If it wasn't for rotten luck there would be not luck at all........but different.
My name is Antonio and I thought I would add a thread in this trip theme as I have just started a major trip. The title I thought was appropriate for some of the stuff I will mention. The luck did in fact turn out good as well as for my own good. A lesson learned....I hope.....
Not sure what forum is best to post adventures. Am starting with a couple but if I should be on any in particular or not on any in particular, or not sure if any are interested in any ongoing trips. I'll continue with it if I get responses. hope someone lets me know.
The first luck was picking up Rosebud(1982 GL1100I) last summer in Calgary with Kijiji while living in Dawson City Yukon Territory. I noticed no one I know names their ride, so I'll stick with GL1100. Got it cheap and in very, very good shape. My plan is to drive it down to Nicaragua but as everybody knows plans inevitably change somewhat, and they have a bit except the destination. I arranged the buy and flew down and drove it to Edmonton where I stored it for the winter at a friends place which was the best luck of all. Carl and Cheryl allowed me to share their beautiful home while I restored the GL1100 in Carl's well outfitted shop, full of tools, harleys and boats and harley and boat parts, am using the word “restore” because it sounds good. I moved out of the Yukon and this past spring changed: wheel bearings, rotors, back brakes, installed progressive spring inserts front and rear in the stock air shocks (new seals and 15w oil).Thanks to RoadRouge for the rotors and help, as well as his patience, along the way with his design of the car alternator mod which I also installed. Thanks also for his forever resonant words “Chrome wont get you home”!! Thanks also to a few others which I terrorized for help.
I decided to build a rack on the back for all my gear and welded up a decent one out of rebar which fit nicely and looked not bad, at least to me. I was going to pack everything on the bike and take off from Edmonton, Alberta to pick up a friend, who was interested in sharing some of my adventure, at the Calgary airport, arriving from Europe, and pile her and her luggage on and it would have all fit nicely but did not even think about the weight....dahhh!
Decided to do a test run on the day of departure. Backed the bike out of the garage and rolled a bit forward and there she went, over on it's right side taking out my right mirror. Lucky it was just that!! That's not gonna work. I unloaded a lot, including all my tools, for my friend Carl to dispose of, said my goodbyes and left. Stopped at a Honda shop on the way out of Edmonton,wobbling a little as I slowed to a stop. and found that the mirrors were discontinued.....rotten-luck! Stopped in Red Deer for gas and a Honda dealer next door on the highway. Noticed I was wobbling a lot while slowing down to a stop and I still had to pack on my friend and bag(s). Seemed like a death-wish and so not going to happen. Decided on a trailer and inquired at the Honda shop for a used one. None, but buddy was nice enough to check Kijiji for me and there was one 30 minutes away, in Bently, Alberta.
Decided to grab a room, unpack and shoot to the airport in Calgary to pickup my friend more than a few hours late. Luckily for her she was a few hours late landing.
First, the mirror, Honda parts in Red Deer said it was discontinued, rotten-luck! Buddy said to checkout the counter next to his where they sold generic bike accessorizes. What kind of giraffe-necked mirror was I gonna get there? Asked and they said they had only a couple, I picked ione up and on the package read 1982 GL1100, left mirror, darn. The other package said right mirror, yea!! A brand new mirror to match my left one.
So the cowboys, and girls. and rocket women, and men who manage the “ether” looked sideways at me and said “lets give this bozo back his mirror, he has learned his lesson”..... maybe. Nevertheless it wasn't my time yet, and I have saved starting this threat until I am well into it so as I can be sure most of the stupidity has been purged....maybe...
Meanwhile back at the room, my friend with me “safely” now, on Kijiji, not a lot of trailers to be had but a nice one in Bently, Alberta. Alas no hitch and none to be found and no one wanting to put it on. Thought to go and pay for the trailer so I would at least have that and spend some time driving around looking for a hitch. Downloaded some pics and designs for a hitch for that bike. Phoned up buddy in Bently with the trailer to tell him I would be out to pay for it and leave it stored there until I got a hitch.
While on the phone with him a lady was there to buy it......Rotten-luck!! He mentioned he had seen one online in Lethbridge, Alberta similar to his. I checked and none to be found but another a bit out of my price range. A tent trailer, I phoned and told him about my hitch dilemma. Ron was a mechanic and had a shop just like Carls full of Harleys and parts. Went down and he modified a Harley hitch and installed it, sold me the trailer, his parts and labour and off we went back north to our hotel, packed everything in the trailer and off we went. Landed in Drumheller and stayed just outside at the Last Chance Saloon campground in Wayne, Alberta. A great place to camp out Canada Day and waited on a giant dinosaur to peak around one of the Badland Hoo Doos there.
We were hanging around Canada because I was awaiting some documents, to be mailed to a postal station in lethbridge, to allow me to get a lengthy travel insurance plan and also I was awaiting my new Alberta drivers license since my GL1100 had Alberta plates and insurance, I had to get an Alberta drivers license and that could have taken about 20 days, so we were hanging and that provides fodder for my next submission to this threat.
Unbeknownst to me there were those in the Gold Springs Campground in Milk River, Alberta, that did not appreciate riders with long hair and not with big expensive motor-homes and so passed on a fantasy that I was awaiting fraudulent documents to cross the border as well as holding my friend against her will to their drunken Royal Canadian Mounted Nazi (RCMN) who was camping along side them, who passed that information on to the US border gaurd, wonder how that would have played out for the Nazi's if there really was someone holding someone else, and they passed their work on to the US....no doubt another coverup.....guess that adventure will await till next time, I submit to this thread.
We are currently in Yellowstone park (after being treated like terrorists at the border) on the way to Custer and Rusmore then back south west through Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and so on. Anybody interested in meeting up for a beer, or a ride, or a campalong, let me know.
