Must be the Postman's fault!

MP 3... very unique. CVT of course, but has the ability to lean like a bike, yet stand upright as if by magic.

All that hogwash about rain and snow and postmen/women and all, what's up with this weather.  I get two really cool new bikes, and they are sitting in my garage.  Rained since I brought them home. I even heard something from the CBR, a whisper really, could have been the wind... something like...

Light, reasonably fast, kinda like a Raptor F 22

"Man this place is cool, he's got tools, he'll look after us, check our tire pressures, wash and wax our tanks, keep them shiny... yup, we thinks this is the place..."

What a pretty Island I live on.

The Piaggio said something in Italian about bellissima, I don't know any Italian.  What I do know probably wouldn't be suitable in a family Blog. 

Forecast for the past week, was rain, and for the coming week, it's rain, rain, rain, wind and rain, and wind and wind, followed by rain! Brought about by wind.



I have bar end mirrors coming for the 300, the stock mirrors are pretty much useless except to collect rain... and deflected it onto my face. 


Besides that, I am going up a tooth on the counter-shaft sprocket, a minor change to lower my rpm at the types of speeds I'll be doing. 

Sleek! 

Not so sleek but pretty trick !

Shouldn't affect my acceleration, the bike has 6 gears in any case.  My very first 6 speed M/C was a 1968 Suzuki X6 Hustler, two stroke twin. Consider that I would be traveling about 300 km max in one sitting, I'm more concerned about comfort.  The clip on bars have a slight forward lean, certainly nothing like my old GSXR's or Fireblade and similar bikes.  

Geez... I wish it would stop raining... 

In the zone.

Absolutely LOVE this most versatile of bikes.  '09 Suzuki DL 650 ABS photographed in Cape Breton Highlands

LAST weekend I made a round trip on the DL 650 to southern New Brunswick, in what I would describe as perfect weather.  I dislike not wearing gear and I know what many of you may say... the choice sometimes is wearing the gear or dropping dead from heat exhaustion.

On the road, where she loved to be. 

Since me youngest daughter with her family recently transplanted from Calgary to the St John area, I have been "across" as they say here, many times. I love the fact that any ride in the east coast contains multiple choices for travel.  Once on the mainland and out of the immediate vicinity of the bridge, there are literally a dozen choices and once past the Moncton city bottleneck of PEI, Nova Scotia and southern NB's hustle and bustle... I can take divided 4 lanes making up the Trans Canada highway network if I am just covering distance but much more often I end up on the secondary roads or better yet... the 3 digit rural road network where I must admit I have been lost several times, but always found my way.




I'm sure gonna miss the V Strom's 23 L fuel tank, with 500 plus km range.

Rugged and stylish, a sweetheart of a bike.

I say "miss" because this week I made a deal with one of the local motorcycles shops here on the Island to trade the Strom (Big Orange) for two small, diverse machines.  More on them later.

As you can imagine, having 2 and a half decades in the business, and the hundreds of motorcycles, snowmobiles, ATV's I've owned and ridden over my 51 year riding career, I've relished the variety of experiences I've gathered while twisting or pushing throttles. I couldn't even begin to tell you about this but if you follow my blog, you'll get a hint of the joys (and some pains too) I've experienced.



I bought the V Strom (from the same shop) 5 years ago, for a planned ride across the country to celebrate my 40th anniversary of  the first ride I took across Canada.  Briefly, I had bought a BMW R60/5, dressed it with Wixom Ranger fairing, Shoei bags and rode from Northern Alberta to PEI and did a side trip to British Columbia on that same ride.  In those days there were few motorcycles anywhere, and if you've been reading this Blog you may remember how we waved when we saw another motorcycle on the road.  The TCH was nothing more than a country road in them days, and there were very few touring bikes to be seen.

Age 20. Bike BMW R 60/5 bought new in 1973. Rode XC summer of '75 8900 miles total.

Apart from the occasional saddle bagged Beemer, four cylinder dressed up Honda or a very few HD Big Twin Electra Glides, there were few and far between. Back in those days, you would be hard pressed to see bikes on city streets and of course the highway passed through most CDN city's back then.  My music teacher, while taking accordion lessons when all my pals were in garage bands on electric guitars, organ's and drums, while I lugged around a hundred twenty bass accordion!  He says to me at their 118th avenue second floor studio as I stop when I heard a bike go by.




"Sportster , 2 inch open pipes" or hearing a Honda 750 with pipes on it,

"Honda 750 4... four into one competition baffle..."

"Frank... you have a great ear, but it's sure not for music... "

That's started my 50 plus year riding and having the time of my life!

