More of the travelogue:
Aug. 24th, 2010 10:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pecuniumThe trip home from Maine was much better than the trip down. We took the route the GPS suggested... much prettier, and far fewer people. Got to roll through Dixon's Notch, which is lovely (on the way down I got to smile, someone asked me, I forget when... Texas? If I had been to the White Mountains, I said no. They praised the roads near Mt. Washington. Well the traffic jam I complained of was in that area. It was pretty, but the twisty aspects of it weren't all that great).
The road quality was so-so, and the sightlines not the best. On the flip side, there was no traffic, so I could travel at speeds I liked. We stopped for lunch/leg stretch and looked about in a sporting goods store. I bought (and shipped home) a walking stick, which I plan to use as a jo (and I am getting really tired of Google deciding to, preemptively correct my spelling. It thinks I mean, "pecuniam" when I search for things I've written, so I have to click the link to the correct search, after it's not found what I want; which shows up plain as day when Google gets around to doing what I asked for, instead of what they think I want. It's a pain in the ass, and a trifle offensive). It's a lovely piece of red oak, with a slow spiral up the middle.
The border crossing was trivial (though the Border Patrol SUV which followed me for a couple of turns was a bit disquieting. That, as much as anything else I blame on Bush, and resent him for, but I digress).
Spent the night in Ayer's Cliff again, and back to Ottawa.
Social stuff, some wandering about, and generally spending time with the inhabitants, and habitués of House Flail. Went out to the local BMW shop (and Kawasaki, Triumph, Honda) and looked, at hardware for a topcase. BMW makes one for my bike, but it's blocky, and worse... small. At 22L it just can't hold what I need to hold if I am going to have my gear, and Marna, on the bike.
So we looked, and pondered and discussed, while we poked about the Givi website. Ouch. The bracket was listed at $97CDN,and the mounting plate at $108CDN. The boxen I was looking at were 250, and 325 (on sale, for about half price). One a lovely blue the other deep red. The problem to resolve... the red is larger, and square. The blue smaller, and rounded. Both will hold two helmets. More importantly, either will take my laptop, which doesn't fit in the side cases.
Went back to the house. Packed for a weekend atdagibbs cottage, in the Gatineau. Sent that along (no need to put it on the bike, there were cars going). Did some grocery shopping, since I was going to make dinner for the seven of us on Saturday night.
That out of the way Marna and I left the house, a few minute behind Cat and Rayne. Nice roads, terrible drivers, and no places to pass. I spent something like ten miles behind someone who thought the speed limit was an awful idea. No one ought to be driving anywhere near 60 KPH on those roads, so he was noodling along between 50-55. Got a place to pass him, and did. Caught up to the car, behind the truck hauling the boat, and was doing 60 (the road is good, and 80-100 is more than doable on most of it... for cars). Saw a place to pass coming up.
I dropped into 3rd (I'd been cruising in 4th, at about 4,000 RPM, well below the bikes top performing 6-7,000 range) leaned out and opened up to pass them both. I did, before the passing lane ran out. I also discovered the engine note changes at 8,000RPM, which happens at higher speeds than I thought 3rd would do. I think I am looking forward to getting the bike onto a track.
We stopped to make a turn we missed and Cat and Rayne pulled up, so we got behind them (and didn't take the wrong turn... the GPS know where Gibbs cottage is, but can't be told how to get there, absent co-ordinates... which I suppose I could have pulled down from Google Earth). Had a couple of places where the asphalt became gravel. No problems.
Made the turn onto the last mile and-a-half or so of road. Gravel, and dirt. Some of it was good, some of it a bit dodgy, with looser soil under the gravel. Then the truck showed up... I was in the middle of the road (about 2 lanes wide), coming off a left, onto a steep hill.
He was cresting the hill, on my side of the road. I angled over and he crept to his side. It wasn't that bad, but it had a moment, "Christ, what if I'd stayed that central and been higher up?". Cat said he was a trifle worrisome to her too, in the car.
It wasn't as bad a road as the one in Maine, and I handled it pretty well. Not perfectly. Almost to the end it got steep, loose and a bit washed out. I moved around one large rock, and had a bad line. I knew it was the wrong thing to do, but I needed to slow down.
The front wheel stopped, and we went over. Maybe three miles an hour... The road wasn't flat, I felt my shoulder plough into the ground, and then Marna was slammed against me, and then we stopped. The motor was still running, and I was, loosely, pinned (Ground, Marna, bike ,and me in between). I tried, futilely to hit the kill switch with my foot. Nothing doing. I got my forebrain working enough to reach over and flick it with my left hand. Blessed silence.
