Need to Travel... NOW

Good afternoon everyone!  Just trying desperately to get into the groove of writing on Sunday afternoons as opposed to my old Tuesday morning schedule.  Clearly I have difficulties breaking out of ruts when I get in them, but I'm also facing the extraordinary difficulty of not having any concrete travel plans in my future.  This is not something that I've often dealt with!  I'll be the first to admit that it's really taking the wind out of my sails right now, and I think I need to get myself organized and start putting the wheels in motion on some serious travel plans.  Any suggestions?  I'm certainly still committed to making a trip to China happen next year, but it's still too early to get anything definitive on paper, and I think I need to get a little something going before that to keep myself from going completely around the bend.

In other news I'm FINALLY wrapped up on the process of making my new bike officially mine.  It's insured and I've been to the ministry to get the ownership in my own name.  Just yesterday I went out with wrenches triumphantly in hand and put my own license plate on my lovely new ZZR600!  It was a process that took considerably longer than it needed to, but it's all done now and I'm ready to ride.  Sadly I've been entirely too busy with work this weekend to get out and actually ride!  With any luck I'll be settling into the new position shortly and able to get some weekend time to myself within a couple weeks.

Sorry for the brief check-in, but like I said, things have been pretty busy lately.  Hopefully things will normalize soon.  Until then, be well my friends.

New Wheels... Two of Them!

Yes that's right ladies and gentlemen, there's a new pair of wheels sitting in my parking garage now!

That fine machine in the foreground in a 2004 Kawasaki ZZR600, previously owned by the shadowy figure in the background, but now in the possession of the handsome devil seen straddling it.  This past week I was able to sell my old CBR125, and though I was sad to see it go, I'm happy to be able to bring my new ride home.  This photo was taken a few weeks ago when I first took the bike for a test drive, and since then I've unfortunately been on it one other time... and that was yesterday.  I'm hoping to remedy that neglect in the very near future.  Moving from 125cc to 600cc wasn't nearly as daunting as I'd originally feared, and the only aspect of the bike that I'm struggling with is managing the weight (a good 150-200 lbs heavier than my previous bike) when I'm stationary or maneuvering at very low speeds.  Once I've given it some gas and got things moving it might as well weight 2 lbs for all I can tell.

I had an excellent ride yesterday; Jay drove me out to Mike's place and then joined our biking caravan in his Mini.  Mike has a spectacular Yamaha YYZ1300, but was kind enough to not leave me completely in the dust, which was always an option given that he easily had 50 more horsepower to play with.  We meandered our way through the country side, finding our way West of Airport Road, but considerably farther North.  There aren't many roads in Southwestern Ontario to offer any sort of joy to a motoring enthusiast, but we managed to find a few that had some entertaining curves, and Jay, having been betrayed by his GPS, was even able to discover a rather thrilling stretch of road with some significant uphill and downhill bends.  It gave me a great chance to see what I was capable of on the new bike, and get a feeling for where my comfort level is in a corner.  All told it was great being out with my friends on a beautiful day enjoying some good driving.

A feature of the bike that can be seen in the photo above (but that I haven't yet put to use) is the hard case that's resting on the back.  That's actually one of a pair, and when they're both in play that can be secured to the sides of the bike.  They're pretty substantial; just as a test this evening I found that I can easily stuff all my gear, helmet, jacket, pants, boot, and gloves, in both cases with room to spare.  They'll be great when I want to go for overnight trips.

At this point I haven't convinced Euphemia to take a ride with me.  She seems quite keen to try it out, but is concerned about the up-front costs involved.  There's a lot of money to be spent on safety equipment, and she's pretty concerned about investing that kind of cash on something that she may find not to her taste.  An understandable worry to be sure.

I've made one other upgrade to my motorcycling repetoir this weekend, and that's a new helmet.  My use of the word "upgrade" is no understatement either; I've acquired a Shoei RF-1100, which is an excellent piece of equipment.  The weight reduction from my old helment is really noticeable, and I found when riding that there was a lot less fatigue on a number of levels: the fit is better and didn't pinch my ears, the lower weight meant less neck strain, and the aerodynamics are significantly better, so I didn't feel as buffeted by the wind at high speeds, and it didn't feel like my head was about to be torn off when I turned my head to look over my shoulder.  Another fantastic thing about this helmet is that it's got a much wider than normal visor, so even the previously mentioned turning of the head didn't need to be as extreme.  If I looked as far as possible to one side I could just barely see the edge of the helmet, it really does a fantastic job of maintaining visibility.  Speaking of visibility, I went with a solid white helmet, so I should stand out... also it matches my jacket.

Well, that's all the motorcycling news for now.  I've got the attached luggage for my bike, and a big enough engine to make highway driving a smooth and comfortable experience, now I just need to get out there and go for a trip.  Not sure what my first real voyage will be, but I'm looking forward to it all the same.  I hope you're all doing well this week, and I'll talk to you all next week... maybe even on time for once.