0:02

It's really easy to geek out on

0:04

prepping yourself and your motorcycle for an

0:06

adventure. You know, you've got to get the

0:08

right bike to begin with, and you got to equip it with

0:10

everything you think that you may need. You got to do all

0:12

the mods and make sure that you have

0:14

the right jacket and pants and helmet and gloves. And

0:17

just what was that recommendation for that waterproof bag to

0:19

go in my top box? I mean,

0:21

there's nothing wrong with it. I actually enjoy the

0:24

process of prepping my bike and gear, tweaking it

0:26

as I go. I get a lot out of

0:28

it. To me, it's part of

0:30

the enjoyment as well as my

0:32

due diligence so that I know that I did

0:34

my best to be prepared so that if something

0:37

goes wrong, you know, I've done my best to

0:39

prepare for something like that and able to handle

0:41

it in an easier fashion, I guess. I

0:43

also like to know that I have quality stuff

0:45

when I want it or need it, but

0:48

it isn't the only way. There are

0:50

those that will just jump on a

0:53

bike, maybe an old bike, and head

0:55

off into remote areas wearing non-technical gear.

0:58

And to some of them, they are as

1:00

fully prepared for what is to come as

1:03

what anyone else is who's went and got the right bike

1:05

and done all the mods. And

1:07

it works for them. So

1:09

if it's possible to have these

1:11

two polar opposite pre-trip approaches, one

1:14

detailed, modern, thorough, and the other

1:16

one, not so much. If

1:18

both systems work, then could

1:21

it be that part of prepping for

1:23

a motorcycle trip of any kind is

1:26

in our head? The power

1:28

of the mind is incredible. And

1:30

our perspectives and our reactions are

1:32

all derived from our mindset, our

1:35

mindset. Nick Adams,

1:37

for instance, is one of the latter described

1:39

here. And to me, it sounds

1:41

like he enjoys his trips as much as anyone does.

1:44

And he's riding a tractor, his

1:47

words, not mine. I'm

1:49

Jim Martin. This is Adventure Rider Radio. Stay

1:51

with us. We got a good one for you. Green

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3:00

My name's Nick Adams. I

3:07

live near Kingston, Ontario. And

3:10

I guess I'm retired now, but I

3:13

ride motorbikes and ride about it. I guess

3:16

that's a fun little sketch. Welcome

3:26

to Adventure Rider

3:29

Radio. Nice

3:38

to be here. Thanks. You

3:41

think you're retired? No,

3:43

no, I am. It was a

3:45

sort of long drawn out process, but I am

3:47

definitely retired now. I no longer

3:49

do the work that I did before. What was

3:51

that work you did before? I

3:54

worked in archaeology in Ontario.

3:57

Well, actually in the UK as well before I

3:59

moved to Ontario. Oh, so you're

4:01

one of those guys with that hat and

4:03

you're having to figure out mysteries and dig

4:05

things up. That's the

4:07

television image for sure. The reality

4:09

is a lot more sort

4:11

of basic and prosaic than that. We

4:15

would get hired by developing

4:18

companies or engineering companies

4:20

to go and check out properties in advance

4:22

of the development to make sure there was

4:24

nothing there of importance or significance. So

4:27

it's a case by case, not like you're chasing a story.

4:29

It's a case by case as you're hired to do. Exactly,

4:32

yeah. So what do you do with that? Do you

4:34

go in and you dig up? How do you start

4:36

looking for stuff? It depends on the

4:38

nature of the terrain. If

4:41

it's cloud fields, we would walk them looking

4:43

for any evidence of human occupation. If

4:47

it's forest or rough ground,

4:50

then with a small crew of

4:52

people, we just walk along digging

4:54

little holes and sifting dirt and

4:57

looking for any shreds of

4:59

tiny pieces of pottery or little flint

5:01

flakes or anything like that that

5:03

would lead us to assume that there was something in the area.

5:06

So similar to mining, you're drilling a hole here

5:08

and a hole there hoping to strike something that's

5:11

going to give you an indication there's something going

5:13

on underneath. Yeah, exactly. Once

5:16

you find one or two little things,

5:18

then obviously you expand the nature

5:20

of the search in order to get a better picture of

5:22

what's going on. And that's when things

5:24

get really expensive for whoever wants to build there. Yes.

5:28

Right. But that's not

5:30

my problem. Of course not. So

5:33

you did that for a living and

5:35

I mean, still, that's pretty exciting. This is your own

5:37

business that you did? Yes. I

5:40

worked for the provincial government for a few years

5:42

when I first came to Canada and then I

5:44

started my own little business. I

5:47

guess continued to do it for the last 40 hours.

5:51

So long time. Why did you come

5:53

to Canada originally? I

5:56

was chasing a girl. I'd met a girl on a

5:58

day in England and I... came

6:00

over here to see if things

6:02

were going to work out and got

6:04

off of the job while I was here. I

6:06

met a girl in a dig. This is a live girl, of course,

6:08

that you met on the dig. A

6:11

live girl? Well this isn't something you've dug up. You

6:13

know what I mean? You know, I'll just talk about

6:15

things in a weird way, I think. You know, like...

6:17

Well, yeah, I did used to work in a room

6:19

with thousands of dead people. Right.

6:24

And then you just decided to stay because you had the job

6:26

offer and that's what lands you in Canada. That's

6:28

correct, yeah. So is it better living in Canada

6:30

than the UK? It's completely

6:32

different. I mean, I miss a lot of things

6:34

about the UK and I go back from time

6:36

to time. I

6:39

had a period where I would go back

6:41

and rent motorbikes and ride around visiting friends

6:43

and places I wanted to see again. You

6:46

know, I miss the pubs, I miss the old buildings, the

6:49

scenery, that kind of thing. But

6:52

Canada has its good points too. You

6:56

miss the pubs. So is that the beard that

6:58

you miss or is it the environment? It's

7:01

a combination of both. I don't

7:03

think you can separate the two. At

7:06

least not in my mind. There's

7:08

an ambiance to a pub that just

7:10

isn't replicated in North America. Oh

7:12

really? At all? Well,

7:15

let's put it this way. I've not come across

7:17

it. Yeah, but you're searching though.

7:22

From time to time. You

7:25

mentioned motorcycles there. Did you start riding in the UK

7:27

originally? Yeah, I had my... As

7:30

soon as I could get a license, I had a

7:32

license of 16. I

7:35

found a whole series of small

7:37

and clunky and cheap motorbikes and

7:39

scooters, most of which

7:41

were unidirectional. I'd

7:44

ride somewhere and then I'd have to push it back

7:46

or get rescued by my dad. And

7:50

was the idea of riding when you started out

7:53

the romanticism,

7:56

was that involved with riding a motorcycle or was

7:58

it just because it was a cheap time? piece

8:00

of transportation. A little

8:02

bit of both, but I remember very strongly. Actually,

8:05

two things really inspired me. One was I was

8:07

hiking in Wales, and I was up on the

8:10

side of one of the mountains, and I heard

8:12

a British single fill in

8:14

the bike. I think it might have been an

8:17

AJS 500 rolling

8:19

along the valley bottom road. And

8:22

it just sounded so magnificent, and the guy looked just

8:24

so cool. I thought, oh, yeah, I

8:26

like that. Oh, yeah, and

8:28

that's the romanticism of it, isn't it? The

8:30

freedom look. Yeah. And

8:33

then when I had an old Lambretta

8:35

LD from

8:38

which all the bodywork had been stripped off. And

8:41

I remember riding on one of the higher

8:43

roads in the Cotswolds. And it was

8:46

just sort of the wind and

8:48

the sun and the feeling of being

8:51

riding along on the top of the world. It

8:54

was just very inspiring, and I guess that sort of stayed

8:56

with me ever since. And

8:59

when you came to Canada, did you get

9:01

into riding? Because you came to Ontario, Canada,

9:03

which has winter for 10, 11 months of

9:05

the year, and

9:07

you've got about 30 days of riding time, tongue

9:09

in cheek, of course. Did you

9:11

get right into riding again when you came to Canada? No,

9:14

not at all. I was living in northern

9:17

Ontario in Sault Ste. Marie. And

9:20

I looked around, and I saw a few bikes on the roads,

9:22

but mostly they just looked like... Let's

9:25

put it this way, at that time in

9:27

the late 70s, the

9:30

motorcycling world in North America didn't appeal to

9:32

me. So I

9:34

basically forgot about it for, well, until

9:36

my kids were grown, like

9:38

so many other people. Right, yeah,

9:40

no, that is a common theme, isn't it?

