Tim's Motorcycle Diaries

Sunday, 18 September 2016

For Whom The Bell Tolls

Once you've discovered riding a motorcycle, especially if you do it later in life as I have, you quickly come to realize that this isn't something you'll be able to do forever. Motorcycling is physically and mentally demanding and you'd be crazy to do it without your faculties intact. The thought of not being able to ride after discovering how freeing it is isn't a comfortable one. If you get so decrepit that you can't do the things you love, what's the point of being here? Melissa Holbrook Pierson does a wonderful job of conveying that feeling in The Man Who Would Stop at Nothing. If you're looking for a pensive, profound motorcycle themed read, that one will do it for you.

***

The other day my buddy Jeff was finally able to make a deal for an old BMW R100RT that has been sitting in a shed in the woods for over a decade. My son Max and I burned out of school on Friday afternoon and followed Jeff and his lovely wife up to their cottage on the shores of Lake Huron.

A neighbour five minutes down the road had purchased this BMW back in 1999 and had ridden it until 2005. On a cool September day eleven years ago he rode back to Kincardine from a conference in Peterborough and parked the bike, it hasn't run since. Jeff discovered the bike a year ago while over there at a garage sale, but the old fellow didn't want to part with it. There was hope that he'd eventually get it out, clean it up and feel the wind in his beard again. Jeff gently persisted, letting him know that if he ever did decide to sell it he had a buyer.

While over there getting the bike out of a shed hundreds of yards back in thick trees the owner told me, "I came to the realization that I'm not riding any bike, let alone this bike. When that happened I finally decided to let it go." He's still physically active even though that activity has landed him with metal pins where his bones used to be. Struggling against old age is a pointless exercise, but I was right there with him - I'll be him in thirty years if I'm here at all. The real tragedy is that he's as sharp as a whip; the mind is willing but the flesh is weak.

We were both enjoying the stories he was telling of how he went down to North Carolina to pick up the bike, and what it was like to bring it back across the border in the pre-internet age. This guy had always wanted a BMW but when he was younger he couldn't afford it; this was his dream machine but it has been sitting in a shed as the seasons spin by outside, alone but for the sound of creeping rust. It turns out this Bimmer was Jeff's dream machine as a young man as well, but you can't buy a $3500 bike when you're making six bucks an hour. You can when you're older and it's under a decade of grime though.

We were both so excited going over there to get this bike out of the woods, but Jeff had said the owner was having a hard time doing it and our excitement quickly turned to ambivalence and then reflection as we heard the story of how it ended up parked under the trees. While we struggled with conflicting feelings we were at least confident in the fact that we could bring this old machine back to the world. Machines can sometimes offer this kind of immortality.

If you never take any risks and lead a sedentary life of caution, being old is just another day. If you get out there and live, perhaps the memories of that life well lived, the chances you've taken and the adventures you've had will make easing into old age possible, even rewarding. To me motorcycles are a symbol of that belief. I hope anyone who has ever looked at me with a disapproving frown when it comes to riding is very comfortable in their old age.

Knowing me I'm going to be very bad at old age if I get there at all, but I'm trying to take care of that now, on two wheels.

Thursday, 15 September 2016

A Winter without Winter

These little imaginings are a nice escape, and if I ever become pointlessly rich, I'll be able to torment friends and family who ride with ridiculous Top Gear like challenges.

I've been monkeying around with Furkot and have come up with a themed trip to the end of South America and back. Starting in October, just as the darkness and cold is closing in on Canada, we head south. Over the next six months while ice and snow reign in the north, we enjoy equatorial heat and spring in the southern hemisphere.

We reach the southern terminus of our trip in mid-winter/summer (December 21st) on the longest day, and then begin the climb back up the globe on the other coast of South America before finally stopping in Rio and shipping the bikes back to NYC. With the best part of three months to get south, this isn't a ragged rush to the end and should offer time to really get a sense of the places we're passing through.

We'd be in Buenos Aires two weeks after Ushuaia, coincidentally, just when the Dakar Rally kicks off, which would be an exciting thing to try and follow on lightened motorcycles (we could store most of our luggage in B.A. while we chased the race).

