"The Many (Mis) Adventures of DR N": In the zone.

Absolutely LOVE this most versatile of bikes. '09 Suzuki DL 650 ABS photographed in Cape Breton Highlands

LAST weekend I made a round trip on the DL 650 to southern New Brunswick, in what I would describe as perfect weather. I dislike not wearing gear and I know what many of you may say... the choice sometimes is wearing the gear or dropping dead from heat exhaustion.

On the road, where she loved to be.

Since me youngest daughter with her family recently transplanted from Calgary to the St John area, I have been "across" as they say here, many times. I love the fact that any ride in the east coast contains multiple choices for travel. Once on the mainland and out of the immediate vicinity of the bridge, there are literally a dozen choices and once past the Moncton city bottleneck of PEI, Nova Scotia and southern NB's hustle and bustle... I can take divided 4 lanes making up the Trans Canada highway network if I am just covering distance but much more often I end up on the secondary roads or better yet... the 3 digit rural road network where I must admit I have been lost several times, but always found my way.

I'm sure gonna miss the V Strom's 23 L fuel tank, with 500 plus km range.

Rugged and stylish, a sweetheart of a bike.

I say "miss" because this week I made a deal with one of the local motorcycles shops here on the Island to trade the Strom (Big Orange) for two small, diverse machines. More on them later.

As you can imagine, having 2 and a half decades in the business, and the hundreds of motorcycles, snowmobiles, ATV's I've owned and ridden over my 51 year riding career, I've relished the variety of experiences I've gathered while twisting or pushing throttles. I couldn't even begin to tell you about this but if you follow my blog, you'll get a hint of the joys (and some pains too) I've experienced.

I bought the V Strom (from the same shop) 5 years ago, for a planned ride across the country to celebrate my 40th anniversary of the first ride I took across Canada. Briefly, I had bought a BMW R60/5, dressed it with Wixom Ranger fairing, Shoei bags and rode from Northern Alberta to PEI and did a side trip to British Columbia on that same ride. In those days there were few motorcycles anywhere, and if you've been reading this Blog you may remember how we waved when we saw another motorcycle on the road. The TCH was nothing more than a country road in them days, and there were very few touring bikes to be seen.

Age 20. Bike BMW R 60/5 bought new in 1973. Rode XC summer of '75 8900 miles total.

Apart from the occasional saddle bagged Beemer, four cylinder dressed up Honda or a very few HD Big Twin Electra Glides, there were few and far between. Back in those days, you would be hard pressed to see bikes on city streets and of course the highway passed through most CDN city's back then. My music teacher, while taking accordion lessons when all my pals were in garage bands on electric guitars, organ's and drums, while I lugged around a hundred twenty bass accordion! He says to me at their 118th avenue second floor studio as I stop when I heard a bike go by.

"Sportster , 2 inch open pipes" or hearing a Honda 750 with pipes on it,

"Honda 750 4... four into one competition baffle..."

"Frank... you have a great ear, but it's sure not for music... "

That's started my 50 plus year riding and having the time of my life!

At 31" seat height and just over 350 lbs, moving into the next era.

Since then I have covered a lot of ground on our little planet, and as I age I sometimes feel like my days are getting shorter. Past injuries (getting hit by cars/heart attacks etc) have taken a toll and I have modified my riding style to suit.

Case in point, after a long struggle I made the decision to down size. Okay, so I won't be riding my 4 speed BMVay for 600 mile days, in fact there are days that 75 miles feels like a lot.

Sexy Italian scooter with three wheels, and locking stance.

I am retired now, kinda... and my rides now are not for covering distance but for smelling the roses, poppy fields in Northern France, or especially the history and excellent opportunities for the east coast. The V Strom was maybe, the best motorcycle I've had. Dressed up, long range tank, and comfortable seating or even standing at times, I will miss her.

In her place I will be parking a slightly used MP3 Piaggio 250 and a recent model Honda CBR 300.

That makes a 223cc Yamaha, the Piaggio 250, the 263 cc Citicom 300 i, and the 286cc Honda. Of course I am already looking at luggage gear and the map (okay, Google Earth) and the map, and playing the next few years in my head.

I may not make it to the White mountains but I've never been to the Gaspe, or the south shore of N.S.

So, why give up an acknowledged great tourer like the ADV DL 650, for two bikes that together don't equal the engine size, well let me tell you. I was born to a family of short people. My Mom wasn't 5' and my father barely over. I myself am 5'4"... well maybe 5'3" after getting smacked in the rear by that Mazda by a kid in a dam hurry.

The DL has had the suspension lowered via an adjustable linkage kit, pre-load and damping, forks pulled up, seat cut down and still, she's about 2" from where I'd need to be. Even if I could "snap my fingers" to lower it more/grow, I can't do anything about the weight. The hardware for mounting a matched set of three large and rugged bags, steel skid plate which has on occasion, seen use, and to top it off add a full tank of petrol and with me on tip toes and Brenda climbing over the luggage system, it cab get pretty dicey. Last years East shore of N.S. at the T junction to Sheet Harbour, I came within a whisker of tipping over into a 6' deep ditch. To this day I can remember the will power to keep from leaning that extra degree was like riding another hundred miles, on a mo-ped!

Sleek and more important, fits me.

So... the Strom is going, and in her place will be a little used Piaggio MP3 250 and only slightly more used, Honda CBR 300R which weighs in about 200 lbs less than the loaded Suzuki... and I don't need a step ladder to climb aboard!

The three wheeled scooter has always caught my eye, and although not light nor particularly low and skinny, the CBR does fulfill those boxes. What the MP3 has is a locking ability that doesn't require putting the pilot's foot on the ground while stopped, although, after a lifetime doing that, not sure how that will pan out. At my age, the mind may not be clear on that! It does however have enough power to accelerate and carry a rider and passenger comfortably at 60 mph speeds. Oh yeah... it also has three wheels. Did I mention that.