9:42

But what gets you back on a motorcycle?

9:46

A friend of mine, Doug, who'd worked with me

9:49

for years, turned up on his Honda CB350 and

9:52

insisted I took it for a spin. And

9:55

I literally went up the road,

9:57

through the gears, stopped, turned up the road,

10:00

around, came back, right, I'm getting

10:02

a bike. And

10:05

literally that afternoon, I'd cruised

10:07

the online ads and found

10:09

my 1972 Motocutsee Eldorado,

10:15

and we were on the road driving for 300

10:17

miles to pick up the bike. And

10:22

what year was this? 2008,

10:24

I think, or 2007. So

10:28

this is quite an old bike. Yes,

10:31

yeah, it's 51 years old now. You

10:34

couldn't find a newer bike? I

10:36

wasn't interested in finding a newer bike. It

10:38

was when I looked at the

10:40

ad, I remembered seeing or reading

10:45

contemporary road tests. I'm

10:48

thinking what a magnificent piece of machinery

10:50

it was. Looked like it was sculpted

10:52

out of solid metal. And

10:55

it just appealed to me. I didn't think of it

10:57

as an old bike. I just thought of it as

10:59

the bike that appealed to me. Had you had Motocutsees

11:01

before? No, I hadn't. They

11:03

were always too far too expensive and sort

11:05

of out of my league at the time.

11:08

So talk about this Motocutsee you got. I

11:10

believe it's an Eldorado, is it? That's

11:12

correct, yeah. It's,

11:16

well, when I bought it, it had 35,000 miles or so on it. The

11:22

guy that had owned it had used it

11:24

to drag a travel trailer all around the

11:26

States. But it

11:28

was in pretty good shape. Took

11:31

a little bit of, you know, car cleaning and such like

11:33

to get it rolling. And

11:35

I've been riding it ever since. So

11:37

for those who don't know Motocutsee, can you

11:39

describe the layout of the bike and how,

11:42

like, as far as the technology of the

11:44

engine goes? It's a big

11:46

old touring bike. I

11:48

guess you could sort of, the closest

11:51

correlative would be, you know, one

11:54

of the Harley Cruises from

11:56

that period, from the 70s. It's

12:00

a V-twin. Mine's

12:03

an 850. It's a transverse engine, so

12:05

like most motor good-see twin

12:07

cylinder bikes. These cylinders stick

12:10

outside. It's a shaft drive,

12:12

five-speed gears, very

12:14

basic suspension front and back. Just

12:16

a big lazy old touring bike. With

12:19

points for ignition. Oh,

12:22

points and carbs. Yeah, wonderful stuff. So

12:25

did you ride this bike long before you

12:27

upgraded to a... I've used that word, upgraded

12:30

to a more modern bike? I

12:33

still... it's still my bike of choice for

12:35

long-distance travel. So what is

12:38

it about a 1972 Moto Good-See

12:40

motorcycle with point ignition and carburetors

12:43

that gets you riding it for long-distance

12:46

travel in the north? It's...

12:50

there's so few things that can go wrong that

12:52

can't be fixed at the side of the road

12:55

that I have a great deal of

12:57

confidence in it. You know, short

12:59

of a massive mechanical catastrophe which

13:01

is highly unlikely to happen because

13:04

they build like tractors.

13:07

You know, yeah, the points get dirty sometimes and

13:09

the cleaning and the carbs may get out of

13:11

tune a little bit, but nothing that

13:13

a few minutes with a couple of 10 millimeter

13:15

and 11 millimeter wrenches

13:18

can't fix in a big hurry. I

13:21

mean, it wasn't all that long ago before, you know, when

13:23

that was in cars. When I was a kid, the cars

13:25

had point ignition and it was the

13:27

type of thing where if you broke down on the

13:29

side of the road, there was always someone who could

13:31

come and help you if you didn't know how to

13:33

do it yourself, figure out what the issue was. And

13:35

you could almost always get it going again. Like you

13:37

say, I mean, it's the type of thing you'd fix

13:40

it, you figure out what the issue was and off

13:42

you go again. So it makes sense to use that

13:44

style bike for travel, but it's

13:47

kind of labor intensive though, isn't it? Not

13:50

really. I mean, on a 5,000 mile

13:53

trip, I may have to, I may

13:55

have to do something, may have to tighten a bolt

13:57

or two or something like that, but it's... It's

14:00

rare that there's any kind of show-stopping event.

14:03

In fact, in

14:05

all the travels I've done on it, and it's well over 130,000 miles now,

14:10

it's never failed

14:12

to get me home. So it's

14:14

not like your scooters when you start

14:16

everything. Okay, this was actually a two-way

14:19

ride on your motorcycle. Yes, unfortunately.

14:23

It doesn't break down while you're out, or it's

14:25

just that you're always able to fix it? Yes.

14:29

Right, okay. I mean, there

14:32

have been a couple of occasions on my

14:34

most recent trip up to Northern

14:37

Quebec and then across Labrador, there

14:39

were a couple of occasions when it didn't really

14:41

want to start first thing in the morning when

14:44

it was below freezing. It

14:49

took a while for the thing to sort of

14:52

lurch into life. You

14:55

know, I had to do a little bit of cleaning of plugs

14:57

and points and that kind of thing to get it going. But

15:00

once it's rolling, it just keeps going. And

15:05

it's a

15:07

1972. It's an older

15:09

bike. Yes, it's simple and

15:11

you can fix it, but that can't be the only reason

15:13

that you ride it. No, I love it.

15:18

I've never ridden a motorcycle that gave me

15:20

quite as much pleasure because,

15:23

you know, it'll roll along on the

15:25

four-lane highway at a decent

15:27

highway speed. I'm not the fastest thing on the

15:29

road by any means. The traffic, you know, I'm

15:31

quite happy for the traffic to go rolling by,

15:33

but it'll roll along at 65, 70

15:36

miles an hour all day. And

15:39

the only reason I have to stop is just to put more

15:41

fuel in it and keep going. It's

15:44

sufficiently comfortable that it's never a problem.

15:48

It handles well enough. It's easy

15:50

to handle on gravel back roads. I

15:53

never have any concerns about, well,

15:56

about anything really. It just gets

15:58

the job done. in riding with your

16:00

buddy who was, I think you said DR650. Was

16:04

that what it was? No, not a DR650. Suzuki,

16:06

sorry, he had the Suzuki. Do

16:09

you find that there's any difference between like a

16:11

Z waiting for you? There

16:14

have been times, I usually ride alone, but there

16:17

have been a couple of times when I've done

16:19

longer trips with friends. And

16:21

I think the occasion that you're thinking about,

16:25

we basically would say, let's

16:28

meet up at the end of the day or

16:30

we'd meet up for lunch somewhere and we'd have a

16:33

place that we'd encounter together. And

16:36

he might arrive, you know, five, 10, 15 minutes

16:39

ahead of me, but there's rarely any

16:41

difference. Right, it's not like you're riding an

16:43

old dog. And the thing is,

16:46

I guess what you get from this is the

16:48

real pleasure in the fact that it's this old

16:50

bike, it's the Moto Gutzi. So

16:52

you're getting the ride of a motorcycle, but then

16:54

you're also getting that feeling of having something, I

16:57

guess it's a bit of, nostalgia

16:59

there with it. A

17:02

little bit. I mean, I

17:04

get a kick out of riding an old

17:06

bike when everybody else is zooming by on

17:09

modern bikes. And

17:11

I can park it next to a row of shiny

17:13

Harleys and the only bike that people look at is

17:15

the Eldorado, which

17:18

gives me a sort of pompous kind of pleasure.

