motorcycle tires

this is the front tire

note the raised section , it looks like the belt has raised, not good for handling.

back tire

when we left for muskokas we checked the tires, they were showing signs of wear on the tread, but were shocked to see how much damage was done in just 300 klics. the back tire looked like the front before we left.

Triumph rocket 3 tire (metzler)

had to show you people the tires on the cycle, just to give you a brief low down on the tires, apparently these tires were made in Brazil and there have been many complaints about them, now i know first hand, these tires have only 15500 klics on them, check out the rear, the one you can see the threads, the tires were checked before we left and i knew that the back one was wearing out, but to have it disintegrate in 300 klics into this last tour to the muskokas was a real scare.  I am not slamming the company , but there have been a lot of complaints about these tires from other riders as well.  The front tire will have to be replaced also in the near future. I have talked to other riders who have 3X the klics on there tires and have have no wear issues. I will be talking to the dealer on this , to see if the warranty will cover a new set of  skins. Might be like pullin eye teeth but worth the shot. happy trails
maurice

huntsville ontario tour

We left on friday aug 19 for a weekend tour of the muskokas, the roads were all you could want for a nice drive, we went up through napanee to the 41 highway which is a nice road, corners and hills that were neverending it seemed. The scenery was very pretty too, lush greens and lots of ponds and cricks. We did not have any problem with the speeds we were traveling, 80-110 klics on the down hills and some of the neverending corners. We went through the small towns of Roblin, marlbank, madoc , tweed to name just a few. We were on 62 highway  and enjoyed what it had to offer, a good ride for the novis to intermediate riders , there was nothing on this road that would challenge all your skills on bike handling, we then headed onto highway 28 which again was a decent road then hit 118 and went through the Kawartha area, again nice road, the area is filled with lakes and a lot of impatient drivers in a hurry to get to their cottages or homes, not the warmest place i have been for neighborly people, but it may have been the heat, it was gorgeous out on the bike, anyway onto highway 11 and into Huntsville. The town was rocking on friday night, we went to the cottage restaurant and had a good meal there. The place was packed, tables on the river was a real plus for this place. We thought that it was a nice town but with all the people there that it was to busy, lots of traffic and little parking, for a town that was only 18500 population, it seemed that it was like little toronto. Anyway for those of you that are looking for a quiet night, stay out of town, especialy this time of year. However for the roads and driving part of this tour , the trip was great, lots to see and do if you take the notion to get off the road, that was not in my scope, loved to stay driving and take advantage of the cottage country roads.