Got the bike up and swore. In the lessons learned dept.... remove the mirror/turn signal housing before taking this bike off-road. The front turn signal lens on the down (right) side was smashed. Rode the last 1/4 mile to Gibbs, pulled the gear, looked at the helmets (neither one touched the ground). Went back and looked at the skid. Yep... if I'd been a bit tighter past the rock... or been aware the verge was solid, or used the rear brake (things to note... and I suspect I shan't forget that lesson... on loose soil... easy on the rear is the way to avoid that. I don't think even the ABS; were it working right now, would have kept my from a spill the way I used the brakes), I could have come into the cottage a conquering hero.
Ah well.
Here's the road:
Here's a view from a bit past the point of fall:
And the damage:
Started supper, took a ride with Marna (canoe paddle, on a windsurfing board), got the geometry of the lake in my head. Came back, did some more on supper, did some swimming (the lake was cool. Too cool to climb into, but a plunge was ok, and once in, not too bad), some diving, some horseplay.
Went in and finished dinner... discovered the peppers I'd stuffed... were HOT. The lot of us were all sweating, and hooting and getting buzzed on endorphins. Well, I'd gotten a bell pepper for Rayne, who sat and serenely watched the rest of us trying to cope.
The night was rent by thunder. I don't know when it soaked into my head (I can sleep through anything I don't think is a threat), that I'd left my gloves and riding pants... on the bike, at which point I lurched out of bed; and said, according to Marna, "PANTS" and dashed, naked into the night, to retrieve them.
I was also blind, because I didn't even try to grab my glasses. Not that it would have been much good, the rain would have covered them. Several bolts of lightening while I was out, and then back to bed, where I fell back to sleep in a couple of minutes.
So a lazy morning, some breakfast, some games, some crossword puzzles. The rain stopped enough for Marna, Cat and I to go looking for loons. Hah. One loon, by the dock we'd left. She swam under us and played "bastard bird" until we decided it was too risky (of downpour... the rain having resumed) to stay out.
Gibbs made lunch, with the three of us calling our preference on the doneness of steak from the water, and we returned to lazing indoors. I didn't want to be riding two-up at night, and really didn't feel like taking that road out two-up. This was the first time Marna had been a passenger on a falling bike. She wanted to, "get back on the horse," so we left a bit before sunset. Gibbs took her to the hardball, and I met them there.
It was dark for most of our ride home.
The road quality was so-so, and the sightlines not the best. On the flip side, there was no traffic, so I could travel at speeds I liked. We stopped for lunch/leg stretch and looked about in a sporting goods store. I bought (and shipped home) a walking stick, which I plan to use as a jo (and I am getting really tired of Google deciding to, preemptively correct my spelling. It thinks I mean, "pecuniam" when I search for things I've written, so I have to click the link to the correct search, after it's not found what I want; which shows up plain as day when Google gets around to doing what I asked for, instead of what they think I want. It's a pain in the ass, and a trifle offensive). It's a lovely piece of red oak, with a slow spiral up the middle.
The border crossing was trivial (though the Border Patrol SUV which followed me for a couple of turns was a bit disquieting. That, as much as anything else I blame on Bush, and resent him for, but I digress).
Spent the night in Ayer's Cliff again, and back to Ottawa.
Social stuff, some wandering about, and generally spending time with the inhabitants, and habitués of House Flail. Went out to the local BMW shop (and Kawasaki, Triumph, Honda) and looked, at hardware for a topcase. BMW makes one for my bike, but it's blocky, and worse... small. At 22L it just can't hold what I need to hold if I am going to have my gear, and Marna, on the bike.
So we looked, and pondered and discussed, while we poked about the Givi website. Ouch. The bracket was listed at $97CDN,and the mounting plate at $108CDN. The boxen I was looking at were 250, and 325 (on sale, for about half price). One a lovely blue the other deep red. The problem to resolve... the red is larger, and square. The blue smaller, and rounded. Both will hold two helmets. More importantly, either will take my laptop, which doesn't fit in the side cases.
Went back to the house. Packed for a weekend at
dagibbs cottage, in the Gatineau. Sent that along (no need to put it on the bike, there were cars going). Did some grocery shopping, since I was going to make dinner for the seven of us on Saturday night.That out of the way Marna and I left the house, a few minute behind Cat and Rayne. Nice roads, terrible drivers, and no places to pass. I spent something like ten miles behind someone who thought the speed limit was an awful idea. No one ought to be driving anywhere near 60 KPH on those roads, so he was noodling along between 50-55. Got a place to pass him, and did. Caught up to the car, behind the truck hauling the boat, and was doing 60 (the road is good, and 80-100 is more than doable on most of it... for cars). Saw a place to pass coming up.