17:21

Right. But the reality is,

17:23

if I'm on the longer trip,

17:26

let's say, I don't know, heading

17:28

back from Newfoundland to

17:31

Ontario, I don't care

17:33

what you're riding, you're not gonna beat me by more than

17:35

about 10 minutes, because I can, you

17:37

know, I just plug along at

17:39

a decent speed and, you know, I

17:42

see this often on the highway actually,

17:44

I'll see cars go racing by, and

17:47

then I'll see them again, three, four, five

17:49

times during the course of a trip. You

17:52

know, people stop, they take breaks, they get

17:54

food, they get gas. I

17:56

just plug along. So

17:58

when you're saying... This is your bike

18:00

to use for all of your adventures. So if somebody was

18:02

to ask you what's the perfect

18:04

adventure motorcycle for you, you would say.

18:08

For me, that I wouldn't recommend it

18:11

for anybody else. I mean, it's it's

18:13

just I've used the term before

18:15

that I feel like a sort of centaur. You

18:17

know, when I get when I'm on the bike and

18:20

settled in during a long ride, I

18:23

don't really even feel any distinction

18:25

between me and the bike. It's like we're

18:27

one entity. That's really

18:29

neat. Now, when you talk about

18:31

adventures, talk about your adventures. What sort of

18:33

things do you do with your motorcycle? Oh,

18:36

I guess when I started doing

18:38

longer rides in Canada, one

18:41

of the first I did was up

18:43

to Gaspé, specifically do

18:45

some hiking up in the Chick Chok

18:47

Mountains. And that was kind of fun. But

18:51

on the way back at that point, I

18:55

should preface this by saying the the

18:57

previous owner had done some weird stuff

19:00

with the oil system and had

19:02

grafted on an external

19:04

oil cooler filter,

19:06

I beg your pardon. But he

19:08

grafted it on with a copper

19:12

water pipe, you know, a domestic

19:14

copper water pipe. And on

19:16

the way back, one of the solder joints gave way. So

19:18

I ended up with a bit of a wet foot. Oh,

19:22

like you're talking like like a half inch copper

19:24

pipe. Exactly. Yeah. Is this

19:26

like a homemade filter? Totally homemade

19:28

filter. Well, the filter was

19:31

the filter would screw into a bought

19:34

mount. Oh, I see. You

19:36

just made the piping for it. The connections with the

19:38

piping. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Something you don't see around on

19:40

a motorcycle, but kind of suitable. I think 72 motor

19:43

good. I see. But once

19:46

I got that sorted, next time I

19:48

went up to the Labrador city a

19:50

couple of times and then across

19:53

the Trans Labrador Highway before it

19:55

was paved and basically

19:57

had no troubles at all. World.

20:05

I guess 2018 I

20:08

think it was. I rode over to

20:10

the Yukon and up the Dempster Highway,

20:14

up to the Arctic Circle and just up

20:16

to Fort Macpherson. And

20:19

then last

20:22

year, I went across to the

20:24

Pacific Ocean on Vancouver Island, just

20:26

through the mountains, more or less to see the mountains and

20:28

visits and friends on the way, that kind of thing. I

20:32

do a lot of exploring of back

20:34

roads too in Eastern Ontario and the

20:36

adjacent parts of Quebec. So

20:39

most of my longer rides have been in Canada.

20:43

You've written a bunch of books about

20:45

your adventures that you do. What do

20:47

you do? Do you do an adventure, do a ride somewhere,

20:49

a big ride, and then decide to sit down and write

20:51

a book about it? That's pretty

20:53

much it. I usually like to include

20:57

a few different trips or adventures,

21:00

if you like to call them that. Because

21:05

often it's not so

21:08

much about the exciting

21:10

things that happen along the way. It's

21:13

about the people, it's about the scenery, it's

21:15

about the wildlife that you see, it's

21:17

about how you're feeling about the motorbike, the

21:20

little things that go wrong for sure, how you

21:22

fix them, the

21:24

people that stop, that offer you help

21:26

when you're just trying to have a pee by the side of the road.

21:30

Those are the things that are entertaining.

21:48

We're going to take a quick break while I tell you about

21:50

a couple of things, two things. As a matter of fact, when

21:52

we come back, we have a lot more fun. Stay with us.

21:59

Thank you. Every

22:05

time we hear about Africa on

22:08

this show, we hear about incredible

22:10

landscapes, diverse culture. It's often referred

22:12

to as the ultimate adventure motorcycle

22:14

trip. Well, Grenadian Adventures specializes in

22:17

adventure motorcycle trips into Africa. Grenadian

22:19

Adventures is owned by René Cormier

22:21

and René did his own round

22:23

the world trip on $25 a

22:26

day. He's the author of University

22:28

of Gravel Roads, a great book about

22:31

an incredible adventure that chronicles his trip.

22:34

René says that Africa is safe to

22:36

travel because on their trips, they mainly

22:38

ride in rural areas and stay in

22:40

upscale lodges at night. They've got new

22:42

BMWs to rent and a

22:44

full-time Renadian crew based in Cape

22:46

Town to help with planning, etc.

22:49

The routes can either be paved or with

22:51

some gravel and they've got a backup chase

22:53

vehicle. That's for anything they need along the

22:55

way that they've got to carry with them.

22:57

But it's also a place for millions that

22:59

don't want to ride yet still want to

23:01

see the sights that their partner is seeing.

23:03

René says they get millions every year that

23:05

want to ride in the van and that's

23:07

fine because that's what it's for. For

23:09

you as a rider, if you have an issue, that's what the

23:12

van is there for. If you have some reason that you wanted

23:14

to not ride for that day. René

23:16

says that Renadian Adventure's Africa

23:18

trips are the most vacationy

23:21

of their guided tours. They're

23:24

nice adventures during the day with lots

23:26

of comfort at night and that riders

23:28

that are new to international touring will

23:31

find Africa as a great starting destination.

23:34

www.renadian.com is the website anytime you're dealing

23:36

with them thrown as you heard them

23:38

here on Adventure Rider Radio. www.renadian.com. The

23:43

Atlas throttle lock is not only a

23:45

thing of beauty but a marvel of

23:47

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23:49

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23:52

Winters from the round the world trip

23:54

they did on their KTM. This is

23:56

a tiny little device that clamps onto

23:58

your handlebar in seconds yet transforms. your

24:00

bike and your comfort level. It's

24:03

designed like a Swiss watch, finely crafted

24:05

from metal with two buttons on it,

24:07

one for engage, the other for disengage,

24:09

and the tactile feedback from them is

24:11

perfect. So when I press those buttons,

24:13

I don't need to look. I can

24:15

feel what I'm doing. Pressing engage holds

24:17

my throttle at the position I said

24:19

that, and then I just twist to

24:21

add more or less throttle and it

24:23

holds the new position. That allows my

24:25

hand time to relax and uncramp. And

24:27

with that, my wrist, my forearm, my

24:29

upper arm, even my shoulder feels better

24:32

with the Atlas Throttle Lock. Another bonus is

24:34

it's easy to move from one bike to another. So

24:36

if you're selling your bike, you don't have to let

24:38

it go with it. atlasthrottlelock.com is

24:40

the website anytime you deal with

24:42

them, throw in there that you

24:44

heard them here on Adventure Rider

24:46

Radio. atlasthrottlelock.com So

24:52

when you're on one of these, and the thing

24:54

is that what I found interesting about this is

24:56

that you have done all these all in Canada,

24:58

a lot of them in just one province, which

25:00

is really neat because you're finding adventures that are

25:02

worthy enough to even write

25:05

stories about right close to home because often

25:07

when we talk about adventure, especially on this show, we

25:09

talk about international adventure, people going from,

25:11

you know, one country to another country in

25:14

multiple countries over a long period of

25:16

time, but there's so much available close

25:18

to your home if you just look

25:20

for it. That's

25:22

true. Yeah, I mean, I did a lot of

25:26

traveling in foreign countries when I was in my early

25:29

20s. And I guess

25:31

I suppose I've lost the appetite for

25:33

it. I'd rather explore in detail than

25:38

I would, you know, just sort of barrel

25:40

across the world. When

25:43

you're planning an adventure, what do you look for and how do

25:45

you plan it? I

25:48

look for places that I haven't been

25:50

before or that are going to provide

25:52

some interesting scenery or, you know, roads

25:55

that I haven't investigated, roads that have

25:58

some sort of particular charm. And

26:02

maybe, actually really, if I'm brutally

26:04

honest, I just like being on the bike

26:06

all day. You

26:10

know, as long as I'm not on a four-lane highway, if

26:13

I'm just moving somewhere on the bike, I'm pretty much

26:15

happy most of the time. So is it

26:17

more open-ended? Do you just sort of hit the road and have a rough

26:20

idea of where you're going and then bounce around at

26:22

that point? I usually have a destination

26:24

in mind. Like

26:26

a daily destination or a trip

26:28

destination? A trip destination. Like

26:30

the most recent long trip, the northern

26:34

Quebec, Labrador, Newfoundland

26:37

trip. I had three things that I

26:39

wanted to do. The first

26:41

was I wanted to go up to the shores of

26:43

James Bay, which is as far as you can go

26:45

by road in Quebec.

