"The Many (Mis) Adventures of DR N": October 1st

Tomorrow is the first day of October... end of another season here on Prince Edward Island. I'm sure glad it was nice last Sunday, 27 and sunny, did the final 400 km of the Lighthouse Trail, a story that will be appearing in Canadian Biker some time in the new year. Keep an eye out for the December issue (?) for my "Rollin' up the Rim" ride, featuring the Mogollon Rim in Arizona.

I spent the last two days in cloudy, overcast and cool weather, putting things away for the year, servicing bikes and lawn equipment for storage, and prepping the Big Bear and Cub Cadet for winter use. I am taking extra precautions this go round, last year my BBQ blew away in what must have been a hair (toupee) raising wind storm and early in November it began snowing and didn't quit till May!

It's amazing how much upkeep there is on a house and yard, not even talking about vehicles and equipment.

I just had the old F 150 4X4 in for a little body work and paint, and wanted to park it in the garage this winter. It has always been an outdoor truck except for the last 2 years in Silver Springs when I had the soft shelter up.

The dirt bikes are winterized and stored already, I really did want to take a few more laps on the grass track but I know how quick time rockets by, and I am heading south in 2 weeks. The street bikes are in their own spot and the dualies together in another. In the coming week I will put the PT Cruiser up on blocks for the winter and start using the Blazer again.

Looking forward to Phoenix, not so easy and very costly to travel there from here... I have no BIG plans for this trip, other than a welcome visit from Holly and Kevin for 9 days early on. They will have a rent a car so getting around will be easy during that time, otherwise my only transportation is the Adventure 150 and the XT 350. The Adventure will hold 4 bags of groceries in the under seat storage and trunk, the XT has enough room for spare gloves. It's for exploring the boonies, not shopping. Hopefully the batteries I bought last year will have stayed charged on the trickle tender and I won't have to replace them again this year. Seems that every year I have to buy new batteries...

I have a new c/s sprocket for the 350 and new chain, plus two new 50/50 dual purpose tires and heavy duty off road tubes. I've been experimenting with gearing trying to get a combination that allows some freeway duty and still has enough grunt for trail riding the back country. Riding at 55 mph is a chore when traffic is doing 80 plus. I do make a point of staying away from the freeways but in order to get out of town or across town (about 65 miles) I have to ride the expressway. I should be able to ride at 60 mph now with the same revs with the latest gearing.

Just before leaving last year, in fact only days before, I bought an '82 FT 500 Ascot. A unique bike styled after the flat trackers that are legend in US dirt track oval racing, the Ascot , umm... needs work. It came over as a rolling chassis with engine bolted in but much of the ancillary stuff like controls and brakes and chain, were in boxes. I bought the bike because it is narrow, light weight and capable of freeway riding. It's not fast, maybe 90 mph top end, but the gearing should allow me to transit and tour further afield than the XT does. After all... I don't go to Arizona to do the ton. Besides that... it's an offshoot of Honda's XL 500 dirt/trail bike so I won't feel pressed if I have to cross a secondary dirt road.

Anyway... here's some photos of the year past for your perusal:)

Cheers!