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Some more trials bike mathematical considerations on a Sunday night:

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This caught the eye of Alanna a few weeks ago and we rode out to Wellesley, Ontario to Ross Hergott Vintage Cycle today to have a look:

We’re both still in recovery from week one of year two of pandemic school, but we finally got ourselves into motion after noon and made our way through some fierce winds to Wellesley, which is one of those places that’s only 45 minutes away but I’ve never been too.

The goal was this all day vintage motorcycle ride-in and we saw old bikes on the road coming and going.  While we were there at least a dozen riders were hanging about, chatting and looking over what Ross had on display along with what they’d ridden over on.

Ross has a fanastic shop – the kind of place that looks like it has grown out of the ground with layers upon layers of collectables, tools and bikes that could only look like it does because he’s been there for decades.

We had a chat with a guy who rode a 125cc 1950 BSA Bantam over to the meet.  The tiny bike had been in his family for generations and he knew a lot about its history and restoration.  Old bikes like these tell a story simply because they are survivors.  Of the tens of thousands of BSA Bantams churned out in the 50s and 60s, only a handful remain, and to see one of them in fine fettle at this meet was a real treat.

My trouble-making pillion suggested the kid with the chopper pit bike take on the Bantam in a race.  It wouldn’t be much of a race (they didn’t exceed the speed limit at any time because they couldn’t), but it was fun to watch the kid stall out and the old BSA putter off down the road to victory:

MVI_4615

There were a couple of well looked after 70s Triumphs for sale at this meet.  Going for about five grand, they put the lie to that Tiger I’d been looking at online in a previous post.  I’m still hoping I can find a reasonably complete older British bike that I can rebuild from the inside out for a couple of grand and then bring it back to working order.

I’d thought that project would be a Triumph but after seeing some of the lovely BSAs at this meet (I’m a sucker for a polished alloy tank) I’m starting to think that perhaps one might be in my future.  I’m hoping for a simple, light-weight, air-cooled machine that lets me get analogue in a deeply mechanical way.  A twin would be ok but a thumper would be even more on point, and BSA made wonderful thumpers…

That blue BSA back there scratches an itch!

 

I’d feared it would be a Harley Davidson snooze fest but there was an interesting mix of old British bikes and HDs on hand – no Indians though, which was a shame.  Harleys always make me think of mennonites (Wellesley is in the middle of mennonite country so they were on my mind).  At one point Harleys were state of the art machines but they suddenly decided to stop evolving and just push out variations on the same theme for decades.  The motor company’s recent bikes show a rejuvinated interest in modernizing their designs.  From Charlie and Ewan’s latest Long Way Up on electic HDs to their latest Pan American adventure bike and newest Sportsers, HD is flexing some engineering muscle and suddenly considering them doesn’t seem as absurd to me.  I hope this new forward-thinking approach pays off for them.  I want to be a fan.

We had lunch at the Nith River Chop House (great food, but don’t be in a rush, they won’t be) and then rode over to a Eco Cafe on the Connestogo River in St. Jacobs for a nice coffee on the patio overlooking the river.  There we ran into an old fella named Albert who must be closing in on 100 years old.  He’s dealing with terminal bone cancer but told us some amazing stories about the decades he spent farming in South Western Ontario while the world evolved around him while we all enjoyed our coffee and watched the river flow past.

I don’t often head into farm-world to the west of us (lots of bugs due to the livestock and tedious, straight roads), but this ride out to Wellesley had me looking at the landscape in a new way, and knowing there’s an interesting classic/custom shop out that way means I’ll be keeping it in mind for future rides.  If nothing else, the chance to ride on roads I haven’t been round and round on during this year of pandemic lockdown felt like a breath of fresh air.  The chance to see old bikes was the cherry on top.

 

 

 

HD have always had an eye for style – this modern art inspired badge is lovely, then they stuck it on with a couple of philips screws, which casts a light on the other side of Harley ownership.

 

I get the urge to customize but at some point throwing away a bike’s ability to handle for looks ceases to make sense to me, though you’ve got to appreciate the effort, I just don’t share it.  I like a bike that prefers corners to straight lines.

 

 

A 1971 Triumph TR6 650.  This fifty year old survivor was also in excellent shape, and only five grand!

 

 

 

 

 

If you love chrome, HD have you covered.

 

I can’t say Nortons have ever lit my fire, though I can appreciate the brand’s historical significance.  Having said that, this 750 Commando is a lovely thing!  Look at those pipes!

 

 

1970 Triumph Daytona, Seven-Thousand, five hundred of your finest Canadian Dollars!  Restored in 2014, it’s been sitting in someone’s recroom ever since!  A close-up look revealed a lovingly looked after old machine.

 

Birmingham Small Arms Bantam – and one of the smalled, simplest carburetors you’ll ever lay eyes on!

 

 

 

If any of these get your motor humming and your wallet out, get in touch with Ross, he might be able to help you out:  Ross Hergott Vintage Cycle.

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Trawling online advertising for a next level winter project and I’ve come across an interesting option, but then I remembered where I am. 

1968 Triumph Tiger 

An old Tiger built the year before I was born?  You have my attention.

This is a brown Tiger with a hundred sixty plus K on it?  They say it runs and it’s stock but it needs work – that might be the understatement of the year.

