Beautiful Sunday.

1st...a musical interlude.

Beautiful Sunday by Daniel Boone from 1972.

So lame it is truly awesome.
Everybody remembers it...and turns it up when it comes on the radio.
you know you do....

Anyways, that was what  today was like. Sunny, 26 degrees. no wind...

Met Brent for breakfast in Lanark, did the Calabogie run.

Stopped at the lake in Calabogie.

Went to Renfrew, Eganville, and then back to Kaladar via highway 41.
Big sections of 41 seemed to have been redone last fall, I guess. The pavement was in amazing shape.

We stopped at Silver Lake of course .
Pics didn't turn out.

Perth, Carleton Place and home.
Nothing special...just great weather, and a ride with a good friend.

A beautiful Sunday, indeed.

Now this is more like it!

The last few days have been awesome weather-wise.
Mid 20's C. and sunny.

A few weeks back when I changed my holidays around for Ohio at the end of May, I cancelled a week off mid May, and spread it out over some long weekends.

This past Friday was one of those days off.

Sunny and 22 C.
YAY!

I headed out to Arnprior through the back roads, and then followed the River road to the dam at Portage.
The water is super high.
Quite awesome, really.

From there I headed to Kazabazua through Campbell's Bay and Otter Lake.

Rode to Maniwaki, and then the Mont Laurier.

Enjoyed a lovely lunch of PFK (....KFC in the rest of the world  ).....and headed back.

Highway 309, which runs from Mont Laurier to the 50 near Buckingham is great.
Lakes, rivers,rolling hills, small towns...

I stopped in a little town called Notre-Dame-de-Pontmain.
The view from town just struck me as particularly pretty, for some reason.

Imagine waking up every morning and seeing that ?

I had forgotten that in Quebec, the speed limit is only a suggestion....a reference point.
I was driving 100-110 km/hr on a 90Km road, and being passed like I was standing still.
Passing lanes are apparently optional as well..I got passed on hills, curves..you name it.
No road rage or like that, from the drivers...they usually waved as they blew by me....they just drive fast.
Even the bikes.
Not that there was a lot of traffic...the roads were quiet.

I was lucky enough to hit Hull and Ottawa just at the start of rush hour, but coming back along the Ottawa River Parkway, it is not so bad.
The view is at least good.

Friday night my wife and I joined the ranks of the Birkenstock wearing / granola crunching crowd, and bought a canoe.
Saturday morning for the inaugural test run, I wore cut off jean shorts, and a tie-dye shirt with an eagle on it.
Not intentionally...but funny in retrospect.
Old guy..ponytail...cut off jean shorts..tie dye shirt...canoe.... I was a walking/paddling stereotype!!

Well it is now 6:22 am and time to get ready to head out for a Sunday ride with Brent.
Meeting in Lanark for breakfast at 8:30.
It is calling for sun and 26 degrees.

I can live with that.

Yes...Yes I can.

Change of change of plans

I mentioned before that we were not doing Laconia in New Hampshire this year.
The plan was to got to bike week in Pennsylvania at the end of June.

Well, we have changed our minds.
Old guys are allowed to do that.
We are going to bike week in Sandusky Ohio at the end of May.




It is right on Lake Erie.
In 2012 they figure there was 150,000 bikes there over the course of the week.....not too bad.
And...Ohio is a no helmet state! ( people 17 and younger have to wear one....seems legit to me )
Hurrah!!!
+/- 5 weeks from now... a ride with no helmet....the way it is supposed to be.

See below a picture from last year in Ohio  that I found on the sphincternet ...doesn't it look so right?

Happy Helmet-less people

A musical interlude....

Blackberry Smoke...a band I have been really enjoying lately.
Kind of country/southern rock.
Easy to listen to, and not extreme in any way.
check them out...

and now...back to our program!

 On the way down to Sandusky, we are going to stop in the Ithaca New York region to visit the Finger Lakes.
There are supposed to be a ton of waterfalls to visit there.
Something new.

We are actually going to take 2 days to get to Ohio...it is 1000Km/630 Miles.
No need to kill ourselves....it is about the ride and the scenery.

Only 25 sleeps until we go !!!!!

Spring is here...YAY !!!

23 and sunny today.
Finally.

I haven't been blogging because I am ranted out, and haven't done any noteworth rides because the weather has sucked, for the most part.
Would you want to bother reading about a ride to Richmond, or Carleton Place?

1st some news...I got my oil leak fixed with the help of some gasket glue from Brent.

The offending gasket

Inside the primary

Gasket seal from Brent

And the whole operation went off with no ecological disasters of any kind.
There will be no fodder for family gatherings...
And I am not leaving a puddle of oil everywhere I park.


I went for a ride Saturday night with my wife, and we went down to Remic's rapids, where the stone sculptures are.
As you can see below, there is no rock exposed to build sculptures on...the Ottawa river is super high right now.

Today I got up early and headed to Brent's in Lanark, for breakfast and then riding.
We didn't do anything huge, but stopped at Silver Lake, of course.

