We did our first real adventure ride a couple of summers ago when we took two weeks and rode through Northern New York State, Vermont and Maine to the East Coast of Canada. It was definitely a highlight of my life and got me hooked on Adventure motortycle riding. It's not hard to get into this and there are many forums and site with information on making the experience better and learning from others' mistakes incliding Horizon's unlimited and ADV Rider. When you have the fever you are constantly planning and saving for your next trip, but in the interim you venture out into the closest areas around where you live, taking day trips and weekend trips to areas that are in a reachable radius from your home.
In Southwestern Ontario there are some treasures but there are more grids than anything else, and to get to 10 minutes of curvy roads, you have to usually travel about an hour in any direction. There are lots of places to stop and cute towns all around (try the coffee shop in St George). On every trip you meet lots of interesting and nice people. Some on motorcycles, some on bicycles and some on foot or in cars. Everyone is interesting in their own way. It is an amazing feeling to be on your bike and the attraction to me is the complete isolation that you have when you are riding. It salms me down and puts the rest of our harried lives into perspective.
Today, was a beatiful summer day, these are usually few and far between in Canada, but this year is exceptionally nice, but oru mottos is: you ride when you can, because too soon it's winter again. We were out nice and early, off to a small town not far from Caledon to visit a coffee shop that people have mentioned on a forum. Disappointment when we arrived to find it was a tiny little whole in the wall with pricing that was ridiculous. Even though the area of Belfountaine is really lovely, the little coffee shop won't see me again. Still the ride was great and we met some interesting people who were out riding as well.
On our way back we decided to stop at Kelehers in Cambridge - this is a country western specialty shop that sometimes has riding gear for sale, where we like to browse once a year. We had just pulled in to the parking lot when I noticed that we stopped right outside what looked like an abandoned shack, but when I looked up there was an OPEN sign on it, and as I turned to my partner and said, "This place is open, we should probably move our bikes a little out of the way", the owner of the "Florida Vacations" stormed out of her dilapidated storefront and yelled in one of those erection-killer voices: "Don't park your bikes right in my entrance!" Too bad she didn't have any decent way of asking us to move our bikes, but we rode our bikes to the other end of the lot. When we left a few minutes later, I still didn't see any customers visiting her business. Anyone seen Pay it Forward?
One of the most dangerous things for motorcyclists is being rear ended by cars who don't keep a safe distance. Fatalities are high in these crashes and it's the one thing you're constantly aware of on your bike. It's a daily occurrence to and from work and with distractions such as food and PDAs, it seems to be here to stay. From a motorcycle you often have a very clear view of what people are doing in their cars, and you can immediately spot a distracted driver.
Another serious offense of drivers on the road is that they pass in dangerous areas and will often pass where there are double solid lines in the road or blind hills. So motorcyclists are constantly in defensive mode because for some reason these idiots think that they can overtake cars even when they see you coming from the front, because you can:
A) go on the shoulder of the road, what shoulder?
B) ride onto gravel at 100km/hr without falling?
C) make like Batman and fly the bike?
Sometimes I want to be Mad Max and shoot at them with the canon I installed on the front of my kevlar encased vehicle...
When you pass a car as a motorcyclist, you can often do it more safely, mainly because of the accelleration ability of a bike, but it is still a dangerous thing to do and I personally only pass when I am 100% sure it is safe to do so. What I've noticed lately is that drivers will often accellerate when they realize you want to pass, and this is a really dangerous practice. I ended up behind an old Buick when the driver drove under the posted speed and after about 5 minutes of solid lines and blind turns there was a clear area where I could pass. The minute I indicated that I was going to pass, the geezer grew a lead foot and his old Buick sped up. I had to burn my bike to pass him and then instantly his foot gained some if the helium back and he was left far behind in my rearview mirror. I would like to know why is it so hard for people to be overtaken? Small you-know-whats...
I still love motorcycling and cannot wait for my next ride, which will probably be tomorrow to some other tiny coffee shop somewhere. But if you are interested in riding a motorcycle, just remember: FREAKS AND WEIRDOS ARE EVERYWHERE.
