Jon Campbell on Google+ shared updated colours on the Aerostich line of motorcycle clothing. I've always loved the look of Aerostich kit. Unfortunately, a Roadcrafter suit costs more than most of the motorcycles I've purchased. One of these days I'll get the coin together and spring for an Aerostich one piece suit. By all accounts it'll be the last time I need to. They have lots of custom options so I should be able to find a long in the body, regular inseam that fits me properly. With colour choices aplenty, making an original looking suit that fits is an ongoing pastime. ***
Keeping with the orange kit theme, I'm also wishing for a go with the updated Desmo RO32 transformable helmet. Quieter, more comfortable and more spacious, it's my go-to Desmo helmet evolved. Short of buying one from overseas untried, I'm stuck. If we end up in France this summer, a trip to Roof might be in the cards through. ***
With the Tiger's winter maintenance done, I'm hoping to return focus to the Concours ZG1000 Fury streetfighter I've got half finished. On the to-do list is getting a rear light and indicators. I'd ordered them through Amazon but the dodgy Chinese company that makes them never evidently sent it, though they charged me for it. The Amazon marketplace seems to be increasingly filled with overseas companies that have a very slow delivery time, assuming they ship at all. It'd be nice to get this running smoothly by the summer for some blistering solo rides where I finally get to find out what those new Michelin tires feel like. In a perfect world I'd enjoy the summer on it, ride it to the Distinguished Gentleman's Ride in Toronto next September where someone offers to buy it for what it cost me to make it. I could then role that over into next winter's project. ***
A couple of road trips this summer would be nice. I've had a trip around Lake Superiorin mind for a while now. It's about 2000kms around from Manitoulin Island and back again, and another couple of hundred kilometres and a ferry ride home. Launching from Little Current at the north end of Manitoulin, I'd go the Ontario side first just to avoid the misery that is the border crossing into Michigan at The Sault. After sitting at that for almost two hours last year, I'll go backwards around Superior just to avoid it. Doing 350km/days on average, we'd get around Superior in about six days. If we wanted a day off, we could push for a couple of days to get a day of rest. A day up to Manitoulin and a day back at the end means eight days on the road.
A trip down the Appalachians to see the full solar eclipse this summer is also on the short list. Doing this one for ten days means we'd have a couple of days to explore areas on the way down and on the way back instead of making miles every day. From just over the border in New York state all the way down to Tennessee, this is motorcycle nirvana with mile after mile of twisting mountain roads. ***
Racer5 is running their introduction to track riding again this year. A May long weekend getting familiar with the racing dynamics of a motorcycle would be pretty wicked. By the end of the course I'd be qualified to race. The next step would be getting myself into the VRRA for some vintage racing.
*** I never get bored of imagining throwing a few grand down on some motorcycle racing gear. My two pairs of Alpinestar boots have been excellent, so I'd probably base a lot of the racing gear on what they offer. I'd read reviews of the Handroid Knox racing gloves and they sound totally next level. An Arai helmet has always been a long term, top end motorcycle helmet wishlist item, and they have a nice Isle of Man special out this year. ***
A track-day specialist bike would also be nice to have tucked away, only to be trailered to the track for hard work. This '99 CBR600 F4 is well cared for and going for about three grand. I'd strip it down to bare essentials and put a carbon single seat cowling on the back. After wearing out the tires on it, I'd go to racing tires and continue to evolve the bike into a track specialist. *** Guy Martin did a race in his Ford Transit van last year where he averaged well over 100mph for an extended length of time. I wouldn't spend much time in one the other side of 100mph, but having a van would sure be handy. From transporting my own bikes out of the snow for a cheap ride in the winter, to taking the race bike to the track, having a bike transport system would be mega. With taxes, a new one nicely spec-ed out is just north of fifty thousand of your finest Canadian dollars. *** Some top shelf gear, getting race ready and having the custom Kawasaki on the road... if I came into cash in 2017, that's what I'd be spending it on.
My favorite helmet company has come out with a new evolution of their unique helmet. Lots of companies make a lifting visor helmet but what they don't tell you is that your swinging chin guard doesn't pass any safety standards; most of those modular motorcycle helmets only pass open face testing (as though there were no chin guard at all). The Roof passes stringent safety tests as both an open AND closed face helmet making it a rarity in convertible lids.
