guy isn't one of those serial-killer-in-his-sleep types... my bed is the closest one to him... I'd be fucked!"

But in reality he just got a cramp... probably from playing with his animal and being in the throes of raging orgasm (don't you hate it when you get that cramp in your calf?! It's BRUTAL!) :devious. But I tried not to peek... though I did vaguely consider discreetly slipping him a Kleenex.

Anyway back on topic. So basically, if you guys haven't gathered, the first night was choc-full of some shenanigans that ended with M.O.M and a few others winding up on our asses in some kind of a stupor. The next morning, when we awoke, OND was saying some shit about drinking too much and riding too hard. Or maybe I got those confused in my ... compromised frame of mind. :) Either way, Beard borrowed the loaner bike for the day and Ol' Miss Mayhem took it easy on the deck and later attempted to throw down on some spaghetti for these starving barbarians. The sauce came out fine but the noodles were a little limp... but I guess that's how it always goes, right? :p :D :devious... either way my pasta (well what did you THINK I was talking about?) was a hit... although I'm sure a bologna sandwich would have hit the spot just as easily, but still everyone was very sweet and dished out a few compliments. Thanks guys (and gals) :).

The second night went pretty close to the first night without anyone having to take my shoes off for me. ;) There was jacuzzi time (because I was wrecked after a long day of relaxing on the deck and making spaghetti ha ha), a fire somewhere, and off in the distance there was the commotion of another forum member being escorted to his sleeping quarters... I am pretty sure he took his own shoes off though. Nobody called me a c*nt that day, so I felt pretty accomplished in not pissing off anyone. Then again... there wasn't much in the way of internet access so I couldn't freely sign in and ban our members out of drunken fun. Not that I would have... Or would I? :devious

By the end of the second night we had bonded (not to be confused with "boned") pretty well and everyone was starting to feel more like a family... or maybe we were all just starting to smell like one. Either way, it seemed like we were operating at full strength. Mattel, Mounty50, Youssef, Pucksdown, RickTheFix, Drums, OND, ninjammsc, Beard, ZXRider432 and his two friends, Farmboy and his Wife, the Streethawks, their friend Scott, Zephyr, Kawasakifreak77, WERA689, ZXNasty and I know I am forgetting someone (sorry, I'm a dick, I know.) All managed to find a way to crowd onto our deck (because our cabin was clearly the most hoppin' of the two :p :D) and wind down a day with more BS and randomness.

Wednesday it was time for the Mistress to finally get in some road time...
 
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#116 ·
:)
 
#118 ·
Yippee ki-yay, motherfuckers!

 
#124 ·
Hell, I have to take mine apart COMPLETELY and put it all back together again with the new setup before then. I also want to get my YSR50 going before then as well. I really want to see how that baby does un the dragon. haha
 
#128 ·
Allllllrighty then...

Sorry for the delay folks, shit's been happenin' and it's all rollin' downhill! Yee-haw... an' shit.

So... in picking up where I left off...

It was a humid and dreary morning...

Wait... not it wasn't. It was sunny and crisp. As most everyone made their way out the door to the dragon, I wound up leaving with the last group. Pucksdown, Mattel, and a couple of the other folks were rolling out around the same time but someone had an issue with the chain slack on the bimmer. As soon as we were out of the Driveway of Doom, everyone was pulling over. I only heard Charlie say something about a chain and at first I thought he was talking about me. "Seriously?" I thought abruptly "What is it with me and loaner bikes and chain malfunctions?!" But before I could finish the thought, he was gesturing back at the BMW. "Oh..." I nodded. He was going to keep going so I just rode along behind him, since this was my first stint on these roads. If you haven't had the joy of riding along with Charlie, he's a really cool guy and a very mature rider to follow. He reminds me a LOT of one of my riding coaches back here in Cali, Phil.

Charlie led the way through the twisties at a nice pace. There was a pretty decent amount of rocks in the road on some corners so I was reluctant. Honestly, as soon as I threw my leg over the R6 I cracked a bit of a grin, sure it ain't a kawi but I guess if I'm gonna be on a loner bike, cosmic humor would have it that I wind up on an R6 (refer to my plethora of previous diatribes outlining my frustration with my own R6). Ninja's bike was definitely an R6, high strung, twitchy and a little glitchy in the throttle. The latter of which became my only annoyance, and only really on the dragon where smooth inputs are essential given the nature of how tight and technical it is.

