2016 update -and Laconia

Hello patient readers.

I have been remiss in the whole posting thing...

So 1st off we need a musical interlude.

Gov't Mule with Greg Allman and some other friends.
Can never not feel like listening to them.

I got through winter .
I bought new Vance and Hines mufflers over the winter to "up" the rumble factor.
Installed them right away when I got the bike out.
Quite happy with the result.

I've done some OK rides...nothing spectacular...until Laconia.

Last weekend I went to New Hampshire for the start of bike week.
As soon as I hit N.H, I of course pulled over and removed my helmet and put on my cap, or New Hampshire helmet as I call it.
I had been saving this cap for riding. My daughter Grace got it for me, and I knew it would be perfect.
I texted her while I was there to let her know that it stayed on at 130 km /hr ( about 75 mph)
It also worked great when I rode in the rain.

I got into Lincoln about 1:30.
Checked into  motel...did a few groceries and then went riding.
The 590 km I did getting there was not enough.
I went down to Weir's Beach and Laconia to see what was up.
Although Bike Week didn't officially start until Saturday morning, there were tons of bikes and people. All of the vendors were up and running.
Bought some stuff for Biker Hottie, Grace and my grandson Luca.

I thought the outfit for the little guy was pretty cool...I picked out the shirt and shorts, and then had to choose the emblem.
The dude that did the emblem threw in one on the shorts for free.

He will be the coolest kid at the park. He will be a chick magnet wearing this swag.


The weather in the mountains wasn't the greatest. I got wet a few times.
It was pretty nice down at the coast though...I went there twice.

The ocean still awed me, and I got to eat crab cakes.

Crab cake and fries.

The motel I stayed in, the Mt. Liberty Cabins and Motel in Lincoln was great.
The rooms were super clean, the bed was comfy and the owners rocked.
Every morning when I went out to dry off the bike, they had already placed a towel on my seat, and the seats of the other bikes, for just this purpose.
Talk about a little thing that means a lot, or what!

And to top it off...right behind the rooms, is the river. At first I wondered what the sound I was hearing was. At first I thought it was raining, but it was sunny and clear outside.
I went out to check it out, and lo and behold....river.
Cool rock formations that you could get set up on and just relax  and chill out.

The bike ran great.  It is a lot more comfortable than the Super Glide. The beefier front end makes a difference in handling.
The bags hold a surprising amount, too.

I met a lot of real nice folks in my travels.
One poor couple from Trois Riviere that I met , had their Heritage in the back of the truck for trip, and had lost the seat somewhere...it blew off.
That has to suck.
A seat is like $600 bucks.

I got down to Portland Maine as well.
You don't need a helmet there either.
The traffic around Portland seemed bad, so I got on the freeway to head to Portsmouth, and ended up at a near stop for 45 minutes because of an accident.
I was glad to get the hell out of there...

The mountains were pretty awe inspiring, as usual.
I stopped a bunch of times to just look around at the scenery.

My trip back was pretty uneventful.
It felt weird riding with a helmet, and at a lower speed.
My 1st fill up in Canada hurt. It was $22
In NH the gas was less than 1/2 the price we pay here. My most expensive fill was $10.

I was kind of nervous about doing a 4 day trip by myself, but  2400 km later, it was all good.
Next year, if I can't find anyone to go with...I will go alone again.

That's it for now.
I will be blogging more frequently...

al

Finally put the bike away....

So I had to bite the bullet and put the bike away on Boxing day after a last small ride...that is really sad :(

The good news is that I got to ride on Christmas eve, when it went up to 17 C. and on Christmas Day, when it went up to 8 degrees. :)
That is not sad at all.
That means there is less of a stretch until I am back on the road.
There were a few other bikes out as well, and the "biker waves" were a lot more heart-felt.
It was like sharing our giddy disbelief at our good luck.

Notice all of the green ?
That would be the absence of snow on December 24/25th.

Yay hydrocarbons, aerosol cans and eight cylinder vehicles!!!!!
Apparently my rant several years ago about all doing our part to get some global warming happening was not ignored.
It is nice to know that I can  make a difference.

