Jonesin for a Ride!

Archive for the ‘2012-08-08 Canadian Rockies’ Category

Below is the fix. Grind the rope nub off on the inside of the tire, rough up the tire in the area, apply cement and then your patch (much like patching a bicycle tube I guess). Boom! Done! Fixed (or at least more secured). I don’t know why so many places refused to do this….

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Like any trip, you come across some obstacles. This trip was a flat tire, ticket (which hampered our riding speed for the rest of the trip), and a little light issue.

As you can see, the roadside fix Big Steve did on the tire worked for the rest of the trip. And as you can also see, plenty of tread left on this tire-it was brand new for this trip. All the shops we checked for applying a patch inside the tire wouldn't do it and wanted to sell us a new tire.

BS's issue with his lights going on and off were a little puzzling, although on our last leg, Steve thinks it has to do with when he fills up to much gas. He noticed that when he overflowed it, or filled it to the top, the lights wouldn't work (but he could flash them with the flasher), so he thinks a grounding issue. They did work for our trip home on the last day.

We planned on 10 days, had 12 for cushion, and did it in 9. We were going to plan some more off freeway for the trip home, but the Idaho fires were making the Montana, Wyoming and Utah areas that we were traveling through very smoky and visibilities of the vistas were compromised, so we droned it on the freeway the last 1 1/2 days.

My trip odometer registered 4,375 mile. Below is a Google Earth image of the route and the elevation profile below it. The route kind of looks like a smashed up guitar. In the gallery, I put our day ride elevations in there, more for my documentation for my rides.

I may have to rethink my rides and go with the Tom Botz's method (ride, store your bike, fly home, and return later to continue). There are a lot of roads in Canada to explore, and the commuting time back and forth to get there is at least 3 days one way for (at least for me), and I've done a lot of the road inside the US several times between here and the border. It would allow for more leisurely pace to explore the area.

Either that, or I need more vacation days….

Below are also a few photos from our last few days through MT, WY, UT heading home

Thanks for following along.

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Took the night off from blogging. BS’s lights are acting up. Sometimes they work, other times they don’t. Not a big deal, just need to make sure we ride during the day.
You can see our current location today by clicking the “Home” tab.
Will post later with a wrap up.

Please Note-Click on the Home tab to see our current location

We got up at 5:30 a.m. And we were on the bikes at 8:00 and headed for the border. The ride out of Canada was pleasantly scenic and we had plenty of sunshine. We crossed the border about an hour later and made our way towards Glacier National Park to take the Going to the Sun road.

The weather was sunny and warm. We could have easily road the whole national park without putting on our jackets as it was warm all the way to Logan's Pass. It was also bumper to bumper on the way up due to construction on this narrow two lane road through the park.

Once thorough the park we continued south east. You pretty much hit the plains at this point and of course, the constant crosswinds. Eventually we made it to I-15 and headed towards Helena and then Butte M.T. where we took a break.

The weather was sunny and warm in Butte. At our stop we met another rider, Hahn's from Germany, who was riding from Key West FL to Seattle in 14 days on a rented GS. He just set his GPS for shortest route and followed it. It took him on all kinds of roads, including dirt trails. He already spilled the bike twice in the dirt and broke both hard bags. We also learned that he couldn't convince his finance in Seattle to move to Germany, but he thought the reason was when she came to visit Germany, he was still having some communication with his ex. WAY too much info we were hearing from Hahns…. Anyway, he had a helmet that had a bunch of signatures on it and he wanted us to sign it, it was the. People he met along his journey.

While in Butte, I booked a room in the next town Dillon, MT which was an hour away. During that ride down to Dillion, we then discovered that the area was covered with a smokey sky that made the day seem like late evening. I have never seen smoke so bad! It was from forest fires in Idaho, where we were a few days earlier.

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