The Cabot Trail is a highway that runs around the coast of Cape Breton Island, which is part of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. Cape Breton lies just off Nova Scotia's cnorthern coast. The Cabot trail is known as being one of the world's most beautiful highways, and might be considered comparable to the Pacific Coast Highway in California.
For my first trip to Cape Breton, around 1990, I went with a university buddy, and I took a 1972 Suzuki T250 two-stroke street bike. At the time, my mechanical knowledge of bikes was approaching nil, and if I had known more, I probably never would have attempted the trip. A vintage two-stroke 250 is probably the worst possible touring machine you could take on a long trip, and indeed, the trip ended a little prematurely due to mechanical failure.
My buddy rode a much more reliable bike, a smaller mid-eighties Yamaha Virago, and I struggled to keep up with him on any sort of hill or into any headwind. I think my speed topped out at 70mph. We were fully loaded with camping gear, and ready for our ten day trip.
Our route took us from our starting point in Waterloo, Ontario (near Toronto) and then to Boston, and then by ferry to New Brunswick, and then we rode to Nova Scotia. Whenever we took to the secondary highways, the going was great. I grew to dislike the major highways due to the traffic and dullness of the too-perfect roads.
The highway that runs around Cape Breton was indeed beautiful, and we actually polished off the entire ride in just a day. Our nights were spent in various bed & breakfasts, and I must say, B & B's are a great way to go for travellers, although the price of them seems to have risen quite a bit in general over the last decade or two.
On the way, the bike struggled as I mentioned, but carried on as best it could. The tank was miniscule, and I think could barely go 100 miles before needing a top up. My clutch cable's end snapped a few days in, and having no spare, I jimmy rigged the end with a nail, and it was enough to use the clutch.
Well, we did make it to our final destination of the Cabot Trail, but my bike was not meant to return home. On the way home, just outside of Montreal, with perhaps 350 miles to go to make it back home, my engine suddenly lost half its power. This was on a major highway, and my bike was reduced to limping along at perhaps 50 mph. I tried to draft behind trucks, which did in fact help quite a bit, but in the end, I could not every keep up with the slow-moving trucks. My engine got progressively more noisy, until finally, the bike would barely move. I had certainly blown something serious in my engine, and it didn't take long for me to decide to just ditch the bike. I pulled over, called a bike shop and told them they could have the bike, and then got on a bus bound for Waterloo. I real downer ending for our trip. My buddy ended up riding the rest of the way on his own.
I suppose for a $100 bike, the Suzuki couldn't be faulted, but I definitely wouldn't recommend trying something similar to what I did. Size and cubic inches definitely rule when it comes to touring, I've come to realize. But I do hope my current bike, a '78 CB550, has what it takes to do some serious miles. I hope...
I will write about my second Cabot Trail trip when I get a chance.
Rob