At 31" seat height and just over 350 lbs, moving into the next era.

Since then I have covered a lot of ground on our little planet, and as I age I sometimes feel like my days are getting shorter.  Past injuries (getting hit by cars/heart attacks etc) have taken a toll and I have modified my riding style to suit.

Case in point, after a long struggle I made the decision to down size.  Okay, so I won't be riding my 4 speed BMVay for 600 mile days, in fact there are days that 75 miles feels like a lot.

Sexy Italian scooter with three wheels, and locking stance.

I am retired now, kinda... and my rides now are not for covering distance but for smelling the roses, poppy fields in Northern France, or especially the history and excellent opportunities for the east coast.  The V Strom was maybe, the best motorcycle I've had.  Dressed up, long range tank, and comfortable seating or even standing at times, I will miss her.


In her place I will be parking a slightly used MP3 Piaggio 250 and a recent model Honda CBR 300.



That makes a 223cc Yamaha, the Piaggio 250, the 263 cc Citicom 300 i, and the 286cc Honda.  Of course I am already looking at luggage gear and the map (okay, Google Earth) and the map, and playing the next few years in my head.

I may not make it to the White mountains but I've never been to the Gaspe, or the south shore of N.S.

So, why give up an acknowledged great tourer like the ADV DL 650, for two bikes that together don't equal the engine size, well let me tell you.  I was born to a family of short people.  My Mom wasn't 5' and my father barely over.  I myself am 5'4"... well maybe 5'3" after getting smacked in the rear by that Mazda by a kid in a dam hurry.


The DL has had the suspension lowered via an adjustable linkage kit, pre-load and damping, forks pulled up, seat cut down and still, she's about 2" from where I'd need to be. Even if I could "snap my fingers" to lower it more/grow, I can't do anything about the weight.  The hardware for mounting a matched set of three large and rugged bags, steel skid plate which has on occasion, seen use, and to top it off add a full tank of petrol and with me on tip toes and Brenda climbing over the luggage system, it cab get pretty dicey.  Last years East shore of N.S. at the T junction to Sheet Harbour, I came within a whisker of tipping over into a 6' deep ditch.  To this day I can remember the will power to keep from leaning that extra degree was like riding another hundred miles, on a mo-ped!

Sleek and more important, fits me.

So... the Strom is going, and in her place will be a little used Piaggio MP3 250 and only slightly more used, Honda CBR 300R which weighs in about 200 lbs less than the loaded Suzuki... and I don't need a step ladder to climb aboard!

The three wheeled scooter has always caught my eye, and although not light nor particularly low and skinny, the CBR does fulfill those boxes.  What the MP3 has is a locking ability that doesn't require putting the pilot's foot on the ground while stopped, although, after a lifetime doing that, not sure how that will pan out. At my age, the mind may not be clear on that!  It does however have enough power to accelerate and carry a rider and passenger comfortably at 60 mph speeds.  Oh yeah... it also has three wheels.  Did I mention that.

Tried it, wanting to like it, retro TU 250X

Just no power.  Certainly not for any highway riding and especially 2 up.

Yup, like I said... back to the future for Frank!

Consider it my budget Niken !

The Serow

Pretty  as a picture!

Yes, another bike named after a beast, although this one is gentile as a lamb.

As I was writing about the RE HIMALAYAN... I thought about a similar machine that has been in my stable for 27 years. This machine has lots in common with the single cylinder Royal Enfield.  Let's just see... it's light (really light, under 250 lbs) it's a simple air cooled 4 cycle 6 speed engine, she has got me into and out of mud holes around here, the Rockies and across the Sierra Giganta mountains, into the back trails of BAJA Ca.

Lots of gravel/dirt roads to explore with my Serow

Apart from the occasional oil change, valve check, which I do myself, tire change (ditto) and one tooth over on the engine drive-line, she has given me no troubles nor left me stranded.  Even back in '92 after trucking two mated models, a brother and sister from my home in Fort Mac to the Crowsnest pass in southern AB/BC with what turned out to be a dead battery and no prospect of getting a then new leak proof gel cell...



I spent a week bump starting her from the low valley's to the 8,000' peeks of the defunct ELK Pass.  It helped that the bike is very light, that the compression is soft and being in the mountains I always parked at the top of a hill and not pushing upwards against gravity.

The Old Mill in Hunter river

The Serow as Yamaha named them, have decent suspension, remarkable fuel mileage, having topped 100 MPcdnG on occasion.  You don't need a P-D Elephant tank when your 238 lb motorcycle gets 90 MPG routinely.  In those days I would have two of everything.  Two XT' 225's, 2 XT 600's, Two YSR 50's, two TY 175's... you get the picture.  With a M'C riding female living in the house, I needed two of everything!