Muskoka

Day 18

Well we left Plattsburg this morning and it was a peach of a day, good weather for the final leg of our excellent adventure, we both had a good nights sleep knowing we only had about 6 hours driving to do, we put in the GPS all backroads and no highways, boy did maggie ever take us on whirlwind tour today, ended up crossing at Prescot? or thats what the sign said, we toured through the upper part of NY and had some real nice scenery on the way, those back roads have a lot of good stuff on them, shops and restaurants in the middle of nowhere, and good ones to. We drove by a lot of these with rubber necks, we stopped at Churubusco in NY at Dicks Country Store and Music Oasis, to drive by it looked like a small general store from the road- had we not needed gas and a drink we would have passed it by. Anyway on the bussiness card it said Groceries, Gas, Guns & Guitars. We proceeded in the store and found that it also had a snack bar, we went into the guitar\music section and what a shop, they had a huge inventory from mouth harps to ukes, he had it all-drums , pianos, basses, slides, all the accesories too. We thought that Gails dad would need to be there for a day to look at the stuff. As usual the owners were very nice to us. Back on the road again on route 11, headed for Yarker Ontario, again back roads all the way, farms , windmill farms and nice little towns that remind you of Mayberry RFD. These backroads were better driving than some of the ones touted as motorcycle roads, we started following the river and came to a restaurant on route 37, home cooked meals, fine dining at a fair price, we did find that on the south of the border they like to eat, and they serve lots of it, we made more fat cells on this trip then if we had stayed home and ordered out fast food for the 3 weeks. We came to the border to a line up, but it was moving pretty good and no hassles at customs. We headed staight out off the road we came on and let the GPS guide us to some beautiful  roads home, Athens, Lyndhurst and some places that were like villages off these roads. During our last half hour of the drive we were more cautious then when we left, you know that saying , 5 minutes from home and disaster had struck many people, we wanted to get there unscathed and did at 5-6 oclock, of course when we got here no one was home and i said to Gail, do you have keys to get in the house? Well you know where this is going, we went over to Gails moms house, we gave her a key for the back door years ago, got over there and they were gone too, now i am in a pickle because of the calorie intake over my 53 year span has shortened and broadened me in all the wrong places, so like a man , i proceed to break into our house through the basement window, i knew i should have gotten bigger windows 13 inches wide by 19 inches high, well you can guess that i did not fit in the 13 inch way, so i had to go in head first on my side and jockey my shoulders arms and head in, this is not going well, cant get back out the way i came in, to much of me is overhanging on the ledge, so down i go, with the missus having to go pee , i felt that this was a nessecary deed i must complete, it was a good thing that Gail had changed the furniture around in there because i tried to spider down the wall and my arms were not quite long enough to reach the top of the couch back and slid down, when i did get to the couch , inertia was at its best with gravity and the extra pounds i put on, you know that i was planning on exercising to get back in shape, however i did not, came down on the couch, arms buckled and somersaulted to the floor. So i make my  way up the stairs unhurt but a little slow to let Gail in the house, so she got in the house and noticed that the widow on the front door was open, did you open it? i replied no, that i did not touch it, so she says in her most controlled and measured voice that maybe i should have taken the screen out, it always falls off when you slam the door, duh! Well this is the last entry i can make for this adventure and hope anyone who has read it enjoyed the commentary, again i have to say this agian, we had met so many nice people out there, some we didnt get there names but had some good times and the tour of eastern canada , newfoundland was the very best trip we have ever taken in our lives. thanks and nighty nite!

Day 17

Day 17

We left the Holiday Hotel in St. Johnsbury and proceeded onto the last part of our trip, said our goodbyes to Karen and Eric and will keep in touch with them also. On our way back we stopped for breakfast at Maple Valley Cafe in Plainfeild Vermont , another great place to eat and reasonable prices too. We had the gps give us a detour we did not want, however we got back on the right track and drove through Stowe again and went up the Mansfeild Mountain through the notch, boy it's tight up in there. I had to stop where we dropped the bike and try it again, success. However we learned on one of our u turns that the bike was off balance and laid it down again on 104, so we stopped at Jenkins and Browns for a coffee, it was closing up, but the owner felt bad and gave us a free coffee. We repositioned our luggage and were on our way again with a much more balanced ride, next year a trailer may be in the works. Also stopped at a biker store at Teds Flying Hogs in Waterbury and got a pair of boots and socks. Anyway with some rough roadmap 104 North we made our way to the Holiday Inn at Plattsburgh NY, drove over some long bridges through Champlain. Nice ride from here on in.

Day 14

Day 12 pic

Day 16

We have left the Lincoln House this morning at 9:00 and stopped in at elains cafe in Milo. The owner came out to meet us and tell her story on how she got started, a real gutsy story and shows the character of people who decide what they want in life. While we were sitting on a porch outside finishing our breakfast , a man came out of the main dining area and asked us how much would we pay to hear the Canadian National anthem in both of our languages, would we pay him 5 dollars, he sang us the anthem in both languages, when we saw the postman come up and the guy who sang the song said that the postman was his 4th grade student, at first thought I thought the man was a little short on the brain department. I asked the postman what the story was on the man, he was his fourth grade teacher and that he was a local historian for the Maine state and in fact was his teacher and that he had 4-6 books published. This guy still takes the kids around once a year and takes them on a tour of the mines. We drove about 400 klics today and decided to stay in St Johnsbury. Met another couple of people that has gone from BC to Nova Scotia,'made friends with them over dinner and we went back to our rooms and chatted till 1100 pm. Eric is semi retired and Karen and him have been on the since June 15th, I thought we had traveled a long way. Well we have met many nice people during our travels and are now going to start poking our way home. We stopped in a town called Dexter and met a man in a wheel chair who had lost the use of his legs in a motorcycle , deer accident , his name was Guy Sargent and had many stories to tell, he has the goal of getting back to riding a bike again, exchanged emails and will be in touch.

