Been riding the mountains for many years. I consider Mt. Evans in CO to be one of the most challenging. There are 10 super sharp narrow hairpins near the peak. The Dragon has nothing that even comes close to these nightmares. I have no doubt most on this forum could manage them. But it does require practice, know-how and confidence.

 

Dragon is a bit challenging but several other areas in the NC, KY, VA, TN & WV are more challenging....I would love to go ride in the Rockies... It's on my bucket list.

 

OP, the title of your post is misleading, and still you received many replies nothing to do with navigating a hairpin while going slow.
any hairpin turns I have seen were well posted in advance. anticipate what traffic ahead of you will do and then adjust your position in traffic (fall back?) before the turn so you have room to get to a speed that makes the turn comfortable for you.
stalling concerns have never entered my thoughts when on the road, so I suspect you were tailgating and got caught out of proper position.
Practice slow turns in a parking lot? I don't know, some things come natural I guess, it is when we have to think about it that **** happens.

 

I agree, having ridden the Alps and some other hairpin climbs over the years. I have an older 5-speed bike and the one reason I can see for changing to a 6-speed would be to lower overall gearing a little, to give a better first gear for those very situations, climbing steep hills/mountains 2-up and fully loaded.

 

Friend of mine just toured the alps on a rented GS1200 and he normally rides a GL1800 and he said the Alps were the most challenging roads he has rode in his time riding....he is also very experienced, he is 68 years old and I have seen him smoke crotch rockets on the tail of the dragon.".easily on his Gold Wing...

 

Alps are on my bucket list for sure.

 

I've watched bike/car track races on tv, car always won on the tracks that were nothing but twisties - and those were sport bikes, not Harleys. I recently read an article that said the top end sport bikes with electronic stability control (I have no idea how that works on a bike) can finally compete with equivalent cars. If you're following a Honda Civic and come up to a tight curve, and he's got the ***** for it, you'll be dragging metal on a Harley long before you could keep up. If you're talking about sport bikes, I wasn't.

 

Being in SoCal there is a lot of good mountain roads that I wanna ride but being a fairly new rider they scare the **** outta me. This thread helps a lot.

 

Your pal is a year older than me. There are a great many passes over the Alps, between several countries, in fact around 260 according to one website I looked at! Plenty to keep us busy. Keep your eyes peeled for cyclists, who seem to have a magnetic attraction for climbing every one of them!

One we've been over is worth the modest effort, between Slovenia and Austria, the Radendorf - Würzenpass - Kranjska Gora, to visit the museum in Ljubljana, capital of Slovenia. They have the oldest known wheel! It's around 5k years old, found nearby and made entirely of wood, skillfully locked together and well worth the effort!

 

Maybe I will get there one day....I a more negative note, my friend was there with his brother and on the second day he got into an accident, fractured 3 vertebrae....nothing Ray could do and his brother insisted he continue for both of them....he came back to the states 8 weeks after...had to heal enough and do some rehab....Ray says he probably will have to sell his almost new K1600 he got last year....Doctors advised him not to ride anymore.