26:49

I've been up there before on other bikes

26:51

as well. I just wanted to sort of

26:53

do that, see what it looked like in

26:55

late May, early June. And

26:59

then across to Labrador,

27:03

north of Goose

27:05

Bay, Happy Valley Goose Bay, this place called

27:07

Northwest River, which is, again, as far as

27:09

you can go by road in

27:12

that part of eastern Canada. So

27:14

I just, you know, basically looking at the ends of

27:16

roads. And

27:18

the third one was following the

27:21

coastal road at Labrador down as

27:23

far as it goes. It actually

27:25

goes back into Quebec and then

27:27

stops, literally stops and

27:30

doesn't pick up again for another something

27:32

like 400 kilometers in

27:36

eastern Quebec along the St.

27:38

Lawrence River. You

27:41

said you fell in love with the north.

27:43

I'm assuming you mean the Ontario north. What

27:45

is it about it that draws you? Well,

27:50

as you can imagine, coming from the UK, everything

27:53

about it was completely different. And

27:56

I was lucky that when I started working

27:58

for the government as an archaeologist, Basically,

28:01

I was let loose in northern Ontario with a

28:03

canoe and a partner

28:07

exploring and recording archaeological sites.

28:11

So I got used to that vast

28:13

open wilderness of lakes and

28:15

trees and gravel roads. I

28:18

still like to go up there and enjoy that environment.

28:21

You got paid to paddle a canoe

28:23

and explore? Pretty

28:26

much, yeah. Wow. Those were

28:28

the days. Why would you ever

28:30

leave that job? Well,

28:33

unfortunately, things changed. The

28:37

way the government operated changed. It became

28:39

less about providing service and more about

28:41

providing... They

28:45

started managing archaeologists rather than

28:48

managing archaeological resources. Your

28:52

typical government stuff. Yes, exactly.

28:54

Right. I've only spoken to one

28:56

other person that I've come across that's actually worked for

28:58

the government paddling a canoe. I think that's pretty neat.

29:01

It's like being paid to ride your motorcycle, for instance.

29:04

Yeah, well, that's the way I look

29:06

at my current endeavors of chucking

29:09

out little books from time to time and the

29:11

audio books. I

29:13

go on trips, I enjoy them, I write about

29:15

them. Other people seem to enjoy them too. That's

29:18

all good. How do you experience the

29:21

wilderness that you're going to see or these places that you're

29:23

going to see? What do you do to experience

29:26

it? I

29:28

don't think I do anything special. I mean, I

29:30

camp some of the time. As

29:33

I've got older, I become much

29:35

more of a credit card camper

29:37

with stopping at motels whenever the

29:39

opportunity arises or I'm feeling particularly

29:41

lazy or weak. But

29:45

I get a thrill from throwing

29:48

a tent up somewhere in the middle of the bush. And

29:52

there's always that, especially coming

29:54

from the UK, where we have no

29:56

wildlife that's composibly in

29:58

danger, your life. There's always

30:00

that little piquancy of knowing that

30:03

yes, there are bears and moose and

30:05

other big animals in these woods.

30:08

And you're lying there in your tent and

30:10

you hear some little twig crack and the

30:13

reality is it's a mouse or a squirrel.

30:15

But your mind always goes to

30:18

the worst scenario. So true. And

30:20

I use a

30:22

hammock most of the time for myself. And

30:24

yeah, I always feel like I'm a taco sitting there,

30:27

you know, waiting for a bear to come in. Of

30:30

course, your butt's down the lowest, right? That's going to be

30:32

the first thing that attracts attention. So yeah, I can just

30:34

make sure you don't have any salami in there with you.

30:37

Exactly. You definitely don't want to do that. What

30:41

are some of the adventures you've had? I mean, were

30:43

things of maybe hadn't turned out exactly

30:45

as you'd planned? Let

30:48

me think. I guess on the first

30:50

trip on the unpaved

30:52

Translabido Highway, by the time I got

30:55

to, well, I guess it

30:57

started to happen on the way the

31:00

generator on that bike

31:02

sits between the cylinders. And

31:05

this cradle that it sits in is

31:07

notoriously prone to coming loose. So

31:10

indeed, the generator did come loose. So I

31:12

had to strap it down with bungee cords

31:15

and such like to hold it

31:17

together. And actually, while I

31:19

was waiting for the ferry in Portobask, I

31:22

basically stripped the whole bike down and

31:24

sort of reorganized and rejigged the generator

31:26

mounts and put it all back together

31:28

before I got back on the ferry.

31:32

So you've got to be somewhat mechanically

31:34

inclined to ride your motor goodsy.

31:37

I wish I could say that I was

31:39

mechanically inclined, but I'm a real fumble fingers.

31:44

So then, okay, let me rephrase that. Then you've got to be at

31:46

least willing to try. Yes, exactly. That's a

31:48

good way of describing it. I always make

31:50

sure I take enough tools. Actually,

31:54

another one of the more

31:56

enjoyable little incidents coming back from...

32:00

coming back from the Yukon. Everything

32:02

had been going swimmingly the whole way, and

32:04

I was coming back through Manitoba, racing

32:07

a thunderstorm, and

32:09

the bike just suddenly died. I

32:12

thought, what the heck has gone on? I

32:15

looked around and eventually I found

32:17

what had happened was the

32:19

coil which sits beneath the tank

32:23

was so old that the

32:26

little brass, flat-sided

32:30

pins that you attach the wires to, the

32:33

one had rotted completely off. The

32:36

bronze disease had just sort of rotted it off.

32:40

I thought, oh gosh, what do I do now? Just

32:44

at that point, as I was trying to ponder what to

32:46

do, a guy riding a

32:48

Harley turned up and asked him if I

32:50

needed any assistance, just

32:53

as he was pulling to a stop, it occurred to me

32:55

that in my, I had a

32:57

bag of tools, I had a bag of spare parts, points,

33:00

and various other bits and pieces. I

33:03

had an old coil off my buddy

33:05

Norm's BMW, one of his old airheads.

33:09

Hang on a second, hang on. You're riding

33:11

your Modaguzzi and you're carrying it apart from

33:13

your buddy's old bike? Yep. What

33:16

for? Well, the coil's a coil, you know? All

33:19

it does is creates sparks.

33:21

Okay, well so. It's just

33:23

a basic standard coil that you might find on

33:25

any of those 50s and 60s and 70s. So

33:29

you carried it fully intending that if you needed

33:31

it, that was gonna be your replacement. It wasn't

33:33

just a spare part thrown in. Yeah.

33:35

I started questioning the packing there for a second.

33:38

I thought you were welcome. Like you're jigging through and just,

33:41

well, what is this? I forgot all about that. I

33:43

had forgotten about it. It was at the bottom of the bag

33:46

and I was, it just sort of

33:48

occurred to me that I had it. So

33:52

instead of wasting time taking the tank

33:54

off and taking the coil off and

33:56

replacing it with the one I had,

33:59

I just. got some

34:01

tape strapped the coil to the side

34:03

of the metal, oh,

34:08

what do you call it? Trim plate or whatever, on the

34:10

side of the bike. Put

34:12

all the leads to it, turned the key,

34:14

bike started, away we went, there it is.

34:17

Rode all the way home with the coil

34:19

strapped to the side of the bike. You

34:21

gotta love that. I mean, that really epitomizes

34:23

your point of the old motorcycle that you

34:25

can always get going. Because it was a

34:27

new bike, I mean, these things are all

34:29

made to fit in specific spaces. Coils are

34:32

on top of spark plugs a lot of

34:34

times now. And very specific,

34:36

I mean, that is just, that's priceless, it

34:38

really is. Well, that

34:40

whole bike is, there's a lot of

34:42

stuff from old Fiat's and old Volkswagen's

34:44

that can be Jimmy to work on

34:46

that bike. But all

34:48

those parts are becoming less and less common now.