My older XT (serial 653 vs 645) now belongs to my youngest niece CJ, riding her's in BC, while I ride  645 as often as I can out here on the east coast.  The bikes have been stone reliable, I've just now ordered a needle and seat on mine given that she dribbles a little fuel from the float bowl overflow.  Nothing to keep me from riding in the meanwhile, mind you, only dripping when the pet cock is on and the engine is not.

The other side

Just last week, after a month of playing Mr. Murphy with us east coaster's the day awoke bright and happy, which made ME happy.

One of the local "Kaw" dealers Oversized tank, new for 2020 color scheme.

I rolled on about 120 km, which may not seem like much, but a day like that could easily take several hours with plenty of stops for a cool sip of thawing, frozen canteen water... almost all of it was on dirt trails with the post winter ruts and mud holes to deal with.  Take the Devil's Punch-bowl for example.  It's a steady climb even in the height of summer, but the snow having only departed a month ago left behind flowing water, washed out rocks and deep ruts.




On trails like that I often have to paddle my feet, and  try and ride the rut that allows me the best chance of not getting stranded going up to the 12th floor or with a crashed in engine case!

This I love... 

If I catch them right I can get upstairs with only a handful of puckers.




The good news is the highest elevations on the Island, fun as they may be, don't pose any life threatening stuff!

There is NO crown land on the Island, all the drive able roads are designated public roads even those where ATV's and Snowmobiles travel in their season.

This... I hate!!  Grrrr!

To answer your obvious question... NO.

The Serow (which by the way, translates to a Tibetan/Himalayan mountain goat) has never let me down and has taken me to places you would be awed to transit.

So, if you follow this blog, you will see the variety of motorcycles I have in my garage.  I've just completed a long sunny weekend ride to southern NB for a little "father'" day vacay.

Trout river Millvale

Nope... I didn't ride the Serow although I have every confidence it would make it, but the 16 or so horsepower would make for a long day in the saddle, and thin as it is, I opt for a larger, comfier machine.

I rode the DL 650 V Strom.

HIMALAYAN...up close and personal.

Consider this "part two" of my introduction to the Royal Enfield and it's Adventure bike. 

This bike harks back to another age of motorcycling.  It's simple, easy to work on if you desire and may be the sleeper bike(s) of the year.  Personally I like being acquainted with things mechanical (but not electrics) touching the engine case, running my hand down the smoothness of the fuel tank, adjusting this and that, sometimes even more, like tire changes or replacing steering head bearings on the 30 year old XT 600 Big Blue.  (*see twist at the end)  Sure, other markets have had a couple of years to digest what it/they are like and there is plenty of U Tube vids if that's your bag.

Temperature already rising.

I once had a girlfriend/student in the CSC training program that asked me what motorcycle I would recommend to use/talk about, if the snobbish 'know it all's reared their ugly heads and the cocktail party she was attending was getting boring. 

Without hesitation I said "India Enfield " 

After a brief but not boring explanation she thanked me for the tip.  We ended up a couple for 5 years and rode many places together, much of it off road.

Thinking back I must personally be responsible for getting hundreds of women riding, far before it became common place... but I digress.

I like it!  C'mon RE... get us these bikes in Canada with a good dealer network..

IE took a simple, utilitarian motorcycle, that had virtually used up it's life span as the world moved on and became an icon in India.

This latest introduction of the Indian adventure bike is a continuation of that scheme.  IE turned that humble low powered, mechanically simple design and sold millions of them in Asia.

Fast forward and we have a new generation of rider emerging.  Where'as the median age for riders in North America is into the 50's it's roughly half that "over there."  India Enfields have become 'cult bikes' kind of like HD has here. 

Quietly positioning themselves to become the worlds largest manufacturer of motorcycles (let's discount the gazillions of moped and scooters that are built and sold via China, let's stick to good old two wheeled get out and ride, motorcycles.

After a name change back to the original Royal Enfield and introducing bikes for a broader market, RE has somehow put itself on the map, and in a very big but quiet way.  Word is they sold 850,000+ Motorcycles last year, and most of that went to the domestic market.  Considering this stupendous number was achieved selling some very simple basic bikes. 

No fancy pansy cruise control.  No fancy pansy riding modes, no yard/meter tall seating.  In fact the only buttons you'll find start the engine and blow the horn. 

Looks rugged, like a Winchester 30/30 or maybe a Lee Enfield more like it. 

