Editing

Work has finally begun on the BigLand Adventure.  Video has been compliled and sorted, and now I begin the slow process of editing. How to start it all is the hard part.

I'm not making any promises on a release date, because it all depends on my work sched and how much time I can get at the computer.

Stay tuned for more.

Next weekend I head to Orlando for the AIMExpo USA. The American International Motorcycle Expo to do a little reporting for CMG. How cool is that. I'll update the blog from there.

Dusk2Dawn Rally Video

I finally picked up my new iMac and downloaded Final Cut X editing software. It's a free 30 day trial  to see if I like it. So far so good. It's similiar to iMovie in it's feel, but with a LOT more capability. So far I have only scratched the surface of what it can do. Some online tutorials are helping out, since I have no formal training, as you can tell from the video below.

http://youtu.be/b4I84929m1c

This week I did up a small practise, get to know the software video, before I tackle the Big Land Adventure stuff.

My First Bike Rally

Last weekend I attended my first bike rally. No, I didn't have to dress up like a pirate or an extra on Sons of Anarchy. There were no guys with their Harley Davidson edition Ford F-150 towing a trailer with their $50,000 polished chromed CVO's. There were no scantily clad, slightly overweight ladies wearing assless chaps, no burnout pits, and we didn't ride endless circles through downtown Moncton in an endless parade at 10kph on Milwaukee's finest blipping the throttle every few seconds to let every resident in a ten block radius know "the bikers" where here.

Nope, it was none of that. The CMG Dawn2Dusk Rally is the slightly insane creation of editor Rob Harris and his second in command Zak Kurylyk, the ones that brought you the fully insane Mad Bastard Scooter Rally. The Mad Bastard is only run every two years, so the riders have enough time to recover.

The D2D is limited to 250cc or less, and each year traverses a couple of provinces. This year, as always it started at Toys for Big Boys in Moncton and snaked it's way on back roads to Antigonish and back for a full day of riding covering 640kms. My arse gets sore just thinking of doing 640kms on a 250.

Fortunately for me I never had a 250 to ride so I had to suffer it out on the plush comfort of my Vstrom 1000. Cheating you say.........damn right, and my 44 year old arthritic  arse, hips, and back thanked me for it later. I told Rob I would come up and video the rally for them, which was my excuse for not having a 250. I really wanted to meet Rob so that I could hit him up to be a writer/photographer/videographer contributer at CMG, even though I have no formal training in either of those departments. Maybe one day they'll need a corporate jet pilot.

In the cold darkness of a late September morning fifteen slightly tweaked riders gather in the parking lot of Toys for Big Boys to prepare for a long day in the saddle and to wait for the sun to peak over the horizon. There were riders from New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and one special lunatic came all the way down from Ontario. Murray drove from Windsor, Ontario and brought Doug the chase truck driver with him.

Larry Northrup, the owner of Toys and sponsor of the rally was there and had much needed coffee and muffins for everyone. It was the first time I met Larry, a great guy, very stoked about bikes and the rally. If you are looking for a new Harley, Honda or KTM go see him.

Around 0745 we headed out into the morning light. Did I say it was cold........ya it was cold. Damn why don't I have heated grips yet. The weather was nice for the most part, except for the thick fog, and mist in the valleys. So now we are getting damp and cold. Goodie. Those folks on the 250's must be really suffering. 

The fog eventually burned off around 10am, and the air started to warm up, thawing out frozen fingers and toes. No one said this was gonna be easy.

Due to the limited fuel range on some of the 250's, fuel stops were planned for every 80-120kms. I am sure this is a welcome relief for those riding a KLX250S, which has a seat designed for trail riding and commuting, not for sitting on for 12 hours.

Zak and Rob did a great job coming up with the route, the roads were awesome, and we had a great day of riding, however even with a GPS we did take a few wrong turns. Apparently the boys scouted the route in the opposite direction. I guess this wouldn't be a CMG event if went perfectly smooth, and really, where's the fun in that.

