I love my Thunderbird...

... and Imagination is good.


"I pulled the nose up on the Spitfire right onto the 109's six.  He didn't even know I was there.  Finger on the trigger I gave him 5 seconds with the 8 Brownings.  He never even knew what hit him.  The left wing dropped as the engine spewed dark smoke.  The pilot stood in his canopy right away as I pulled up alongside.

He gave me a salute, then jumped."

French River

Of course I wasn't flying a Spit and there was no Messerschmidt.  I was however on the 6 of a 70's vintage coal black Mercedes, lumbering along at 70 kph on route 6 through Margate, while riding my Made in England 900 Thunderbird.  After several miles out into the countryside, I pulled by in a slow pass.  Neither of us  saluted I made that up, but we both looked at and admired each others wheels.

Wheatley River

It was the first time this season I had the Bird out for a spin, decent weather but terrific gusts of wind.  Near the water or on the top of Park corner, the 500 lb bike would get pushed over three feet pronto if I wasn't careful.  I like riding the Island, never dull!

88 years!

While my friends rack up the mileage out west, me... a hundred and twenty kilometers over 3 or 4 hours is just about perfect.

Break time...

There were lots of bikes out and I was noticing that every third yard had an atv, a cruiser, or a dirt bike.  Sometimes all three!  The six speed Triumph absolutely loafs along at 90-100kph, and even though the engine is tuned for 'only' 70 horsepower, it feels like it makes that right off idle.  It's no problem slowing to 50 kph going through villages and accelerating back to cruising speed while in top gear.



The engine is a DOHC triple (love those triples!) and when on the gas, it sounds like those 8 Brownings when you pull the trigger, umm... throttle.

"Rat a tat a tat a tat a tat a tat a tat!"

I stopped in for a coke at the North Rustico Irving/grocery store and had a nice chat with Kieth (not Park) Gallant.  His family has owned and operated this store at this location for 88 years!  Sister Karen has an art gallery upstairs (closed today) and brother Danny was off elsewhere. 

Kieth recognized me from the old days, telling me that since riding a Ninja 900 (the original 1984 model) across Canada that year, then giving up bikes as the family grew, he was dying to spill the beans that he just bought a 2003 Kawa Mean Streak... and nobody knows.  Not the wife or the kids or any friends.  Apparently I'm the first he's broken the news to!

Farmer's Bank of Rustico 1864-1894

After our farewells, I took a secondary road some of which was so badly broken up I actually welcomed the clay road I took back to route 6.

Belcourt Center/Retreat

I came upon some historic sites and snapped a few photos for the "album" which now has more than 33,000 images! Thank goodness for digital cameras!

Umm, not a pothole in sight!

In all, T Bird and I had such a nice ride, I didn't even mind the wind so much.  Only problem I encountered was a left hand muffler that was literally hanging by a thread (the header pipe) which I noticed stopping in at Melanie's for a quick chat, just long enough to give the two pooches a shoulder rub.

Some pretty!

The plus side... I had a set of stock mufflers in the box from when I bought the bike in 2006 from a chap in Victoria B.C.  It took an hour and 45 minutes to change pipes, I had to literally hack saw the old muffler off the header, it was rusted so bad.  Now I have one each, stock pipe on the left and one each, 'off road' pipe on the right.  The sound is mellow and still has a bit of a bark.  I'm not one of those guys that likes LOUD pipes for the street, as far as I'm concerned, they don't prevent collisions, in fact may cause some!  Besides, we don't need the public being agin us,

rather... with us:)



Coming up next week, long time riding MC instructor buddy D.T. will be visiting from Edmonton and we

plan on doing a bit of motoring while he's here.

Shortly after that... I'm off to the West to do some nostalgia riding of my own.

See you soon!

Mike (and the) Bike

Our only National Park "Cavendish"

Finally... 

After months of inactivity, Mike and I finally got our timing together and happened to catch a good day last week.  It was warm and calm, two things that are not necessarily hand in hand.

It was Mike's first ride of the season (Hell it was pretty much everybody's first ride of the season) and you could just tell he was pretty darn apprehensive.  I mentioned in passing that "we should stay here, drink a cold beer and bench race." I was kidding of course.

Mike, getting in the groove!

It wouldn't have taken much to change his mind, but by the time we hit Park Corner, he was feeling somewhat better and when we passed through French River, he was if not, in the groove, then darn close to it.

As for Mike, I had just two words of advice; 'seat time'.

Anything odd about this photo?

Nothing like a picnic right on the beach!

"Should I or shouldn't I"... that is the question.

Lobster boats coming...

...and going.

Must be close to summer!

We headed out to Cavendish and the National Park, always the best time to go, little traffic, easy to get some photo ops and there is something fascinating about riding mountains, deserts or near the sea.

We have some hills (our highest point is nearly 500' above sea level and we are part of that ancient Appalachian range) no desert but plenty of ocean. 

