Mikele Rader, this is the road we were talking about, Deals Gap, The Dragon:

Say hello to Embedded Object Error who just joined.  

Embedded Object Error, thanks!

First member contributed map!

Say hello to jgeary.  

Say hello to JonsMxM. What do you ride? 

Thank You Yermo! Glad to be here, I currently ride an '05 Honda ST1300. Very interested in the sport touring aspect, having always owned cruisers. My average year is about 8,000 miles but then I live in northern Minnesota which does limit available riding time.

JonsMxM I loved riding through MInnesota. Granted it was raining most of the time, but Duluth was one of my favorite stops. The ST1300 is a great bike. Have you taken any performance riding courses like Total Control or similar? 

I have not, but do plan to. I took the MSF course a couple years ago (after nearly 300,000 miles of MC riding) and really surprised myself as to how much I learned. Riders out there need to take these courses, they're extremely educational and really are fun! And come on back to Minnesota sometime, it only rains MOST of the time!!

JonsMxM, seriously, find a way to take Total Control or similar course. At the very least buy the book. This will change you as a rider. I rode for 30+ years and was known as a competent rider. Upon hearing about Total Control and similar courses I, for a moment, fell into the trap of thinking "I have X hundred thousand miles under my belt, what could they teach me?". I took it, with an open mind, and it completely changed me as a rider. Now like a reformed smoker who has seen the light, I think everyone should do the same.


 

+1 on taking Total Control

Excellent information. I absolutely will be doing this - thank you so much.

Embedded Object Error Interestingly, I'm coming across more and more people who own both Harley's and BMW's.

Hi all.  Florida rider here.  I saw the link from a video on youtube for total control. Hopefully I will get to take level one in March.  I've wanted to take it for a year but no one offered it here. 

Forgot to mention the blog is pretty good too...I especially liked the dragon trip report.

Madeuce1006 Welcome!

How long have you been riding? Total Control is definitely a worthwhile course if you've never taken any kind of performance road riding school. People who have been to race school typically don't benefit as much. 

Total Control was the beginning for me becoming a much better rider. I'll be curious to hear what you think of the course after you've taken it.

I've been riding 2 and half years.  Been wanting to take the total control course for a year.  The last affiliate that offered it evidently went out of business.  I had resigned myself to a track school and then found out someone else picked up the course.  From what I gather there  has been a lack of interest  in my area.  There is a chance this might not happen if they don't get enough students.  

 I have the book and try to do the exercises but this is not the same as having an instructor watch and critique your actions.

Too bad you are so far away. They're held up here pretty regularly.

What you learn in Total Control is quite different from a track. It's more applicable to the kinds of situations that occur when driving on public roads. 

Understood.  However, in the absence of TCARC what else is there?  

Slim pickings I'm afraid. There is the MSF Advanced Rider Course but it is not nearly as valuable as TC.

A couple friends of mine have taken the staying safe advanced rider training started by Larry Grodsky, who used to write safety articles for Rider magazine There are tours around the country but both people took the Blue Ridge Parkway course. Both people came back raving about the course. 

 

Lisa Epifano Hall Thanks for the link. I was not familiar with these guys.

Im new.. lurking for a little bit but finally joined.
I ride the Ducati Multistrada.. well I own one, its sitting on display still at my dealers shop awaiting for me to either find a job in DC or this contract expire.
I am looking for suggestions on a GPS. I lived in S.Korea for a long time and the American GPS have nothing on the GPS in S.Korea.
I have not seen any adds to Revzilla yet.. cant wait to meet up with some folks when I get back to the beltway.
I found this site from an article about Yermo ridding to Alaska.. I would like to do that ride when I return..

Welcome DucatiDreamer! Let us know when you make it to the DC area. Informally, some of us get together to do day rides and sometimes overnighters.

I use an old Zumo 550 GPS which I bought used off Ebay. It's simple and small but I like it as I mostly use it to record rides so I can post them here. 

As for the RevZilla affiliate program my thought is that instead of plastering the site with ads, we would keep the discussions of gear in the forum as we have been. That way members can share whatever gear they like best and others can benefit as opposed to someone trying to "sell" them something. We'll see how well that works out. 

You can see this in the Riding Gear Question thread:

Say hello to Hcreek1! (Hi! )