Before long we rolled into Antigonish for a well deserved late lunch break at the Prissy Pig. Excellent choice for hungry bikers.

Unfortunately this is where I bailed out of the rally, I had date with my wife in Moncton, and a night alone without the kids. That opportunity only comes around every blue moon, so after saying good bye to all my new biker friends I hit the interstate and pinned it for the Residence Inn.

The rest of the insane asylum continued up to the Cape St. George which was probably the best part of the ride, and then along the coast of the North Humberland Straits making their way back to Aulac, New Brunswick for the finish and supper at the Irving Big Stop

.

All photos courtesy of Zak and Rob at CMG

Yes there is a short video of the event in the making, stayed tuned to this station for film at 11.

John Burt and His Big Land Adventure......82 Years Ago

I received and email last night from my father with an attachment containing a magazine article written by my grandfather in 1980. It was a short story about his Big Land adventure 82 years ago. I remember hearing of his travels through Labrador from other people when I lived up there, but never knew all the details. John Mason Little Burt passed away when I was 19 years old, and being a self absorbed teenager living one day at time, I unfortunately never fully appreciated the precious little time I had with him. I never took the opportunity to hear of his adventures. To me, my grandfather was the guy who worked at Pomeroy's Store in St. Anthony.

Life is kind of cruel in a way, when you finally get to an age of where you can truely appreciate who your grandparents or parents are or were, it's too late.

Initially I thought the magazine article was written by someone else until I started reading it, and soon discovered it was in my grandfathers words. It was like hearing from him 25 years later. I'd love to be able to sit down with him now and talk about our shared experiences in Labrador. It being quite a bit more of a Big Land than it is now. In the fact that there were no roads, and 1000cc motorcycles to get around on.

The following was published in the magazine Them Days in 1980, when my grandfather was 70 years old.

What's the Next Adventure and What Worked and What Didn't.

We've been home for almost two weeks now, and it's back to family life and work. It's time to wake up from my dream of being a two-wheeled nomad living day to day, traveling the globe with no responsibility. This week I took a step back and forgot about the trip for a few days. Not forgot about it, but never put any energy into looking at video or writing anything.

One question I'm getting a lot is....."where is the next adventure?" As simple as the question is, the answer is a little more complicated. One....time off, which is followed closely by, how much time am I willing to be away from my family. The TLH was a bucket list item, so the two week kitchen pass was special. To be honest, at my stage in life with two smallish kids, 9 and 12, a week away is enough right now.

Another big obstacle is the budget, or lack of one in my case. Pete wants to go to Iceland, which is definitely out of my budget, unless Icelandair donates flights, and a mototour company donates bikes, and well you get it....totally fund the trip. I don't have that much faith in the Bigland Adventure creating that much of a buzz, but who the hell knows. Dare to dream right.

So without the devine intervention of money growing on the tree in my backyard, or sponsorship flowing in, I'm thinking of a week long trip to Quebec. Not the typical Montreal or Quebec City, but rural northern Quebec.

La Belle Province is an interesting place, an oddity in North America, and I mean that in a good way. It's like visiting a foreign country within your own country. It's like going to a European country without the jet lag. I think a tour around this part of Canada would make for a good little web series. Plus with a little coordination we could hook up with our buddy Oliver again.

Who knows, we have a long winter to plan. Plus maybe Zak at CMG can come up with a mission for us.

Quebec Labrador border

What Worked, What Didn't

As you saw in the previous post, Pete told you what worked and what didn't for him, so it's my turn. 

I already spoke about the Olympia X-Moto suits, ya they are a sponsor, but they worked, and worked well, in everything from 25C and sun, to -2C frosty mornings, to cold rain and wind. You couldn't have asked for a better trip to test riding gear. 

Two thumbs up for Olympia

The Suzuki Vstrom 1000. Well other than my little clutch issue, the bike was awesome. Honestly, if I knew that the clutch master slave cylinder was a common issue, I would have had it cleaned and looked at before I left.  Every trip needs a little drama, and the bear spray had worn off at this point.

