Borrowed Blogging

Good morning ladies and gents!  It's time for me to blog about a trip that I haven't (yet) gone on myself.  My Aunt J sent me a newspaper clipping in the mail from the Times Colonist featuring an article entitled "An easy ride on the Emerald Isle."  As the name suggests, the travel article is about motorcycling in Ireland.

By the fourth sentence I was sold:  "Narrow roads, infrequent highway signs, hairpin curves, nightmarish traffic circles - we loved every minute of it, every breakthtaking view, every dangerous bend."

Yeah, you'd better love that if you want to call yourself a motorcyclist!

It all sounds pretty incredible to me.  This isn't something I've done on any large scale either, whether it be in a car or on a bike; I've never visited a country and toured around in my own vehicle.  We did it briefly in Japan on two separate occasions, renting a car and going where the wind would take us.  I have to say, that those were some pretty epic adventures too.  The winding, hilly roads to Mt. Osore were almost more than our little rented Nissan Cube could handle, but they put a huge smile on my face!

Touring the country in a rented vehicle is a popular activity when visiting Iceland as well, but not one that I decided to partake in.  It seems to me that I'm over-due for an exotic road trip!

One of the particularly interesting things in this newspaper article is a discussion on cost.  Apparently they ran into another motorcycle tourist while on the road and he told them that he spent $2000 to ship his bike over from the U.S. and another $2000 to get it insured for the duration of his stay.  Meanwhile, the guys writing the article had rented theirs (http://www.motorental.ie/) for 100 euros ($133.82 CAD at this very moment) per day.  At that rate you could go for a LONG time before you hit the $4000 that the other fellow had spent.

I had a quick look at the page for Motorcycle Rentals of Ireland Ltd. and a few nice things caught my eye: they are offering almost exclusively the lean, agile style of touring bike that I've always wanted to try; the price includes unlimited mileage; and all of their bikes come with saddlebags.  All in all I'd say that it sounds like a good deal.  Especially since most of their bikes are BMWs, and I've always wanted to get on a Beemer bike!

They mentioned that it took awhile to adapt to riding on the opposite side of the road from what we're used to.  When driving in Japan I didn't really find that to be a huge issue, but I really think that being in a car helped.  Yes, it's the "wrong" side of the road, but it also means that you're sitting on the "wrong" side of the car!  That really keeps the different situation firmly in mind at all times.  On the bike you wouldn't really have that constant reminder of your situation, and I can see drifting into the more familiar lane out of habit.  Of course, nothing serves as a better reminder than oncoming traffic...

They also mention that while riding gear is available for rent they saved a lot of money by bringing their own.  That said, having good gear will be a must for anyone considering this trip.. wet weather gear to be specific.  The weather on Ireland is legendary, and running into a bit of rain is a inevitable.  That said, as long as you're dressed for it there should be nothing wrong with riding in the raid.

The rest of the article goes on to list specific sights that the guys checked out on their trip around the island.  I won't get into that right now.  They did mention a travel tip that bears repeating.  They were travelling across the entire country, both North and South, and that requires the carrying of both the Euro and the British Pound.  Something to keep in mind.  They also mentioned that they ran into some troubles with the locals in Northern Ireland, once when a member of their party was seen with the flag of the Republic of Ireland sewn onto his jacket, and once when someone quipped about being back in Britain.  The lesson here?  Try not to be a bloody moron while visiting someone else's country.  Do ANY research into travelling in Ireland and you will hit warnings about the tension that still exists between the North and the South.  Do try not to upset people when you're visiting their country please.

So, the moral of today's story is this: all my friends that don't ride motorcycles need to find a place in Ireland where they can rent a nimble car that can handle the winding back roads.  It's time for a road trip!

