Sooo I have been a bad blogger – just ended in the middle of
a trip toward the end of last year. Not cool I know. I just ran out of steam,
writers block, could not think of anything worthwhile to say. I’m not sure that
I’ve got beyond that, but I should at least do an update. I probably won’t be
blogging much this year, as you’ll see this was the summer that wasn’t.
The trip I was on last year did not go very much to plan,
not the Tom Tom’s fault, but the weather. Torrential downpours kept me in Quebec
City for two nights, I had initially not even planned to stay there for even
one night. Now don’t get me wrong, I love Quebec City, lots of things to see
and do, art, culture, history and dozens of fabulous restaurants, but it just
wasn’t part of the plan. I stayed in a bland, modern, cheapish hotel on the
outskirts of the city, the sort that looks the same as a hundred thousand
others and the rooms conforms to the same basic design. From the door, a short
passage - bathroom on left or right, closet opposite, then the bedroom with bed
against one wall and desk, TV and other stuff against the other. Windows that
don’t open at the end and ugly prints on the walls. Unhygienic, athlete’s foot
spoor invested dark carpets on the floor.
The rain poured down for two nights and a day. I did take a
taxi to the old city, bought a little fold up umbrella and did a bit of the
tourist stuff, took in a few museums, all nearly empty thanks to the rain, and
had a very decent lunch. Three hours was about enough for me so I took a taxi
back and watched Netflix on my laptop in the hotel room, drank Scotch and had a
semi-edible room service burger for supper.
On the second morning, it was still pissing down, but the
prospect of another day stranded in Hotel Le Dismal was just not tenable and according
to the weather network it was dryer to the south, so I donned the green suit
and headed out into the downpour. Maybe I come across as a wimp or fair-weather
biker, and perhaps to an extent I am both, but riding in the rain is not
exactly pleasant and it adds an extra element of danger. Roads become slippery,
helmet visors do not have wipers to clear away water and the visor mists up badly
in the rain. Nonetheless after a few hours of riding in the rain it did slacken
off and eventually stopped shortly before I crossed into the USA, State of
Maine.
I’m not going to write a blow, by blow account of the trip
through the USA, being as it is last years news, but I’ll give a few high-level
impressions. I rode through Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire and New York State. As
I have discovered the USA is a country of such massive contrasts, soaring
beautiful vistas and derelict towns, evidence of wealth and grinding poverty,
freedoms and elements of a police state, wonderful friendly people and churches
(everywhere) with signs proclaiming hell and damnation. This was during the
Presidential race between Clinton and Trump and ultimately these states all
were Clinton states, but it sure didn’t look that way when I rode through. It seemed
like for every 25 Trump/Pence poster I saw, maybe there was one Hilary/the
other guy poster. To that point, I had thought that the possibility that this
great nation would elect a crook and buffoon to the highest office was simply
unthinkable, now I started to wonder what might be. I had a conversation with a
group of guys in a motel bar in New York State, they were riding from
Pennsylvania to go through the Adirondack Mountains (see post, Donnelly’s
Sunset Point Cabins - Adirondack). I was trying not to have political
discussions with strangers, but the discourse almost inevitably drifted there,
they were definitely not Trump supporters, but also did not relish the prospect
of voting for Hilary Clinton, in the words of one of then, ‘fucking corrupt Clintons’.
Amazingly, the democratic party had managed to put up about the only candidate
that could lose against Donald J Trump. Well we all know where we are now,
shitting ourselves that we can be tweeted into WWIII at any bloody moment. Unhappily
Canada is joined at the hip to the USA, we are Siamese twins, Canada is the
little one that doesn’t have much control over the legs.
It was an interesting, but perhaps not the greatest of
rides. I did not entirely leave the rain behind in Quebec City and stopping to
put on rain gear became a regular occurrence. It is way better to already have
the stuff on before the rain starts, so there were a few times that I wore the
outfit and only sweated in the heat. I can’t say that I didn’t enjoy the trip
because I did, I always do even if it’s just a 40-km evening excursion, it’s
just that it wasn’t the trip I had set my heart on. I had wanted to do a cross
continental ride, but circumstances were just not in my favour. Better luck
next year I thought. It wasn’t quite the end of the riding season and I managed
a at least one more reasonably long trip, which turned out to be very cold ride
and my heated grips were the only thing that kept me from frost bite. But, the season
ended by Halloween and I winterized the bike.
