The good new days!

Getting some time in over Lake Pleasant on an ultra-lite

It was a wonderfully sunny day... my partner exclaimed loudly with gusto... "I LOVE IT"

Unless you began life as Benjamin Button or Merlyn the Magician... you and I live conventional lives.  That is to say, we began carried in our mother's womb for a suitable period, kicked out into the real world suddenly, some white ghost like human slapping our bottoms while we're helplessly inverted, spend years learning useless math skills and pretty soon, we are toiling away in the cotton fields. 

I remember clearly as a 'ute" how I wished to emulate Roy Rogers, Matt Dillon, Little Joe and then later on, Steve McQueen. How I couldn't wait to be 'older'...

Some baaad pards in this bunch lookin' at mebbe robbin' the bank.

So here I sit wondering where in the hell the time has gone?  ... and what have I done with it??

It's true that many of the people I have known throughout my life have done nothing more exciting than resetting the clock an hour ahead in the spring... then reversing the process six month later.

Or maybe downloading 'ring tones' on your smarteerthanyouare phones.  Not to say, this is wrong, bad or otherwise, but considering how short our human lives really are, like couldn't you come up with something daring and memorable just once?

Just tooling around the backcountry

I've often commented that if we make it to 50, the rest are bonus years!

Stone silence, not a cricket chirping.

I've never been the guy that books a week in the Bahama's to stay at a pink flamingo colored all inclusive hotel, except for the odd Yamaha travel trip I'd qualified for during my Freedom Cycle days, but really... where is the option marked "ADVENTURE"?

On the Adventure 150, somewhere in AZ

Kicking back sipping pina colada's on a concrete patio poolside, is not my idea of fun, or even a vacay.  On the other hand, riding a dirt bike off road in Baja California for 8 weeks and sipping a mucho fria Tecate at the end of the day as the sun drops over the Sierra Giganta's carries much more appeal to me.

YEARS ago I bought a vacation townhome in Arizona. Back in the day when I lived in Calgary, it was more or less a straight drive south on interstate highways.  I loved that drive down, 24 road hours and I'd cross the Rockies several times dodging big trucks cruising at 80 mph ( the trucks not me) watching the scenery turn from bland winter prairie to 35C heat in southern Utah and by the time I reached Mesquite Nevada, the palm trees were waving their welcome.

A left at Vegas, over the Colorado at Hoover Dam and pretty soon I was pulling into Wickenburg in preparation for arrival in the big city.

P 51 Tucson Air Museum/park

Flying was even less problematic.  Hop on the 737/A320 at 6 am in Cowtown and by noon my Adventure scooter was loaded with groceries in Glendale.

Since moving to the east coast requires flying all day and my medical insurance is climbing each year, I'm not sure how much longer I can keep this up.

A PEI back trail

Don't get me wrong... I love vacationing in Arizona.  I've ridden gentle back roads, freeways (Okay not real exciting but remember traffic is moving at 80+ mph while my single cylinder 350cc 'dirt bike' is struggling to reach 60!)  I've ridden every mountain range around the city, piling up countless miles during my adventures, getting lost, paddling through knee deep sand drenched in sweat, dropping the bike, picking it up again, thinking of the next hill ahead and maybe a cool Rolling Rock in my backyard tonight.

This last 18 months have been, ahem... less than satisfactory, the most exciting thing I've done is watch COP shows on hotel TV... my home down there is still not completely repaired.  Hopefully will be before I next arrive in April.

 

 

Just another Island day

BACK closer to home, I've been doing more riding locally.  It may not be death defying like the Mojave, but still I get to exercise my body and continue to chalk up the motorcycle miles.  Last years week at Lisa's home in N.B. gave me a great excuse to motor around the province's western wall, giving me lots more adventure miles and writing opportunities.  I even spent some time in Utopia (see CDN BIKER September/October 2017)  Brenda and I even managed to get an overnight ride along the back roads of Nova Scotia on the Citicom 300!

Can you think of a better way to spend a day?

One of the fabulouso things riding the maritime provinces is the close proximity to home. If I had to grab the highway... I could be home from virtually anywhere here in 5 hours or less.  Of course I prefer to meander along exploring colorful villages, back country and local history.

I made ambitious plans last season and won't be making that mistake again.  Riding here is best unplanned with no particular destination. As the three provinces connect on the narrow strip of land barely above water at Sussex and have more narrow paved or unpaved back roads, you don't have to travel on the Trans Canada unless you're dying to put on the miles.  Unlike Western Canada or the USA... it's not about clocking miles.  It's about exploring the back country.

