2011-09-17

2011 Suzi Visits Quebec

Dee invited Suzi and I to make the trek up to Quebec to camp out overnight at the Esprit white water rafting campground, and who could refuse when a lovely girl sends you a Garmin GDB with a wonderfully twisted route? I did have to create a KML file and use GPSVisualizer to convert it back into a GDB so I could have a Route AND a Track, but that's the geek in me. Think of it as a highlighted route marked on the map, I've become addicted to tracks and the trackback feature, but once in a while I like to gas up and get lost. ;)

Anyhow, Suzi was a bit nervous on the Bandit as opposed to the KLR but she settled in and began to enjoy the ride as soon as we passed the first stinky cow farm. It what she likes. :)

Suzi greets the people that she meets in her own particular way.


2011-09-11

Aminal & Fozzy's Ride and BBQ



There was a lot more riding along the lakeshore, but I forgot the route. :(

The Newmarket crew organized by the lovely Elektra queues up to leave


Goldie and her friends join in


Isis rides sweep on Pinky


We're quite a large group just by ourselves

Some of us opt to avoid the 400. Suzi prefers rural roads to the highways.



My friends Sarah & John, as people line the roads to watch a parade of 112 bikes led by Aminal towards Midland.


The view ahead

And behind




Our Hostess, Fozzy and Sam the wonder dog.

Paul and Aminal roasting meat for a hungry crowd

Poor little mouse, all alone on my plate

Stop staring at me!

Elektra and Cat enjoying the atmosphere

Paul can't keep up with Thomas, so Ric steps in while Mike lends support.



Our hosts, Aminal, Sam and Fozzy.


Sam plays hard to get.





This is the best of the sequence... You'll soon see why, it was like trying to herd cats...

Don't look at the camera Scott

Don't look at the camera Karen

Grrrr!

It's a fail, but I love the laughter captured here. :)


Time to say our farewells

Sam is a gets special attention


Pinky!








I've never been held up at a light because of the leaders blowing kisses at each other until today, lol.

DangerB

That's not dirt, parachutes are coming in...





I dropped Suzi off with my friends Willie & Sheelagh as I'd planned a three day ride south into Pennsylvania with a friend. I met up with my brother Shaun who was buying a used Givi top box off of me, and I'd offered to help him install it in my garage in Richmond Hill, so he followed me down the 404 until we exited at Elgin Mills and headed West towards my home.



Here's where it gets knarly. The front tube failed and my tire went flat as I tried to reduce my speed from 70kph to 0 for a red light. The front end was giving some really nasty feedback, like trying to steer a marshmallow through a campfire... The tire would flop with every steering correction and I realized I needed to get off the front brake and scrub off my speed quickly with the rear brake only, which I proceeded to do when the front end washed out from underneath me at about 40kph and down I went kissing the pavement rather quickly. I've some experience with this sort of thing, and was up quickly ensuring that I wasn't about to be run over by my brother or the traffic behind, while he was quick enough to grab the three pieces of my cell phone and put it back together while I picked the bike back up and got it onto it's kickstand.












I called CAA and Rod from MotoLimo.com came to the rescue


Rod from MotoLimo.com


We got the bike into my driveway, and started work on Shaun's bike to mount the rack. The longest part was locating screws of the correct thread that were tall enough to secure the add on plate. We ended up cannabalizing a couple of bolts from a ram mount kit that I'd used on my VFR, along with a stack of washers as the bolts were 1/4" too long and were bottoming out before putting pressure on the rack/plate.  Okay, that sorted out we drilled a couple holes in his top rack and had it on in no time. Now there is one place on his bike that will stay dry. :)


KLR's are awesome once you start to mistreat them and scratch them up. I'll have mine back on the road as soon as my swollen clutch hand doesn't protest when I grab a couple of tire spoons. :P

Cheers, and a special thanks to Aminal and Fozzy for hosting a wonderful ride and BBQ!