HoHo and Ho!

What could be more authentic than this?

LIKE most Canadian motorcyclists (and I suspect those in climates that cool considerably in the winter months worldwide) its that time of year where we reflect back on the summer months past and dream about adventures coming up in the warmer months ahead. 

A few years ago, when I was single, kids grown and was eying Phoenix real estate, I was thinking  

"move to a small town Frank, maybe Okotoks, or Coleman or perhaps even Cranbrook, buy a small house with a big garage and spend four months a year down south."

Seemed do-able and a good idea at the time.  Then boy meets girl at a defunct Smitties, blah blah and fast forward to 2012. Build house on quiet little PEI and write stories. 

Here I am. 

These days Chris, Mike, Melanie and Jamie, Nevin and whomever else I bump into at Tim's, yak about where we are going come summer, what little fantasies we wish to fulfill, maybe thinking about a new Bonnie or V7 or perhaps something exotic like a fuel injected India Enfield Bullet, a misnomer if I ever heard one.  I always have a hard time parting with bikes, but the reality is like women, sometimes they come and go. 

Me, I have several ideas for 2015 and if half of them transpire, I'll be grateful to be thinking about them next winter.

Biggest on my list is a cross country ride on the DL 650 better known as V Strom.  This would be a nostalgia trip for me to commemorate the very first XC ride from west to east in 1975.  In those days there were very few long distance riders, the occasional Beemer or Harley, maybe a Bates or Vetter kitted CB 750 four. None of these massive convoys of cruisers, sports touring bikes, Adventure bikes or Gold Wings.  In fact the Wing wasn't even alive when I bought my R 60.

Too New for a Nostalgia ride?

This "nostalgia ride" is playing like a broken record in my head, after all, we're talking 14000+ kilometers here and maybe 6 weeks.  Trouble is, everyone I know is either in Alberta or B.C. and it would make more sense to fly out to Nisku for a visit with niece (what do you think of this Liz) and ride Kazue's old Savage to the coast and back, then fly home.  Three weeks, 5000km and plenty of nostalgic visits along the way.  Sure it wouldn't be an epic but hey in the years since '75 I've ridden a lot of country much of it foreign and at my age (I just turned 60 this week) do I really have to prove I have the balls to ride nearly 9000 miles in one go?  As if riding a 653 cc single with barely 30 horsepower driving a four speed transmission and a belt to the rear wheel wouldn't take balls to do, right!  The LS 650 was never designed as a long distance bike after all.  It's excellence was riding to the A&Dub for a root bear and fries... 

This would make more sense in the spirit of 1975.

Either way, it will be a fab trip I guarantee me, and I'm sure I'll get 60 smiles per gallon at the very least.  As for nostalgia, the Beemer had 50cc less under the tank, true... one more cylinder, the same number of gears in the box and barely more horsepower, so in some ways it would be a better recreation of the past.

One lung, 4 gears and 28 or so HP.

Knowing you can't live in the past for more than a short moment, I have several other longish distance trips around the Maritime's  to ponder.  I want to ride my old pal XT 600, Big Blue on a multi-day back road adventure around the east coast and maybe do the White mountains on the DL.

Hardly any snow on the ground, January 6th, but brutal and unusual cold for the Island.  I mean today, while waiting to show unit number 2... the Blazer was rocked by stiff cold arctic winds and my brows were pummeled by -20C temperatures.  Even part wild cat furry Phoenix was not keen to venture out!

Even Phx dislikes 20 below!  Who can blame him...

Hopefully it warms up tomorrow.