I've been the happy owner of a Desmo for over a year now and it has surpassed expectations. It's much better than any other helmet I've tried at handling turbulence in a straight-line and especially when you turn your head (it barely registers side winds at all). It's as quiet as most closed faced helmets but can also be opened up when not travelling at high speed. The visor lets you go from open face to jet to fully closed a second, one handed. Roof has updated the Desmo to the RO32 Desmo with a variety of updates and improvements. If I can find a retailer I'm in for the upgrade.
It's just past 8am on day one of the ride. Even this early in the morning it's already in the mid-twenties and the sun is relentless. The padding I thought I'd try in my helmet was a bad idea, and by the time I reach Creemore I'm working on a full scale headache. Thirty seconds after we stop the Roof lid is back to normal and it works like a champ for the rest of the trip. Motorcycle gear is an ongoing process of fine tuning, especially when you mess around with something that already works.
This trip grew out of a friend's cross country anniversary ride with his wife on his new-to-him Goldwing. We were originally going to drop down to the ferry on Manitoulin Island for the ride home after day one, but the ferry is booked solid during the day so I started looking at another way home. Having never been to Northern Michigan, it seemed like a good idea to wrap around Lake Huron. It's just over 1500kms of wilderness riding with few people in between.
The goodbye in Creemore went long as we'd been accompanied by friends out that far, so we got back on the road just as the sun was going fully nuclear. Day One was the longest of our trip, five hundred kilometres around Georgian Bay up to the small town of Massey, Ontario. A gas and lunch stop in Perry Sound followed by a couple of road side stops along the way made the heat bearable with lots of consuming of liquids at each stop. You know it's hot when you're sweating freely at highway speeds.
Mohawk Motel: clean, cheap & odd!
We rolled into the Mohawk Motel in Massey just past 4pm. The grass was brown and crisp, just like us. The motel was basic but clean with air conditioning. Everyone cold showered and relaxed for a while before we wandered out into town only to discover that the only restaurant was closed early due to it being hot. We were told to walk down the street to a variety store that also doubled as the local fast food joint. Forty five minutes of waiting in forty degree heat later I'd paid forty bucks for a cheeseburger, fries and a couple of slices of pizza. We staggered back to the hotel and called it a day. The next morning Massey totally redeemed itself with a fantastic breakfast at the Back Home Bistro. As we finished up the eggs and bacon, rain moved in. It was still in the mid-twenties, but humid and wet. We rode into heavier and heavier rain as we traveled west over the top of Georgian Bay. A brief stop in Blind River to check on my stoic pillion had us bump into a couple doing a similar route to our Huron circumnavigation; it wasn't the last time we'd meet them. The rain came and went before finally relenting as we rode into Sault Ste. Marie. We parted ways after a surprisingly excellent and cost effective lunch at Pino's Supermarket where you can get a brick oven baked pizza and amazing sausage on a bun for next to nothing.
Jeff & MA were on their way to Wawa up on Lake Superior, while Max and I were headed over to the border crossing into Northern Michigan. After a day and half together we'd made good time, covered a lot of ground in all sorts of weather and everyone still had smiles on their faces (a good Italian lunch helped there). After a quick goodbye we saddled up and headed over to the bridge only to bump into the couple from Blind River again. We followed them up onto the bridge to discover a massive line up. Inching a fully loaded two-up bike five feet at a time up the side of a suspension bridge is about as much fun as it gets. Fortunately we had a great view of the river beneath us. Sault Ste Marie is one of those places that reminds you just how big the great lakes are. In the hour plus we were inching our way over that bridge I tried to imagine the tons and tons of water that rushed beneath us out of Superior and into Huron, it feels very powerful and boggles the mind. A highlight of the interminable wait was getting to the peak of the bridge. From that point up until the customs gates we were going downhill, so the bikes stayed off and in neutral as we glided forward, inches at a time. As I said to our doppelgangers, 'at least it isn't yesterday!' That bridge on a forty degree sunny day would be unhealthy. My magic power kicked in at the split into lines for each gate. Which ever one I pick will immediately stop, and of course it did. The couple ahead of us were down the interstate a good fifteen minutes ahead of us while we sat there pondering karma, or just plain old bad luck.