34:50

I mean, really less common now. Yeah,

34:53

although you'd be surprised with the old Emoto Goodsies,

34:55

there's such a strong, well,

34:58

they don't break, basically. And

35:00

there's such a strong, goosy network

35:02

that you can get pretty much anything for

35:05

them, keep them rolling. So you said they're

35:07

built like tractors, they really are. Yeah.

35:10

I mean, you get a tractor, you know, that was

35:12

from the 40s or 50s, and it'll still work perfectly

35:14

well. May lack a three point hitch or something, but

35:16

a three point lift, but you know,

35:18

it'll still work and pull and everything. It's incredible.

35:20

So if it's anything like that, that's great. But

35:22

so you mentioned that you're not mechanically inclined, that

35:24

you sort of fumble around. So

35:27

to figure this stuff out, this takes some time

35:29

to find a broken wire on a coil. So

35:31

how exactly do you go about troubleshooting your problems?

35:35

I guess I just looked, you know, I

35:37

realized it was an electrical problem. So

35:40

I just started looking around to

35:42

see where the problem might lie. So when you

35:44

say, look, this isn't the technical thing where you've

35:47

got a scope out and you've got a lead

35:49

out and you're actually looking for physical anomalies. Yes.

35:52

Mm-hmm. Yeah. It is

35:54

the quickest way, isn't it? Even today, even with modern bikes, the

35:57

quickest thing to do is first of all, to know your bike, know what it's supposed to look like.

36:00

than to look for things like, and I'm

36:02

sure you're doing this, you're looking for obvious

36:04

broken wires, things falling off, loose nuts and

36:06

bolts, anywhere where you can see something that

36:09

looks like it's changed. Yeah.

36:12

I mean, I do know that bike pretty

36:14

well. I've had the engine out multiple

36:16

times, I've had the gearbox out multiple

36:18

times. I

36:20

rewired it. There's a guy in the States

36:23

called Greg Bender who produces a complete wire

36:25

harness for those bikes. So

36:28

at one point I had the whole thing stripped

36:30

down and completely renewed

36:32

the wiring harness. So

36:34

I knew that it shouldn't have been

36:39

like an old wiring problem. Everybody accuses

36:41

motor goodies for having terrible electrics, but

36:44

realistically they don't. They're perfectly

36:46

fine. So

36:49

yeah, I was looking for something that wasn't right. And

36:51

you see a crack or something like that and that's

36:53

what you start to follow up on. Yeah.

37:08

Everybody take

37:10

a fast break here. I'll tell you about something and then

37:12

we're coming back with me. Stay with us. See

37:21

and be seen. I just love that

37:24

model from Cyclops Adventure Sports. And when

37:26

it comes to auxiliary lighting, Cyclops really

37:28

has it nailed. It's no

37:30

wonder because they're owned and operated by adventure

37:32

riders just like you. And the other day,

37:34

Darrell was telling me that, Darrell from Cyclops

37:36

was telling me that Cyclops just bought scheme

37:38

lights and more recently, extreme

37:41

dual sports lights. So their massive selection

37:43

of top quality lighting just got even

37:45

bigger. They've got plug and play systems

37:48

for tons of bikes, bikes with CAN

37:50

bus systems. I mean, everything, LED headlights

37:52

that are DOT approved, so much more.

37:55

I love their Evo turn signal inserts

37:57

or evolution turn signal inserts. They turn...

37:59

turn signals into ultra-bite driving lights up

38:01

front and stunning LED brake lights in

38:03

the rear of course they act they

38:05

also work as your signal still but

38:07

the conversion really makes the bike stand

38:10

out I mean incredibly on the road

38:12

to other drivers also your vision

38:14

up front because the the driving lights and

38:16

the looks just a general looks of what

38:18

it does for your bike incredible also they've

38:20

got these two inch Aurora auxiliary lights I

38:22

mean they've got tons of lights but these

38:25

ones are super bright yet so tiny you

38:27

can fit them on any bike Cyclops

38:29

adventure sports comm is the website anytime

38:31

you're dealing with them thrown there that

38:33

you heard them here on adventure rider

38:35

radio Cyclops adventure sports comm your

38:39

foot pegs are not just your connection to

38:41

your motorcycle obviously that's really important but they're

38:43

also a tool for you to control your

38:45

bike in fact I would say arguably they're

38:47

one of the most important tools when riding

38:49

slow or on challenging surfaces with

38:52

a correct foot peg you have

38:54

more leverage to control your motorcycle

38:56

especially a heavy or loaded adventure

38:58

bike and the correct foot peg

39:00

is one that is designed professionally

39:02

for adventure riding specifically it's

39:05

manufactured as tough as nails maybe

39:07

puffer than nails and and

39:09

is designed in a way that suits your

39:11

riding style IMS products makes

39:14

a full line of adventure motorcycle foot

39:16

pegs just like I described there that

39:18

are designed specifically for your style of

39:20

riding they use cast certified 17 for

39:22

stainless steel and a certified heat treating

39:25

process they're made in the USA and

39:27

they're warrantied for life

39:30

IMS products comm is the website anytime you're dealing

39:32

with them thrown there that you heard them here

39:34

on adventure rider radio IMS products

39:37

comm so

39:43

as far as the bike prep before

39:45

you go because this is a big

39:47

deal for adventure riders a

39:49

lot of time and money is spent prepping

39:51

the perfect bike getting the gear

39:53

on there if you're laughing already getting the

39:56

gear on there getting your skid place in

39:58

and checking the internet to find it at

40:00

what the best possible products, what mods should

40:02

I do to this bike, to these adventures?

40:04

Because these adventures you're doing, that you've done,

40:06

that you've written about are all adventures that

40:08

people do on adventure motorcycles, you know, that

40:10

are really sort of on steroids compared to

40:12

your motorcycle that you're riding. So as far

40:14

as bike prep goes, how much time does

40:17

it take you to prep and how much

40:19

are you putting into it? I

40:21

sling the panniers over the back, throw

40:24

my tools in the back and basically set

40:26

off. It

40:29

really flies in the face of a lot of

40:32

thought process when it comes to adventure motorcycling. Now,

40:34

okay, how do you get away with that? Is

40:36

it because the thing is easy to fix? Yes,

40:39

I think it is. It's because it's so

40:41

robust and simple. And

40:44

as I say, even though I don't have any great mechanical

40:47

knowledge, I do know enough about

40:49

that particular bike to be able to cope

40:51

with it on the road. And you've

40:53

never had a breakdown with it, like

40:55

a Motogutsi breakdown that sort of canceled

40:57

your trip or delayed you tremendously or

40:59

anything? No, I mean,

41:01

I've had problems close to home.

41:04

I mean,

41:06

literally 20 yards

41:08

from my driveway, the gearbox

41:10

locked up one time, and I

41:13

ended up having to get a replacement

41:15

gearbox just just

41:17

through eBay. That was a simple thing. And

41:20

then one of the good

41:22

seagurus in Quebec checked

41:25

it out for me and installed it. Well,

41:27

actually, no, I installed it, but he made sure that it

41:29

was a good gearbox. What was wrong with the other one?

41:33

It had locked up. I don't know, it must have

41:36

been a bearing out of position or something like that.

41:38

Oh, you never broke it open and to see what

41:40

happened? He did.

41:42

I can't remember the

41:44

story. But

41:46

yeah, it was toast anyway. But

41:49

other than that, you're jumping in this bike time

41:51

after time again, riding off to distant places. Because,

41:54

you know, I know I'm sort of harping this point. And

41:56

for you that rides this bike all the time, you think

41:58

nothing of it, you're thinking what is the big deal? But

42:00

for others that are listening, you know, they spend

42:02

so much time worrying about their bike and is

42:04

it ready to go on this long trip, etc.

42:06

And you're just jumping on this bike and going.