Ride safe!!
My name is Antonio and I thought I would add a thread in this trip theme as I have just started a major trip. The title I thought was appropriate for some of the stuff I will mention. The luck did in fact turn out good as well as for my own good. A lesson learned....I hope.....
Not sure what forum is best to post adventures. Am starting with a couple but if I should be on any in particular or not on any in particular, or not sure if any are interested in any ongoing trips. I'll continue with it if I get responses. hope someone lets me know.
The first luck was picking up Rosebud(1982 GL1100I) last summer in Calgary with Kijiji while living in Dawson City Yukon Territory. I noticed no one I know names their ride, so I'll stick with GL1100. Got it cheap and in very, very good shape. My plan is to drive it down to Nicaragua but as everybody knows plans inevitably change somewhat, and they have a bit except the destination. I arranged the buy and flew down and drove it to Edmonton where I stored it for the winter at a friends place which was the best luck of all. Carl and Cheryl allowed me to share their beautiful home while I restored the GL1100 in Carl's well outfitted shop, full of tools, harleys and boats and harley and boat parts, am using the word “restore” because it sounds good. I moved out of the Yukon and this past spring changed: wheel bearings, rotors, back brakes, installed progressive spring inserts front and rear in the stock air shocks (new seals and 15w oil).Thanks to RoadRouge for the rotors and help, as well as his patience, along the way with his design of the car alternator mod which I also installed. Thanks also for his forever resonant words “Chrome wont get you home”!! Thanks also to a few others which I terrorized for help.
I decided to build a rack on the back for all my gear and welded up a decent one out of rebar which fit nicely and looked not bad, at least to me. I was going to pack everything on the bike and take off from Edmonton, Alberta to pick up a friend, who was interested in sharing some of my adventure, at the Calgary airport, arriving from Europe, and pile her and her luggage on and it would have all fit nicely but did not even think about the weight....dahhh!
Decided to do a test run on the day of departure. Backed the bike out of the garage and rolled a bit forward and there she went, over on it's right side taking out my right mirror. Lucky it was just that!! That's not gonna work. I unloaded a lot, including all my tools, for my friend Carl to dispose of, said my goodbyes and left. Stopped at a Honda shop on the way out of Edmonton,wobbling a little as I slowed to a stop. and found that the mirrors were discontinued.....rotten-luck! Stopped in Red Deer for gas and a Honda dealer next door on the highway. Noticed I was wobbling a lot while slowing down to a stop and I still had to pack on my friend and bag(s). Seemed like a death-wish and so not going to happen. Decided on a trailer and inquired at the Honda shop for a used one. None, but buddy was nice enough to check Kijiji for me and there was one 30 minutes away, in Bently, Alberta.
Decided to grab a room, unpack and shoot to the airport in Calgary to pickup my friend more than a few hours late. Luckily for her she was a few hours late landing.
First, the mirror, Honda parts in Red Deer said it was discontinued, rotten-luck! Buddy said to checkout the counter next to his where they sold generic bike accessorizes. What kind of giraffe-necked mirror was I gonna get there? Asked and they said they had only a couple, I picked ione up and on the package read 1982 GL1100, left mirror, darn. The other package said right mirror, yea!! A brand new mirror to match my left one.
So the cowboys, and girls. and rocket women, and men who manage the “ether” looked sideways at me and said “lets give this bozo back his mirror, he has learned his lesson”..... maybe. Nevertheless it wasn't my time yet, and I have saved starting this threat until I am well into it so as I can be sure most of the stupidity has been purged....maybe...
Meanwhile back at the room, my friend with me “safely” now, on Kijiji, not a lot of trailers to be had but a nice one in Bently, Alberta. Alas no hitch and none to be found and no one wanting to put it on. Thought to go and pay for the trailer so I would at least have that and spend some time driving around looking for a hitch. Downloaded some pics and designs for a hitch for that bike. Phoned up buddy in Bently with the trailer to tell him I would be out to pay for it and leave it stored there until I got a hitch.
While on the phone with him a lady was there to buy it......Rotten-luck!! He mentioned he had seen one online in Lethbridge, Alberta similar to his. I checked and none to be found but another a bit out of my price range. A tent trailer, I phoned and told him about my hitch dilemma. Ron was a mechanic and had a shop just like Carls full of Harleys and parts. Went down and he modified a Harley hitch and installed it, sold me the trailer, his parts and labour and off we went back north to our hotel, packed everything in the trailer and off we went. Landed in Drumheller and stayed just outside at the Last Chance Saloon campground in Wayne, Alberta. A great place to camp out Canada Day and waited on a giant dinosaur to peak around one of the Badland Hoo Doos there.
We were hanging around Canada because I was awaiting some documents, to be mailed to a postal station in lethbridge, to allow me to get a lengthy travel insurance plan and also I was awaiting my new Alberta drivers license since my GL1100 had Alberta plates and insurance, I had to get an Alberta drivers license and that could have taken about 20 days, so we were hanging and that provides fodder for my next submission to this threat.
Unbeknownst to me there were those in the Gold Springs Campground in Milk River, Alberta, that did not appreciate riders with long hair and not with big expensive motor-homes and so passed on a fantasy that I was awaiting fraudulent documents to cross the border as well as holding my friend against her will to their drunken Royal Canadian Mounted Nazi (RCMN) who was camping along side them, who passed that information on to the US border gaurd, wonder how that would have played out for the Nazi's if there really was someone holding someone else, and they passed their work on to the US....no doubt another coverup.....guess that adventure will await till next time, I submit to this thread.
We are currently in Yellowstone park (after being treated like terrorists at the border) on the way to Custer and Rusmore then back south west through Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and so on. Anybody interested in meeting up for a beer, or a ride, or a campalong, let me know.
Ride safe!!