Once finally freed into Michigan we headed south into the tail end of some very violent
thunderstorms. The mist became rain, and then strong winds came up out of west. It was an hour of tacking against the wind down i75 to St. Ignace and The Breaker's Resort. We got in about 4pm drenched and weary after a long day in the rain broken up by the better part of two hours crossing the border in five foot increments. Java Joes provided a first class milkshake and coffee before we headed over to check in. They weren't ready for us, but housekeeping did back flips to get us into the room ASAP.
We enjoyed the hot tub and pool, but Breakers is a family resort, kind of like Disney World but with a great lake instead of mice. If you like screaming, unmanaged children and drunk, indifferent parents on smartphones, this place is for you. Max and I vacated the pool in a flurry of OCD after a kid pretended to be vomiting water out over and over again. Dinner was takeout pizza from Java Joes, and it was exceptional. With everything scattered around the room in a vain attempt to dry it out, we crashed on the beds and watched Seth Macfarlane cartoons as the fog rolled in outside. After two days and the better part of a thousand kilometres on the road, we were both pretty knackered. We woke up early in backwards world to blue skies and the sun rising out of Lake Huron (the sun goes to sleep in Huron where we're from). A savoury breakfast of heavily processed meat pucks and bad coffee with large Americans eating all they could while watching Trump speeches on FoxTV (we are far from home my son), had us ready to hit the road. I wiped down the trusty Tiger and we loaded up for a day that was more about exploring than making distance (though it eventually turned into both - you're always making distance if you're trying to get around a great lake). After a quick fill up and a slow ride around St. Ignace's lovely harbour, we got onto the interstate and headed for the Mackinac Bridge, it was spectacular:
The Mackinac Bridge is worth the ride!
We took our border-buddies' advice and headed over to the Tunnel of Trees. This put us on the shore of yet another Great Lake (Lake Michigan). The micro-climate on the west shore of Michigan's northern peninsula produces fast growth. As you ride onto that side of the peninsula everything is super green and the trees get Pandora big. The M-119 is a twisty little blacktop that runs through those forests along the shore. It's barely two lanes wide with no curbs or runoff. You need to keep your eyes on the narrow lane, but you're never moving that quickly. Surrounded by a sea of green, you quickly get into a meditative mood. The Tiger can be whisper quiet when it wants to be, and we purred through that green cathedral in near silence.
You can't help but get that look on your face on the M-119.
We ended up getting redirected off the tunnel road due to construction and never found our way back. We eventually got to Petoskey, which I was interested in seeing because it was where Earnest Hemingway used to spend his summers as a child. It's box stores and hotels bent under the weight of lots of tourists nowadays. If Hemingway were to return, I'm not sure much of it would ring a bell. Out of the heat in a McDonalds at lunch we ran into our doppelgangers again. They suggested an alternate route out of Petoskey and we wished each other a safe trip once again. A short time later one of the retirees working there walked up to chat about bikes, he had a big old Harley in the lot and couldn't identify the Tiger. When I told him it was a Triumph he got the same happy, nostalgic expression that a lot of people did when I told them what we were riding. There is a lot of good will and nostalgia around the marquee in the States. On the road again we struck east across the peninsula aiming for Alpena on the Huron coast, but between the heat, increasing traffic and the strong westerly winds, we were both losing the will to get there. We turned south on 65 and wound our way through Huron National Forest, stopping for an ice cream in Glennie. The lovely young lady who served us told of her hours spent horseback riding the day before, then three local farmers came in for a cone and were curious about the Triumph. It was all very nice. When we left she came out to her car that had a big 'Vote Trump' bumper sticker on it. I found it hard to reconcile how nice Americans were with the insane politics they practice.
Old Detroit charm - built back in the day when the motor city was a world traveller destination, the Bay Valley Resort reminds of the golden years.