Reminds me of that woman asking the hostess at Island Preserve company last year, if the "Island was completely surrounded by water?"

Say what?!

To say Prince Edward Island is such a jewel would not be lying one iota.  Although physically small, it is incredibly picturesque and we did take pictures to prove it. 

Oh he's feelin' it now!

Surprisingly there are many roads and it's virtually impossible to get lost.

Of course this time of year given the winter we just had, many of the secondary unpaved roads are still mired in mud, snow covered or both!  We stayed on pavement for the most part.

Low tide on the North shore.

If the Island is pretty, then Rustico is Pretty with a capital "P".  We detoured to the coast talked to some bikers and then stopped for a doughnut and cafe at the local Robins.  Most of the summertime tourism outlets are just waking from the long winter slumber and those in Rustico were no exception.  Most eateries won't be open until the early part of June. It's a very short tourism season. Most have to make a go of it in three months, mid June to mid September. 

Everyone I talked to and in fact Tourism PEI advertising, is hoping to lure Americans back to our beaches and cottages and campgrounds.  They stopped coming after 9/11 and only now with their economy rolling along are they beginning to return.  Having a 20 cent advantage on their dollar certainly makes it more attractive to travel north from New England to the Maritimes.

Let's hope things pick up for the Island tourism industry and our economy picks up...

Maybe business will be so good, the province will toss the hated 14% HST out the window into the trash heap where it belongs.

Nothing like a couple of pals riding their bikes on a beautiful day!

Gee what's that, did I just see a pig fly by... :) 

A N N A

DEEP

Brenda's adopted daughter, Anna is quite the handful at times.  Like most 14 y.o. girls she can be vewwwwy persistent when she wants something.

She hasn't shown a lot of interest in riding motorized stuff but today as it turns out, she was all for it.

I heard the door close about 7 am.  It was cold, blustery and overcast.  Looking outside I see her spindly little form heading up the right of way road to "the pit" carrying something in her hand which turned out to be one of our ice cream containers!

This snow bank will still be here June 21st!

I got dressed, fired up the Big Bear and hit the trail hoping to catch up with her.  At the top of the hill I came to a major obstacle, a snow drift about 10' deep and measuring about 100' long x30' in width.  Turning back I did an alternate trail through the woods and came across her standing next to a still smoldering fire pit in the pit.  Bottles and cans of previously filled alcoholic beverages, littered the area.  Boys from school, she tells me... naming a few.  All around 13-15 years of age living in the general vicinity.  They come on their (Dad's quads) and their dirt bikes and smoke and drink.  I notice that there are no quantities of a single beverage container, I suspect it's easier to "pinch" one or two of this or that from Dad's supply without raising suspicion. 

In any case, it was so pleasant sheltered in the woods, I went and woke Brenda up from her peaceful Sunday slumber and with smokies and buns in in hand, we headed back up the hill.

She sure likes poking around campfires.

We spent a very satisfying morning and while Mom and I sat on a log, I let Anna ride the Bear around the shale pit.

Me thinks Mom would rather be in bed!

She did so well and after our campfire was firmly out with sand and clay she continued riding in the yard.  In fact she rode the Big bear Yamaha much of the day, round and round, standing at times, taking turns, stopping where the driveway meets the lane.  Not surprising, she looked almost like a natural and believe me, in the many years I spent teaching Motorcycle courses, I can tell.  Most of my students over the years could learn to ride quite well, but it would take concentration and practice to do so.  Every now and again, we got someone that was just made to sit on a bike, in my estimation that happened about 5% of the time.  Certainly no higher than 10.

The shale pit above our property.

Take Lisa my younger daughter and Holly a couple of years older.  Lisa at a very young age just sat right and balanced the bike as if she had been born on it.  Holly, had to learn to ride.  She is a good rider but that came from her intelligence and smarts and practice.  Surprisingly, Lisa has never shown much interest in riding Motorcycles and Holly rides whenever we get together.

Favorite spot for kids of many ages...

14 years old.

By late in the afternoon, I had to literally 'peel' Anna off the quad so Mom and I could run into town on the Velo scooter and pick up a couple of coffees for Mike and Isabelle, who were working on getting their paper out this week.

Looks pretty comfortable at the controls.

As it turned out, the sun came and made a pretty good showing although the wind is still steady at least it's changed from North to South and we cruised back to our home at an indicated



60mph.

Ahhh... the wind at one's back!

Who'd a guessed it?

Fort Mac Murray has been Canada's "hot spot" several times this week past.  Northern Alberta.  Let me rephrase that, the Great White North, former fur trading center, bush town, errr city, hub of Oil Sands extraction, that FM.

Here in the east, on the other hand, we are still dealing with single digit daily highs and, wet, windy and chilly non M/C weather.  You can still find snow and I don't mean you need a microscope to do it either.  While the west is basking in near 30 degree temperatures, it's currently plus 3 and environment Canada says it's real feel is -2!