Aside from the amazing weather we had late in the season, I did a lot of good/great rides since August.

Mid September, Brent and I took the ferry across to Howe Island, which is between Kingston and Gananoque.
Definitely worth doing.

We debated dropping our helmets on the island...but we weren't sure if there would be cops ....there were not...we know for next time.

We did the Calabogie run a few times. It is always fun.
Below is our bikes at the lake in Calabogie in October.

Now the planning for next year starts.
I am saving up for some Vance and Hines mufflers....I cannot truly love a motorcycle that is as quiet as mine is.
I want them on for my 1st. ride of 2016.

Gotta renew my passport in time for Laconia in June...which I will not be missing this year.
I regret missing 2015... I should have gone by myself.

There is the motorcycle show in February which I go to with my brother in law.

I have the saddle bags off the bike...I want to get them all cleaned up and oiled for spring.

I'll keep you posted on any developments.
Hopefully the global warming thing will mean a freakishly early spring, and a long hot, dry summer!


al

Back in Business : 2015

A lot has happened since I last updated here...

I became a grandfather in late October.
The little dude is awesome.
I can already tell that he'll be going to Laconia with me when he is older.

In the fall when I took my trusty 09' Super Glide in for storage and a once over at Harley, I got the devastating news that the motor was pretty well fucked.
Repair estimates from 5K to 10 for a new motor.
It was like getting kicked in the balls.

I got home and Biker Hottie's response was ...too much for repair...get a new one, cuz you gotta have a motorcycle.
I won't be trading her in anytime soon...that's for sure!

Anyways, I ended up choosing a new 2014 Softail Heritage Classic.
I am too young for one of the touring monsters.
It has all the stuff stock that I ended up putting on the last Super Glide through the years...who knew?
103 cu inch motor.
What's not to love!

 

 

Longest winter of my life waiting to pick it up.
It was a long , cold , shitty winter.
Ok...maybe the 1st winter was long as well...

I had the mufflers changed over the winter...I hate the shape of the stock ones.
It is a little louder than a stock Harley, but a lot quieter than the Super Glide....that will take some getting used to.
Aside from that, I changed some foot pegs etc. and that's all.

Below is a photo my brother Steve took when he was down for a visit this summer.






and now for a musical interlude with some new Blackberry Smoke!

Their new album is awesome.


Believe it or not, I didn't do Laconia this year....nobody else could go, and I decided not to go by myself.
I won't make that mistake next year...

Still doing most of my riding with Brent.
Today we went up towards Bancroft and turned off on the Boulter road.

This road took us into Combermere, where we stopped at the little waterfall park on the old Barry's Bay road.
It's still awesome.
Hadn't been up this way this year.

So, that's all of the important stuff that has gone on, I think.

I am going to report in more often... promise.


al

It has been too long....

It has certainly been awhile since I posted anything....the last time,  I had just got back from Laconia.

I guess I have just been lazy.

So ...starting with most recent and then going back in time....

I took Friday afternoon off, and went for a good ride , just by myself.
No windshield, cuz I wanted to feel the air.
I went 416 to Kemptville...then Merrickville..Brockville ..Gananoque.... Smiths Falls and home.
Every overpass was packed with people with flags waiting to honour the soldier that was killed in Ottawa this week.
I was beat by the time I got home...I hadn't ridden without a windshield for any distance in a while.

Last weekend was crappy weather...no riding.


The weekend before, I got out for a decent ride with Brent.
Nothing huge.
We met in Lanark for breakfast....I froze my nads getting there... and then went to Brockville.
On the way we stopped at our favourite swamp.

From Brockville we 401'd it to Gananoque.
Came home through Smith Falls.


 I did an oil change that was partially chronicled by Biker Hottie.
It was not one of my cleanest or most carefull...
It started off fine.

The ground seemed well protected....I even used a funnel to add the oil.

 

 

 

Unfortunately.. oil seems to soak through cloth.
Who could have known?