During the winter, I brewed my plans. Firstly, the KLR was
in dire need of some serious maintenance, it needed front and rear brakes
including rotors, chain and sprockets and the tires were worn. Due to a new
noise in engine, like someone had tossed in a handful of loose change, I was
convinced the doohickey (aka Engine Idler Lever Counterbalance) was no longer
functioning as designed. Anyone that owns a KLR knows about this issue, the
otherwise bullet proof engine has this one flaw, the stock part is poorly made
and likely to break just from normal wear and tear, if it does it could potentially
wreck the engine. I also had realized that the 13-litre fuel tank was just not
remotely adequate for a decent cross continental ride, and I really needed a
centre stand to do the chain oiling and tension adjustments that I would have
to do on an 8000-km trip. The internet and my credit card were active and
winter was punctuated by deliveries of all the bits and pieces that I needed.
 |
| KLR with 26 litre tank |
I had visions of doing all this work myself, but as we decided
to finish all the renovations to the house in the early spring, I just did not
have the time. Instead I ponied up more cash and got the good folks at ATC
Corral to do it all. Probably a better outcome as the doohickey had broken so
they needed to check that there was no engine damage and root around to make
sure that the pieces were not still in the sump. They also were prepared to buy
the 13-litre fuel tank to offset against the costs. So, the season started with
me having spent almost as much on the KLR as it cost me to buy it, but it was
totally worth it, the bike was running so sweetly. The new 26 litre tank,
besides making the bike look so much more like a real adventure tourer,
having a range of 500 km plus before getting to reserve is just fantastic, of
course my butt doesn’t last that long without needing a break.
To say that the 2017 riding season has been great would be a
serious overstatement. Sure, I’ve done a few decent day trips to Muskoka and
the Ontario Highlands, but 2017 has just been the wettest summer I’ve
experienced since arriving in this part of the world ten years ago. In fact, it
is the wettest since records have been made. While we drown, other parts of
Canada and the world are so dry that forests are catching fire, but there is no
such thing as climate change.
 |
| Rivers swollen from the rain, but not a flood |
 |
| Managed some decent rides - Ontario Highlands |
As I write this the ferocity
of hurricane Harvey has just finally dissipated and Houston and other parts of
East Texas are still partly underwater, Bangladesh is even more devastated by
flooding from unprecedented monsoon rain, Mumbai is flooded and as well as Nigeria and hurricane Irma is poised to wreak more havoc. I guess that having a
wet summer is no reason to complain in the light of these real floods. I have
recently seen a new phrase to describe what is happening, it’s ‘climate
breakdown’, that is the most accurate way to describe this phenomenon that I
have heard. ‘Global warming’ sounds almost like a good thing, ‘climate change’
doesn’t quite convey the seriousness of the problem, but ‘climate breakdown’
really does strike the right note. It will be difficult to be a climate
breakdown denier in the face of the climate events that are hitting us, but
then again if it suits you to pretend that it isn’t happening then you’ll just
carry on denying even as the world as we know it comes to an end. Here ends the
lesson, I’ll write about more cheerful things.
Well I am trying, but there isn’t a great deal of cheerful things
to write about on the motorcycling end either. I haven’t ridden at all for the
past five weeks, even though there have been many days of decent weather. ‘What
the hell,’ you might ask, ‘the no-so easy rider, not riding for five weeks in
the middle of summer?’ Of course, this abstinence has not been voluntary, a minor
accident resulted in a busted ankle and my plans of an 8000-km cross continental
ride went out the window. I needed to go in to the office for some meetings and
decided to ride rather than drive. Although it had been raining during the
night, the weather forecast for Newmarket was clear and promised to become
sunny. I didn’t check the forecast my destination. Needless-to-say, I rode into
a substantial thunderstorm, which was no big deal in itself, but it rendered
the roads nice and slippery. The traffic speed couldn’t have been more than 30
km/h on the congested city street I was travelling on, when a motorist changed lanes
without shoulder checking, I was in the lane. I braked hard to avoid him and
the KLR slipped thanks to the wet. Initially when I stood up I thought I was
fine until I tried to take a step and discovered that putting weight on my left
leg was very painful, I knew immediately that my riding season was toast.
On the bright side, the KLR came through the incident almost
unscathed. Some scratches on the new tank and on the left hand guard (plastic and
meaningless other than helping to keep the wind off the hands), which just give
the bike a bit more attitude. That’s what is so great about the KLR, it’s not
meant to look shiny, it’s a workhorse not a show horse. A fall like this would
have caused several thousands of dollars of damage to many other bikes, busted
panniers, windshields, scratched pipes and paint jobs, the KLR just shrugged it
of.
I wasn’t quite so lucky, but in the greater scheme of things,
didn’t come off too badly.
 |
| Selfie - Kawasaki Green Cast |
One last take-away. The emergency services that arrived on
the scene within minutes were fantastic, I was taken care of and my property
was taken care of. Thanks to the Toronto Police officer Patricia Featherstonhaugh
for arranging for the KLR to get home and otherwise treating me with kindness
and dignity, thanks to the firemen that arrived on the scene first and got me
settled and to the paramedics that looked after me until I was admitted to
Etobicoke General. Thanks to the overworked hospital staff at Etobicoke General
that treated me. Thanks to OHIP, sometimes maligned health system, but that
ensured I was given first class, first world treatment at zero cost to me.
Thanks also to the doctors and staff at Southlake Hospital in Newmarket that
took over the treatment and performed the surgery and have treated me so well.
 |
| New Ride |