42:08

I mean, how does that work? I

42:12

suppose I have a fair

42:14

amount of confidence in other people, too. I know that

42:16

if I break down somewhere in the middle of nowhere,

42:19

I've always got my tent and my sleeping bag. Somebody

42:22

is going to be along, you know, if it comes

42:24

to it. I'm

42:27

on a different bike, another Moda Goodsey,

42:30

but a 500 single that I had for

42:32

a while. I did

42:34

have what was a

42:36

trip stopping event, at least for me, on

42:39

the North Road in northern Quebec. When

42:43

I had a series of punctures, not realizing

42:45

that I had a tiny

42:47

little staple sticking out of the sidewall

42:49

of the tire into the carcass.

42:52

Into the tube. So I

42:54

put a new tube in and of course within 20 miles,

42:56

that was toast as well. And

42:59

I didn't have a patch kit. And

43:01

I was just trying to figure out what

43:03

I was going to do. I

43:06

ended up meeting some people from a Hydro

43:08

Quebec road crew. They were doing

43:10

a survey. And

43:12

the lady running the crew said, well, I've

43:14

got a satellite phone. Is there anyone you

43:16

need to call? And, you

43:19

know, I was thinking I could probably get

43:21

the bike into somebody's pickup

43:23

truck and taken to the

43:25

local First Nations village and they'd have something to help

43:27

me get patched up. But

43:31

using her satellite phone, I called my

43:33

buddy Norm back

43:35

here in eastern Ontario and

43:38

said, hey, Norm, I've got a I'm stuck on

43:40

the North Road. He

43:43

said, right, I'll come and get you. And

43:46

that was we have 1700 kilometres each way. Wow.

43:50

Wow. You got to have

43:52

a good friend for that. That's a good friend. Yeah. So

43:55

he drove all and it also makes you think about

43:57

like, is there not a better and faster, easier way?

44:00

to get it back rather than doing that? Yeah,

44:04

I mean, as I say, I kick myself

44:06

afterwards because I realized I chickened

44:08

out far too quickly. I just took

44:10

the easy way out because Norm

44:13

and I have ridden together on quite a

44:15

few little trips and we'd always said, if

44:18

we're ever stuck, just call. So

44:22

far, I haven't had to rescue him, but

44:24

he was quite prepared to rescue me. It's neat.

44:27

And there is something about that, isn't there? I

44:29

mean, that's the great thing about motorcycle friends, doing

44:32

that sort of thing. It's much more fun to be picked up

44:34

by a motorcycle buddy than get it towed by a tow truck.

44:37

If you could find one up there. Yeah, well, that's

44:39

true, too. Yes, of course. You just

44:41

mentioned you've ridden with your friend. Do

44:44

you normally do your trip solo or do you do them with other

44:46

people? Yeah, almost exclusively solo.

44:48

It's only once or twice that I've

44:50

been on longer trips with anybody else.

44:52

Is that on purpose? Yeah,

44:54

I just like being on my own. I

44:59

suppose I don't get too bored with my own company.

45:03

I find that long distance motorcycling

45:06

for long days, your mind

45:08

goes off on its own little adventures. And

45:11

I quite like that feeling. It's like I

45:13

sort of describe it as moving meditation. Just

45:20

particularly the roads I choose to ride. There's

45:23

almost never any traffic and you're

45:25

just grinding along sometimes. Or if

45:28

it's a big gravel road, yes, you've got to pay

45:30

attention to what's happening under

45:32

the wheels. But

45:36

the amount of brain power it takes

45:38

to actually pilot the bike down the

45:40

road is relatively small. As

45:43

I say, I consider it

45:45

that you sort of set the lizard

45:47

brain at work to keep the bike

45:49

on the road. And the

45:51

rest of your mind can go off on its own little

45:53

adventures. What would another

45:55

person along with you take away on

45:59

a trip? I

46:02

find that I like

46:05

to stop and take pictures. I like to stop

46:07

and fiddle with video cameras

46:09

and sometimes just

46:11

sit and listen to the birds for a

46:13

while. Little things like that. And if you're

46:16

along with somebody else, that starts to

46:18

be coming true, Seth. And

46:20

also, no two people

46:22

are entirely compatible. There's always,

46:25

you know, your

46:27

friend wants to go three miles

46:29

an hour faster than you, or

46:32

you want to go a little faster.

46:34

There's always some compromises. Whereas

46:37

if you're on your own, it's just you making

46:39

all the decisions. I

46:42

like that. No two people are entirely

46:44

compatible. That's very true. Usually

46:47

we compromise, don't we, with having

46:49

another person along for it. But

46:51

a lot of people will say

46:54

that, you know, having another person along for the

46:56

trip allows you to sort

46:58

of share the experience. And I'm wondering if that's

47:00

why you're writing books about it. Well,

47:03

I hadn't thought of it that way, but that's certainly possible. I do like

47:05

to share. You

47:07

know, I usually produce a clunky

47:10

video about my trips, you

47:13

know, after a few days after I get back. And

47:16

that I use as a way of reminding

47:19

me of all the little details. And

47:22

then I start the writing. And

47:24

you post the video, or you're just keeping this for yourself? No,

47:27

I post a video. I have a video

47:29

channel on YouTube. I see. Nick

47:31

Adams' motorcycle. Go figure. That

47:33

makes sense. Easy to find. Yeah. They're

47:37

not terribly high-tech or professionally

47:39

done. But people

47:42

seem to like them because, I don't know,

47:45

I have a very sort of casual, low-intensity

47:48

way of delivering them.

47:51

Maybe it puts people to sleep. I don't know. You

47:55

mentioned about the people that you meet. Do you

47:58

have some stories about people that you've been with? met and there

48:00

had been a significant impact

48:02

on you and on one of your trips? Gosh.

48:08

Well, obviously, the young lady and

48:11

the group doing the survey

48:14

on the North Road, they

48:16

were so absolutely generous. You

48:20

know, I was going to be stuck there for about a day

48:22

and a half until no one turned up. They

48:24

fed me. In fact, at one point, completely

48:27

unbeknownst to me, one of

48:29

the hydro truck workers had been back to

48:31

their main work camp, came

48:34

back with a whole bag full of drinks

48:37

and food and sandwiches and all that

48:39

kind of stuff. It

48:41

seems the further you are out from

48:44

what unwise people

48:46

call civilization, the more

48:49

likely it is that people are going to go out of their way

48:51

to help you. Why do

48:53

you think that is? I think

48:55

it is just easier, there is less. When

48:57

you have got tech streaming by, who is going

48:59

to stop? When

49:02

you are the only vehicle on the road for the

49:04

last two hours, then you

49:06

are more inclined to stop to see what

49:08

somebody is, if they look as though they are

49:10

in trouble. I often wonder

49:12

if it is because there are

49:14

very few people around that you sort of

49:16

see things that connect you more, mainly

49:18

that you are human. You

49:21

sort of recognize that connection between the two

49:23

of you more than what you will with

49:25

a bunch of people around and what you said is civilized.

49:28

That is true, definitely. One

49:31

of the things about traveling alone is that

49:33

you are more open to that kind of

49:35

interaction. You are riding with an

49:37

individual or a very thought group of people. You

49:43

turn up to a gas station, let us say,

49:45

and you are filling up. The

49:48

likelihood that your

49:51

conversations are going to stay internal, you are going

49:53

to be talking to the people that you are

49:55

traveling with. You are going to be sharing your

49:57

stories with them. It is like you are less

50:00

open to that. open to the other people around

50:02

who may be interested in where you're going and

50:04

what you're doing.

50:06

And I guess one of the advantages of

50:08

riding an old bike is that that's an

50:10

immediate opportunity for

50:12

people to engage in conversation. Yeah,

50:16

I'm wondering if your

50:18

adventures would be as interesting on

50:20

a modern, dare I say,

50:23

more reliable bike. I don't even know if that's true, though,

50:25

the way you're describing this, but let's just say that that

50:27

is the case on a modern, more reliable bike. I

50:30

do ride, I also have a Suzuki

50:33

Cavalcade 1986. That's

50:36

my modern bike. But

50:38

I ride on long trips. I was out

50:40

in Nova Scotia on it last

50:44

October. And then again, later

50:47

in the year, this time, I guess

50:50

that was September. Again,

50:55

on my own, it's fine. The bike runs

50:57

long. But somehow it doesn't

50:59

seem quite as adventurous to me.