From there we went up to the Snow road.
This road is an original colonisation road that has been there since the mid 1800's.
It connects with what is now highway 7 and runs to Elphin and around.

We stopped by the Mississippi River to stretch.

Parted ways with Brent in Watson's Corners...he headed home from there.

I came home via the Calabogie run, and then to Burnstown and Arnprior.

Not a huge run, but we were just enjoying the day.
Everywhere we stopped, people were talking to us, and just being friendly.

There were a ton of bikes out with this great weather...by the time I got home I was biker waved-out...

I have a 3 day weekend next weekend, and hope to get some longer rides in.
The week is looking kind of crappy...starts with rain tomorrow.

But the important thing is that...SPRING HAS SPRUNG !!!

More oil....

There is a little gasket in the primary where the mid controls were removed when I had forward controls put on, that is now on a list I have going.

Last year there was a point when every time I stopped, there was a little puddle of oil under my bike.
It's a Harley, so a little is not a big deal, but this was getting to be a pain in the ass.
Plus ....I was taking a shit kicking from my lovely wife.
It reached the point I needed to do something about it....

Maybe a slight exaggeration...but not by much.

I did some research and discovered that it was probably the tower gasket, which is a $2.00 part.
That is cool.
The only thing is that to get at it you have to drain the primary.
So add in a $20.00 quart of replacement oil.
Stripped a bolt removing the derby cover...a $25.00 bit extractor set.
Decided to replace all the bolts with allen key stainless...another 10 bucks.
And another oil spot on the laneway.
Sweet!

The good news is that I have what appears to be the same leak happening.
Yay !
I won't have to deal with stripped bolts etc....but it is like eating pudding with a fork...it is do-able, but still a pain in the ass.
And I just changed my primary oil....that is 20 bucks down the drain.
Makes me almost want to say "fuhuuu...ck dude....". But I won't, cuz that would be rude, and I am never rude.

On another front...the weather is getting cold and crappy again....at least for the next week.
Jesus H Christ!
It's April...it should be bug bite season...not turn on the heat season.
I am once again forced to wonder what kind of retards my ancestors were.

No excuse at all for the Italian side.
None at all, Precious.

I can kind of understand the British/Scottish side staying here... Britain and Scotland ?...nuff said.
I mean would you go back to a place where rotten teeth make you a real looker?

I think not.
The United Kingdom is also a place that any tan above Vampire-white is considered amazing, because of their weather.
Un-fricken believable.

Still, that leaves us all holding the "leaky bag of dogshit", that is weather in Canada.

On the positive side?
It looks real nice in the 14 day...above 10 and sunny..... if they can actually forecast that far.
Let's hope.

And it starts !

This past week I got out for a number of short after dinner rides.
Nothing spectacular, but fun.

Easter weekend...some real rides.

Friday...pretty cold but I got in a couple of shorties.
It was like...

It was riding...but hardly optimum

Saturday I left the house just after 9 am and ended up in Kingston around noon.
416'd to 401.

I stopped in the Harley dealer thinking there would be lots of bikes there.

Pretty god-damned lonely.
WTF up with that?
There was no snow that I could see in Kingston...they are well ahead of us Spring-wise.
I would hate to use a certain term to describe a person who lets a day like that go by without riding.. but it needs to be said.

Anyways, I didn't stick around long and headed back via 15 to Smith Falls.

It was looking and feeling real nice there.It was 10 degrees by this time.
I stopped at the park near the locks.
It was great to hear water running again.
And very peaceful.

I was beat when I got home. Happy as hell, though.
The sun was warm, but it is still cold at highway speeds.

Today was kind of overcast and cooler cause of the lack of sun, but I went up to Perth, and did the Calabogie run anyways.
Still a great ride.
I saw a few bikes, but not a ton.

Oh well...these fair weather bikers are the kind that complain about the cost of insurance for a 4-5 month season.
We live in Canada...there are only 2 seasons...winter and bug bite.

One has to ride as much as possible during bug bite. That is just common sense.
An 8 month season makes much more sense.

This week looks shitty early on, but should improve as it goes along.

Just hoping for a ride...

De-winterized and ready to go, but the weather sucks.

So getting back on track here...

The dewinterizing went off with only a few drops ( OK...3 small patches )  of oil left behind.
I actually tried to work clean.

No Hazmat teams were required, and no pelicans or wildlife of any kind required rescue baths of Dawn dish soap.

I am guessing that I am relatively safe from the family shit kicking thing.
or not.
We'll see.

But anyways...

It was nice enough to get a couple of small rides in last weekend...I 416'd it down to Kemptville and back, and did some trips around the 'hood.
Last Sunday it took a good 2 hrs to get the salt and crap off....but it was worth it.


This weekend it is back to cold and snowy.
So once again I am forced to say:

I think it should improve by Easter. ( in today's schools - the day the Easter bunny died on the cross to bring us chocolate )
At least I am hoping so. ( improve...not the Easter bunny thing...)