I took a small shit-kicking, and acted suitably contrite.


I terms of riding, the last big ride weekend was 4 weeks ago.
I took the Friday off and the whole weekend was 25 degrees and sunny.

Brent and I got 1 ride in on the Quebec side.
Saw a nice covered bridge.

 

We crossed at portage and came back through Pembroke.


On the Sunday we went up to Bellville, and came back Napanee, Lake Ontario,  Kingston,Westport.
Lake Ontario was nice a usual.

I did not get as much riding in this year as last.
Probably end up around 15,000 km.
Weekends were busy, and when they were not...it seemed to rain.

I have already started looking into different bike rallies for next year.
I am thinking maybe somewhere a little farther than new Hampshire...as long as it is in a no helmet law state....I do look forward to that all year.

Plus...Biker Hottie and I vacation mid summer in new Hampshire...as long as I see the White Mountains at least once per year...I am ok.


I need some different rides for next year.
Some variety.
I seemed to do a lot of the same routes and did not see a whole lot of new stuff to share with the blog.

I am going to blog more.

Back from Laconia New Hampshire

Well, bike week in Laconia is done for me for another year.

Brent and I headed out on Friday morning at 8 am in the pouring rain.
It really sucked.

We stopped in Morrisburg because the rain was really coming down...and I noticed that I had not put on my vest under all of the layers of stuff I had on...and my passport was in the inner pocket.
Calamity!
I nearly had a stroke.
How f-in stupid is that?

I was ready to turn around and head back for it when I had a great idea....see if Biker-Hottie would come to my rescue.
All she had to do was leave work early, go home and get my vest...and drive it to Morrisburg.
Beyond all hope...she immediately agreed to, and did so.
I owe her for a long time, I am told ....
She is the best.

So after our 1.5 hr. hiatus at the Crackdonalds...we were on our way again.
A totally miserable ride.
High winds...blowing rain.
Probably wasn't very safe.

When we hit the border into Vermont (below Magog ) the rain stopped.
At least we weren't sitting in the rain behind the 50 or so other bikes .
The customs people were calling the bikes up 2 at a time...asked us to take off our helmets and glasses...and then sent us on our way.
They were speeding us all through.

For the most part, the rain was bearable in Vermont...it had really slowed down.
We arrived in Lincoln around 6:30, and did a grocery run before we checked in.

10  minutes later we were at our cabin unpacking.
Everything was wet to some degree...even the stuff in plastic bags.
Oh well.

I bbq'd up some steaks and all was better in the world.

Saturday morning started shitty...we woke up to rain.
By 9am it was done, and by 9:15 we were on the road to Weir's beach.
And the best part...NO HELMET!!!!
Put on my trusty bandana...all good.

We took the Daniel Webster highway there...nice and scenic and not too fast.

It was already pretty busy when we arrived at stop #1...Harley in Meredith.
Tons of bikes and bikers.

Not much to see there, and crowded...so we headed on to Weirs.

Tons of bikes...bikers and vendors.
Some pretty rough lookin people...some really straight looking.
All walks of life.
A guy handing out bibles 10 feet from a Hell's Angels booth.
A booth selling switchblades...and booths with kid's clothes.
Everyone just joy'in the day.

We checked everything we wanted to see out...and then headed out riding.
We took back roads to Conway, and then rode the Kancamagus highway.

 Still takes my breath away.

I stopped us at Sabbaday falls.
I thought Brent needed to see...he loves waterfalls and stuff like that.

 

 

 

Then we headed back to our cabin, cleaned up a little and then went out for a feed of Mexican.
Seemed to be a pretty full day.

Sunday started cloudy and rainy.....and then cleared up by 8am.
We had decided to head down to Salem Massachusetts.
The roads in Mass. were not as good as in New Hampshire, and the signage sucked.
We got to Salem, which had some cool architecture...but aside from the ocean didn't see anything all that cool.

 

 

By 12, we decided to get heading up into Vermont...it would make Monday's ride home easier.
Vermont was beautiful.....not as rugged as New Hampshire but still something else.
We ended up making it to Burlington Vermont...about a 700 KM day.
We got there just before 6 pm.