Still his bike felt different, and I forget now what he said he did to it but it was something along the way of putting the motor of an 09 into the chassis of an 07; which is almost exactly what I had been considering doing with mine. As we plugged along, I glanced over my shoulder and saw Mattel and Mounty50. I waved them by since I was undoubtedly going to putter along by comparison. We made it up to the dragon resort (read also; the main portal to the tail of the dragon) and everyone else was already working on their third lap.



I took a minute to take in the scene: LOADS of bikes, lots of chrome, leather fringe and some tassels. I sauntered inside for a Red Bull and a biscuit and gravy to pad my stomach and hung out briefly before following Charlie up and down the dragon on a sight lap. It's definitely a lovely road, smooth ribbons of asphalt seductively winding their way through the mountain of thick green trees. The road instantly brought a smile to my face and reminded me of home. The flow of the tail is one of those that it takes a few tries to sync yourself up to. I imagine this would become a lot easier for someone who had been up it a few thousand times... someone like Charlie.

He was doing a great job of leading the way at a respectable pace and behind me I could hear the hum of OND's bike as he tried to get as close as possible to my... uh... exhaust canister. Although, I'm sure that he was just trying not to hold up Ray, who was riding Drums' bike. :p

We rode up to the lookout point, then down the other side of the dragon before turning around and doing the ride back in the other direction. Camera dudes were poised at three different corners and there was some traffic... more than I am used to but not abnormal for a national hotspot.

***
I don't remember where in the itinerary this occurred but at some point I had mentioned to Charlie that I wanted to do a two up ride with someone who knew the road. Part of it was for sheer adventure value and part of it was because it is always fun to learn someone else's lines. It's been a while since I've done a two up ride on a sportbike but I figured I could handle a few corners. Charlie paused to inform me that he wouldn't be doing away with the stuffed Roadrunner that he had on his pillion seat and I agreed to give the ol' bird a little... snuggle. So I hopped on and positioned the roadrunner in such a way that he might ACTUALLY be discernable as a giant stuffed dildo should any photographs capture the kodak moment, and at some point he leaned back and said something to the effect of: "I kinda wanna get a picture with my knee on the ground in front of the photographers, but I don't want to scare you." I believe I responded with something to the effect of: "Do what ya gotta do, man I'll give ya a tap if you're pushin' my limits."

Now... the pain in the ass part of riding as a passenger on any sportbike is the rider position for a passenger. If you're riding around at a meager pace where the pilot isn't too aggressive, this usually isn't too challenging. Add to it that Charlie is bigger than me (read also: of healthy proportional size) so resting my hands on the gas tank was a little more work than I'm used to. My ex was considerably scrawny and tall, and my best friend is about the same height as me. Still, I hooked my heels up under the tail section and braced my arms to reduce my weight from shifting forward under braking. A few turns in and I knew this was gonna be a workout as Charlie took it easy on the first few corners and then quickly found his comfort zone with the new handling dynamics of the bike with my additional weight.

I stretched to see over his shoulder in order to anticipate shifts in weight for each corner. I won't lie, I let out a giggle as we came around a corner and my head was out for enough to almost catch a tree limb in the face (the road is pretty narrow). My mind briefly flashed with thoughts of me returning from the ride with leaves and twigs in my teeth and a shit-eating grin.

On the way back down the pace was considerably faster. Roadrunner had disappeared into the oblivion of my nether-regions as I held on with all of my might and balance. At one point, unexpectedly, Charlie shifted his ass off the seat and broke the seal of my right hand on the gas tank. I quickly pressed with my right foot to offset the weight slip and as we sailed around a corner, I managed to keep myself on the bike with nothing more than my right foot hooked under the tail with my weight resting on the ball of my foot, my elbow pressed up on my knee, and the upper portion of my weight resting on three fingers that were pressed up against the gas tank with only the traction of my leather glove holding a seal under the weight of my trembling arm. It was some tantric yogic shit that I couldn't help but laugh my ass off at as I felt something scrape the ground at the exact moment that I looked the camera guy square in the face.

