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I just got back from a week of riding the tail of the dragon and surrounding areas. Definitely an awesome trip - The roads in Vermont do not compare for condition or design... My buddy and I stayed at the Iron Horse Lodge and rented a pair of SV-650's from Sportbikes for hire for 3 days, and KLR-650's for an off road day from GSM.
Sportbikes for hire is a great company to do business with. I recommend them to anyone going down that doesn't have a bike (like me) or doesn't want to haul it in. He delivered the bikes to our hotel. We ran into him on the first day out and he tossed us the keys to his DRZ 400 super moto... He also told us it can be arranged that he will come to the airport and either drop the bikes off, or pick you up.
The Iron Horse is a neat place - it's an older more relaxed crowd and we ran into some great folks. They have a campfire every night. Bring your own beer - it's in a dry county. It's also tough top find a place to eat (above burgers), and some of the places have odd hours (close at 7 PM). Bryson City is your best bet...
The speed limit is either 30 or 35 on the tail, and it is patrolled... But, even with that it's a challenge to break the speed limit (much) in the corners. My buddy and I basically tried to keep going at about 40 - any idiot can go fast in a straight line, it takes a special idiot to go fast in a corner... Blood Mountain in GA is well worth the time to get to. In 3 days we put a touch over 1,000 miles in.
GSM is another place I'd recommend. They have a cabin right on site. Eat locally, don't bother driving to Gatlinburg. There's nothing but chains for restaurants. The KLR's are a handful in true dirt. My buddy dropped his twice - although it could be considered once since they were both in the same puddle... The clay gets slick! Especially on mild tires... Even with this we managed about 175 miles for that day.
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Originally Posted by SSearchVT
If loud pipes save lives, imagine what learning to ride would do. 
