Questions about the Burgie 400

The bikes are too dirty to clean up in one day, so I started by getting the bugs off.  I have tried most of the tricks I read about, but once you get a thick layer of goo, and bake it on for several weeks in the hot sun while adding still more layers, none of the tricks work.  It takes time and elbow grease to scrub off the bugs.

While we were on the trip, several times we ran into grasshoppers on the road.  They sit on the road then jump up just before you get to them.  They have lots of goo in them.  Also, they are big enough to feel like rocks when they hit your legs.  It happens on back roads without much traffic in the west.  So when that happened, I asked Burgie to go in front and clear the road, as it has good leg shields and Mary Ann would not even feel the grasshoppers hitting.  But it did make a mess of the front of  the bikes.

Speaking of good uses for a Burgman.  The picture shows Mary Ann and Burgie parked in front of  Hudsons in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.  Whenever we wanted to go into a city, and it was too far to walk from where we were staying, usually Burgie got the job.  Comfy seats, (Important after a day of riding!), automatic transmission (Ditto), and room to lock the helmets under the seat. The Burgman was the right tool for that job.

Was the Burgman 400 the right bike for a ride across Canada and the USA? People had lots of questions about the Burgman on the trip.  "Is it comfortable?" "where are the pedals?" "Where do you put you feet?" "How many times have you replaced the engine?" Well, it seemed to suffer no ill effects. and was running just as strong when we got home as it was on the first day.  It climbed all the hills, took all the corners, and managed an overall average of 82.88 MPG (Canadian gallons).  (or 70 mpg US or 3.41 l/100km)  We had to top up the oil a few times and add air to the tires once, but that was also true of the other bike.  It suited Mary Ann just fine.  I offered to get Burgie an Air Hawk seat cushion, but Mary Ann didn't think it was necessary, after trying out mine for a day.

If it was just me, I might want a bike that could go faster.  Although Burgie has a top speed of 140 kph,  for long distances I might prefer a top speed of 180, so that I could cruise reliably at the average speed of traffic out west, where the highest speed limit I saw was 75 mph, or 120 kph.  And that's the posted speed limit, not the average speed of traffic. Also I like to go on freeways. With Burgie  along, I tried to limit our cruising speed to 100 kph.  I think the Vulcan could have managed 120 travelling alone, and there are many sport touring bikes that could comfortably average 160 all week long. But Mary Ann prefers to go slower and avoid the busy highways, and poke around the back roads. For that, and for city traffic, the Burgman was actually more than adequate.

The one weakness of Burgie's might be handling on loose gravel.  Sometimes you get that in construction zones.  My plan to handle that was to go in front and radio back any problem areas (potholes, deep gravel, slippery sections).  But after the first shocker in Thunder Bay, we never had any really bad gravel again on this trip.  And, anyway, most street bikes have a bit of a problem with loose gravel, not just Burgie.

At first I was a bit disappointed with the fact that Burgie's fuel range was less than the Vulcan's.  But it could actually go about 300 km if you wanted to push it until it was running on fumes, and we finally got into a routine of gassing up whenever we found a convenient station after 200 km, and that worked well.  The Vulcan can go up to 350-400 km before running dry, but I usually fill up at 300 when on my own.

Have You Ever Eaten in Beeton?

We are home now, I am using a real computer.  After 6 weeks, the mouse feels strange and I can't believe the size of the screen.

So yesterday, our last leg was from Midland to Kitchener. We stopped for lunch in Beeton, a first for me, though I have been through the town many times in the past. We parked, looked around and saw four open places to eat, and chose the Muddy Water Hotel and Home for Wayward Girls, as the most interesting.  I cannot define what is an interesting restaurant, but I definitely know one when I see it.  It turned out to be a very enjoyable experience, in case you were wondering, but I'm not a food critic so I will leave that to someone else.  Some of the critics on the internet are hilarious, though a bit harsh at times.  I mean who writes "I would only stop there if I was dead and my hearse driver had to go" or something like that?

When we reached home, Mary Ann, who has been recording all our petrol consumption at every stop on the trip, took the last odometer reading.  Total for Burgie was 10,697 km. total for Lost was 11,002 km.  The discrepancy could be odometer error, and maybe Lost did a few side trips that were longer than Burgie's side trips.  Or maybe Lost did more weaving while riding along while Burgie went straight.  I don't know, but the difference is bigger than I expected.

Now that I can add pictures from our camera, I will include one of those, from back at the summit of the Beartooth Pass. It's higher resolution than my Samsung phone, if you click on it it should fill the screen.

Midland, Ontario

We stopped in Midland last night, and because it's the last day of our trip, we went out for a celebration meal. Also, because we could not find the Thai restaurant at the mall. So we ended up at a fancy restaurant, the Library Restaurant. This restaurant is preserving the historic Midland library building. I found it interesting that it was built with a grant from an American millionaire, Andrew Carnegie, who apparently funded hundreds of public libraries all across the USA and Canada in the stated goal of supporting the principles of democracy.

http://www.mtc.gov.on.ca/en/libraries/carnegie_bio.shtml

"There is not such a cradle of democracy upon the earth as the Free Public Library, this republic of letters, where neither rank, office, nor wealth receives the slightest consideration." — Andrew Carnegie

This ideal is quite a contrast to the way things work today, where money is the sole consideration in winning elections. Is it significant that today this building is used for filling our stomachs and not our minds?

