Touring by R1

So, this summer, my Dad and I embarked on our annual bike trip. Full disclosure: we're not hardcore Iron Butt-types by any means. We just like to ride a few hundred miles to someplace interesting, stay in a decent hotel, have some "road food" (i.e. drive ins and buffets) and generally hang out. Twisty roads would be nice too but not a must, considering where we live...

This year I sketched out a trip to the Cypress Hills: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=znLGIz-lNdGg.kanhSBVwOSLA&usp=sharing

I've posted up a few pictures of the trip just for those who are interested.

This was strange... a traffic light in the middle of rural Saskatchewan. Road construction, but still, I thought it was pretty funny.

War memorial in Ogema, SK. Many sons of Saskatchewan lost their lives in France and Flanders and I am always shocked at the disproportionate numbers that small towns like this sacrificed. The four corners of the memorial had stones with the names of battles from the Great War: Vimy, Passchendaele, Somme, Ypres. I've been fortunate to visit all of those places and I won't soon forget them.

First night we stopped in Assiniboia, SK at the Wheel Inn Motel. Decent room I guess but pricy for what it was. The weather was nice and hot and it was pleasant to clean up the bike after a day on the road. The riding was really good, the only glitch came in Weyburn where we stopped for a drink at the 7-11. After standing around for 20 minutes or so I went to start the bike and... nothing. After a moment of panic I figured it was a loose connection on the battery, so I took off all the luggage, and the seat, to get access. I tightened up the leads and everything returned to normal - no more problems on the rest of the trip. Phew...

The next morning dawned *very* early (Dad refused to set his watch back an hour for Saskatchewan time and got us up at quarter to seven) and we were on the road. I had to stop for a photo with a "Redcoat Trail" sign on Highway 13.

Highway 13 was pretty nice for the most part, but west of Cadillac, SK the road really went for a s***, as they say... cratered and patched surface and no shoulders.

 





Past Shaunavon, though, normal service was resumed. Smooth road with wide paved shoulders and very little traffic.

Our first "tourist" stop was the T. rex Discovery Centre in Eastend, SK. A million-dollar project funded by the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, the Centre celebrates the rich fossil record found in this corner of the province.

It's home to "Scotty", a fearsome T. rex found in the area. This thing is awesome.

You get an idea of the size of this animal. Crazy.

The terrain around Eastend is very Badlands-ish and impressive. I would caution fellow motorcyclists that the approach road to the Centre is terrible - just over 1km of loose gravel and large stones. Very tricky on a sportbike but we made it through OK.

From eastend we blasted up to Maple Creek, checked into the Cobble Creek Lodge, had lunch at Caroline's (an excellent drive-in) and then shot down to Fort Walsh National Historic Site around 3:30pm. The ride over to Walsh wasn't without incident though. After overshooting the turn off on Highway 271 (the main road suddenly turns to gravel) we ended up behind two flatbeds hauling grain bins that took up the *entire* width of the two-lane road. They were going about 30km/h so we were eager to get by... I was in front and was able to gingerly sneak past, nearly in the ditch, but it took Dad a while to find his way past. Very inconsiderate driving by the truckers as the pilot vehicle nearly took Dad out!

Fort Walsh was really nice; docents in historic costume toured us around. The fort was built near the site of the famous Cypress Hills massacre and was constructed as a base for the North-West Mounted Police to bring some law and order to the country. The fort was decommissioned after only a few years, but rebuilt in the '40s by the RCMP as an equestrian facility for breeding and training horses for the Musical Ride. Now it's a Parks Canada site.

The road access to the Fort is also a bit challenging. There's a very twisty first-gear road that climbs up to a plateau, then a blast along a ridge top road, followed by a drop down another gravel road (ugh) to the interpretive centre parking lot. Not a problem but you need to be careful.

After dinner at the Commercial Hotel in Maple Creek, we headed off to bed in our very nice new room. The next day, since we were so close to the Trans-Canada Highway already, we decided to take it back home. The day started off unpleasantly windy, but that cleared up after an hour or so and we were able to maintain a comfortable 130km/h speed (indicated ;-) on the highway.

One place we stopped was Grenfell, which has a very tidy little tourist info building staffed by two very pleasant elderly ladies. There's also these cool miniature grain elevators outside!

We also stopped in Whitewood, SK, which is a town with some family history for us. Dad's great-grandfather, Arthur Biggins, ran a store in town in the 1890s. Family legend has it that his son, Fred, was the first white child to be born in Whitewood and was the object of some wonderment for the indigenous population there. Whitewood is known for its murals and this is one called "Market Day".

Here's a close-up - Arthur Biggins' store!

From Whitewood we planned to stop in Moosomin for the night and have a swim - it had been a long day. But when we got there, the clerk at the Canalta wanted $159.95 for a room, insisting the only rooms available were suites with kitchenettes. The three cars parked in the lot told us that this story was likely fictitious, so we figured we'd just carry on the 150-odd kilometers to Brandon and save ourselves some money (that's how we roll). So we stopped for dinner in Virden at the A+W (Dad had a coupon) and got back to the house in Brandon just after 9pm. Mileage that day was about 750km - that's a long day in the saddle of any bike, let along a hypersports bike like the R1. I was ready to stop.

Total mileage for the trip (for me) was just over 2,150km, as I had to come from Winnipeg. We had a great time - now I have to figure out a destination for next year!

I also thought I'd write a little bit about the gear I use on these trips. Although I'm not necessarily an "ATGATT" person I pretty much always wear these boots when riding a bike. They're Teknic boots that I got in 2006 at a bike show here in town. I remember that show specifically because it was the intro of the Ducati Sport Classic range and there was a Sport 1000 there in yellow that I lusted after. I spoke to the sales guy who encouraged me to get it as he said it was a limited production bike that was sold out everywhere. I went home after the show and went on the Internet and of course what he said wasn't true at all (it was only the Paul Smart bike that was limited) and that put me off so much that I didn't buy the bike, but ended up getting my '95 900SS/SP later that year instead. I did get the boots at the show though :-) They've seen lots of miles and the only problem with them actually happened on this trip - one of the seams on the upper blew out. Fortunately the Leather Patch stepped in with a repair that looks great and seems durable.

The pants I wear for touring are these Firstgear leather/textile ones. They were a hand-me-down about 5 years ago from my friend David who... "outgrew" them. I actually wear them a lot as I like the style, and the fact that they tuck into my boots.

Jacket is Alpinestars and is probably about 10 years old. Got it at the Toronto bike show. It's been a great jacket and is very practical, with a zip-out lining for cooler weather. On this trip I started mornings with the liner in but by lunchtime it was hot enough to remove. The only thing that's gone wrong with the jacket is that one of the poppers in the liner that attaches it to the jacket sleeve near the wrist has broken. Not a big deal since each sleeve has two.

Helmet is an Icon Mainframe "Death from Above" in the "Technicolor Puke" colourway ;-)

I got this helmet in 2008 and it has an interesting history. At the time I was an active member of the Hawk GT mailing list and one day, a message popped up from moto-journalist Aaron "Double-A-Ron" Frank, a list member, offering some gear for sale, including this helmet.

Apparently Aaron had been given the lid and used it in a photo-shoot for the launch of the Kawasaki ZX-10R in Qatar, in 2007. He wrote me in an email that the bike hit 300km/h on that circuit, so this helmet has gone faster on his head than it likely ever will on mine!

The front fairing stopped a few bugs along the way, as well. Looking forward to taking out some more next summer ;-)