I dropped into 3rd (I'd been cruising in 4th, at about 4,000 RPM, well below the bikes top performing 6-7,000 range) leaned out and opened up to pass them both. I did, before the passing lane ran out. I also discovered the engine note changes at 8,000RPM, which happens at higher speeds than I thought 3rd would do. I think I am looking forward to getting the bike onto a track.
We stopped to make a turn we missed and Cat and Rayne pulled up, so we got behind them (and didn't take the wrong turn... the GPS know where Gibbs cottage is, but can't be told how to get there, absent co-ordinates... which I suppose I could have pulled down from Google Earth). Had a couple of places where the asphalt became gravel. No problems.
Made the turn onto the last mile and-a-half or so of road. Gravel, and dirt. Some of it was good, some of it a bit dodgy, with looser soil under the gravel. Then the truck showed up... I was in the middle of the road (about 2 lanes wide), coming off a left, onto a steep hill.
He was cresting the hill, on my side of the road. I angled over and he crept to his side. It wasn't that bad, but it had a moment, "Christ, what if I'd stayed that central and been higher up?". Cat said he was a trifle worrisome to her too, in the car.
It wasn't as bad a road as the one in Maine, and I handled it pretty well. Not perfectly. Almost to the end it got steep, loose and a bit washed out. I moved around one large rock, and had a bad line. I knew it was the wrong thing to do, but I needed to slow down.
The front wheel stopped, and we went over. Maybe three miles an hour... The road wasn't flat, I felt my shoulder plough into the ground, and then Marna was slammed against me, and then we stopped. The motor was still running, and I was, loosely, pinned (Ground, Marna, bike ,and me in between). I tried, futilely to hit the kill switch with my foot. Nothing doing. I got my forebrain working enough to reach over and flick it with my left hand. Blessed silence.
Got the bike up and swore. In the lessons learned dept.... remove the mirror/turn signal housing before taking this bike off-road. The front turn signal lens on the down (right) side was smashed. Rode the last 1/4 mile to Gibbs, pulled the gear, looked at the helmets (neither one touched the ground). Went back and looked at the skid. Yep... if I'd been a bit tighter past the rock... or been aware the verge was solid, or used the rear brake (things to note... and I suspect I shan't forget that lesson... on loose soil... easy on the rear is the way to avoid that. I don't think even the ABS; were it working right now, would have kept my from a spill the way I used the brakes), I could have come into the cottage a conquering hero.
Ah well.
Here's the road:
Here's a view from a bit past the point of fall:
And the damage:
Started supper, took a ride with Marna (canoe paddle, on a windsurfing board), got the geometry of the lake in my head. Came back, did some more on supper, did some swimming (the lake was cool. Too cool to climb into, but a plunge was ok, and once in, not too bad), some diving, some horseplay.
Went in and finished dinner... discovered the peppers I'd stuffed... were HOT. The lot of us were all sweating, and hooting and getting buzzed on endorphins. Well, I'd gotten a bell pepper for Rayne, who sat and serenely watched the rest of us trying to cope.
The night was rent by thunder. I don't know when it soaked into my head (I can sleep through anything I don't think is a threat), that I'd left my gloves and riding pants... on the bike, at which point I lurched out of bed; and said, according to Marna, "PANTS" and dashed, naked into the night, to retrieve them.
I was also blind, because I didn't even try to grab my glasses. Not that it would have been much good, the rain would have covered them. Several bolts of lightening while I was out, and then back to bed, where I fell back to sleep in a couple of minutes.
So a lazy morning, some breakfast, some games, some crossword puzzles. The rain stopped enough for Marna, Cat and I to go looking for loons. Hah. One loon, by the dock we'd left. She swam under us and played "bastard bird" until we decided it was too risky (of downpour... the rain having resumed) to stay out.
Gibbs made lunch, with the three of us calling our preference on the doneness of steak from the water, and we returned to lazing indoors. I didn't want to be riding two-up at night, and really didn't feel like taking that road out two-up. This was the first time Marna had been a passenger on a falling bike. She wanted to, "get back on the horse," so we left a bit before sunset. Gibbs took her to the hardball, and I met them there.
It was dark for most of our ride home.
