Day 11 - I think I'm okay driving my car for a while...

I'm finally back home, and I don't think I've ever been quite this happy to see Winnipeg. The trip was great, don't get me wrong, but the last leg was 8 hours of cold prairies. And nothing can quite compare to sleeping in your own bed. I do have tons of pictures, but I'm pretty tired so I'll upload them tomorrow. I figured instead I will leave you with some fun statistics about the trip.

Days of the trip: 11

Days it rained: 10

Different beds slept in: 8

Average cost of motel: $70

Average cost of gas: $1/L

Average speed on highway: 120-130 km/h

Average hours spent riding per day: 6

Quarts of oil burned: 1 1/2

Parts replaced: Both tires

Items ditched: Extra litre of water

Items forgotten at home: Mp3 charging cable (!@#$)

Items lost on the road: Rain cover, luggage tie down

Items acquired: Quart of oil, small socket set

Most wished for item: Waterproof gloves

Best improvised fix: Plastic bags in shoes

Friends made: 3

Pissed of locals: 1

Kilometers traveled: 4800

Experience points gained: 10,000 (Motorcycle went up a level!)

Day 10 - When hell freezes over

This morning I said my goodbyes to my good friend Janine and headed to the motorcycle repair shop. After getting lost for a while I managed to make it there, sopping wet from the rain. Apparently this is the most rain they've seen in Calgary all summer. Awesome.

While I was waiting for my bike, one of the service guys informed me that my front tire was also very close to the wear indicator and should be replaced as well. I had a hard time believing that my front tire would be worn out after only 10K, but I figured "better safe than sorry" and got it changed as well. I'm hoping he was being honest and not just screwing me out of more money. Grand total? $400. I'm so broke it's not even funny.

With my bike's new rubber I set off on my way, glad to leave the traffic of Calgary behind me. Today is honestly the coldest day I have had on this entire trip. It was even colder than the mountain pass between Banff and Jasper. To make matters worse, it was not only raining, but the wind was very strong and in the complete opposite direction. What happened to the pervailing westerlies?! Once I reached Swift Current I was going numb and decided I had enough and got a motel room. I'll have more distance to cover tomorrow, but I'm hoping it won't be as cold.

I had quite a bit of time on my hands this evening, and wound up talking to the girl working the counter at the motel for several hours. She was pretty entertaining to talk to and it was a good way to spend the evening. Oddly enough this isn't the first time this has happened on my trip. You meet a lot of interesting people while traveling. I always find it a shame that I'll likely never see these people again, but it's fun nonetheless.

Tomorrow is my last day of riding for the trip. My bike was burning oil like a fiend today, but then again I literally had the throttle pinned and the RPMs at 7000 all day to fight the wind. Oh 1980's tech engine...

Day 9 - Good food, good friends, good times

The last few days have been pretty relaxing. On Friday I made my way to Banff. Only a couple hundred kilometers, but that gave me time to sight see around the town. Stayed at a bed and breakfast which I have to say was nicer than any other place I stayed at during the trip, and not too expensive either. And going to the hot springs is always a plus.

The past couple days I've been staying at my friend Janine's place in Calgary. No riding, but that's fine since I need some time to let my shoulder recover since the pain has become a bit constant. Once again, Calgary's freeways require that you know where you're going ahead of time so you don't end up cutting across 3 lanes of traffic so that you don't miss your turn off. Not that I would do that...

Today I went with Janine to heritage park in Calgary. They were having some sort of fair going on, and it was a lot of fun. Rode a steam train, steam paddlewheeler, checked out some old timey things, and once again, took lots of pictures. Tomorrow I'm headed to a motorcycle shop first thing in the morning to get my rear tire swapped out. I'm really hoping they work on my bike right away so that I can cover some distance on Monday. Then it's the long trek back to Winnipeg.

Not too much else to post about at this point. The bulk of the trip is over and it's been a lot of fun. Now that I've made this trip I'll be much more eager to go on another one like it in the future, especially considering that I won't have anything I need to buy in order to go....except for maybe a bigger bike...

*starts eyeing Triumphs*

Day 6 - Givin' 'er hell!