When we finally turned onto 23 heading back out to the interstate I gave a barbaric yawp in my helmet, as it felt like we'd never get there. The final blast down the interstate in 60km/hr cross winds was performed using shear will power. We staggered in to the Bay Valley Resort after nine hours and over 450kms on the road in strong winds and relentless heat. Bay Valley Resort was a real treat. Cheaper than Breakers, but better in every way. If you like modern hotels, this isn't for you, but if you like character, Bay Valley has oodles. The doors are made out of wood (!), and the entire resort is situated in the middle of a golf course. It's much more adult orientated, but it had all the accoutrements my son loves. The pool is an indoor/outdoor design with a river between them, and the spa was a hard hitting jet affair with strong bubbles perfect for loosening up sore muscles after a long day in the wind. The whole thing was set into patterned concrete. The on-site restaurant was swathed in dark wood and was both classy and dated, I loved it! The food was chef prepared but priced very reasonably. We fell asleep feeling well cared for in the silence of a golf course at night - no sounds of screaming children anywhere. We woke up the next morning and hit the pool one last time. Max wasn't keen to mount up for yet another day on the road. Day one had been a high mileage sweat box, day 2 a rainy, windy ride with an interminable border wait, and day 3 was a high mileage meander across the peninsula in heat and high winds. We were both tired, and having to get my pillion in motion made it even heavier. After a late breakfast we finally got on the road just before 11am and I made a command decision to take the Interstate rather than head over to the coast on another back road ride. No wind and less heat made our interstate jaunt through poor, old Flint, Michigan a relatively painless affair. Flint feels like a ghost town at the best of times, but this year it felt abandoned. We stopped at a rest stop on the i69 on the way to the Canadian border when Max got a leg cramp, but otherwise high-tailed it home.
Distracted Stratford drivers put that look on my face.
It took all of five minutes to line up and cross the border back into Sarnia. Heading into The States was misery, coming home was a dream. We stopped in Sarnia for lunch and then hit the bricks for the final ride home. We thundered up the 402 on the long legged Tiger before angling off toward Stratford on back roads. After over sixteen hundred kilometres of riding, much of it through wilderness, it was the ride through Stratford and its dithering, well dressed theatre patrons that was the most dangerous. We were cut off and almost run over by people less worried about killing us than they were making their curtain call. It was the only moment on the trip that I was tempted to chase someone down in order to thump them.
Back in the stable after a flawless 1600+kms ride, what a champ!
We finally pulled into the driveway just before 6pm, sore but elated. The ride had its challenges, but the memories made were keepers. The road into Sault Ste. Marie is lovely and surprisingly mountainous. The Mackinac Bridge is a must-do experience, and riding down the tunnel of trees is like attending the best church ever. Java Joes makes a good food stop and Bay Valley Resort is a forgotten gem worth staying at if you're in the area. All in all it was a great adventure, albeit a trying one. Sometimes, usually when it's least comfortable, I wonder why I'm doing this to myself, but the memories sort out the discomfort from the awesome, and the awesome always wins.
Riding the Tunnel of Trees road in northern Michigan http://www.motorcycleroads.com/75/309/Michigan/Tunnel-of-Trees-Road.html#sthash.BxFBBpqw.dpbs - Spherical Image - RICOH THETA
I've been putting miles on the Tiger and have a developed some ideas about why it's awesome in comparison to what I've come from. Here they are in no particular order: 1... The tiger growls. The Ninja had a nice snarl to it with its 270° twin, and the Concours' massive inline four thundered like a Norse god, but the tearing silk growl of the Tiger can be virtually silent (less noisy than the wind) when I'm cruising, or growl like its namesake when you twist the throttle. It has enough presence to make people jump when you give it some revs - maybe because it's so quiet otherwise. The 955i Triple (an epic engine) has that same lopsided warble that the Ninja had, but amplified by a third cylinder. I've had a twin and a four, but now that I've gone triple I don't think I'll ever go back, it feels like the best of both worlds. 2... Lithe tigers are fun tigers. At 50 kilos (almost 110lbs!) less than my last bike, the Tiger does everything better even though it's taller. From backing it out of the garage to winding it through corners, I don't miss an ounce of that chubby Concours. While the Connie hid its weight well in motion, it was always lurking in the background. There is no substitute for a lighter bike. 3... Hot tigers aren't so hot. The cowling was nice on the Concours, but the volcanic heat that came off that engine cooked my man parts. I might be hanging more out in the wind on the Tiger, but that's kind of the point of motorcycling. The engine barely seems to produce any heat at all and what there is is so well managed that I only occasionally feel a breath of warm air. Time spent in the saddle is cool and comfortable, and much less like meatballs in hot sauce. The one place I'm warmer are my hands. Between the hand guards and heated grips I've been able to ride the Tiger in near zero temperatures with no issues and without winter gloves. My legs went from getting cooked to being one of the coolest parts of me when I'm out on the bike. 4... It's not wise to upset a tiger. Between that radical weight loss and an engine that puts out 7 more ft/lbs of torque 2000rpm lower than the Concours, the first time I wound out the Tiger it almost wookie-ed my arms off. It's amazing what a small bump in engine grunt and massive weight loss can do to a bike's forward velocity. The Tiger will comfortably lift a wheel in the first three gears, and it isn't a little bike.