Some where in southern NB Canada

I am pretty sure that this year I will be foraying into NS more often with the possibility of doing some riding in New England.  After all my passport expires in 2024 and I won't likely be renewing it.

So for now... I am enjoying a mild winter, reading, remembering past rides and adding memories for new ones.

To the Good New Days to come!







 

Will wonders never cease?

SO, HD is closing it's not that old factory in Kansas City.

Sales are not just down, but way down.  Further, Polaris Industries (former makers of Victory) and current of Indian, even worse. 

Of course, there are multiple reasons for these drops in numbers, part of which is having little to no market for a viable entry level MC.  Of course at one time HD had the Buell Blast(?! huh) 500 but that was never a serious motorcycle and apart from many going to MC training courses, the public greeted it with luke warm water and didn't really like the bike.  I looked seriously (okay maybe semi) at buying one for my PHX digs but after riding several examples I found the bike to be shakier than a paint mixer, terribly underpowered with quirky handling, so so brakes and generally poor quality control went into the makings of the bike.

Okay so kiss Buell goodbye.  How about the India made Street models.  How popular (or not) are they?  Well I don't have any scientific answer to that puzzle but I can tell you I have seen one (count 'em 1) on the road in 3 years, and it was from PQ loaded with some touring gear in company with a Big Twin.  The fact that a woman was riding the Street just goes to show that women are certainly buoying up some of the lost sales to new comers.  Just as I predicted in the late 70's and early 80's. Just not near enough.

The other factor is cost.  HD and Indian are both priced at the higher end of the market attracting and aimed at affluent buyers.  Of course those people are now often in their sixties and up, and simply put, won't be around much longer.  Most of my riding friends are in this age category.  I myself am 63 (well I decided last year I would start counting backwards, so in that vein I'm actually now 61)

Who can afford a BMW at 30K plus, or a Gold Wing same, or an HD or any one of a number of bikes priced in the mid teens and several going into the 30's!  Again, only the guy that has no alimony payments, a secure corporate job and has several suits in his closet, next to the MC gear.

I've often felt I would rather have half a used trials bike, dualie, sports tourer, vintage stuff and more used... for the cost of a new Wing or Decker.


THEN there is the whole issue of what exactly Motorcycles are to the N.A. market?  Basic transportation on the lines of China or India or VietNam...?

Hardly. 

Bikers on this side of the pond even differ greatly from Europe. 



Here for the most part, we are "posers" while at least the posers over there, attend GP races in the tens if not hundreds of thousands. Hard enduros, rally bikes like the whole PD thing, and pay substantially more both in licensing and purchase of their bikes.



They are serious riders. That plus the long time regulations limiting displacement/horsepower and graduated licensing have fostered a 'move up' market. 

I was just having a conversation this past week on lane splitting/filtering, call it what you want and over here we have a single state that allows it. (CA)



In Europe and Asia, it's not just common but a necessity to keep traffic moving.  I've ridden round-abouts with a dozen exits, and lane split in Athens, Budapest and Spain and many others... try doing that here and you will have a dozen auto drivers on their cell phone calling 911 for Pete's sake!

Sometimes I'm of the feeling that I should have moved 'over there', how different my riding experiences would have been.  Weekly local MX races, MOTO GP, the Alps, Dolomites and Pyrenees...



Who knows.  I arrived in Canada as a Hungarian refugee and certainly wasn't keen on growing up behind the Iron Curtain! 

WE have some of the best riding in the world.  Period!  Canada and the USA are VAST countries with a massive variety of terrain, weather and wonders to explore.  Yet most riders I know rarely venture out of their neighborhoods.  No wonder they soon tire of riding and hop in the Volvo 'cuz it's a lot easier to grocery shop.

I feel very fortunate that I had parents that didn't have a problem with me riding a bike. 

Growing up in the sixties, there were few bikes out
there.  The Brits were on their collective last gasps, the Japs invading with cute and practical little bikes like the two Passports in my house, were just gathering steam.  It's been an exciting 50 years for moi!

I'm sure we will never see that again in this part of the world.  Eventually motorbikes will be outlawed or redundant. 

As a last note... I was reading that HD was going to pursue two new and distinctive avenues moving ahead. 

One... they are going to phase out their current dealerships for high end auto oriented combinations stores which has already gotten underway. Don't think so?  Remember when they dropped many of the HD shops that kept the brand going through the lean years, in favor of cookie cutter image stores?

The second, they are going to put an electric bike on the market within a year.

Stop laughing you! 

Can't you see the future... eventually, maybe even in my lifetime, we will see sports bikes and cruisers with nearly a hundred kilometer range and charging stations for bikes everywhere including the Sahara. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You read it here first folks...

the Doc.