Men and They're Motorcycles and a Little Name Dropping - Pete

On a recent trip to Quebec City I had a thought about motorcycles. They really are an extension of ones self image. I saw a bunch of Harley's and Harley guys and girls. One thing that struck me was they seemed to shun any safety gear. In fact one guy I passed had shorts and flip flops on. From a distance it looked like he was wearing leather but as I closed the distance I realized it was his very tanned skin. As my buddy Art would say "skin like your mothers purse". 

The next group would be the touring bike guys. They usually come as a set. The guy driving and his better half. She typically looks extremely comfortable on the back with out a care in the world. This is either a testament to her unquestioning faith in big daddy or some type of sedation. Having ridden on the back of my friend Doug's Ninja years ago, I am sure there must be pharmaceutical agents on board.

The crotch rocket guys (90% are guys) are segmented in two groups. The guys with the very new very sweet looking race bred bikes, with matching kick ass racing gear. This not only affords the dude unreal protection but looks cool as hell. The second segment has an older model crotch rocket with some sort of leather jacket. Not as slick looking but certainly better than shorts and the flip flops.

The Japanese cruiser guys are a mixed bag. From jeans and work gloves to pseudo Harley wear. I am not a cruiser guy so I really don't study this species closely.

The classic British bike crew are usually fairly affluent (have to be to keep them running) they usually are kitted up in very stylish British bike wear and always sport goggles.

The final group to which I belong is the adventure bike squad. We all believe we are Les Stroud. In fact I sent Survivor Man a picture of El Diablo with a Survivor Man sticker on the faring. I was pumped when Les's assistant informed me the picture was posted on Les's face book page. Now all I need is a Facebook page. 

We adventure types like to  wear full face helmets, gloves, Olympia Motosport riding jackets and pants and boots that look like something from a Michael Jackson video circa Thriller. We are a hardy lot that can camp any where, drink beer with the natives (right Dwight) and eat Vienna sausages out of the can ( Terry informs me it ain't a party in Newfoundland with out these mini hotdogs). We like to adorn our rides with aluminum boxes for luggage that easily un clips from the luggage rack. This is of course to protect the gear inside from bandits and wayward bears (never to make it more convenient when checking into a hotel because we shun this comfort unless its too hot or too cold or too wet or too dry or we ran out of ice or...  you get it).

Sent from my iPad

Promo Vid

I asked Hemmings today if we can finally make our promo video made public, and he gave me the green light. So, if you are a really cool TV producer and are reading this, here's your chance to make Pete and I semi-reality show TV stars, so we can quit our real jobs and do what we love.

Seriously though, all I ever wanted to do was just ride my bike over Labrador, have some fun and create some good memories. Making the promo was fun and an education in what it takes to make a short video.

http://vimeo.com/68607241

Password is adventure.

Seeing Kedgi Off on Another Adventure

Our friend Dwight aka "Kedgi" as he is known on AdvRider.com is off on another adventure. Short one this time, only out to Lake Superior and home again to Shediac. If you remember from previous posts he spent the winter riding all the way to Buenos Aires, in South America. Dwight and his friend Tom are also coming along with Pete and I on part of our trip. I think they'll be meeting up with us when we head into Labrador.

Today I met up with Dwight and rode with him to U.S. border in St. Stephen, along with his friend Tom. It was a nice day to go for ride, and my first opportunity to ride with the both of them.

Dwight met me just off the highway near my house and we proceeded across the city in morning traffic to Tom's house on the west side. It was a spectacular morning, no wind, 20C, and sunny skies. I knew it was gonna be a hot one, when I had to start opening the vents on my jacket at 0730.

Self portrait waiting for the white KTM

Dwight's good friend Tom has a beautiful place on the west side of Saint John, nestled in the trees overlooking the Bay of Fundy. Of course the only thing I was really focused on was the beautiful old BMW belonging to his friend Jimmy.

Jimmy is the fella with the hat in the background. Really nice guy, and I had wished I had more time to talk to him. He used to race motorcycles, and apparently has about 35 bikes at his house. 

Dwight's new KTM 990, and Tom's KLR with my Vstrom lurking off to the side.

Dwight, Tom and myself load up after 30mins and hit the road for St. Stephen, with a pit stop at the St. George Timmies. Traffic is fairly light on this side of the harbour and we slab it on the highway for the next 35mins. 