Now Here's A Neat Idea

Here's something that Jay sent to me which I thought you might all find interesting:

http://www.golittleguy.com/teardrops/index.php

They're called "Teardrop Trailers" and the concept is that it's basically just a bed and a roof over your head that you tow around.  If you follow the link above it actually shows one of the smaller models, which isn't much bigger than the PT Cruiser that's towing it.  I've never been a big fan of the concept or RV-ing or Caravanning, but this actually holds some appeal to me.  I guess it's small enough that I don't think towing it would be a huge hassle, and since it's really just a bed and a roof I wouldn't feel lame pulling up to a campground and spending the night in one.  I always snicker a little bit at people who roll into a Provincial Park in something that's more luxurious than my townhouse and claim to be "camping."  One of these Little Guy trailers is practically just a really hard tent though.

I think Jay summed it up best actually:  "Something nice about pulling up pretty much anywhere, truck stop/ Walmart parking lot and climbing into bed."

It's always been my dream to do a cross-country road trip, and something like this could significantly cut down on costs while maintaining a modicum of comfort.  They even make a model that has a platform in between the sleeping area and your vehicle that's big enough to store a motorcycle on.  I'm sure you can all hear the gears turning away in my head....

Of course, don't expect to see one of these in my driveway any time soon... largely because I have no driveway. As with my earlier concept of getting a trailer for my bike, this idea is sadly crushed by my lack of space.  Also, while the main Little Guy page refuses to list prices, I've been seeing them online for between $5-10k, which is a whole lot of money for a bed.  I've seen other brands on eBay for far less though, so I don't think the cost necessarily has to be prohibitive.

Well my friends, that's all for me this week.  Have a great week, and I'll talk to you all again next Tuesday.

I'm Trying to Salute Fossil Fuels But...

I know I haven't mentioned any real details on the Salute to Fossil Fuels recently... this is largely because I haven't made any real concrete plans.  It's a funny thing, but I always forget just how small the window is for this kind of travel.  Summer really is a very brief period of time in which to cram all of our nice-weather activities.  I really must pick a date and map out an itinerary shortly.

I have made some progress on preparing for the SFF.  When I went home for the Canada Day long weekend I successfully loaded my bike into the bed of my truck without any assistance.  Mind you I very nearly caused myself some serious injury in the attempt, but I'm sure I'll get better with practice.  Last time I visited my doctor he gave me very specific instructions to not drop any single-person motor vehicles onto my head, and came perilously close to disobeying that order a couple weeks ago.  You see, it's a very natural thing when pushing a motorcycle to stand on the left side of the bike.  This is because it puts you with in operating distance of the kickstand.  However, the front break lever is attached to the right handlebar.  This is not normally a problem, but as I pushed the bike up the ramp it got high enough above me that I was no longer able to grip the front brake, which eliminated a lot of control and stability at a very crucial time.  I managed to keep things under control and hoist myself into the truck with the bike and get everything righted in the end.  My lower back muscles needed a couple minutes to just chill out after that, but other than that I managed the whole operation without any damage to myself or my bike.  I consider that my "proof of concept" for the SFF.  I know now that I should be standing on the right side of the bike while loading it and I'm sure it will be a much smoother operation in the future.

As an interesting side-note to my tale of almost dropping my bike on my head, I did get to witness the classiest of all acts: a shouting match in the middle of the street.  I had my bike fully in the truck bed and was just catching my breath and trying to stretch my lower back a bit and I heard a shout of "Do you have some kind of a problem?"  I thought to myself "Why yes, yes I do, thanks for asking" and partially turned to see who was offering their assistance.  That's when I realized that two people had pulled up alongside each other, just behind my truck, so that they could give each other some friendly driving advice.  My bike and I spent some time leaning on each other while these two fine, upstanding gentlemen described to each other in colourful detail the numerous way in which they were both deficient behind the wheel of a car.  I'm sure they both came away from the exchange enlightened and refreshed.  Anyway, back to the show...

