Equipment update #3 camping stuff

My departure date is really close now. I have 4 more days of work, a long week-end, then I'm off Tuesday June 3. I've been spending the last few weekends gathering all the stuff I think I'll need. 

Sleeping

- Columbia Lost Lake Backpacking Two-Person Tent

- Asolo Silva rectangular sleeping bag

- Therm-A-Rest Camplite Sleeping Pad

- 2 tarps (9' x 14' and 6' x 8')

Cooking

- A Biolite campstove and the the Biolite Kettlepot. The stove uses wood for fuel and has a fan that is powered by the heat using a thermal electric generator. The generator also powers a USB outlet to charge a phone, but all the reviews tell me it's mostly useless!

- Pinnacle Soloist is a nesting cooking pot and bowl. It comes with a stuff sack that doubles as a small sink (on the left in the picture)- cool feature!.

- small cast iron pan

Biolite Camp stove

Biolite Kettlepot

Pinnacle Soloist

Miscelaneous

- Petzl headlamp

- folding 3-legged stool
- rope and bungee cords

- a hatchet

- a couple of spoons, forks, knives, a can opener

Today's ride

A quick ride today through the lower Laurentians. Had a chance to test out some new rain gear too! I mapped out the ride with an Android app called Open GPS Tracker and uploaded the GPX file it created to Breadcrumbs site. Click the link to see the full site and ride details: View Track 2014-05-24 11:38 by EricTheBee on Breadcrumbs

Powered by Breadcrumbs: manage, edit and share GPS tracks for free.

Hello Yamaha

So to replace the Honda Shadow, I bought a Yamaha Super Ténéré.
Wow! What a bike. It's a 6 speed, 1200 cc inline twin with 90 horsepower (I foresee a couple speeding tickets in my near future), it's comfortable and it can handle our crappy Quebec roads with dignity - no more ka-bonk when hitting a pothole - and stability. On gravel, the traction control lets you spin out just enough before feeling like you've lost control.
On the highway I need to constantly check my speed because hitting 140 is just too easy.
One of the biggest problems that I heard about is the ineffective windshield that creates an unbearable turbulence around your head. Here's a discussion around this windshield problem. 

The good news is that I didn't really experience this problem. My stock windshield is set at the highest position and I drove at different speeds. Maybe it's  because I'm not that tall, or maybe I just don't know any better (there was zero protection on the Shadow).

Here's a short video I made on the weekend 

 

 

Goodbye Shadow

So today I officially say goodbye to my first (real) motorcycle, by beloved and well worn 2001, Honda Shadow 750 ACE. I've had it for 4 years and put around 20k km on it. It's also responsible for confirming my love of 2-wheeled travel.

In the 4 years, I did a bunch of road trips including a couple 2up. The longest one was in 2013 with my son Jacob. We spent 10 days travelling to Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland. The destination was the Hagerstown bike week. Jacob traveled on a 1980 Yamaha XS 1100. Apart from a minor electrical problem (it wouldn't start until we bypassed the ignition switch) it ran surprisingly well. 

So 20,000 km later I'm ready to move on from the cruiser to the adventure category. In the first blog post I said I was getting a 2013 BMW F700GS. I've since changed my mind for a bunch of reasons, not the least of which was the BMW dealer's attitude on a few occasions. But that's another story.

Equipment update #2 Ram mount

To mount the Go pro onto my bike, I needed a way to attach it securely, and be able to move it around to capture from different perspectives. I found the Ram mount that does just the trick:

http://www.rammount.com/newproducts/goprocameramount/tabid/3665/default.aspx

I tested it out and created this video placing the camera in 3 different positions.

http://youtu.be/1lrUSRr2O9g

At 5:45, I mount it just behind the right fork which gives a great perspective.