Breakfast and another coffee is long overdue, so the stop at Timmies is quite welcome at this point. It also gave us a good chance to have a chat and get to know each other better. Tom is nice guy, quiet and I get the sense that he is a very smart and resourceful guy, and as the day goes on I learn that he is quite a good mechanic and used to work for Kawasaki.

We continue the ride for another 45kms down to the US border, and bid our farewells to Dwight and wish him luck on his new journey. He is running on fumes at this point and hoping to make the Irving gas station down the road on the US side, and not have to use his CAA/AAA card.

Tom and I turn around and head into the town of St. Stephen and plan to take the Coastal Route back towards Saint John. We get through town only to find out there are detours putting us back on the highway due to multiple bridge repairs. So we slab it again as far as Pennfield and then finally make our way back to the Coastal Route. 

It's unseasonably hot. Yes it's July, but we never get multiple 30+C days here. At slow speeds it's uncomfortably hot on the bike. My windshield is adjusted too high and I am not getting enough airflow. Not usually a problem in these parts. Otherwise the ride is nice, and with the new four lane open, the secondary roads are quiet.

Riding through the twists and turns of Mace's Bay I realize Tom is nowhere in sight behind me. The road looked like it was just freshly chip sealed and there was a lot of loose stuff in the center and on the sides of the road, so the first thing that I though was......... he went down. I was like oh shit. So I pull a quick 180 and slowly head back in the opposite direction scanning the sides of the road for an upside down KLR.  Turns out Tom was trying to wave at me to stop and I never saw him. He was parked in the driveway of a friend of his, Mike McKinley. Turns out it was an awesome place to stop. Mike is a lover of old Japanese bikes, especially the 2-stroke ones, and has restored quite a few. 

Mike's garage. Inside it has a beautiful Honda XL100, which I fell in love with.

Mike is going to set up a museum with his most prized motorcycles. One of which is a 1974 Honda Z50, which is something true to my heart. I learned to ride on a 1972 model. He also has some Rokon 2- wheeled drive bikes. These things look like they just came out of cold war Russia, but are in fact made in the USA. Go figure. Mike is a big friendly guy that talks a mile a minute, and is just ripe for his own biker/reality show.  

Mike website is www.classicjapcycles.com

Before long I had realized that it was almost 1pm, and it was time to beat a hasty retreat for home.

A picture of Tom and I thanks to Dwight.

Trip Planning Part Deux

Why do I feel stressed, anxious and little nervous about this upcoming trip? Maybe because it's the biggest, and longest motorcycle trip I've ever been on? Could it be the fact we will be riding on very long gravel road through a sparsely settled region that has taken the lives of other riders? Am I being a little over dramatic, maybe, but it still weighs on my mind. It's not like we are going to a foreign country where we can't speak the language (ya I can't speak Newfie, however my french sucks), and have to worry about banditos, and crooked federales. I could be over thinking the whole damn thing.

Maybe I am concerned about leaving my family behind for two weeks......actually there is no maybe, I am. Not that I worry about them coping, my wife is more than capable of handling just about anything that crops up, except for when the internet goes down, or there's a problem with the wireless. Usually I am concerned that she is going to do some kind of reno to the house. The woman has skills with power tools. I once came home to new baseboards she installed on the main level of our house, and I won't even get into the giant hole in the kitchen wall. It's just hard being away from the ones you love for extended periods of time. I know because work takes me away from them all the time.

The one thing I am looking forward to is being away from my Blackberry and anything work related for two weeks. Being a pilot and the 24/7 on call that it brings with it, I am always attached to the damn  Blackberry. This summer in particular I am growing very old of it, and I am beginning to hate my job.

Anyway, back to the planning. Last evening I sat down and did up a list, and tentative schedule of things I want to do on this trip. I most likely will not do this trip again, not in the near future anyway so I have some must do items.

As far as scheduling goes, the only thing we must make is our ferry to Newfoundland at 2345 on August 25th, and to be home 14 days later.

Must do's

Ride part of the Railway Trail

Spend some time in Gros Morne, boat ride up Western Brook Pond. Maybe camp at the Blow Me Down's as well, and do some hiking in that area.

