Dragon, take 2

The weather here looked better this morning, being overcast but not seeming to threaten rain, so I decided to take the Atom back to the Dragon for a few more runs. Having left most of my luggage at the motel, I was less concerned with losing items while slinging the Atom around the Dragon’s curves. Here I’ve stopped to make sure everything is tied down before heading south to the Overlook:

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The weather at the Dragon was great and I got some great runs in – particularly the earlier pair, before most of the traffic arrived. I managed to beat my previous best speed of [censored] by 11MPH. I’m getting good enough that I’m not being passed by anyone, and managing to catch up with some of the sport bikers in front of me.

I also found out firsthand what happens when the rear end of the Atom breaks loose. I’d been told that “the first you’ll know about it is when the rear end passes you”, but for me it just sort of hopped off the ground and skittered a few inches sideways in 3 bounces in a very controlled manner, and I stayed in my lane and exited the turn gracefully. This was doing 50+ in a hairpin indicating 15, so I’m quite pleased with the performance.

After my first run, I pulled into Ron Johnson’s portable http://www.tailofthedragon.com/ store and hung out and chatted for an hour or so. I then pulled across the street to the Deals Gap Motorcyle Resort to pick up some bottled water, adjust my tire pressures, and chat with the bike crowd:

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Ron and a number of the bikers think that it is possible that the Atom can set a new record on the Dragon. Maybe Tom can bring an Atom down from Brammo and make a video of breaking the record?

This guy decided to land on the hood when I parked the car at Look Rock on the Foothills Parkway:

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Here’s the Atom next to a pickup truck for a comparison of size:

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Looking out to the southwest from Look Rock:

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Update: My Atom made the front page at http://www.tailofthedragon.com/. There are a couple minor glitches in the copy, but given that Ron and I were talking without taking notes, I think he got most of the points:

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Update 2: The Atom also made Killboy’s blog twice:

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