Pictures: I normally think there is something wrong with a person who takes pictures of their food while travelling. Obviously I am running out of ideas. Yes, I got spaghetti and meatballs again.

This One Is Really About North Bay

The previous blog, while written in North Bay, did not mention anything about North Bay. So I will correct that situation here.

North Bay was home to Mike Harris, a famous right wing conservative Premier of Ontario. Apparently the guy at the motel office is a friend of Mike's. So now I'm back to my own local politics. The desk clerk grumbled loudly about "McGuinty's" tax. I said, to be fair, all premiers had sales tax, it was not [the liberal] McGuinty's fault. "He made it bigger.".

Apparently, McGuinty combined the federal and provincial sales tax into one single tax of the same total value, which means to this person,  he increased the tax.

I understand voting for a friend, but voting for bad math? I don't get it. Has our educational system failed us?

OK I still have not really said anything about North Bay. Here I go.

We ate supper at the Chief Commanda. There is also a Chief Commanda II, a tour boat
The other one is the first boat, which is now a floating restaurant. But are you really floating if you are stuck in solid concrete? Anyway, we went in and sat all alone on the top deck. I felt sorry for the waitress, who had to climb a flight of stairs and walk half the length of the ship every time she needed to come to our table. Mary Ann asked for a glass of milk.  No milk. We ordered the pickerel dinner, advertised on the sign at the street. She returned to inform us they were out of pickerel. We didn't want steak, so she went to get the menus again. Then came back to get our second order. Then we ordered dessert, a banana split which was on the menu. Soon she was back up the stairs,and half the length of the ship again. I said "No ice cream?". No bananas. Amazingly enough, we did enjoy our meal, and not just because it reminded Mary Ann of a four star restaurant in the Ukraine. We liked the food and drink we ended up with, the atmosphere was nice, and the final price less than we are used to.

Pictures: the Chief Commanda I.

North Bay, Ontario

Anyone with a map of Ontario could point out that North Bay is not on an optimal route from BC to Kitchener. I don't know if it's because we're having too much fun, but Mary Ann suggested extending the trip a little by pushing on farther east to North Bay, instead of turning south at Sudbury. We did stop for a few hours in Sudbury. Browsed the Farmer's Market, walked  to the Old Rock cafe, went to a Garlic festival, walked back to the bikes and rode  on.

Pictures: in one picture you can see Lola, a cute little dog also doing a cross Canada trip. The others are Sudbury.

TV or no TV

Everyone knows that, when you get a motel or hotel room, you get free TV. I have never seen a motel so cheap that it had no TV. I don't think it's possible to get a discount for a room with no TV. I usually watch it.

When Mary Ann and I go camping, we do not bring a TV. Some campers do. Or should I say  "campers", because I'm not sure the word camping is being used properly for 80% of campers in north America.

Because this trip was going to be six weeks, and Mary Ann dislikes TV, and with many nights in motels, we worked out a solution. I brought along the internet in the form of an Android phone. This arrangement is working out quite well. I have watched almost no TV for 6 weeks.

Recently, I have watched a little TV. One night I checked out all 45 channels, including HBO. There was nothing worth watching, so I turned off instead of my usual behaviour, which is to flip through the channels in an endless loop. I may be getting off TV for good.

Picture: our balcony at the water park hotel in Duluth, watching traffic on I-35 instead of watching TV. Mary Ann had binoculars, so she could watch stuff further away, like the other shore of Lake Superior.

Yoopers do not Believe in Socialism

We left our hotel/waterpark this morning, and made a pilgrimage to the Aerostich Riders Wearhouse. It is famous among long distance riders for their one piece riders outfit, one of the first to appear, I think it was the early nineties. It was sort of interesting, but not the spiritual experience of Pirsig's picnic table.

Next we stopped for coffee. Rant begins here > There was a TV in the coffee shop. It was tuned to Fox news, sound was off.  Nobody was paying attention to it, except for two aghast Canadians, sitting at the bar, sipping coffee. Somehow, possibly subconsciously, right wing propaganda was spreading it's message. By reading the captions, I consciously was aware of the sign off message. Which said.  "Remember, making money is not a bad thing." The whole scene reminded me of 1984 where big brother decreed that TVs be turned on at all times, broadcasting his slogans, this bad, that good. Then the people start repeating the slogans Making money good, giving handouts bad. The next time we went out was to a pub next to our motel near Marquette Michigan, for pizza. Again, a huge TV was turned on, again Fox News. Again nobody paid attention. If nobody is paying attention but me, why does it have to be on, and tuned to Fox News? Do they see me coming, run over to the TV, and turn it to Fox News so that I may become like them? <End of rant.

After the pizza we went into town on the scooter, where Friday night activities were going on at the waterfront. A live band was giving a concert. The sign said Pink Floyd. I don't know what Pink Floyd sounds like, but there was a guy up the street playing an electric guitar behind a hat with some coins in it, that sounded a lot better.

When we got back to the motel, we had the opportunity to meet some more people. As Mary Ann calls it. People from Michigan's Upper Penninsula are called Yoopers. We had the chance to talk to some Yoopers about Canada, and how socialized it was, and how America would never let it be invaded. My question was, why not tax rich people? Answer: because they provide jobs. Rebuttal: They do not: they shut down plants and send jobs overseas. Smackdown of rebuttal: People overseas need jobs too. You have to think globally, not locally. Apparently we had run into a broad minded right wing conservative.

Pictures: The Marquette cathedral. The statue is St. Francis, I wanted the hat on his head, Mary Ann said no.