Makes me want to jump on my bike and ride, well maybe head to the curling rink...

Yes... it was the Great Winter of '14.  Anyone traveling by wagon train would have frozen to death several times over during the last few months, but c'mon.  FM... the "hot spot"

Gimme a break.

The Mighty Big Blue!

The magnificent Rockies!

YAMAHA built some of the first modern day four stroke dirt oriented bikes, beginning with the 70's off road play-bike, TT500 and followed shortly after by the street legal XT model.

For those of you old enough to remember and for those not... four cycle motorcycles ruled off road competition until the late 60's.  There were 4 stroke powered road racers, enduro machines and even trials bikes were powered by the big single or twin.  In their heyday, there were few Maico's, CZ's, Huskies and fewer Japanese bikes competing in Barstow to Vegas and like races.

Power wash... MacLean creek Trail Kananaskis country

However, by the mid sixties, two stroke machinery was gradually taking over in all off road competitions.  Similarly the very first Suzuki and Yamaha road racers, although small in displacement began to get the edge on pavement.  For awhile there was not a four cycle engined machine anywhere to be found on a dirt or paved road course especially in smaller categories.  Once two strokes became dominant, with their high power to weight ratio, agile handling light frames and reliable engines, it seemed the Universe was going to dominated by strokers.

Elbow river Bragg Creek AB

When Yamaha introduced the single overhead cam, two valve air cooled TT, the press loved it.  Here was a bike with it's indirect lineage to British singles, but modern and reliable.  The manual decompression lever and cam configured piston indicator, made starting less of an ankle breaking concern for the rider.

Somewhere on the Forestry Trunk Road AB

The TT proved to be a great off road playbike.  Soon after it seemed everyone had an off road or dual purpose four stroke in the line-up, some with several models in various displacements.

My kinda road!

On the Powder Face Trail, Rocky Mountains

The XT 600 sitting in my garage is now 25 years old.  That's quite a lot for a 'modern' trail bike and even though we in Canada only had the pleasure of the E-A model in 1990 while the USA and especially Europe saw them for many years after, this bike is still quite modern and in actual practice, works just fine.

The E model came factory equipped with an electric leg, seems people were losing interest in kick starting especially high compression four cycle engines.  The kick starter of the previous generations being deleted in the E model.

Indian Graves AB Rocky Mountains

Four days on the Forestry Trunk Road. 1400 kms

I've owned mine since the mid 90's.  In fact it was the second one I'd bought, the first ridden by then girlfriend Deb.  Our two bikes saw 7000km of Baja and the SW US, I trucked them to the east coast 10 years later where they once again covered lots of ground including the famous Cabot Trail.

As often happens, we died as a couple but the two XT's soldiered on.  I don't know if DJ still has hers but I can say without any qualms, mine is working as designed and has covered a great deal of time since I bought it in Calgary those many years ago.

Baja California Norte, near Picacho del Diablo 10, 154 feet

There have been times I've thought of trading her off for something more modern and newer like maybe a DR 650 which is similar in intent and a little more powerful and a wee bit smoother running, but that thought fades into mist whenever I ride the Big Blue for the first time each year.

Catavina boulder field Baja CA.

Getting new skins front and back, brakes, chain and sprockets last year.

The SOHC 4 valve, dual carb single still runs like a top, has never let me down or left me stranded and delivers astonishing fuel mileage (my fill the other day yielded 63 mpg Cdn) I can ride at 110 kph with the slight over gearing and yet have enough low end grunt to tackle a real live off road XC race course in the Rocky Mountains.

Old girl still looks great!

To top it off, my BB is still comfortable, still modern enough that people are surprised when I tell them its a 1990 model, and still has lots of mileage left under the tank.

A quiet PEI back clay road.  Perfect XT territory.

Unlike that girlfriend... I'll probably keep Blue forever!

Dreamin'

02 Thunderbird

I've spent much of this week preparing motorized vehicles of the PT Cruiser (turbo), F 150, and various two wheeled types for what I hope will eventually be... spring.  I mean its cool (but not in the Arthur Fonzerelli sense) with a biting wind coming out of the north.

So far this week I have installed new batteries in the Velo, XT 600 and next will follow the Craftsman lawn tractor.  Every year it seems, I have to replace a couple.

08 Velo 150

I'm excited about the riding season, short as it may be, after all... I'm gone in the fall.

1990 XT 600

I sat on my Velo scooter today, thinking about riding two up for a coffee at Beanz in C'Town,  imagined myself passing through Puertecitos Baja with the Cortz on my left, heading south on the XT 600, the White mountains of New England on the Triumph 900 and the Cabot Trail on the V Strom.  In a month I am headed west for a ride around BC and AB on the old LS 650, so a busy season, like I say... in a short summer.

Can't wait...

09 V Strom 650