Betcha didn't know all of THAT was goin' on on the back of your bike, did ya Charlie?! :p



I am not sure what I was more impressed with at that point: the fact that it didn't scare the shit out of me, or the fact that I had the reflexes and feline prowess to save that shit without (presumably) disrupting the bike as it navigated a corner.

When we finally got to our destination, my arms were burning and shaky from the workout but it was an absolute riot. Charlie hopped off the bike: "I think you're the best passenger I've ever taken, I didn't even know you were back there after a while!" I laughed... in my mind I laughed even longer. I don't even think I had the time to share with Charlie what an epic moment that really was and I still have no idea if it was his knee that he scraped or what.

We had some lunch and tooled around for a bit before the crew gathered up for a ride down to the Fugitive Dam to take the infamous group photos, and then we did a few more laps before calling it a day. I took a moment to switch off the R6 with Drums' 636 so technically, somewhere, I did ride a zx6r at the official ZX6R TOTD Meet... and I have to say that it was a pretty awesome bike. Well done, Drums.

This is one of my favorites...

 
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#131 ·
Good stuff Rose, Good stuff.
 
#134 ·
It was a good day of riding, I thought. At one point during the second to last run I did, we were riding up to the lookout when I saw Drums come around the corner and down the hill in the opposite lane giving us the signal that there was a big rig coming up behind him. We pulled into a turnout just as I saw this behemoth summabitch round the bend and I muttered to myself: "Whaaaaaaat theeeeee fffuuuuuuuck?" He was most certainly eating up both lanes of that corner and had I been a little further ahead, well I'm not entirely sure where I would have gone.

He crept down toward us and I backed up to give him some extra space. I'm not really a big fan of being near big rigs anyway, but I will admit that sometimes when I'm feeling daring, I will make a run at lane splitting between them on the freeway as they creep along side by side. As I watched this guy maneuver his truck through our corner, I was surprised that more people don't die on the Dragon if that's the kinda shit they're up against. We were lucky enough to be on a corner that had a good-sized, paved turnout to wait in. It was cool though, I felt as though I was getting the full Dragon experience. The Dragon is a hell of a road, for sure, but in some ways it kinda reminded me of a circus: photographers posted, loads of bikes, cars, side cars, the big rig, and the obligatory cop at the end of the tunnel, made it quite the experience. Some of our roads in So-Cal are like that, but for the most part our roads in the central portion (including the central coast) are relatively uncluttered; unless you're riding through one of our national parks on a weekend then it can be a little daunting.

The road that led back to the cabin was definitely the road less traveled. In fact, if it wasn't for the debris in the corners, I would have actually like that road the best. Although, as I rode by the scene of Youssef's mishap, it occurred to me that not everyone would share my opinion on that. :crazy

Still, the day was a success... I think. We all made it back to the cabins and enjoyed another evening in the woods, and it would be the last evening that I got to hang out with these folks.

The next morning I took the R6 for another ride. Zephyr and I decided to chart a course that was slightly varied from what everyone else was doing. OND, Drums and a few of the others had talked about doing a long ride, and while that would have been cool, I wasn't sure I'd make it back in time for Ray and I to get to the airstrip for our departure. The weather wasn't looking too good for a Friday departure so we had to leave Thursday afternoon instead. Ray had one last thing to knock off of his Dragon Trip Bucket list and that was to land his airplane on some little island in South Carolina. We had been discussing this part of the trip for a while beforehand and I was looking forward to seeing what the south had to offer in the "coastal" department. So I made the most of my last day on two wheels.



We decided to take the 129 to the 72 to the 360 and the 165. This seemed to be a relatively painless plan, and since our cabin was just off of the 143, it seemed pretty straight forward. While eating breakfast, we encountered the rest of our crew and everyone decided which respective direction they were going. OND and his crew were going the long distance ride, ZXRider, Mattel, and some of their crew were planning to do a slightly version of that ride, and we were planning to do our ride. Scott with the bimmer seemed like he was feeling a little discouraged so when everyone was mapping out their agenda's he stood silent, reluctant to commit to anything. I invited him along with us and he said that he would probably just end up riding back to the cabin. I raised an eyebrow: :dowhat Whaaaaaaaaaaat? He mentioned something about his pace, and holding people up and I told him in so many words that that was hogwash and that he should come along with us. "I know you'll be faster than me," I said.