Well, lots to write about today, especially since I didn't update yesterday when I meant to (ended up passing out in my motel room fully dressed).

Even though this trip is about the riding, the day off I spent in Jasper was nice. Slept in, check out the shops, rode a tram to the top of a mountain, the usual tourist stuff. Yesterday I left Jasper and headed into BC towards Kamloops. BC is every bit as gorgeous (you hear me use that word alot) as the icefield highway. Rolling hills as far as the eye can see and forest all around you. No real twisties yet, but interesting scenery, especially when I got to an area where the was a forest fire in the past. It just looked strange, yet picturesque in it's own way. I'll be uploading tons of pictures once I get back.

I also seemed to have developed a sharp pain in my right shoulder, which I'm assuming is from holding a throttle all day for several days. It's a shame because it took away from what otherwise would've been a nice ride.

I stopped in Kelowna for the night, tired and sore. This morning I decided that I wasn't very fond of the highway around there. Too busy and not challenging. Overall the major highways are no fun, and you should look for the much less traveled ones. With that in mind, I backtracked to Vernon and took highway 6 headed east. Here's where the fun begins...

Highway 6 is the epitome of the entire trip. Non-stop twisties. You know those winding roads with tons of turns and amazing views that you may have only seen videos or pictures of? Well, this is it, only better. I can't even describe how much fun it s riding down this highway. Every few seconds you're carving around a turn and lining yourself up for the next one. It was awesome. I was tempted to turn around and do the whole thing again. And when you get to the end, there's a free ferry which crosses a river. Call me a kid, but that was pretty cool too.

I'm not an expert at riding, but I kept a good pace without getting ridiculous. I lucked out too and had almost nobody in front of me. Almost the entire road is double yellow and for a good reason, and following a minivan doing 10 under the limit is no fun. At first I had an RCMP truck follow me for a good 15 minutes before I decided to pull over and let him get some distance so I could actually have some "fun" on my ride.

But, it's not all good news. After a good section of twisties, I noticed something felt "off" about my bike's handling. I pulled over and looked at my back tire. Low and behold, my rear tire has barely any tread left. It had plenty of tread when I started my trip, but I guess 3000kms of highway speeds can eat a tire fast. What's more, there was an inch long gash in one spot. Fuuuuuck. I checked the tire pressure and did the soap test and no air bubbles, so it doesn't appear to be leaking. Either way though, it makes me feel uneasy riding on it. I called around the nearby towns and no one has a tire in the size I need. Called up a place in Calgary and they have the exact same tire on hand, so I made an appointment to have it swapped out. Now I just need to pray that it holds out till then.

Right now I'm in Cranbrook for the night. Probably going to Banff tomorrow, then back to Calgary to visit a good friend of mine. C'mon rear tire, don't fail me now!

Day 3 - I'm pretty sure 90km/h an hour is only a suggestion

Yesterday I didn't have the time to post, so here's the gist of it. Leaving Swift Current and heading to Regina I had about 4 hours of riding into the rainy wind across prairies that stretched forever. I'm not going to lie, it wasn't fun. Sure, I kept a positive mindset, but I would've rather had a positive mindset and dry feet. Once I got to Calgary I promptly got lost and wound up on the Deerfoot Trail, which makes you A) appreciate a good freeway system, and B) scare the crap out of you a little bit.

While in Calgary I stayed with a couple friends of the family, Bridget and Chris and their daughter Nora. They were extremely generous and accommodating and it was a good time overall. Chris has a new Triumph Bonneville, which is a gorgeous bike. I'm pretty certain my next bike will now be a Triumph :). That evening we figure it would be appropriate to watch a motorcycle movie, so we watched "The World's Fastest Indian". Today Chris rode with me out to Canmore (which is good because I never would've found my way out of Calgary otherwise), and I got to experience my first taste of fun twisty roads on highway 1A. Pretty good start to the day.

From there we parted ways and I headed up to Lake Lousie. The trans-canada highway is pretty boring and busy, and should be avoided whenever possible. Once I got onto highway 93 headed to Jasper, it was smooth sailing. The ride up to Jasper is great. Long sweeping curves, mountains as far as the eye could see, and not much traffic. This is where I wish the GS had more power. It can go pretty fast, but once you up to around 130 it doesn't have much power left on tap to pass. But it still did very well and kept a good pace. Oh, and I'm going to say that doing this ride in September, heated grips are a must. Not "nice to have", but actually required. I had the heated grips cranked. My hands would've been frost bitten and numb otherwise.