The Dakar wraps up in mid-January after we follow it into the Andes and through Bolivia before coming back to Argentina for the start/finish. We'd recover in Buenos Aires and then begin making our way north into Brazil. A tour of Brazil would have us seeing the Amazon before coming back down to Rio.

If we left South America from the port of Rio and headed back to New York City, it would take about three weeks on a slow boat; a good time to rest, recover and write!

The final piece would be the two day ride home from NYC to Southern Ontario in April, just when we're ready for spring in Canada.

The Five Thousand Dollar Challenge

The evil-rich me would offer to pay for the trip, but we'd be riding the whole way on bikes that cost less than $5000 Canadian (Top Gear style).

I'm still crushing on Tigers. I think I could talk this one down to $4200 to get it under the $5000 limit with taxes.

An oil change and a check of the obvious bits (chain, tires, cables) and I'd be ready to go.

The North American bit will be a lot of tarmac, but the Central and South American bits will take some tougher tires, which I'd aim to pick up en route.

A quick trip to Twisted Throttle (who have a whack of 1050 Tiger gear) and I'd be ready to take on the escape from winter.

With a $5000 limit on the bike (taxes in), what would you take?

Some 1050 Tiger Farkling

Engine Guard
http://www.twistedthrottle.ca/sw-motech-crashbars-engine-guards-triumph-tiger-1050i-07
Skidplate
http://www.twistedthrottle.ca/sw-motech-aluminum-engine-guard-skidplate-triumph-tiger-1050-07-black-or-silver
Tires for Central/South America
http://www.twistedthrottle.ca/continental-contitrailattack-2-dual-sport-front-17-inch-size-120-70-17-90-street-10-dirt-58w-tubeless-bias-ply-tire
Hand guards
http://www.twistedthrottle.ca/barkbusters-vps-handguard-triumph-tiger-1050-with-28mm-diameter-barkbusters-aluminum-handlebar-installed

Sunday, 11 September 2016

Ride Planning Tools: Furkot

Another benefit of doing a trip as a class project was pushing me to find alternatives to Google Maps, which I generally use for trip planning. It makes pretty maps and I like that I can get a sense of what I'm looking at through street view and satellite imagery. It's relatively easy to use and lets you quickly put together distances, though not easily in segments.

Google Maps lets you switch to Google Earth view and show the geography of the area (in this case The Twisted Sisters -
the top motorcycling road destination in the US). It makes for pretty maps, but I had to add in extra
waypoints to keep it off the boring highways and on the interesting tarmac.

Where Google Maps really falls short is on longer trip planning as it tends to be car focused and can't understand why anyone wouldn't want to sit on an interstate all day in a box. Trying to coerce Google Maps onto twisty roads is a tricky business, especially with limited way point options. You quickly run out of pins to stick in the map when you're constantly fighting the software's predilection for making your trip as short and boring as possible.

Google Maps' real talent is ease of sharing - it's easy to get links or embedding code.

Being back in the classroom has me looking for escapism, so I've been reading ADVrider's Epic Ride Reports. There is nothing like reading a ride report from someone's RTW trip to set you free from a regimented schedule. While on there I came across a couple's ride from Toronto and around the US. Chelsey was planning their trip on Furkot, which I'd never heard of before. This piqued my interest because some of my students would benefit from an easier/more fully featured digital trip planner.

Getting into Furkot was pretty straightforward, you can login using a social media account. It took me about five minutes to transfer my pieces of Google Map from my road trip project into it, and there were no stingy limits on way points.
It was when I got into the details that Furkot really lit up. Not only does it auto-set your stops for each day based on what you think your mileage is going to be, but it'll also find you hotels and preset you gas stops based on the range of your vehicle.

When you make a map you can keep it private or share it, and if you share it you immediately get a link to it. Furkot also gives you a share page which has more social media connections (left) than I thought existed, so it shares well.

I only monkeyed around with it for twenty minutes, but I feel like I haven't even scratched the surface. You can set your trip to your vehicle and I get the sense that a motorcycle selected trip gives you motorcycle specific results. I look forward to sharing it with my class tomorrow as well as playing with it more myself.

