Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving in whatever way they wanted to celebrate it. We had early dinner with family and later dinner with friends. I ran the treadmill early this morning and managed to not overeat, and the wife and i had a great time.
FJ: The open expanse routes like out West, and the people events like Sturgis, and the machine events like Deals Gap (Dragon) all have their places. If someone was to put a photograph of your beautiful cafe on the table with a photograph of the Gap and a photograph of one of those beautiful routes out west (I've been on several of them, too), and said which routes go with this bike... it'd be real hard not to pair up your bike with the Gap. Your bike DESERVES to go to the Gap.
One thing about the Gap (It was Deal's Gap long before the nickname of the Dragoon came along, and that's how i know it.) to realize. we often say "its not the destination, its the ride. In the case of the Gap, it fulfills both the destination and the ride. Once there (hope you stay at the Motel or camp) you unload, from a trailer, or unload your gear from riding to the Gap, and go back out to the Dragon. Once ridden in one direction, you turn around and ride back. Hopefully you haven't scared yourself. Along the way in both directions, you pull off at the overlooks, and compare notes with other riders from all over the country/world. Sure you don't get the panoramas, those are thousands of miles away in the Rockies, though some views are awful nice, but that's not what it is for. Probably 90% of the recreational riders in the country, excepting California, live within 500 miles of the Gap. I'm about 375 from it. It is truly unique. There is no other place like it in the WORLD. (I may be way off on the statistics, but you get my meaning)
Many people go once or twice or more each year, every year. You won't want to leave. Sure you can have some bad experiences, maybe get caught in some traffic. Don't let that deter you.
My 650 HawkGT would be most like your bike, in size, performance, and joy. You don't need monster brakes to pull you down from triple digit speeds, you won't be going that fast. You'll need a light touch, finesse, throttle smoothness, feel that front end really working, and the rear. You'll get into a rhythm, a "zone" like athletes get into with only one thing on your mind, make that turn just right. Feel the turn in, feel the accell away. When I went on the Hawk, I rode it 4 times in one day, and 2 times the next, before i had to head for home. In the meantime, I'd ridden at least 250 more miles of the Skyways around there to relax, and the Blue Ridge is near as well, though i didn't ride it that trip on the Hawk. (Though I've done the whole 400+ miles once and a shorter section another time.)
The Smokie Mountain State park is near with a 60 mile rode thru its center in the ... Smokey Mountains.
At the Gap, you will be able to go faster than it is safe to go. (Not so on the Blue Ridge Parkway though, FYI. It is a National Park and the speed limit is slower than you may want to go, but enforced.)
If you ride it 4 times in a day, you will be fatigued and ready to rest and review how your riding skills can be improved. Its simply not the same experience as a panoramic, out West type ride. Not apples and oranges, more like apples and drywall.
I hope everyone gets to ride the wide open, curvy as they may be, stuff out West, the Sturgis type rallies if they want (not for me) and absolutely Deal's Gap and surrounding territory during their tenure in the sport.