Now that I'm in the mountains I can easily say this trip is every bit worth it, and anyone in Canada with a motorcycle should make the trip at least once. For once it actually feels like I'm getting the most enjoyment possible out of riding a motorcycle, and riding it the way it was meant to be. Nothing, and I mean nothing in Manitoba comes close to the riding here in the mountains.

Right now I'm staying in Jasper for a couple nights. I figured it'll be nice to do the tourist thing for a bit and some hiking as well. Then it's off to BC for a few days. Chris helped point out some twisty road that I'll be looking forward to. :)

Day 1 - Westward bound

I loaded up and set off today around 8:00am. I only went one block before I came across another guy with a touring setup headed in the same direction, so I rode alongside him for a couple hours. Good start to the trip I figured. I was actually more comfortable that I would've predicted. The windshield, Shoei helmet, and in-ear headphones make a huge difference for noise and buffeting. In the morning it was pretty cold, so I had all the liners in my gear, my cold weather gloves, and the heated grips on. Then by late afternoon it was ridiculously hot out and I had to change. I discovered early that layering is crucial.

The day was uneventful for the most part. Gassed up every 200kms or so (the bike has a range of about 275 before reserve). Most people at gas stations like to stare at the wannabe power ranger, but whatever. There was a crazy cross wind throughout Saskatchewan which made riding a bit interesting. I'm now in Swift Current for the night, which is motel city. I also discovered that my bike is apparently burning oil. Not much, but enough that I'll have to check it every day and possibly top it off. Figures. At least it's manageable though, and the GS500 is sort of known for that problem.

Tomorrow I'm off to Calgary. I'll be glad once I can see the mountains. :)

T Minus 1 Day - Music to my ears

Finally, tomorrow is the big trip. I'm pretty pumped. I haven't posted in a few days since I was pretty busy running a million little errands and tying up loose ends. There's a seemingly never ending list of things to do and get when you're preparing for a trip like this. On the plus side, the next trip should be much easier, especially since I'll already have everything I need. Today I got all my bags put by the door and the clothes set aside that I'm going to be wearing for the trip, so all I need to do tomorrow is wake up on time, which is a challenge in itself.

A couple people were wondering how I'm going to be documenting the trip. For pictures I've got an old Sony Cybershot digital camera. I don't even know what model it is since it was discontinued about 4 years ago. Still takes decent pictures though, so it will do just fine (besides, I'm mostly broke at this point anyways). As for posting updates, I have a Blackberry that I'll be using, providing I have reception in whatever motel I happen to be in. The Shoei gets in on the glamor shot just because it's an awesome helmet.

One thing that will probably prove to be a lifesaver on this trip will be good music. I have 13 hours of prairies to cross before I reach the mountains, which is nothing but flat, boring, straight highway. I tried for a while to find a set of headphones that fit comfortably under a full face helmet. Eventually I ended up taking some old Sony earbuds, tearing off half the plastic with some pliers, and then using a hot glue gun to close up the wires. End result? Pretty good actually. I figured I'd give my Franken-buds a test run to make sure they were comfortable.

I think it's too easy to get a little carried away when it comes to tech gadgets. I watched a youtube video of a guy showing what he brings for a touring trip, and the main message I got from it was "My job pays me in futureshop gift cards". If you need more than 2 power cords, you are bringing too many electronics. Isn't this supposed to be to get away from it all? Pretty much every site I came across listed a GPS as a must. I have one, but I'm not bringing it (here's hoping I'm out of the province before my parents read that). GPS units can be a great tool, but they only became popular for average consumers in the last decade, and people have been making road trips successfully for a hell of alot longer than that. So I'll do without. In a pinch, my Blackberry has a built in GPS anyways. Besides, I have a pretty useful tool that will take its place:

I'm not quite sure what to expect of this trip, but I'm sure it'll be quite an experience either way. If anyone would like, send a kind word to the motorcycle gods!