I actually havent packed my tent in that pic but its Sitting on the back of my seat. I also have a backpack with misc stuff. Im goin to rearrange a couple of things tonight for more comfort. Right now my backpack is too heavy
Im in sault saint marie right now eating and warming up. Its freaking 5 degrees up here and my feet are soaked. Gotta wring them out before headig back on the road
I actually havent packed my tent in that pic but its Sitting on the back of my seat. I also have a backpack with misc stuff. Im goin to rearrange a couple of things tonight for more comfort. Right now my backpack is too heavy
Im in sault saint marie right now eating and warming up. Its freaking 5 degrees up here and my feet are soaked. Gotta wring them out before headig back on the road
Cue turbodish for the max speed on your gps.
Probably a chopper flying over your motel right now lol.
I didnt know you can get in trouble for a faulty gps?
Don't forget you are buying the beer when you get here
The goal of day 1 was to get as far to the west coast as possible. I had 2 options, cross at Sarnia which would send me through the Greater Toronto Area, Detriot, and Chicago during rush hour or take the road less travelled and cross at Sault Ste Marie. I opted for the latter although it will cost me 4 extra hours. At least they’re 4 predictable hours as opposed to the unpredictable city traffic. Besides, I’m coming back home that way.
I started the day off a little late as I had to run to Canadian Tire to get another dry sack for my tent. Planned start time was 9am, but I left at 10am. It was about 15 degrees and raining when I left my house. Not bad, its only a little rain. As I rode more North, it got colder…a lot colder. About 5 degrees when I got to Sudbury. There was even snow on the side of the road.
The journey to the border at Sault Ste Marie was pretty much uneventful besides having a few close calls with the Ontario Provincial Police. There is an abundance of OPP sitting on the side of the highway and driving around in Northern Ontario and I passed many at over the speed limit but they seemed to have turned a blind eye. Or maybe I just got lucky.
I get to the border around 4pm. Line up is 3 cars long so I thought I’d get through here in no time. I get to the booth, the guy starts grilling me about where I’m going, why I’m going there, what the point of riding around all day is, etc. I eventually get sent to secondary inspection where they took a look through all my bags. Not very fun and it cost me about 30 minutes. At least the secondary inspection guys were nice, even gave me a few tips and destinations to visit.
By now, I’m freezing my *** off because of the cold and rain. My socks were soaked, I had to wring them out at every rest stop. I couldn’t wait to get to a motel to have a nice hot shower. That’s all I thought about…a nice hot shower…but I needed to cover some road. I rode until it got dark and found myself a little motel in a small town. I unpacked my stuff and I was really thirsty so I grabbed a water bottle that was in my bag and took a swig. ???? It tasted like alcohol. Oops, I forgot that I put mouthwash into a waterbottle…the same type of waterbottle I had my water in.
How does all that stuff stay secured on the back of the bike??
Be safe and have fun.
Dont worry, I'm sure I can fit a case of beer on the back of my bikeDon't forget you are buying the beer when you get here
I dont really mind the cold, I can ride in below freezing temperature weather comfortably. The thing that gets me is the cold. The cold only slows me down minimally since I took longer than needed breaks by about 15 minutes each just to warm up..but I didnt take any unnecessary breaks on top of that.Lesson number one; you can make better time in warmer weather. Never mind traffic, what slows you down on a bike is cold and wetness. Where you are now, your best option might be to get genuinely warm and dry gear to ride in.
Hey I was reading about a couple who rode from BC to somewhere in Ontario I believe on a SCOOTER 2up and with gear at that. So a sport bike...I'm sure you'll be fine. Not as comfortable as a touring bike for sure but who cares, you'll have fun. As for riding solo, I bought my current ride (Honda ST1300) in Florida. Wife dropped me off at the airport in Buffalo, seller picked me up in Jacksonville. Rode the bike back home solo, went through the Dragon and all sorts of fun places.
It's an epic adventure! Enjoy the ride and be safe. And not that you need any inspiration, but I highly recommend watching "The Long Way Round" & "The Long Way Down" with Ewan McGregor and Chalrey Boorman.
I actually havent packed my tent in that pic but its Sitting on the back of my seat. I also have a backpack with misc stuff. Im goin to rearrange a couple of things tonight for more comfort. Right now my backpack is too heavy
Im in sault saint marie right now eating and warming up. Its freaking 5 degrees up here and my feet are soaked. Gotta wring them out before headig back on the road