Visit the St. Anthony area.  St. Anthony and Raleigh are where my family are from. My sister and I are the first and probably last generation of Burt's to be born and raised in "town" St. John's. I haven't been back to the area in a very long time and want to get a lot of video and pictures. L'Anse Aux Meadows, well it's the Vikings and they beat Cabot and Columbus to the new world by a few hundred years.

Once over in the Big Land, the Labrador, I'll be back in my old stomping grounds from the early '90's when I flew small bush planes here before there was a road to Goose Bay. Unfortunately having flown here, I never did get the opportunity to tour around on the ground. So a visit to Red Bay is in order to see the historic whaling station, Point Amour lighthouse. Pinware River where my father had one of his first engineering jobs surveying the new road. Interesting story of him swimming across the river, which I'll explain later.


Happy Valley Goose Bay was my home for a year and a half, and I spent many more years flying in and out of Goose. I haven't been back in close to 10 years so I am really anxious to see what has changed. I'd like to go down to North West River, Muskrat Falls, and hopefully convince my cousin Greg Baikie to take us for a little run in a helicopter.

In Churchill Falls a tour of the giant hydro facility is in order, likewise maybe a tour of the iron ore mines in Lab City.

I want to camp in Gagnon, the former mining town in Quebec that is part of Route 389 to Baie Comeau, it is now gone and is a nothing but a ghost town.

The more I think about it, the trip has become less about the bike, and more about a rediscovery of my past, to try and stir my memory and mix the new images with the old ones in my past before they are lost forever.

One month and thirteen days to go.

Route for Newfoundland and Labrador

View Larger Map


So here is what this years trip looks like, and we will be traveling in a counter-clockwise direction. One reason for this is the Marine Atlantic ferry to Port Aux Basques, Newfoundland from North Sydney, Nova Scotia. The trip from Rothesay to North Sydney is mostly 4 lane highway, and not a lot to see, so it will be a straight easy run, so it was easy booking a departure time. Going the other way was a gamble on timing the ferry schedule, delays on the TLH could make us miss our sailing. date.

The other ferries along the way are not as critical with reservations.

The total trip mileage is about 4100kms, and we have given ourselves a comfortable 14 days to do it. That gives us time to smell the roses and see some sights along the way. The more difficult part is going  to be from just before the big E on the map to almost the H. Which is basically almost half the trip. A lot of gravel road and construction areas where they are paving the "freedom road"

We leave in the less than two months. JC. For some reason I am really starting to feel anxious and little nervous about the whole thing.

Big Land Adventure T-shirts

Pete and I had some t-shirts done up to give out to the people that have helped us out in this little project. If anyone is interested in purchasing one, drop us a note.

Bad News and Good News

Yesterday was one filled with some bad news, which for Pete and I was a relief of sorts and some good news too.

Greg Hemmings met with OLN last Thursday, and the network has decided to "pass" on our concept for a show. Apparently we have faces for radio, and no one wants to see two middle aged guys trying to relive lost moments of their youth riding around on motorcycles. Actually they said to Greg "they want over the top characters in crazy situations". Well that is not really what I had in mind for a show, I'm not jumping off a bridge in a pink tutu attached to some giant rubberband to hopefully garner viewership ratings. This isn't Jackass.

Maybe we can put something more "mature" together for the Travel Channel. Pete and Terry travel through Europe on a two wheeled wine tasting tour, or the history of the Irish pub by motorcycle.

Good news, the trip to The Rock and the Labrador is a still a go, Pete and I made our ferry reservations on Marine Atlantic, from North Sydney to Port aux Basques.

Other good news, Greg is going to put together a web series of our trip for Olympia Motosports to thank them for the awesome riding gear they sent us.

One more thing, since Big Land Adventure Ride Films doesn't have to be strictly two wheeled based, I'm thinking of doing a documentary on my other love.....stand up paddleboarding/surfing. A small 15-30min video on our little group of paddlers in Saint John, and the lengths we will go to ride waves in a places where we just don't get real good surf. Hey Hemmings......you listening to this, I hear indie short film award for this one.

The last thing.......I'm trading my XR250R, my much loved, but under used dirt bike for this...

an Aprilla SR50 scooter. A 2-stroke, 80kph Italian fun machine. It's like the Ducati of scooters. Plus since it is only 50cc, my wife Kim can ride it as well. So stay tuned for my adventures on this. Mad Bastard Rally anyone......?