Spring is right round the corner!

The days have been alternating between just above and just below zero.  The snow from our front field is mostly gone, driving into town, those same fields are pretty much all mud.

I loved spending time on my little Baja beach.

A couple of weeks ago, I took the Serow from the shed and brought it into my workshop.  This is a 1992 223cc dual purpose bike, four of which I brought in that year for use on the National Motorcycle Training program, a program I had a very long history with.  As I was preparing to move from Ft Mac, I bought the two remaining Serows, and they served me very well for the next 20 years, even 'nearly' getting a cover for a story I wrote about riding the Baja peninsula back in 2004.

Spring in PEI

It's a simple bike, 223cc's, a 6 speed transmission, adjustable suspension and reliable as a pet rock. 

Maintenance

Over the years I put many happy miles/kilometers tooling around on the many gravel back roads on both sides of the Rockies, in Baja and locally near Calgary.  The Powder face Trail, route 66, MacLean Creek trail, Spray Lakes trail, the KVR and more.  Apart from routine oil changes, a few bits here and there, the bike hasn't cost me hardly a dime.  I sold one to my youngest niece prior to moving east and kept the other one for myself.



Over the weekend and today I put new tires on, the originals now 24 years old and although not entirely worn out, I do like riding some soft stuff and new knobs will be helpful for that

Original tires

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Countershaft

Sprocket changes 16tooth vs 15.

 This bike is just over 13K km now and is still running strong. 

Grease the swing-arm pivot

Installed 16 T

After riding it in the last D2D rally in New Brunswick two years ago I purchased a 16T counter shaft sprocket which I just installed.  This will raise the gearing slightly, enabling me to travel if not faster at road speeds but a little less frantically.

One of many covered bridges in N.B. on the D2D

Most of my riding on these bikes is done on trails and the 6 speed transmission does allow me an almost trials like pace in low gear.  I can't wait to see how the taller gearing will work for me.  Of course my XT 600 has raised gearing for better road manners and recently I finally found an almost ideal set-up for my XT 350 I keep down south.

All buttoned up!

With new rubber, different gearing, a fully charged battery installed (I trickle charge everything routinely during the off season) I have only to check and adjust the 2 valves, and change the motor oil and I will be ready to go as soon as spring breaks.

Brenda was commenting on my ability to do much of this work myself.  My tool box although not as complete as it was when I was in the MC business, is still sufficient to do many repairs or replacements myself.  I did the tires the old way, levers and toes on the ground.  The manual tire changer I bought a few years back is sitting unused, it will need some modifications before it's usable.

C'mon Spring!

I'm chomping at the bit to get rolling, hopefully there will be no more snowstorms and perhaps by March I can actually get on the road although it's unlikely trails will be opened for quite some time.  It will take a lot warmer weather than +3 degrees and lots of it at that to  melt the snow on the little back lanes I like to ride.

Trevor has been working on his KLR 650 and we are talking about a back road trip in June.  I'd ride my 600, itself a veteran of many rides over the years.

Wacky Winter

Thirty years ago, when I had a motorcycle/snowmobile/atv business out here on the east coast of Canada, we experienced real four seasons weather as a rule.  There were years when we could not get enough snowmobiles, it was twenty feet deep!  I was buying them from Ontario when they had no snow.  Other years, you could not give away a sled.

Pretty nice winter day!

Well guess what, somethings never change.  

2012, our first winter on the Island was incredible short and mild, I even had my TTR out for a ride around the grass track February first.  For the two following winters, we had so much snow, I plumb near wore myself and my equipment out trying to stay on top of things.

Fast forward to 2015/2016 and so far there has been less than a dozen stormy episodes and at no time have I been stressed.  Sure the Cub Cadet broke a shear pin or two and the odd time the auger got jammed by a rock, but to be sure, it's been a low snow year.  People around here are already talking bikes.  I'm sure we haven't seen the last of the seasons blizzards in fact it's blowing around the few inches that fell today and I will likely have the Bear out in the morning to clear it before I head to C 'Town to... look at scooters.

Back in '82, a mild winter, I signed with Yamaha to sell their line of Beluga CV 80 scooters.  Little fan cooled two stroke two seaters, they didn't go over well. Not because the weren't a good product but because dealers were reluctant to be seen as 'scooter shops' rather than motorcycle shops.  Thankfully that is mostly history now a days, I for one really like scooters.

Gotta watch out for hazards...

In my upstairs living room I have a Honda Passport 70 in my bookcase with 223 actual kilometers on the clock.  Downstairs I have an almost identical machine that I bought through E Bay from a Phoenix seller years before I owned a home there.

Breaking trail with the Indy Lite.

Of course my mule when I am there is a Chinese four stroke 150 that pretty much does everything I ask of it including hauling bits of lumber at times.

Last fall I sold my Tomos Velo 150 Retro locally and I am prowling for a mid sized replacement.  The Velo was fun on the Island, but with a small fuel tank and limited speed from its 6.75 hp engine just not suitable for any off Island riding.  I don't want nor need a large displacement scooter, I have several bikes that we can ride two-up off Island, what I want is a reasonably fast, lighter weight comfortable scooter that we can take the occasional highway ride with and yet use it around here in place of the 150.  There are several on my "shopping list" and tomorrow Trevor and I are going shopping!  My criteria is fairly mild, an engine large enough to give 100 kph sustained speeds, maneuverability, storage space and economy.  I'm most interested in the 250-400cc capacity, each end having it's pros and cons.

What can I say, it gets pretty warm on a sunny day behind the cab.

Got my winter boots and 'BAJA' shorts on

Okay enough of that.

While down south, I did a desert loop with my (9.75hp) Adventure totaling 270km and that ride was mucho fun and cost me 4.50 in gas!  Did I wish for anything physically larger?  No.  Did I want more power, yes another 10 hp would have made things less stressful on the few freeways I occasionally travel.  Do I need a 100 mph scooter... heck no, I have bikes for that.

Tomorrow should be fun.

In the meanwhile I did get my Indy Lite running and in fact have used her several times in the woods locally and of course some of the local trails and fields.  I brought her into the garage, jacked up the front end and took the skis off for some needed maintenance.  Steering had gotten so bad, I had no choice.  With some clean-up and fresh grease applied to the bearing surfaces, she handles so much better! 

There is something to be said for fresh powder that no one else has marked, on a sunny day with a temperature that doesn't require bundling up like a WW1 Spad pilot!  This afternoon there was very little snow left but by this evening, everything was white once again.  My days of Star Trekking* on a sled are gone for the most part, I enjoy riding, despise digging/lifting/breaking my back getting stuck in deep drifts!

No doubt Old Man winter is not quite done with us yet and as Brenda aptly reminds me, last winter the big snows didn't come until now.

In the meantime, tomorrow we'll be sitting on thick scooter seats, Visa card in hand!

Pristine breaking trail.

*Breaking trail, going where no man had gone before, at least not at the time