The Metzler Tourances I had on the bike, worked well. I took a gamble on them, because I knew they would not be ideal in muddy conditions, but we managed to avoid that. On the dry gravel they were just fine, I only had a couple of heart in the mouth, oh shit moments, and that was on loose gravel.

I can't say enough about the Sena comms. These were awesome, and allowed Pete and I to talk to each other all day. Range was a bit of an issue in a hilly terrain, as it's line of sight, so they would be less effective if we had some distance between us. Other than that they are great, easy to use, the battery would last a whole day of riding. Seven hours of talking.

My skidplate was a must. I heard rocks hitting that multiple times. With the oil cooler, filter, and bottom of the engine only protected by a small plastic fairing, it would have been totally exposed to the barrage of rocks kicked up by the front tire for 700kms.

The Strom is not ideally suited for standing on the pegs riding, I need another inch rise on the bars, and some wider more dirt oriented pegs. 

The Sargent seat on the Strom was awesome, very comfortable, I think my arse gives it a 9/10 on the comfort scale. The Givi windshield is really nice, adjustable both vertically and horizontally. It helps keep the rain, and wind blast off, has little to no buffeting. Reduces fatigue a lot. 

I have two powerlet outlets on the Strom, one is on the fairing near the windshield, and for the most part had the Garmin plugged into that one, or my Sena, or a camera to charge. The other outlet is below the seat by my left leg. The adapter I bought for a regular cigarette DC plug hangs down too far, and gets in the way, so that didn't work out so well. Need to mod that before the next trip.

The Givi sidecases worked well, the locking mechanism became difficult to use after the run into Goose Bay. The dust got in and made the key difficult to remove. 

I used a large "water resistant" North Face bag for all my camping gear and clothes. It's a great bag and I have had it for a number of years. The zipper isn't waterproof, and I had the bag placed on the bike with the zipper exposed to the driving rain, and things got a little damp inside to say the least.

The bag is big and when strapped to bike made access to my top loading side cases difficult. That was a pain.

It was a little dusty on the TLH. The bag was black when I started.

All my camping gear worked well, no issues there. Thanks to Sean at River and Trail.

My Joe Rocket boots were good, the left one has developed a leak and got wet in the rain. They are 7 years old, so it's time to retire them. For $100 I think I got my money's worth out of them.

Overall I think our gear selection for the trip was good, and everything for the most part worked successfully. It just needs some minor tweaking before the next trip.

My next update.....regrets. Now that I am home and had time to digest this whole trip, what did I regret doing or not doing.

Pete's Gear Review

After being home from "the Trans Lab" for over a week it is now time to talk about the gear that got us there and back. Ill start my review from smallest to largest (In Terms of perceived importance to safety and comfort on the trip)

Ill start on the ground with a few items. Tent: Mountain Hardware - Drifter 2. Although we only slept in tents one night we did have to carry them the entire trip. The Drifter 2 is a very well constructed 2 person tent that is light and easy to set up. I can't imagine two people sleeping in this bad boy unless the idea was to be stuck to the other person. If you are sleeping solo then this is a great choice and if you are hoping not to "sleep" solo then this is also a good choice. 

I referred to the Thermarest pad in a previous post. Again these things are as comfortable as some beds I've owned. They must add a little black magic to make them so thin and so comfy. I am a fairly boney cat and I didn't feel like I was ever trying to leave hip bone marks in the Newfoundland soil.

Boots - in a previous post I berated the quality of my Iicon Reign water proof boots. I slammed them for their lack of water proofness (as if that is a word). Anyway I am here to apologize. I realized that my long boney legs were acting like rain gutters directing Newfoundland rain down into the tops ( and there fore the bottoms) of the boots. Iicon can I be forgiven? I think the boots look sharp and my size 11 set are very light and comfortable.