After a little encouragement, he agreed.
 
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#135 ·
Good reading Rose, always.
I look forward to your post here, Relieving the trip through your eyes is strangely voyeuristically satisfying.

I only now realize that you missed a ride down hwy 28. I think you would have liked it.
It is infarct my fav of all the roads in the area.
Like the dragon, but a bit wider, with more of a rhythmic flow.

Well next year huh.
 
#136 · (Edited)
To the last comment, I also feel that the guys were going a bit fast this year. Especially when they were on the open highways. I tried to keep up, but without my suit on and on someone elses bike, it wasn't happening. I surely wasn't going to go that fast and risk it. Kinda made me want to do what Scott wanted to do, head back to the cabin.

If the big group rides are a big free for all again next year, I may just venture off and ride solo or something. I love to ride in the ZX6R group, but the pace is sometimes "balls out" and it seems more stressful than enjoyable.
 
#137 · (Edited)
That's one of the reasons why I just kinda rolled at my own pace and at my own direction. I felt bad for Scott because he looked legitimately discouraged when he said he was just going to ride back to the cabin and hang out there. I know the feeling and I'm sure we can all relate to it, having been new and timid on a bike at some point in our careers. I really didn't want that to get in the way of a perfectly good day of riding if all he needed was to ride with some folks who were a little less balls out. I, too, was riding way below my courage zone and I was fine with that. The bike felt good, I felt good, but I always feel exposed and vulnerable when I'm not wearing full gear and it always eats at me in my mind to some degree.

When we left, it was Zephyr, myself, and Scott. We hit the dragon and as we came down the other side there was an LEO sitting under the trees. I wasn't too worried about it. We got held up by some traffic anyway so it wasn't like we were looking guilty.

Taking a break at the lookout point


We rode for a bit on some looooong straights and sweepers and I really got the impression that we could do more to put these puppies behind us sooner so Zephyr and I zoomed along until we made it to an intersection somewhere. Scott wasn't far behind and we made our way to an intersection and along a major highway for a few miles longer than we should have. We stopped for some gas and water and then redirected ourselves back to the 360. We caught the turnoff and followed what we thought was a direct course up the 360. At some point the road narrowed, and then narrowed again and then it became undivided and went through some beautiful backwoods that appeared to be an Indian reservation or something. These are the types of roads that are right out my back door: tight, narrow, twisty, winding through thick wooded areas and campsites, and very lightly traveled. I stopped a couple of times to wait for Scott and to snap a few pics.

10 or so miles later we came around a bend and Zephyr, who was up ahead, had slowed to a crawl as, a few feet ahead of him was a sign that said: "Pavement Ends" He was already checking his phone and I hopped off the bike to take some more pics. While doing so, I considered how we could have drifted off of such a direct course. Then I remembered that at some point 20 miles earlier, as we buzzed along at a good clip (90+), I caught a faint glimpse out of the corner of my eye of a painted sign propped in a yard that said "BIKERS TURN BACK!"

I remember thinking for a second: "Hmm... I wonder if they meant bikers, as in bicyclists, or BIKERS as in motorcyclists." My mind randomly reverted to the scene in Super Troopers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRnxEZJCey4


... and then I considered how much I would have to pick up the pace to let Zephyr know that there was a possible hazard up ahead. Since we were already moving along at 90+ most of the way, and I had no idea what the road was about to do, I figured it might be best just to wait it out. Surely we would discover the true relevance of the sign in due time. :O :devious :laugh

I tried to keep both Zephyr and Scott in my sights while still holding my comfortable spirited pace but it felt like Scott was disappearing into the distance and I didn't want to leave him hangin'. Especially if we were all about to plunge off of some partially completed bridge, to our deaths. I mean... one of us would have to make it back to tell the others.

As Zephyr piddled around on his phone, I decided whether or not I should say anything about the sign. I decided to wait. We weren't too far off course and we had enough gas to at least get us back to town so we were fine... but I was careful to listen for the twanging of banjos and the sound of blades slipping along rawhide straps.



A few minutes later we turned around and hit the road. Drums had mentioned something about a pizza place and we eventually found it and stopped in for some lunch before trying to retrace our steps and find where we went astray.
 
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