Where the journey's the thing...

In the meantime I've been thinking about Google Maps. The API for Maps is open and used by lots of people to create custom mapping applications. Had I more free time on my hands I'd get into it and build out a motorcycling focused mapping app using Google Maps. The idea came up at the Lobo Loco rally as well. A rally specific app that allows for many GPS way points and more motorcycling focused roads would be a real treat. As would a simplified interface that would work from the busy and limited input environment of a motorcycle saddle.

A simplified G-Maps that focuses on the ride would be a cool project.

Friday, 9 September 2016

Welcome to my insanity!

I'm back in the classroom again and teaching English for the first time in more than a year. I took a senior essentials English class mainly because few people want to teach it (teachers like to teach people like themselves), and it fit my schedule. Essentials English is just as it sounds. These are weak English students who are getting what they need to graduate and get out into the workplace, they aren't post-secondary bound and tend to find school pointless.

The trick with students this bullied and indifferent to the school system is getting them to read and write at all. Rather than drag them into a text book or make them watch the department copy of Dead Poets Society in order to prompt some writing, I thought I'd introduce them to my insanity. In a week where we're all getting to know each other it helps if students see what you're into. Showing your hobbies and interests is a good way to have them get to know you. If they get excited about the idea of planning a trip and it prompts them to write, it's a many birds with one stone situation.

With some support, students quickly
got into planning a trip. 28 days,
unlimited budget!

The plan was pretty straightforward: you've got four weeks (28 days) starting next Monday. Assume you've got an unlimited budget for a road trip (gotta travel on the ground). Where would you go? What would you do? On the second day I gave them some pointers on Google Maps and some planning tools like a calendar and how to make notes online and they were off. At the moment it looks like I've got pages of writing from students who generally don't. The research they've been doing also lets me diagnose their reading level.

Needless to say, I bravely volunteered to present first. It doesn't feel like homework when you enjoy doing it, and mine was obviously going to be a motorcycle trip. I probably could have gone more bonkers on bike choice, but I have a sentimental attachment and some practical necessities that prompted my choice. Rather than go for the South American adventure, I decided to focus on The States, which has tons to offer, especially if you aren't sweating the budget.

Norman Reedus' RIDE gave me an idea of where I'd like to go, the question was, could I get to the locations in the show and back home in 28 days?

Here's what I'm presenting:

I presented this to the class two days before it was due. Seeing an example helps and gave me a chance to explain my own process in putting together the trip (deciding on a vehicle, breaking the trip into sections, etc).

That photo I doctored of a VFR800 a
couple of years ago came in handy!

Another side benefit of something like this rather than a boiler plate reading and writing diagnostic is that is gives students a lot of control over the direction of their writing, which means I get to learn what they're into, which helps me remember who each person is as well as offering me relevant subjects I can insert into future projects.

I'm hoping they surprise themselves with the results. If I catch some of them in the future staring wistfully at Google Maps instead of playing pointless FLASH games I'll know that they've been bitten by the travel bug too!

It's a lot to try and pull off in 28 days, but when the budget is unlimited, I want more miles!

Into the Rockies ASAP, then down the coast, across the mountains again, and then up the Appalachians home.

Yellowstone! Riding over a mega-volcano.

Death Valley and across the South West to the Twisted Sisters on the way to the Big Easy.

Back north in the Smokey Mountains and Appalachians.

I was thinking maybe an H2R or RC213 in a trailer, but then that meant driving a truck and trailer all over the place.
Better to be on two wheels all the time, and on the descendant of my first bike crush.

Sunday, 4 September 2016

Saturday Morning

I've been fighting a cold all week and haven't been out on two wheels since the rally. On top of that and with the build up to school I've been putting together a computer lab all day every day. Teaching is a good gig, but there are no down days once it starts and the change in pace from summer to fall is a big step. Going from off to 100% all the time takes a good clutch.

I woke up Saturday morning to crisp 10°C air and a flawless blue sky. For the first time in days I hadn't woken up with a crushing sinus headache so I did the one thing that always makes me happy even when not feeling that well and stressing over work (teaching anxiety dreams are always a good time), I went for a ride.