5... Suspension that soaks up lousy Ontario roads. Kawasakis have a rep for budget suspensions. Between that and the barely paved roads of Ontario, I'd often hit bumps that would lift me out of the seat and rattle my bones. This led to constantly worrying about knocking something loose on the bike. The long, pliant suspension of the Tiger makes Ontario's wonderful roads ride-able without any such worries. Another benefit is that I'm able to corner and brake more effectively because the bike is never juddering over potholes, it just soaks them up. 6... Lucifer Orange is magical. I've yet to own a bike that a coat of spray paint didn't radically improve, but there is only so far you can go with a can of spray paint. The clear coated, metallic, red-orange on the Triumph is mind-bendingly brilliant. Sure, the tiger stripes are a bit over the top, but that paint can manage it. When my eleven year old first saw it he said, 'oh yeah!'. Pulling up behind a school bus creates an avalanche of kids in the back window giving me thumbs up. It's the opposite of the too-cool-to-care leather clad biker pirate, but I'd rather give an enthusiastic thumbs up back than sit there trying to look indifferent about everything. I picked up my first ROOF helmet last summer, and it has quickly become my go to lid. The combination of an open face or fully safetied close faced lid (most flip up helmets only pass open face standards, the chin guard is ornamental) makes this a brilliant all-rounder. I got it in orange because I liked the design, but it happens to look splendid and intentional with Triumph's Lucifer orange. It's a happy accident, but I'll take it.
7... It fits. Less bend in the knees, my feet just go flat on the floor, less bent forward riding position with no weight on the wrists with a comfortable, upright stance, the Tiger fits like nothing I've ridden before. Those wide bars mean I let me leverage corners easily and with precision. Other than keeping you tight to the bike aerodynamically, I'm not really sure why sportier bars are considered better, the wider geometry encourages finer control. I also look like I fit on the Tiger. I looked like a circus bear on a tricycle on the Ninja. On the Concours I still looked like I was too tall for the bike, but the Tiger fits my 6'3" frame like it was made for me.
Ready for my first night ride - those lights work great.
8... the bad things aren't. The first owner seems to have addressed every shortcoming on this Tiger. Last night was my first time out with it after dark and the supposedly anemic headlights were as good as the Concours' lights ever were, and when I hit the highbeams it was like having a football stadium light up in front of me. The fueling is smooth and perfect, and I haven't even fine tuned the Power Commander on it yet. The front fork does dive a bit under heavy breaking, but some adjustment seems to have resolved that and made the bike respond to my weight perfectly. I have no trouble getting the Tiger to chase its own tail around corners. With the second wing on the windshield adjusted I have at least as much upper body wind protection as I did from the fully faired Connie, so I'm not missing all the plastic of my last bike either. 9... a made in the U.K. success story. Riding a British bike fills me with pride. Riding such a good British bike makes it even better. Triumph's rise from bankruptcy in the 1980s to a multi-million dollar, international success story suggests that British manufacturing is anything but history, and that British habits around manufacturing can change and become competitive in a global economy. It's nice to ride such a fine machine made in the same place I was.