Who is buying all these bikes?  Not the international market, but ... are you ready... young Indian well to do's, wanting to enjoy the pleasures from motorcycling.  Ordinary people, and they have done this remarkable thing with 50 year old technology, and are well on their quiet way to become an Empire, albeit of a different sort than the first one.  Often when experiencing an internet problem or otherwise using an international call service... I find that many of the voice on the other end of the line are located in India.  Many times I ask if they are familiar with RE and it's motorcycles.  Now mind you this is at random, and perhaps you would be surprised to find than many of these young people not only are familiar with the make, but either own a 350/500 Enfield Bullet or someone in their circle does.

 Now that the RE Himalayan is up and running, and with the 650 twins following on their heals.  (licking my chops here on that one) Get ready.

The USA cost for the former is $4500 (the Indian market almost half that figure) and the latter under 6G, and the CDN cost... well nobody knows.  Why?  Because our market is sports or pleasure oriented and tiny.  RE has had a very spotty dealer network here over the years and shoddy importers that hadn't done the brand any good.

How many of these would one of... 

While touring the Yamaha facilities back in 1982, I asked our guide how many motorcycles a day could be produced there.  His answer 6,500 in a day.  Astonished even by my machinists technical back ground the knock out punch came moments later... "this building.  Next building 10,000." 

That meant that Yamaha's single factory could make more motorcycles in a day than the entire industry sold here in Canada in a year.

these buy you? 

Imagine what RE can do if they want to...

The RE factory is modern and it's well known that many well known makes have bikes built in India.

Anyway as the temperature rose into the low 80's eventually heading above 90 F, I was looking over the 411 and liking what I saw.  Some appeals, the low seat height.  I went through the entire moto-cross scene beginning with 4" of suspension to over a foot... so for me low is better.

The overall finish, did not look cheaply built, and the rugged appearance, what you would expect from a country that shares the highest mountains in the planet!

GOAZ Peoria, lives next to a major freeway route and gave me the opportunity to check it in daytime traffic, as well as the jaunt on the 101 and I even found a car park for people walking their pups and or pushing strollers.  There was only 2 vehicles at the time, giving me a change to do some slow speed stand up riding to braking on the pea gravel surface.  I also found some huge concrete parking areas where I could among other things, try some braking and accelerating tests and bounce my way over curbs and manholes.

I found the bike to be friendly, with adequate but not overwhelming brakes, the grip decent and enough power to deal with the sluggish morning traffic.

The 411 has no quirks per'se just does the job.  I have a back ground in MX as well as trail riding on tall bikes and know that getting your feet on the ground is much more important for most riders than doing the triples at the local track. 

It could certainly use another gear in the box and found out quickly why various testers complain of very long 0-60 times. The current 5 speed box has gears spaced too widely apart, it would be like trying to holler greetings from Cape Breton to a friend living in Lisbon on the other side of the Atlantic!  Kinda of like a stump puller and 4 overdrives!

My original thought reading the early stuff, was to add a tooth to the counter shaft sprocket.  Riding it, I realized it didn't need taller gears but shorter!  By shortening the tall gear ratio, the minimal 24 odd horsepower would likely be more usable. Accelerating onto the freeway, was oh so slow.  In my own experiences such as trail riding in the Rockies or maybe exploring some rocky dried stream bed in the Bradshaw mountains low speed is 90% the norm. 

The gentle power pulses are actually very pleasant and it's easy to slip into international cruise mode, where you just putter along at low speeds and enjoy the people/ride/the day/the scenery/the weather!

Vibration isn't a bother,  As for the limited suspension, trust me... being closer to the ground is much more important than needing an oxygen mask that some of the ADV bikes with their lofty seat heights they are built on. The RE will get you there and do it royally and with dignity!

Apart from the too tall gearing, there is one other quirk I found that was at first unsettling unless you've a background in sport bikes, that is... the headlight is attached to the frame that makes up the network of crash proofing. 

Huh?! 

What did he just say?  Well simply, you turn the handlebars like in a parking lot or camping spot and the headlight beam stays pointing forward.  Can be awkward given my experiences of camping in the past. 



Would I buy one, you bet in a minute, if the price remains low as compared to its competitors and they don't try and create a Super Cross type monster. 

In fact I kind of think of the Himalayan as the KLR of ADV bikes.  After all, IE and then RE built a empire with a simple, inexpensive and fool proof  bike that the KLR has been for 2 decades!

To wrap this up, consider the RE picking up where the KLR left off... inexpensive, rugged and quirky but without the doo-hicky.   Now wrap yourself around that! 

drn