The hills of Erin, just outside of Hillsburgh

Max wasn't up yet or I would have asked my trusty pillion to come along. I threw a single pannier on the Tiger and disappeared into the morning mist. The temperature was cool, but I like it like that. No wind, empty roads and a happy Tiger.

The ride over to Belfountain took me through Erin and Cataract and onto the Niagara Escarpment, where the roads get bendy. It isn't much, but it got me loosened up for the post-coffee ride.

I pulled in to Higher Ground Coffee Co on a Saturday of the Labour Day long weekend at about 8:30 in the morning. In a couple of hours this place would be a hive of activity, but now it had a couple of early risers drinking a hot beverage and quietly reading; it was mercifully empty of loud talking spandexies going on about how hard what they just did was.

After a hot cup of very well made coffee that warmed me up and getting the Holtom's bakery order from the family just waking up back in Elora, I got back on the Tiger and went for a philosophical ride up and down The Forks of the Credit. It's only 7kms of bendy elevation changes, but beggars can't be choosy in Southern Ontario.

Sometimes I feel like really attacking the corners, but this quiet Saturday morning I was in a contemplative mood and was going for smoothness. Strangely, this made me faster than when attacking. There is a real sense of Zen when you sort out corners properly on a motorbike.

Back in Belfountain I turned off the video on the phone and headed over to Erin. Holtom's was in full swing, having opened half an hour before. The lone pannier was filled with fresh bread and bakery treats and I rode back to Elora, feeling at one with the world.

I didn't have any fancy media devices with me, only my phone, so I hung it over the windshield and got this!

Wednesday, 31 August 2016

Lobo Loco: The Birds & The Bees Rally

You couldn't possibly hit them all,
so route selection is key.

It's a sleepy, summer, Saturday morning in Elmira. The few locals that are already up are walking dogs and taking it slow, but the clock has just ticked over to 8am and we've begun our first long distance motorcycle rally. We fill up, get a receipt showing our start time and place and text to the rally lead that we've started. We rode over to Elmira to start because this is a target rich environment with over 1500 points on tap.

How did we get here? My buddy Jeff met Wolfe Bonham, the creator of this rally, at Lawrence Hacking's Overland Adventure and they became friends on Facebook. When Wolfe announced the rally on there Jeff asked if I wanted to give it a go and a rally team was born! A week before the event you get a rally book pdf emailed to you with various locations in it. You've only got eight hours to connect as many dots as you can and it would be impossible to hit all of them, so you've got to be crafty and find the best route from where you are to where the rally ends in Brantford.

The theme of this rally was birds and bees, so locations had some kind of connection to that idea and included everything from apiaries to bird statues. Since neither of us enjoy urban riding on hot summer days, we plotted a route that would take us cross country and out to the shores of Huron before looping back around to Brantford. Being new, we were afraid we'd bite off more than we could chew; we did anyway despite reducing our route goals half a dozen times.

The morning clipped along as we knocked out 1600 points in Elmira before 8:30am and were in Lucan by mid-morning. Things started to go sideways when we had to navigate miles of sandy cottage roads before eventually getting to Kettle Point on Lake Huron. Turning around from there at noon we were getting tired and the sun was relentless. One of our key goals was to try and get to a bee beard happening at Clovermead Adventure Farm near Aylmer. This only had a twenty minute window and was worth big bonus points. We caught a few more locations before hopping on the 401 and pushing to Clovermead, making it (thanks to a very helpful gate keeper) in the nick of time. Our cunning plan was to use the 401 as a pressure valve if we ran out of time, and it was already doing the job.

The bee beard was brilliant, as was Clovermead in general. A rally like this shows you all sorts of local spots you’d otherwise have no idea about. I was thinking about this as we got out to the bikes only to be told by Google maps that we were an hour away from the finish line with an hour to go! Perhaps the bee beard was a trap! We’d been tired but adrenaline kicked in again, the race to the finish was on! We got back to the 401 and flew on down the 403 elated that we'd made the bee beard bonus but anxious about getting to the finish. The traffic light coming off the highway felt like it was red for an hour! We pulled into King's Buffet parking lot, already full of motorcycles of all shapes and sizes, at 3:56pm; that's tight!