10... brilliant panniers. I've enjoyed built in luggage since the Concours, but the Tiger panniers are totally next level. Unlike the finicky attachments on the Connie, the Triumph panniers slip on and off effortlessly and lock into place as well as locking closed. They are a good size and look right on the bike. That they're colour matched is just another bonus. As you might have gathered, I'm enjoying Triumph ownership so far.
A somewhat-warm and sunny Saturday meant a short ride up and down the river banks.
With a dirth of twisting roads around here, the Grand River is one of the few geological obsticles that forces local roads to do anything other than travel arrow straight. It was a nice ride with a lot of bikes out and about. At one point, waiting to turn onto the highway, I came across half a dozen BMWs and a lone Suzuki Vstrom - the local BMW club and a friend? Were I lucky enough to live near some mountainous terrain, I'd be bending the bike around some real corners.
Saturday morning had me cleaning up my gear (check out those shiny boots in the video!) and fixing my Roof helmet. I love that thing, best helmet I've ever owned. I'd be heartbroken if I couldn't fix it. The plastic cams had gone out of alignment on the visor. The last time I closed it they snapped, leaving me with an always open helmet. Fortunately I had a spare set that came with the original clear visor. It took a bit of aligning, but everything went back together flawlessly.
That Roof is one of the only ones in Canada. I'd need to take a trip to Europe just to get another! I'm starting to regret only buying one when I had a chance to pick up the last ones in Canada.
I went to Roof Helmets to see if I could find a Canadian distributor. They put me on to Fullbore Marketing, a company that delivers motorcycle gear to retailers. They told me that they aren't distributing Roof Helmets any more, but they have a couple of models left over. They put me on to Blackfoot Motorsport, and after a number of emails we got it a deal sorted out: a Roof Desmo for $400 Canadian (they usually run 469€ or about $673CAD, but you can't get 'em here). If you dig it, they had a pearl/white one still kicking around in XL too. Good luck chasing the distribution flow. If you succeed, you can get your Jo Sinnott on (Wild Camping is where I first saw the Roof and thought, wow, what a cool lid). I'm going to! In the meantime, I might be the only person in Canada this year with a new Roof Desmo, and it looks fantastic! (and also a crime). All of those Arais and Shoeis on the road are going to look so... common.
The helmet fits my temples better than anything else previously. It's snug front to back, but it's wearing in nicely. When on it has a fantastic anime feel to it! On the way home today it started to rain. With a single motion I went from open face to closed face, but this isn't just a modular helmet, it safeties as a full face helmet. I can't understand why these aren't for sale in Canada any more.
Jon Campbell on Google+ shared updated colours on the Aerostich line of motorcycle clothing. I've always loved the look of Aerostich kit. Unfortunately, a Roadcrafter suit costs more than most of the motorcycles I've purchased. 
Keeping with the orange kit theme, I'm also wishing for a go with the updated Desmo RO32 transformable helmet. Quieter, more comfortable and more spacious, it's my go-to Desmo helmet evolved. Short of buying one from overseas untried, I'm stuck. If we end up in France this summer, a trip to Roof might be in the cards through.
With the Tiger's winter maintenance done, I'm hoping to return focus to the Concours ZG1000 Fury streetfighter I've got half finished. 
On the to-do list is getting a rear light and indicators. I'd ordered them through Amazon but the dodgy Chinese company that makes them never evidently sent it, though they charged me for it. The Amazon marketplace seems to be increasingly filled with overseas companies that have a very slow delivery time, assuming they ship at all.
It'd be nice to get this running smoothly by the summer for some blistering solo rides where I finally get to find out what those new Michelin tires feel like. In a perfect world I'd enjoy the summer on it, ride it to the Distinguished Gentleman's Ride in Toronto next September where someone offers to buy it for what it cost me to make it. I could then role that over into next winter's project.
Racer5 is running their introduction to track riding again this year. A May long weekend getting familiar with the racing dynamics of a motorcycle would be pretty wicked. By the end of the course I'd be qualified to race. The next step would be getting myself into the VRRA for some vintage racing.
***