Either that 163,908kms isn’t accurate or this thing has been run into the ground.  If that’s the case, it’s not stopping them for asking four and a half grand, FOUR AND A HALF GRAND (!!!) for it.

Canadian prices for bikes, even old ones that look like piles of shit, never cease to amaze me.

Just for giggles I set FB Marketplace to the UK and had a look at what’s on offer back home.  Here’s a lovely, well restored and ready to ride 1961 Triumph Tiger with less than 2000 miles on it for £2100 ($3645).  Luckily I live in Ontario where a steaming pile of pooh will cost me a thousand bucks more before I then have to pour that much into it again to make it work.  I live in an absurd place.

The other nice thing about the UK is that they tend to honour their history and keep things going.  Canada has a much more use-it-and-chuck-it-in-the-bin approach.  There are some lovely pre-war bikes kicking around on UK’s bike marketplace.  If my novel took off and I was minted, a pre-war Triumph Tiger like the one my hero rides in the book would be on my wishlist.

Here’s just such a thing!  A 1938 Triumph Tiger 80.  It’s meticulously looked after and I’d greatly enjoy being the steward of this piece of history before passing it on to someone else who would keep it rolling into the future.

It ain’t cheap (dream machines never are).  They’re asking £12,000 ($20,828) for it, but it’d only go up in value, unlike a new Honda Civic (they cost about the same).  It’s been on sale for a month.  Bet I could get a bit off.  It wouldn’t be a daily rider, but on the days I did ride it, oh baby!  The project would be keeping it going and learning the maintenance and repair on it.

In Ontario this bike doesn’t exist.  If it did exist, some berk would want half a million dollars for it.

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270km round trip up to Georgian Bay to meditate on the big water.

Flesherton to Highland Grounds for a locally owned (and one of the best) Americano you can get in South Western Ontario.

Beaver Valley has some beautiful views and winding roads.

Graham Hill is worth going off pavement for, as long as the bike’s up to it.

After a winding ride down Beaver Valley to Thornbury Harbour I found the Bay growling in the wind.  It was 10 degrees cooler on the water.

After a rehydration stop on the Noisy River near Creemore I tracked back through the flat, straight, tedious farming desert back home to Elora.

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Taking bend out of the bike: the changes pegs and bar risers have made so far.

I could live with the pegs but my knees were feeling it on longer rides and my big feet meant I was sitting pigeon toed while trying to keep my feet off the rear brake and shifter.  What sold me on Murph’s Kits rider pegs was the promise of no more awkward, pigeon toed foot positioning thanks to the angle in them.  They were straightforward and quick to install (10 mins?) and reduced knee angle a couple of degrees while also allowing me to rest my big wamps on the pegs instead of having to hold my feet off them awkwardly.  A nice bonus is if I hook my boot heels on the new pegs they drop into the windflow under the bike and feel great in vented boots on a hot day; no regrets with that choice either.

But none of this has helped my passenger feel comfortable on the bike, which was a major reason I pitched the Fireblade for a sports tourer.  WIth the panniers on the Connie leaves no room for passengers with big western feet.  The passenger pegs are also set very high, so high you’d have to be seriously into yoga to look comfortable on them.

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Just watched Sturgill Simpson’s Sound & Fury anime on Netflix again the other day – it really is something else.  If you’re into anime, or smart music, or avenging motorcycle riding samurai with robot ghosts in machines (along with a wild mashup of other experimental anime storylines and styles), you’ll dig this.

I’d done some digital art around samurai on motorbikes previously so I mashed up some of the samurai details from Sound & Fury with it and threw it together with the blog logo:

Disco!

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Think it’s too hi-vis for riding in the rain?  Really?  You want hi-vis in the rain… and the hundred bucks you save!

I got into alternative motorcycle gear when I came across a $400 rain suit that didn’t do as good a job as the rain gear they sold at a fraction of the cost at our local farm store.  If you have access to an industrial clothing outlet used by tradespeople, you’ve got an angle on quality gear at a fraction of the cost of name brand, ‘moto-specific’ clobber.

For the people who have to work all day in rain, you know the stuff they use will be tough and properly waterproofed, and it is!  Instead of dropping hundreds on ‘moto’ rain pants I was happier with the $40 construction rain pants from the farm shop.

A construction rain jacket with a removable hood comes with fully seam sealed and very waterproof specs, even in the wind of riding it does the trick and compared to a $200+ moto-rain jacket, it’s a fraction of the cost (<$50).  Both the Forcefield pants and jacket have lasted for years and are still super-waterproof.  The bib on the pants also stops water ingress at the waist while riding in the wind and does a good job of keeping me dry even in torrential rain.

I still depend on moto-specific gear for certain things, like boots which have ergonomic design features specific to riding or jackets and trousers that are properly armoured for riding, but there are a lot of thrifty and effective alternatives for the peripherals if you’re not a brand model who wants to look like they fell out of a dealership catalogue.

Today I saw a pair of mechanic ‘impact pro’ gloves that are armoured leather, impact and abrasion resistant and look tough as nails.  For someone who rides bikes he’s proud of fettling and maintaining himself, the branding is spoton too.  I’d be curious to see how these compare in moto-specific durability tests (not that any magazines that play consumer reports for moto-gear do any of that kind of crash testing).

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