51:03

Do people act the same to you? Do

51:05

they respond the same as with the

51:07

Moto Goodsy? Probably

51:09

not. No, they just, you know, because it

51:11

looks like an old Goldwing, people just, you

51:14

know, just see it as an old, well,

51:16

just a big touring bike. And

51:20

it's not as obviously old as

51:22

the Eldorado. But

51:26

even so, because

51:28

you're one person on a

51:30

motorcycle, just

51:33

about everybody feels empowered to

51:35

come and talk to you. Are

51:38

there any fears for you for traveling alone? In

51:40

particular, when you get into remote places? No.

51:46

Yes, okay, yes, there are. I

51:51

have a deep fear of grizzly

51:53

bears in the west and

51:55

the north. I'd

51:57

be very Wary of camping anywhere.

52:00

Where the wasn't. You. Know. Didn't.

52:02

Have the appearance of Big Save. A.

52:05

Black Bear Country don't really give

52:07

it much thought. And

52:10

that's it. Yeah.

52:12

I'm not worried about breakdowns are

52:14

not worried about sir. People in

52:17

people know it won't cost know.

52:19

Mohammad. Be glad. You

52:22

know I'm not. I'm. I'm. Not

52:25

automatic Victim. Who wrote?

52:27

Them. Like, I just understand why

52:30

you're so freight a grizzly. So what's the

52:32

deal with the success? that? I

52:34

can think of any number of reasons. I

52:38

did see a I did see a couple on

52:40

now on the most recent trip. Out

52:43

west. And but fortunately

52:45

they were the both occasions they were sufficiently

52:47

far away that it wasn't an issue. Year.

52:51

There there's There's certainly large animals as they're

52:53

very impressive to see up close. And of

52:55

course, as you probably know already, this they

52:57

can burst is incredible speeds. I think forty

52:59

five mile an hour or something like the

53:01

idea for for sharp years I've seen them

53:03

run alongside of the road be force while

53:05

I'm going to As road and in rural

53:07

and remote places and British Columbia. And damn

53:09

it's yeah, you do not want to mess

53:11

with an animal like that and you don't

53:13

wanna unit in the way of it. You

53:15

know, wanting to run and disable youth. And

53:19

i did stop at the sight of

53:21

wrote the to take some video of

53:23

have some bison and on the yeah

53:25

alaska highway food. And

53:27

I left the engine running across buttons

53:29

and and those who is one big

53:31

bison mail. Doing. A wallow? he

53:33

was sort of rolling around in there in the

53:36

sand pit. And then

53:38

he looked at me the game if is

53:40

think I who are okay I'm going I'm

53:42

going to assess the who sets another began

53:44

with for out about this is certainly want

53:46

to be will even lose customers and moose

53:48

earlier. Moose can be dangerous and in the

53:50

rat in there in the fall so as

53:52

as are looking for a mate they can

53:54

be very aggressive. I

53:56

think I think spending a lot of time and and

53:58

the canoe and not not. Ontario during

54:01

those early years when I first moved here, sort

54:04

of gave

54:07

me a perhaps foolish sense

54:09

of invulnerability. What

54:12

do you mean foolish? Well, I

54:14

mean, the reality is things can happen.

54:17

You know, you're riding along a gravel road, you

54:20

misjudge something, you hit a sand trap, bang, you're

54:22

down. And who knows when the next

54:24

vehicle along is going to be, it could be ours. And

54:28

no one person is, you know, more

54:32

immune to that than anybody else. But

54:35

I like to think that I'm sufficiently

54:38

cautious most of the time, but

54:40

I'm sort of trying

54:44

to manage the risks, let's put it that way. You

54:48

have to be more careful when you're traveling by yourself

54:50

than when you're with someone else. I

54:53

guess so, yes. You guess so? You know,

54:55

that doesn't come into your thought process because I know for me

54:57

that, you know, and I have

54:59

some wilderness guiding background, I know for me,

55:02

when I'm with someone else, I will tend to

55:04

try things or maybe push my luck a little

55:06

bit, dare I say, and sound, you know, reckless,

55:08

but push my luck a little bit more than

55:11

what I when I'm by myself, because when I'm

55:13

alone, I realize just how vulnerable I am. I'm

55:17

on the bike, particularly, I've never been even when

55:19

I was a kid, I was not a speed

55:21

person. I

55:23

mean, I did foolish things. I had

55:25

a couple of panzers, which were old

55:28

British single cylinder motorbikes. And

55:30

I can recall riding while not being able

55:33

to kickstart them because I was too drunk

55:35

and having to bump start them, you

55:37

know, foolish stuff like that. But

55:41

speed has never been something I've

55:43

been, you know, infatuated

55:45

with. I'd much rather burble

55:47

along at what I consider to be a

55:49

safe and comfortable speed and get

55:51

where I'm going. Well, I'm thinking also of even trying

55:53

a road. I mean, you know, you're going up in

55:55

Northern Ontario and you come to a road, you

55:58

know, do you try it by yourself? Oh

56:00

yeah, yeah, pretty much always. You

56:03

don't worry about it. Now, when I say road,

56:05

are you thinking main roads or do you go

56:07

off on places that may be somewhat less used

56:09

or abandoned? I

56:12

don't sort

56:14

of go to the ends of logging roads and that kind

56:16

of thing, but I'll happily

56:18

ride sort of minor single

56:21

track gravel roads that

56:24

go. I was out earlier

56:28

this year on my

56:30

Honda Pacific Coast, if you remember that

56:32

wonderful beast, in

56:36

Northern Ontario on a road west

56:39

of Matatuan, which is

56:42

great. It's got a number. It's got a highway number,

56:44

but it goes from basically

56:48

a two-lane gravel road, decent

56:50

road, gradually sort of

56:53

narrows down to a little more than a single

56:55

strip of gravel through the forest. Yeah,

57:00

I mean, I knew

57:02

where I was going to end up and I knew I had

57:04

enough gas, so why not? Just

57:07

take a chance. And you're not worried at that

57:09

point, I mean, because there are no Grizzlies there.

57:13

No, no, I'm not worried. And,

57:16

you know, it's not that I don't recognise

57:19

the risks, it's that I

57:22

like to sort of think that I'm being

57:24

as careful as I can without limiting

57:28

my pleasure, let's put it that way. So

57:31

if something goes wrong, you come off the bike and

57:33

you injure yourself or something like that, you feel you're

57:35

quite prepared to deal with that and wait until somebody

57:37

comes along. Well, I

57:39

mean, what choice do you have? It's

57:42

just you hope it doesn't happen. No, but I mean, you can

57:44

choose not to go. Like, in other words, you're getting into a

57:46

remote spot and you can look at that road and say, OK,

57:48

you know, I'm by myself. If something goes wrong here, I'm going

57:50

to be up the creek. I won't

57:52

go there. Yeah,

57:54

I think a lot of my thinking may

57:56

have changed a little bit in 2017. when

58:02

I had triple bypass surgery. And

58:07

you sort of, once you, well, I

58:10

had sort of degenerative

58:13

angina, that's the best way I

58:15

can describe it, is sort of

58:17

having been fit and healthy all my life, I was

58:20

suddenly falling off the map and

58:22

ended up having triple bypass. But since

58:24

then, you know, I've been fit and healthy

58:27

again. Wow. And perhaps

58:30

it's just a case of saying, well, you

58:32

know, do the things you want

58:34

to do and say hell with the risks. What

58:37

are your title of the book is Do All You Still Can? Is

58:39

that what it's about? That's

58:41

just about getting old. Just, well,

58:44

I mean, it's about a lot of things.

58:46

It's about motorcycle trips. It's about the pleasure

58:48

of riding. But

58:51

certainly the introduction is about how,

58:56

whether we like it or not, we are all

58:58

aging, or at least my generation of people is

59:00

aging. A lot of them

59:02

are becoming infirm, a lot of their knees

59:04

don't work properly, you know, hips and such

59:07

like, so if you've, if

59:09

you have the desire to do things, do

59:11

it now. Don't

59:13

wait, because you can never guarantee on the you

59:16

can never guarantee the future. You know,

59:18

I think as long as you have some health, some, and

59:21

some desire to do things, then

59:24

just do them. Don't don't there's no, there's

59:26

no perfect time. You

59:28

say you though you feel like you're 23 still. Yeah.