Day 15

Well we left Digby this morning and caught the ferry for 8:00 a.m, on the loading dock we met a couple of guys originally from Cuba, we made some small talk about what each has done and had a good time chatting up. Anyways we went on the ferry to load. Up on the deck we had breakfast, not a bad deal for 4.50. We finished up and went to the lounge to have a seat and ran into the men we had met on the loading dock, they invited us to join them and their wives and children, we really enjoyed talking to these kind souls, made an instant connection with Joe, Tony and Julia, Tonys wife was pretty tired and we felt we may be intruding but they would not have us take our leave and continued to chat and make us feel very welcome in their families, there is a history for these guys that I would love to tell but I think it is not my place to tell their stories about coming to live in Canada,'but I will say I have a tremendous amount of respect for them and their families. We vowed to keep in touch and exchanged e-mails. I invited them to come to Yarker for a visit and a tour of our roads out north. We felt that they were sincere people and hope to make good friends with them, they also asked us to come and visit them in Mississauga. We felt an instant bond to them and their families. If Joe and Tony, or Tonys wife or Julia read this which I hope you do, you people are what bikers are really about. We hope to see you and your family's again.Tony I must apologize to your wife, her name has slipped our minds but she is a sweetheart like your kids. Oh by the way Joe and Tony are brothers. After we said our goodbyes and they left to make Sherbrooke , we headed back down to maine to start poking our way home,'today was the first day we had rain bad enough to don the rain suits, they worked pretty good for the most but like air water will find it's way in and both of us got wet, our phone is now going to have to dry off as it is not working due to the water. We came through Calias and continued on to Lincoln and got a room at the Lincoln motel. Did laundry and then went for dinner, we have put over 4000 kilometers on the bike so far with some pretty good roads ahead of us and look forward to getting home. But we are not looking forward to end our vacation with all the kind people we have met. When we did get to St John NB we were stopping at a Timmies and met a man in the parking lot, he started talking about his days on his bikes and as the conversation went on found out he was an actor and writer from Vancouver and was home now, turns out he wrote a book on short stories of riding , 7 in all. His name was Cookster and was a real nice fella. His books are on Amazon.com/books and sounds like a good read. Cookster , it was a real pleasure, hope to hear from you in the future.

Day 14

Today we did not have a good day , were tired and cranky, if you look at what we did the previous day, we drove the trail and then to the other end of the province in one day, a lot of saddle time. We did go to the Digby neck and went to the Brier Island, mostly gravel roads, was not able to explore at all.'We did have some good meals though, lobster,'scallops, halibut and another type that I can't recall, excellent meals. That was it for today, catching ferry at 8:00'and heading back home in the next couple of days. Nighty nite.

Day 13

Today was a fast and furious pace, we left the hotel in st annes and headed for the Cabot trail , before we had left the owner of the hotel was giving us some rags to clean and dry them-bikes,'while we were doing this I heard one of the people that we rode up with the night before say there was an eagle coming into the hotel yard and sure enough there was a mature eagle flying in,'turns out the owner was feeding it,'ham and strips of chicken. He was telling us that the bird has been around for a while and that the bird trained him, soon as he sees the owner he perches across the road on a pole until he feeds it, said that the eagle will kill a seagull by dragging it to the water and drowning it then ripping it to shreds. Anyways onto the trail, nice ride but did not compare to the rock. Rode the trail and then we drove to Digby, rode till 11:44 at night before we arrived at the hotel. Pulled into gas station and fell over with bike,'my legs were like rubber and could not hold it up. Strapping young lad came over and picked the bike up like it was a 500 cc, thanked the lad for his help, he was even going to give us a ride, got to love these people down here, Gail and I were so tired that she got into a giggling fit, said i looked like an old man in slow motion.

Day 12

Got up this morning and had breakfast , then headed to meet the ferry at 12:30. Met some people at the hotel who were on a tour on bikes also, hooked us with a hotel in St. Annes, what a view , right on the ocean. Nothing much done today other than the ferry ride, and again real nice people from all over, the ferry ride was pretty foggy all the way over, raining in cape Breton , there is a bike rally up in the highlands these weekend, lots of bikes.