Topic: 'ello, 'ello

[nickjtc]

Just received a birthday greeting from this august forum, which must be a new innovation. So I thought I would swing by and say "Hello" since it's been a few years...

I've gone through the Norton and Thruxton phase (had to sell the fleet to finance the purchase of a new house..... oh well!) but could not bear to be bikeless so have come up with these.

The Tiger is a '96 and we are off to Alaska together on Saturday.

The Suzuki (wrong colour of course; it started life as a red one) is a '77 I bought new. I sold it in '80 and lo and behold it has found its way back into the stable after an absence of 33 years!

[70CB750]

Do you plan to keep us posted on your trip?

I told my wife that motorcycle ride to Alaska is on my bucket list, but she pretended she did not hear me

Anyway, would be interesting to follow you on map.

Have a safe trip!

[vfourfreak]

 I sold it in '80 and lo and behold it has found its way back into the stable after an absence of 33 years!

The prodigal bike ! It was clearly meant to be yours.

Would love to follow your progress.

Bon Voyage !

Kev

[754]

Sounds like you solved the ignorant neighbor problem..I hope..
Have a good trip, post a few pics..

[nickjtc]

Thanks for those kind words. Yes, I will certainly post pics when I get back, unless I find a computer en route compatible with my camera.

Here is a pic of the Suzuki on its first long trip, Labour Day 1977, Alberta to British Columbia. No need for fancy luggage in those days!

[fmctm1sw]

Ride safe.  I ran into a guy the other day on his way across the country.  He was on an old Goldwing with a trailer shaped like a coffin that he made himself.  That's got to be so much fun....

[Terry in Australia]

All the best Nick, I love that XT500 in your pic, I had one in the '80's and I wish it would find it's way back to me, I loved that big thumper and still kick myself for selling it! Cheers, Terry.

[nickjtc]

So, home again after an interesting but tiring trip up north. 6400+km total in 10 days riding time.

We headed north from here, through Kamloops and Prince George and camped the first night. Second night was in Fort Nelson and by the third we had reached Liard hot springs. The campground was packed, but they graciously let us camp in the car park along with all of the overflow RVs and trailers. The hot springs are a 'must visit' if you ever 'do' the Alaska Highway.

The next day the speedo stopped working on the bike, but fortunately I was using a GPS so it was not a huge tragedy. We stayed in Teslin for the night and the following day rode through Whitehorse and ended up in Dawson City, home of the gold rush of 1898. An interesting place, with dirt streets and boardwalk sidewalks, and free condoms in every bathroom.

I had to do the 'sourtoe' cocktail, of course! I was number 54,017 (so it says on the certificate).

http://www.canadacool.com/location/dawson-city-sour-toe-cocktail/

Friday night was the Dust to Dawson (don't call it a rally) Rally with about 200 bikes from all over in attendance. A bit of a BMW GS benefit really since the vast majority of machines there were R1200GSs. All the usual stuff with good company, good food and bike games afterwards. It is quite eerie to be outside, beer in hand, at midnight, but still in broad daylight.

When we were ready to leave Dawson on Saturday we were going to head west on the Top of the World Highway to Chicken. (It's called that because they couldn't spell ptarmigan, apparently.) Anyhoo it was pissing with rain so we decided to err on the side of caution and not risk it. The US side of the road gets slicker than snot on a door knob and neither of us had 'off road' tyres. So we decided to head back to Whitehorse (another drone down the road) and then south to Skagway, where we spent a very pleasant day and night looking at more jewelry stores than I have ever seen in one place; catering to the cruise ship crowd I s'pose. We then caught the ferry over to Haines and headed back north to camp at the Million Dollar Falls rec site, back in Yukon.

On Monday am my riding partner Gerry decided that he wanted to see more of Alaska (he had more $$ than me and a lot more time to kill) so at Haines Junction we said our goodbyes and he headed west and I headed east.

Now I had the bit between my teeth and just wanted to get home, so I did 900km on Monday, to Dease Lake on the Cassiar Highway, 1086km on Tuesday to Quesnel, and 524km on Wednesday to get home. Knackered but happy.

Here are some pics.

[nickjtc]

A few more pics.

The cruise ship is one of the ones used in the TV show 'The Love Boat', fyi.

[nickjtc]

Everyone is asking whether it was 'worth it'. To which I answer "yes", to be able to say I have ridden one of the iconic roads in the world. However, to be frank, it's not a motorcycle road. Of the 6400km there were perhaps 400km of really interesting bits, aka bends! The rest was a bit of a mind numbing, tyre squaring, drone.

And it did not help that the tiger is quite heavy on fuel consumption, especially with the luggage on the back. Fuel prices varied, but in the back of beyond they ask you to kindly drop trou' when it comes time to pay. $1.70 a litre for indifferent low grade fuel!!

We opted to go north on the Alaska Highway and south on the Cassiar Highway. The Cassiar is certainly the more entertaining, if not so famous.

[70CB750]

Epic trip, thanks for the pictures.

[demon78]

How were the bugs? I went up the Alcan highway in 63 and the one thing I would recommend as an an accessory is a 40mm Bofors gun for the mosquitoes.
Bill the demon.

[faux fiddy]

A few more pics.

The cruise ship is one of the ones used in the TV show 'The Love Boat', fyi.

I would think the middle one is Skagway.  If so,  that dock adjacent to the cliff was wrecked by an avalanch in the second half of the '90's

[faux fiddy]

How were the bugs? I went up the Alcan highway in 63 and the one thing I would recommend as an an accessory is a 40mm Bofors gun for the mosquitoes.
Bill the demon.

One thing about those big moose hunter mosquitos is they don't have the evasive techniques, and you can see them cutting a straight path to you from 40 paces. None of the hovering around, just a landing pattern and start drillin' as if they were after their swamp moose.  It's only when there are hundreds at once that it's frustrating kepping up with them.