Smart wool undergarments. I paid a fair amount for my smart wool top and bottom( as much as my tires) but they were worth every penny. The gear is made of really smart wool that some how knows that when it is 28 Celsius and you are sweating like a whore in church, they somehow keep you as dry as possible and as cool as possible. When it is wet and you are wet, you are still warm. The truly amazing thing is that after a nine days of continuous wear, they some how manage not to smell like a hockey dressing room in a 52 year old community rink with out showers. That is smart! 

I picked up tent, smart wool and Thermarest from my buddy Sean at his shop in Rothesay, called River and Trail.

Tires. Continental TKC 80 or Conti TKC 80's as they are known. When I put a message out as to what I should put on El Diablo to slay the Trans Lab, Dwight and Tom replied with the Conti's as the only option. I have since learned that there are probably more Conti tracts on the Trans Lab than moose tracks. The tires worked very well on the slab, cornered nicely but really shone on the loose gravelly stuff! They are fairly worn after 4200 km (half worn) but still in fantastic shape. I must also note I did not reduce pressure as some do and I did not have a blow out!

Olympia Motosport riding gear. Warm, cold, wet or apocalypse this is the suit you need for full on 3 season riding. Terry and I were both super impressed at the comfort, sizing, water proofness (that word again) and look of these amazing suits. In warm weather you can unzip the many flaps that allow air to flow through the suit and cool you off. The flaps are accessible when riding (except the back) and allow you to adjust your comfort on the go. The integrated Camel back holds about 1.5 litres of water that I quickly emptied on hot days. When the weather cooled off I added the thermal liner and on wet days the rain liner was added as well. In fact once I put the thermal liner and rain liner in, I didn't remove them. I am fairly tall 6'4" and around 2 berries (200 lbs). The suit I wore was an xl and fit me like a glove. 

07 KLR 650 - El Diablo. I remember when I first looked at El in Steve Erbs garage in Bellisle Creek I was impressed with the care he had bestowed upon her. The clock showed 12,000 km. the doohickey had been done. The sneakers were fairly good. The plastic was in great shape. He had a Corbin seat on El but as a long legged galoot, I found the Corbin too low. I went for the stock. I handed Steve 32 hundred bucks and rode off. When she was introduced to the family I quickly upgraded her. New foot pegs (moto cross style) ims I think. Ricochet skid plate, crash bars and luggage racks. I had pelican cases on order but they were in back order a week before the trip. I found some 35 dollar Husky cases at Home Depot that worked out very well. Not water proof or bear spray proof, but great inexpensive cases. I finally had a big Eureka camo waterproof 75 litre canoe pack strapped across the back rack. Terry figured it looked very Duck Dynasty. He also commented I had the most ghetto bike on the Trans Lab. This I took as a badge of honour.

Mechanically El Diablo shone. I did not have any issues. The chain needed adjustment after a couple hard bumpy days of riding and on one particularly nasty pot hole I ripped my license plate off. This was due partly to the weight and the depth of that hell hole on the TL. I was as comfortable as one can be on a KLR on the slab. Kudos to Terry and Oliver for waiting for me. I know they could have twisted the throttle and left me a province behind but those guys are classy dudes and never made me feel I was holding them up - I know I was. All in all is the KLR a good choice for the TL, general riding or running to store to get a few beers - hell yes! Simple, tons of after markets, huge tank, good mileage and fast enough to scare you. Add a 70's cab driver inspired piece of sheep skin on the seat and you are off. Remember Kawasaki let's the good times roll. 

Sent from my iPad

Video

I've been home for four days, and started the tedious process of sorting through all the video, and there was a lot. Not all of good, but then again we are not videographers.

Last night I pieced together a small 4min video of the whole trip. I was gonna do individual daily clips, but decided against it because for now it would be too time consuming. I'm headed back to work Monday morning bright and early and it looks like it is gonna be a busy couple of months of flying. On top of that I'll be doing most of the editing for the web series once Greg sets me up with a computer and the software. Hemmings House will then put the final polish on it at the end.

Anyway, here it is, hope you enjoy it, we certainly enjoyed the trip.

For those of you on Ipads

http://youtu.be/7vUMaJZ4w7I