Thanks to Brent, we got the cop discount at the hotel...he asked for it.
They also told him when he asked, that they would rather we did not swim in our undies in the pool.
Nice room.
Ate at the hotel.

Monday dawned sunny and perfect.
We checked out by 7:30.
There was nobody at the border we crossed at ( just above Swanton )...and we breezed right through.
A beautiful ride.

2  minutes from home...it started to rain....
I pulled in the laneway just in time.

And except for the bike cleaning etc...that was it,  for bike week for me this year.
Only 360 sleeps until next year.

Recent Rides

With the nice weather, I have been able to get a bunch of quality riding in.

2 weekends ago,  Brent and I headed up to Sharbot Lake, and then turned off to ride the Wagarville road.
Went through Tichborne and Parham.
Ended up in Napanee, and then headed to Lake Ontario.

The bugs were insane. Some kind of non biting fly in absolutely huge balls of thousands just above the highway.
I guess they were doing "the nasty" or whatever it is bugs do.

We stopped at a bunch of the usual spots along way.

 

 

 



The parkway right to Brockville was awesome.
From there we headed home through Smiths Falls.

A few mid week after dinner rides and it was this last weekend.

After some morning canoeing on the mighty Jock river, Biker Hottie and I went to Arnprior on the bike via West Carleton.
We came back highway 29 through Pakenham and Almonte.
We stopped at the park at the bridge.

Sunday I met up with Brent in Perth, and we did a good long ride...the longest for me this year.
Just under 600 KM.
Started Calabogie road and ended up in Whitney...just below Algonquin park.

On the way to Maynooth we rested beside a small but pretty lake. No name that I can find.
There was  zero traffic on the road...just nice and quiet.

We came home through Bancroft and Renfrew.
I was kinda beat when I got home.

And this week?
I have an appointment out at Black's Corners tire to get my rear tire changed on Thursday.
It isn't totally bald yet, but next Friday (the 13th ) Brent and I are going to bike week in New Hampshire, and I don't want to risk it.

Bike week in New Hampshire deserves a "Fuckin' A"!!
Ok...2 of them...

In 11 sleeps I will be riding in the White Mountains with no helmet.
State motto?
Live Free or Die.
Can't wait!
Just gotta get through 11 days...

Some weather...finally.

It has not been the greatest spring....that's for sure.


There has been a few nice days here and there, but it has been colder than normal, and it has rained a shit-load.

I have got out for a few rides, but nothing huge.


Last weekend Brent and I got out for a few hours.
Stopped at our favourite swamp outside of Perth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                    A week today it was me and Biker Hottie's 30th anniversary.

We went for a ride along the Ottawa River , down along the canal and Dow's lake, and over to the Experimental farm.

Stuff was just starting to green up and bloom.

 

 

 

 

 

During the week I got out for some after dinner rides when I could, but did not go anywhere special.

 

Sunday Brent and I met in Perth, and rode to Madoc, and up to Bancroft and came back through Denbie and Renfrew.

It was supposed to be a nice day...turned out to be mostly cloudy, windy and we even got rained on a couple of times.

We stopped at a little park off of highway 41...it was on a small lake. It was a nice spot.

 

 

 

Commercial break with some Blackberry Smoke.

 

 

 

 

 

...and now back to our program...

 

 

 

I got home chilled and a little discouraged with the weather.

 

Today is a perfect May day.

Sunny...about 20 degrees...not much wind.

 

Biker Hottie suggested I go for a ride, so I went out with no particular destination in mind.

 

Stopped in Burritt's Rapids at the bridge.

 

 

 

 

 

Checked out the locks in Merrickville.

 

 

 

Took some random roads, and ended up in Brockville.

Drove along the Parkway.

Saw a pretty big ship....the photo doesn't do it justice.

 

 

 

 

Hit Prescott, and then 416'd it home.

 

Was probably the nicest ride this year, so far.

 

4 weeks to Bike week in Laconia!!!!