59:35

Well, I guess especially I think you said with that, especially when

59:37

you throw your leg over your bike. Oh,

59:39

yeah, yeah, for sure. And unfortunately, I can

59:42

still throw my leg over the bike, even

59:44

when it's fully loaded. So you know, I'm,

59:47

I guess years of Tae Kwon Do and

59:49

Karate health, and that kind of thing. But

59:53

I'm lucky I recognize that I'm lucky. I got

59:55

patched up, I got re plumbed. And

59:58

I got a new lease of life. Yeah, so I'm going

1:00:00

to make Don sure I use it to the best of my

1:00:02

ability. You say

1:00:04

about old age and you said you wrote a

1:00:06

book there about about getting old. What's

1:00:09

the point of it? Is it about getting out there

1:00:11

and doing it? I

1:00:14

guess for me, and for those, what I

1:00:16

would say is, is that if you

1:00:20

have the desire to do it, don't

1:00:22

wait, do it. There'll never be a

1:00:24

better time. Don't let

1:00:27

little inconveniences

1:00:29

slow you down. A

1:00:32

lot of people, I hear this on the forums

1:00:34

all the time. It's

1:00:36

too cold to ride or I put

1:00:38

the bikes away for the winter or

1:00:42

I didn't have a heated vest or just

1:00:46

suck it up. Just get out

1:00:51

there and do it if you want to do

1:00:53

it. Otherwise, you're sitting on

1:00:55

the couch, the day is going to go by and then

1:00:57

the next day is going to go by and then you're

1:00:59

not going to be able to do it. Yeah. And

1:01:02

if you have an adventure along the way, if something

1:01:04

goes wrong, you've got a story to come home

1:01:06

with. Yeah,

1:01:09

things don't have to go wrong for there to be a

1:01:11

good story. Everything we do

1:01:13

is a story. If

1:01:17

you go out for a tour

1:01:19

on your brand new bike and absolutely nothing

1:01:21

goes wrong, you've

1:01:23

still got things to tell people about

1:01:26

the places you've been and how you

1:01:28

felt about it. And

1:01:30

you know, what a wonderful time you had. No,

1:01:32

and that's true. And I totally agree. I feel

1:01:34

like every time I go out to do you

1:01:36

know, if I'm riding my motorcycle or paddling my

1:01:38

canoe, I feel like there's always something special from

1:01:41

that outing that I come home with. There always

1:01:43

is, it never fails. And I recognize it often

1:01:45

when it happens. I think well, that was it.

1:01:47

And it could be as simple as spotting an

1:01:49

animal or seeing a spot that I've never seen

1:01:51

before finding a road or something like that. But

1:01:53

what I was referring to was the fear, you

1:01:55

know, where people say, well, it's, it's too cold,

1:01:57

I might be uncomfortable. Or what if I have

1:01:59

a problem with my bike or what if something goes

1:02:01

wrong. You know, that's where I'm saying if

1:02:04

you just do it and you have that issue,

1:02:06

something does go wrong, it's okay because it makes

1:02:08

it part of your story. Yes.

1:02:11

Yeah. You

1:02:13

just have to, I guess it's a mental headspace

1:02:15

thing. You have to have your mind in the

1:02:17

right place and be

1:02:20

prepared for discomfort sometimes. Riding

1:02:23

a motorbike is, is, and can

1:02:25

be uncomfortable. You

1:02:27

know, muscles ache. We get soaking wet, we

1:02:29

get cold, like on

1:02:31

this most recent trip across Labrador. There

1:02:35

was no squalls. It was, you know, probably

1:02:38

less than three degrees Celsius, much

1:02:41

of the time. If

1:02:45

you've got good gear, great. If you've not, just

1:02:47

put on everything you've got and keep going. Do

1:02:52

you wear modern gear or are you wearing 1970s motor goods?

1:02:58

I have a big thick padded leather

1:03:00

jacket and a

1:03:02

set of Harley

1:03:06

like chaps that

1:03:08

I often wear.

1:03:11

I do have other gear and I sometimes wear that. And

1:03:14

you know, when it's cold, I'll wear

1:03:16

long underwear and padded pants underneath the

1:03:19

chaps and then maybe my rain suit

1:03:21

over the top. And, you know, I,

1:03:24

I layer up pretty well. I see. I

1:03:27

chuckled there because I was meaning to ask

1:03:29

you about the chaps. Why chaps? Why

1:03:32

do you want to ride something that has no protection on your butt?

1:03:35

Well, I don't, I don't think about landing on my

1:03:38

butt. Actually it was

1:03:40

one of my greatest pleasures was

1:03:42

riding a Suzuki Bergman scooter back

1:03:44

across Labrador wearing

1:03:47

my leathers. Just, just, just

1:03:49

for the hell of it. You know, I just,

1:03:51

I just love the, the way

1:03:53

people respond to something

1:03:56

that's not ordinary. You

1:04:00

know, I can, yeah, you

1:04:02

can wear your klim suits

1:04:05

or klim suits and ride

1:04:07

the latest GS. That's fine.

1:04:09

Great. Have fun. Good for

1:04:11

you. I just do what I

1:04:13

do. It's what

1:04:15

you enjoy and that's all that matters. Yeah.

1:04:17

And actually the leather is great stuff. It's

1:04:20

very comfortable. It doesn't get too hot.

1:04:23

It's well padded and well insulating during

1:04:26

the cold. I

1:04:28

just like it. Certainly good

1:04:30

protection, no doubt. Yeah. Yeah.

1:04:33

Well, Nick, thank you very much for sitting down and talking to

1:04:35

me. I really appreciate it. Oh, it's made

1:04:37

my pleasure Jim. Thanks very much. I

1:05:02

was speaking with motorcycle book author Nick

1:05:04

Adams from his home in Ontario, Canada.

1:05:06

You can find Nick's books on Amazon

1:05:09

and we'll put a link in the

1:05:11

show notes for his books on our

1:05:13

website adventureriderradio.com. Yeah.

1:05:53

I Just want to remind you that

1:05:55

this episode has been brought to you

1:05:57

by: Green Chile Adventure Gear Green Chile

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adv.com. Motorbreeze. Seen Euler at Moto

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breeze.com and Best Products and Cycle

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bump.com and we really appreciate have

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any time you deal with his

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company's anytime, email or otherwise. let

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them know you heard them here

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on Adventure Rider Radio. Wales.

1:06:25

Little revs up another episode of a Better Writer

1:06:27

Radio and we sure who them join listen to

1:06:29

it as much as we did. Me special thanks

1:06:31

of course to a producer he never here. And

1:06:34

thus and yourself with well thank you very much

1:06:36

for being a part of it by the shelf

1:06:38

Say if you enjoy the show and you get

1:06:40

something out of and we do we do and

1:06:42

the other when we do each month adventure I

1:06:44

don't really raw this is a separate your the

1:06:46

comes out every month said get something from the

1:06:49

shows us that we put out We would really

1:06:51

appreciate it if you consider supporting it doesn't take

1:06:53

much medical to take my my next to. Nothing

1:06:55

like think of what you spend i was

1:06:57

him coffee but any of those small expense

1:06:59

and the think of what you get from

1:07:01

them. I mean think the money put out

1:07:03

the value for coffee. It's and you get

1:07:06

caught in a lot for how long and

1:07:08

then what you're getting from the same. I

1:07:10

think that's a good way to train With

1:07:12

this in perspective because there are tons of

1:07:14

people that listen to this show every single

1:07:16

week. I mean the downloads are absolutely huge.

1:07:19

The show was in the to hop. I

1:07:21

think it's higher than the top three percent

1:07:23

of all podcast called genres. I'm. talking like

1:07:25

the most popular podcast like were right

1:07:27

up in there with those ones yet

1:07:29

is such a tiny tiny tiny fraction

1:07:31

of those people you that listen that

1:07:33

actually support the shelves i don't want

1:07:35

a harp on it but i'm to

1:07:37

thing is the time year maybe you

1:07:39

think a little bit more buttons kind

1:07:41

of stuff and likely to times for

1:07:43

to drop our website the fence or

1:07:45

write a review.com and click on apart

1:07:47

anyway time to get out there and

1:07:49

ride your bike if you can i

1:07:51

can buy the mr martin thanks so

1:07:53

much for listening This

1:08:05

is Chris Lietz of Lier Corporation and

1:08:07

you listening to Adventure Rider Radio. You