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    Nostalgia

    PBDave of Ottawa has triggered some nostalgia by reporting upon his first road trip. It made me laugh to remember my own, which began and ended in Toronto. We sure find a lot of Canucks on this site.

    Jimmy Carter was in the White House. I was in the dog house that summer of 1977. Late in August I took a weekend course to earn a motorcycle operator's license and then went shopping for my first bike. I had seen the new Suzukis at the annual spring motorcycle show on the Canadian National Exhibition grounds. The GS caught my fancy and I chose a GS550 in forest green (see Gallery) equiped with a plexiglas faring, Shoei saddle bags, and a cantilevered combination back rest and luggage rack. I, too, asked for a week of holidays... not possible until late September.

    Having ridden a motorcycle for a sum total of 300 km, off I went on a trip -clockwise- around the Great Lakes. My fist stop was in Columbus Ohio to visit my widowed mother. At a gas station there the attendant surprised me by asking if I wanted a custom seat for this new bike. His brother was a disabled Vietnam vet who made such things. I parted with $100 for a sculptured leather "king and queen" seat, a type usually found upon larger touring bikes. It was a nice change from the brick that came with the bike.

    From Columbus to Chicago it rained and I learned that the faring was little to no help in that situation. I looked with envy upon riders huddled behind the larger farings made by Craig Vetter, then located down in Rantoul IL. I soon experienced my first "drop" by making a sharp turn upon soaking wet leaves. Fortunately this was at walk speed and no harm was done. But one moment I was on the bike, the next beside it. I hit the red button asap. I'd done a BA in the Chicago area a decade earlier and I recalled the 60s there with a mixture of affection and disgust. It is not true that if you can remember the 60s you didn't participate.

    The next leg of my trip leg was up to Duluth, MN, to visit a friend who could not remember the 60s... due to brain damage. He took a VW under neath a tractor trailer but managed to survive.

    Although I had brought along a warm coat, I had underestimated the temperature range. I had to buy a vest to wear under my coat to make the next leg, up to the city of Thunder Bay... where I had lived 2 years of the 70s while doing an MA degree. The parking spaces on that campus included electrical outlets to plug in block heaters.

    I sure wished I had one on the GS550 the next morning. When I went to leave, the bike was covered with frost. My host was appalled at the idea of me driving down to Toronto, we went to a store and I bought a huge down parka to protect me from the snow which had begun falling. My host wisely pointed out the paucity of gas stations on the lakeshore route to Sault Ste. Marie. I bought a red plastic gas can and strapped it to the bike with duct tape.

    Toronto or bust. I'd never been so cold in my life, my fingers were numb despite double gloves, the steady snow kept getting deeper and I began to think that I'd never make it the 450 miles down to SSM. But I pressed on regardless, got to a motel, dove into a hot bath, ordered a pizza delivered.

    I had one more 500 mile day, via Sudbury, in order to get home to Toronto. Fortunatley this leg was through warmer temps and autumn colours.

    By the time I got back to Toronto I felt like a seasoned touring rider.
    Now that I am a seasoned touring rider, I realize that I wasn't. I still had much to learn and experience. Anyway, the week away from wife and two children was a big help to all of us.

    My next long ride on the GS550 was down to Mobile Alabama, this time in temps of 100 degrees.

    Ed Chilton

    #2
    Welcome and thanks for sharing!
    While some of your trip was too cold to really enjoy, it's obvious you have warm memories that you'll have forever, so it was worth it.
    Everyone should go on a long ride at least once in their lifetime.
    And on the seventh day,after resting from all that he had done,God went for a ride on his GS!
    Upon seeing that it was good, he went out again on his ZX14! But just a little bit faster!

    Comment


      #3
      Thanks for the story Ed. Best I ever did was a trip to Altoona (my parents are from there and the rest of the family still is) with a friend who was also from there. We left Lancaster (East Petersburg) and went straight through to Altoona with only a gas stop and one bathroom break. When we arrived I was parralized with butt and back pain. If I was to ever go on longer rides I would need a new backside or a new seat.

      Thanks again for sharing

      Comment


        #4
        I remember my first long distance motorcycle trip was in the summer of 1966. The restaurant the I worked at was closed for 2 week for remodeling and a couple of my friends were not working at the time and didn't have anything else to do so we decided to go see a friend that had just moved to Portland, Oregon.

        We were in El Paso, Texas and I had the big bike an 80cc Yamaha, the other two bikes were a Suzuki 50 and a Honda 50SS. We took off on highway 54 (I-25 wasn't there except in little patches at the time). We spent most of the time riding on the shoulder at 45 to 50 mph. Occasionally we would take off and cruise the desert on the side of the road to break the monotony.

        We got through Santa Fe on the first day and camped out. Even though I live in the area now I can't figure out where it was we camped (I think the area was swallowed up by Santa Fe's expansion since).

        The next day was pretty much of the same thing riding through New Mexico and Colorado but we hit our stride and made it to Craig, Colorado where we camped. We would have gone farther but lost a lot of miles due to holding our speed down for the Honda that could only manage 35 climbing the Rockies especially near Steamboat Springs.

        We left Craig and made it to the Idaho- Oregon border and camped out on the Oregon side. The next day we found Don's house in Portland and spent two days there then headed back to El Paso but headed south through California and then through Arizona and New Mexico to get back it was longer but we were able to keep our speed up to 50 most of the way which made the time about the same.

        The three of us were hooked after that trip and have been riding ever since.

        I have lost touch with Jimmy over the years but last I knew he had A Venture and was a member of the Yamaha Venture Touring Society living somewhere near Hayward, California.

        This introduction to touring was primitive we had US Army surplus shelter halves that could be set up as lean-tos or pup tents. Surplus army sleeping bags, packs, canteens, and cook ware (mess kits and 1 cooking set). Jimmy was the most organized and had a couple of cargo packs strapped together like saddle bags, I had a couple of back packs one hung over the handle bars and one tied to the rear of the seat with pieces of rope, Robs Honda had a pretty similar arrangement to mine, the sleeping bags were tied to the packs on the rear seat.

        We had Ponchos for rain gear, no windshields, experienced several flats, fouled plugs, and a tail light that vibrated loose and fell off of the Honda but it was one of the best trips of our lives.

        Mike

        Comment


          #5
          Great story Mike! I wish I could have been there. But I was only a few months old at the time

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by Hoomgar
            Great story Mike! I wish I could have been there. But I was only a few months old at the time
            As you see, Mike is just another one of the old goats tha hang on the website. By his avitar, I would say he is not the type to WORRY about that or anything else.

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by Hoomgar
              Great story Mike! I wish I could have been there. But I was only a few months old at the time
              As you see, Mike/Alfred is just another one of the old goats that hang out on the this website. By his avitar, I would say he is not the type to WORRY about that or anything else.

              Comment


                #8
                I worried once and found that it was like working, I didn't like it. That?s why I quit construction and went into the service in 1970.

                Mike

                Comment


                  #9
                  I tried working once. But then I found the GS Resources and I haven't been able to get any work done since.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by Hoomgar
                    I tried working once. But then I found the GS Resources and I haven't been able to get any work done since.
                    I hear that!

                    Great stories BTW. This upcoming trip to IN will be the longest one, yet. But, I've already made plans to ride up to Eagle River, WI sometime in July.

                    Brad

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