Now that I'm feeling more confident in my ability to take my bike with me on long-haul journeys I should be in a position to start mapping out a route.  Unfortunately I may have hit a snag on Saturday.  I was riding along at a fairly constant speed and my bike started coughing, losing power and then regaining it again in rapid succession.  I gave it some gas and the problem disappeared, never to rear its ugly head again for the rest of the (fairly lengthy) ride.  Could be an isolated incident, but I'd rather be certain before planning a trip around motorcycling. I've had some issues in the past getting the bike into and out of neutral, so it's possible that I'm having transmission issues and that the bike was slipping in and out of gear while I was riding.  I'll have to get that looked at, and soon.

So, with all that said, I still need a route, and I'm just not sure what I want that to be.  I'm not sure where I can go for some epic driving roads, especially not in the immediate vicinity.  I'm afraid that my trip to North Carolina may have spoiled me a little; the grand selection of the finest curvy roads imaginable has set my standards pretty high.  If anyone knows where I can hit some good roads I'd love to hear it.

Well, that's where I stand right now; no plan, and a potentially injured bike.  I'll get a plan put together eventually though, don't you worry.  I consider it at least part of this blog's function to show the process by which I find myself on the go.

As a final note, any of you who regularly keep up with the Comments section of each post will be very familiar with my Aunt J, who is a contender for the title of Top Commenter (competing fiercely with Jabbles.)  I hope you all take a moment today to wish her a happy birthday.

Have a great week everyone.

Tandem Kayaking

In the comments section of last week's post Jay made an interesting point that I wanted to go into a little more detail on.  Dad actually owns a tandem (or two-person) kayak.  I've got a couple of pictures from our camping trip to Killarney in 2008.

That's a pretty good look at it on the beach, and here's one with Gray and Jay fishing from it:

As you can see from the photos you sit fairly close together, but the guy in the back still has enough room to stretch his legs out.  Paddling one of these boats takes a bit of coordination since, as the picture above demonstrates, if the person in the front seat is paddling back at the same time and with the same hand as the person in the back paddles forward, you'll hit your paddles together.  It just means that you have to let the person in the front set the pace and it becomes the responsibility of the person in the back to match their pace.

As with all kayaks there are a number of designs for the tandems.  I've seen boats that were a bit longer than this and had a distinct cockpit for each paddler, with a small hatch in between the two.  Ultimately though you're not going to find many that are too much longer than that boat, since it already has to be fairly large to accommodate two people.

They can be a lot of fun, and on that trip Gray and I found that Dad's tandem was a joy to paddle.  On a camping trip it can also add a bit of security; if one person on the expedition becomes injured and can no longer paddle the boat can still be operated by one person, pulling the other camper to safety.

The issue that came up in the 2008 trip was the size of the boat... and not in the way that you're thinking.  In fact, in a lot of ways the boat is too small.  Have a closer look at the top picture.  You'll notice that if you remove the cockpit the bow and stern of the boat are actually fairly small.  At best they're the same size as a regular kayak, maybe even smaller.  What ended up happening on our trip to David Lake was that despite having four paddlers the gear got divided up into thirds.  Gray and I really weren't carrying any more gear than Dad and Jay, but they had to paddle their own individual kayaks that we're just as heavily laden as our one tandem.  We were constantly pulling ahead of them on the long, straight sections of the lakes because we were essentially in a boat that weighed the same as the others, but had the benefit of two motors.

In a lot of ways I think the tandem would be a beautiful boat to take with us on that trip for the very reason Jay mentioned in his comment: one boat makes for an easier portage.  It could end up being a hybrid of the benefits of both the canoe and the kayak.  In the end though I just don't think it has the carrying capacity to haul all the gear that two people will need to camp, especially not in the fall where we'll need some slightly heavier equipment.

All of that said, if you're ever looking for a recreational boat and are looking to treat kayaking as a couple's activity the tandem can be a lot of fun.  If you can get the coordination down.  I take no responsibility for any marital conflict my suggestions may incite.

Have a great week everyone.