Staggering into the dimness of the restaurant I felt sun-blind. We drank lots of water while we wrote out a clean copy of our rally sheet that had to show times and odometer readings for each stop along with a photograph showing us and our rally flags in each location. A rally volunteer then checked off each photo making sure that it fulfilled the criteria. Most people hadn't eaten during the day so the all you can eat buffet went down well while we handed in scores and had our photos checked.

Our goal was to not embarrass ourselves at our first rally so we were hoping for a mid-pack result. When the numbers finally came in we were 17th & 18th out of 34 finishers. To top it off Jeff won most miles covered and I won the most bee related points trophy (thanks bee beard!).

The camaraderie of the riders is infectious at the end of an event like this. There are no class distinctions between types of bikes and this rally had everything from big Harleys and the latest BMW adventure bikes to a 200cc Yamaha TW200 (which he took over the Burlington Skyway!). Tales of daring do were shared and the overall feel was one of a celebration. Everyone there felt like they'd achieved something difficult and there was a real glow to the competitors, though that might have been sunburn.

Everyone cheered and clapped as trophies went out for everything from the person who got most lost to the top scorers. Riders were awarded for smallest bike, 2-up and most efficient route as well as a raft of other prizes. The top riders scored almost double the points we did, showing real navigation and riding mojo. Afterwards lots of handshakes and names were exchanged and a lot of new friends were made. Revitalized after a big buffet dinner and all that good cheer, Jeff and I saddled up and waved to everyone as we rode into a welcome evening rain. I was only an hour away from home, but Jeff, after already riding almost 600kms, was going to put another 200kms on going to his cottage in Kincardine; that guy’s a machine!

Wolfe Bonham, the creator of this rally, is keen to put on more. As he said in the introduction to the inaugural Birds & Bees Rally, if you're interested in doing more than just riding to a coffee shop and would like to discover new and interesting locations, long distance rallying might be just what you're looking for. I, for one, prefer to ride with purpose, and this certainly gives you one. You can make this as hard or as easy as you'd like and the sense of satisfaction you get at the end is infectious. We're already aiming for a possible October Hallowe'en themed ride that's in the works, maybe with a slightly shorter route this time. Hope to see you there!

Think this sounds like a good time? Keep October 15th open, there is another!

The rally website: http://lobolocorallies.ca

Want to sign up for October? It's HERE!

Photos From the Rally (anything with a rally flag in it was actually used for the rally)...

Our first stop 500 feet down the road from the gas station we filled up at.
By 4pm we were over 500kms covered, but we also went further than anyone else.

I had no idea this was on the way to Stratford. I intend to go back and have lunch!

Ya gotta hit a lotta apiaries to win top bee keeper!

How to hold a rally flag down at a windy big bird on the Avon in Stratford - no swans out yet though, so no swan bonus :(

A welcome sign to a town starting with B! 100 points! The grass was all trampled down around the sign, we weren't the first.

The closest I got to a bee beard.

Another spot I'd like to return to. Some prime objects d'art for the garage in there!

The last stop before our final highway bombing run to the Brantford finish line.

One of only a couple of stops that were biological rather than rally targets. Jeff's Super10 and my Tiger were flawless.

The difference between these patches and others you might see is that these patches denote
hardcore motorcycling skills over astonishing distances and times.

The good cheer was infectious after the rally. It didn't matter what you rode, only that you rode it.

Wolfe Bonham, the author of the inaugural Lobo Loco Birds & Bees Long Distance Rally.

Jeff never says no to free gas! We plotted the longest route, but we spent very little time looking at traffic lights.

Iron horses of many colours - you'll find everything from the RTW adventure bike to big cruisers and tiny nakeds on a long distance rally.

He's been everywhere man, he's been everywhere.

After riding hundreds of kilometres during the rally, everyone saddled up for the last ride home (or to a hotel - a number of riders travelled up from The States to participate, including one who did an 800 mile ride the day before to get there!).