A Day to remember.

YESTERDAY was the one hundred year anniversary of the official end of the 'Great War' called that because of the magnitude of the conflict.  It was also known as the war to end all wars.  Wrong again.

This morning I sit at my desk... grateful that we live in relatively peaceful times in our adopted country of Canada.  Had we not escaped Hungary in October 1956, my life would have been vastly different.

How so?

One horsepower

Well first of all my father would likely have been killed as thousands were during and after the 'uprising.'  He had spent 6 years in a work camp, not expected to survive. I would have almost certainly been drafted into the military of the USSR and been sent to Afghanistan during the 80's.

Almost certainly I would not have been writing motorcycle travel stories...



IT'S minus 3 C (24F) on my outdoor thermometer as I sit here.  Partly cloudy but showing large patches of blue sky.  I didn't get to ride anything during the weekend, cold, wet and raining buckets.

69 horsepower

For the most part the transition has gone okay but of course I lament each year, putting the bikes into storage in various corners of the garage.  I will add the stabilizer to those bikes that have not been done yet but put off the pulling of the batteries for a bit longer yet, just in case.

Normally I'd be heading to Arizona during the fall, but having been there earlier in the year to "move back in" since the repairs were completed (?) I hadn't planned on a second trip.  The exchange rate has been bouncing around the 30% mark in in fact this weekend it's at $1.32

Good thing I followed my own advice when I was a financial adviser, having bought USD when we were par or even a bit better.  That money is used up now.

I've been relatively healthy, except for the kidney stones which I seemed to have past/passed now and will be perfectly happy if I don't have to go through that again.  Ever!  Wasn't a swell time these past 6 months.

Fall on the Island

Saw my Dr for a follow up and she tells me I'm doing great, in great shape.  I have lost weight over the last 12 months but mostly because I am not eating large meals lately and I had been pretty active, the kidney stones not withstanding.



I took up writing this blog a decade ago as a way to keep in touch with people that live around the world.

Trusty old XT 600, been around the block once or twice

I know there are people that count on my keeping this going if only for a glimpse of what I am doing, saying hello or checking out the photographs.  I'll continue doing it as long as I can, although sometimes it's hard to find something to write about.  It's not a political venue although occasionally I get up on my milk crate and toss in my two cents ($2:25 after inflation) like "LOUD PIPES SAVE LIVES" (not a fan) or lane filtering (Big fan)

It's not about wars or politics or as we'd said in the sixties... "putting people down" in fact even though it didn't start out as anything other than saving myself time and money trying to upload a handful of photos on keyboards that often were 'foreign' to me!

Long time traveling companion!

Since then it's morphed into some ramblings of my various ramblings and hopefully an inspiration to you doing something for yourself.  It doesn't have to be a round the world trip like
my long time friend Dave has just completed, in fact it could be something as simple as getting stuck in a mud pit on my 225!

So... as the fall deepens and December is just around the corner, I hope we are blessed with decent weather and a short winter.  I'm getting too old for shoveling snow!

I'm looking forward to my goal plan which I have been doing for decades, taking a filing folder, during the first few days of the year and writing down some simple goals I've set for myself.  It includes things like; getting out in the canoe three times during the year, taking a half dozen off Island excursions exploring on various bikes, changing tires or checking valve adjustments or even just keeping this Blog going.  Nothing earth shattering, but mostly just stuff that interests me and keeps me healthy and ticking.

So... if you tune in regularly like some do or occasionally like others, read one and send me a comment on occasion.  You'll see I don't have a page full of advertising to distract from the riding experiences.

Cheer

Doc.

The joke was on me...

BACK in the day, when I was a young man in the M/C business, it was my pleasure to teach the National CSC* learn to ride, program, sell bikes and later ATV's and snowmobiles, both out west and on the Island.

I took great pride in riding as many different machines as was humanly possible.  If you asked me how a Yamaha Turbo compared to a Kawasaki, I could answer that.  Maybe it was a Venture Royale and an Aspencade.  Or on a smaller scale, an XS 400 Special  vs an XJ 400 Maxim.

I rode what I sold and I sold a hell of a lot of stuff.  I was not just another 'pretty face' ... nope I was an Enthusiast.

I remember well a story that took place at a Yamaha dealer meeting in T.O.

1979 YZ 400 F, the guy in the ski mask is me. Above, a few years later on Team Green '83 KX 125

I was speaking to a Japanese gentleman from the factory twice my age,  and we got on the subject of MX. (Moto Cross) Prior to that, I had ridden MX bikes through the years and all the brands from the earliest Elsinore, Husky's and the latest RM model.  As we're chatting (his English was pretty good btw) about the current bike I was riding, a Yamaha YZ 125J, the first ones with the radiator behind the number plate, he asked me cordially how I liked it.

Now this guy was one of the top echelon that made the decisions in Hamamatsu, as to what we were going to see the next year(S) to come, so I wasn't going to miss my opportunity.

I politely but firmly said; "I do like my YZ 125 but it didn't have enough power.  I backed it up by saying, "Those Honda's are so fast... I felt I needed to ride too hard to keep them in sight.  In other words, the Yamaha needed more BHP.

He had his fingers on his chin in a serious fashion, contemplating the problem, and finally said to me... his forefinger tugging at a non existent beard,

'You need a mo powa, you YZ Yamaha not fas enough.... '

I answered in the affirmative, nodding my head, it needed more power.

Looking at me in the most serious fashion (I learned something in the next 15 seconds)... he answered,

'You 125 not fas' enuf........ you get YZ 490, it have rots mo powa!'


He then broke out in a huge grin, the age wrinkles on his face smiling.  He'd got me.

My teasing him ended up, as they sometimes do, tables turned.

* Canada Safety Council