I have the bike pretty stripped down at the moment.
That way when I can get a little ride in, there are less things to clean salt and sand off of.

 I think it actually looks pretty cool all stripped down.......... too bad it couldn't stay like this.
Fun for in-town riding, but sucks on the highway or in cold weather or if you want to carry anything.
...or if you are only going to ride 4-5000 km per year.
All lessons I learnt in 2009, which was my 1st year back riding in nearly 25 years.

Live and learn.

Going to get my ride ready !

Some warmer weather happening !

I believe I am going to de-winterize my special guy this week, and if on Sunday it is 9 deg. and sunny as forecast... go for a little ride.
Even just bombing around the 'hood with no helmet on and being a bad neighbour would be fun.

De-winterizing is the process that starts with  my wife reminding me of all the precautions necessary to not get oil on the laneway.
She will probably go so far as to fetch me old blankets etc.
I will then do a sketchy, welfare job of spreading them out, or drop the old oil filter or something along those lines.... and voila !
We have new oil stain on the asphalt .

Oh ...at first I will try the "it was there last year" ploy.
And then she, being an untrustworthy sort of person, will go so far as to examine the spot(s) in detail, and without even an impartial jury of my peers...I will be found guilty.
No hope of appeal.
No last meal.
Doomed to that special death row where my fuck up becomes fodder for family shit -kickings at special occasions.
You know what I am talking about...............
Both sides of the family over..things going well,  I am my usual witty and amazing self and "BOOM" !!

I will hear  "If you go outside you better wear shoes...Al has spilled oil everywhere....."
                                  or
"What is the matter with your laneway? It looks like it has skin cancer.."

It goes silent....heads shake...everyone will look suitably appalled....



I will look like the puppy who crapped on the carpet.

but I will be secretly laughing on the inside.. because in my heart I know that everything is secondary to
GETTING READY TO RIDE !!!




Note...The above could possibly be a slight exaggeration of what will go down. The author in no way impugns the good character of the aforementioned wife.
( the fine print )

I Hate Winter - further ruminations from a disturbed mind.

" I love Winter" said no one...ever. 

More tasteful ( and not so tasteful )  pics from talented winter haters.....starting with a bad pun.

In keeping with" I can't wait for spring", this past weekend was filled with stuff to make me want an end to winter, even more.

Friday night my wife and  went to the Outdoors/Boat show. Lots of very expensive boats, some cool exhibits...the usual. Fun to see.

Sunday, my brother in law and I went to the motorcycle show in Montreal.
Lots of expensive bikes, some cool exhibits... worth the drive.
And I felt at home...apparently there are lots of old guys with grey ponytails wearing leather vests and Harley T's  living in Montreal.
I guess that is where they/we all end up.
Who knew?

The shitty news is that yesterday there was a snow storm...hurrah !
More snow to melt !
My thoughts below....




I need/want a tattoo that says that.

There needs to be a class action suit against Canada for luring my ancestors here under false pretences.
I do not believe they were retards.
I don't think they had low self esteem or felt the need to punish themselves. ( like..."I probably practice self abuse too much and will burn in hell unless I repent..It's one of the biggies says Father McFelch...Hey!  let's move to Canada! God will surely forgive me if I spend the rest of my life suffering there...as long as I can keep my paws off' of  my pud...")

The only logical explanation is false advertising on Canada's part.

Here is an immigration poster from around 1900.
....it sure as shit does not look like that outside at this moment !

Can you imagine an immigrant's 1st winter in 1901 ?

Bet there were some very pissed off and shocked people.
It was probably like... " Dude!!!! what's that white shit falling from the sky, and why is it so cold ? "

But the important thing is...the Canadian government should make up for their heinous duplicity .
Seems only fair.

Last day of February today !
March tomorrow...

Just think..only a few more weeks and there will be actual motorcylce blogs!
Not just weird ramblings...but rides, and stories of adventure and daring-do.

stay tuned.



al

February blahs...and I hate winter.

Is it just me, or does the shortest month of the year actually, seem to be the longest?


Some pics from various creative people on the sphincternet that describe just how I feel about winter...

I know...you are saying  "tell us how you really feel...and no holding back this time.."

OK....Every snow flake is like a punch in the face or a kick in the balls...

I mean, WTF was wrong with our ancestors?
All the places around the globe, and they picked the cold place?

Samuel Champlain and those guys are not heros... this is all their fault.

The Spanish were down south grabbing great tans and  piles of gold, and these dummies were in Quebec trading furs.
Were they retarded or something?
After the 1st winter it should have been  " this sucks...we're going south".

And even worse...what about everyone who came here after those 1st dummies?

Was it like....
 " Hey Luigi, instead to grow olives and live in this nice village by the

Mediterranean, I found us a place where we can be tormented by biting insects when it is not freezing cold. Let's move there !"

?????

So now we freeze..

And wait for spring.

sigh.....................................................