Myself and a few friends planned a trip to ride up to Montreal about two months ago. Our planning involved choosing the dates and that was about it. I was going to ride my largely stock 1972 CB500 Four, another friend was riding his 2011 BMW F650GS, and another friend who flew in from LA rented a BMW R1200GS from Jupiter's Rental in Brooklyn. We also had a friend who drove up in his car which meant we didn't need carry much with us on our bikes. We need to convince him to start riding.
I spent the past few weeks working on my bike to make sure it was road worthy for a trip of this length. I did a trip to Cape Cod back in June and the bike needed some basic maintenance.
- new chain
- new sprockets
- new clutch cable
- new throttle cables
- new master cylinder and front brake lever
- bled the front brake and adjusted the rear
- adjusted the valves
- oil change
- tried to find a new clutch push rod but ended up using the broken one which worked fine
- new handle bars (a couple inches lower than the stock which I found to be much more comfortable)
- new grips, mirrors, taillight and turn signals
I finished all of this work the day before. I was getting a little nervous b/c I've never done a lot of this work before but it all turned out well.
So this past Tuesday morning we set off from Brooklyn and headed up to Montreal. Our loose itinerary was...
Tuesday - ride to Montreal
Wednesday - hang out in Montreal
Thursday/Friday - ride back to Brooklyn
We ended up leaving at about 10:30AM and took a circuitous route out of the city (BQE > 495 > Whitestone Bridge > Taconic). It probably wasn't ideal but we didn't hit any real traffic so I can't complain. We decided we were going to take the Taconic up to southern Vermont to get the first leg of the trip out of the way. Our first gas stop was Bullshead Road off the Taconic. My bike would get about 100 miles before I had to switch to reserve throughout the trip. From Bullshead we wandered around the Hudson Valley area for a bit until we found a gas station and then a diner to eat lunch at. After lunch we took Route 82 North back to the Taconic and then took Route 20 to Route 22 until we crossed over into Vermont near Bennington for our second gas stop. From here our plan was to take Route 7 all the way up to Burlington. The southern portion of Route 7 is a mix of highway and commercial. However, a little further north the road opens up and there are quite a few dramatic views all around. It was sunny and in the mid-80's most of the trip so the weather was fantastic. We did get a 15 minute rain shower at one point when we were at a slightly higher altitude but we kept riding and I dried off pretty quickly. We got to Burlington around 5:00, i think, and plotted a course through the islands that populate Lake Chaplain. We took Route 2 through the lake and island area which held several amazing sites as you crossed from one island to another. Our plan was to cross the border at Canada 225 but we ended up taking Route 2 back into NY state where we crossed at Canada 223. The border crossing was pretty uneventful and quick. Nobody else was there. As soon as we crossed all we could see was farmland and a giant rainbow that spanned the entire sky. Daylight was starting to dwindle so we picked it up and headed over to Canada 15 which sends you straight to Montreal. After a missed turn or two we got on the bridge that leads into the city and had a great view of the sunset behind the city. We pulled up to our hotel in downtown Montreal a bit after dusk. All in all it was a very long day of riding. We did about 450 miles and my CB500 did a great job of keeping up with my throttle happy F650GS friend.
After a day of sleeping late and hanging out in Montreal we prepped to ride back home on Thursday. We decided that we were going to break up the return trip into two days and take a more leisurely route back. We quickly decided that we would head home through the Adirondacks. None of us had ever been through the Adirondacks so we didn't know what to expect. Our morning started from our hotel and it took us a few wrong turns and missed highway connections to finally get out of Montreal. Once out of Montreal we took a mix of Canada 132, 138 and 201 through some beautiful little towns and farmlands to get to the US border to cross at Route 30. The US border patrol was much more inquisitive than the Canadian patrol but after a series of questions we were let back into the US and promptly headed down Route 30 through the Adirondacks. The riding the entire rest of the day was amazing. With exception of a gas detour that took us around Lower and Middle Saranac lakes we stuck to Route 30 nearly the whole way. The roads were open, there was little to no traffic, the weather was perfect and we cruised down through New York. When we got to US 90 it was getting dark so we decided to head to Albany for the night. I just switched to reserve and figured I could make it to the hotel without another gas stop. All in all we did 300 beautiful miles on Thursday.
Friday morning came and after sleeping a little late we were prepared to ride back to Brooklyn. I started up my bike and after idling for about 5 minutes we were ready to head to the gas station. As soon as I twisted the throttle my engine cut out. #$%*, I just ran out of gas. We went and got a can of gas and poured it in but the bike was running a bit rough. The plan was to ride a few miles to the gas station to fill up and then hit the road. The problem was I never made it to the gas station. The bike would start with the choke open but as soon as I closed it or let off the throttle the engine would cut out. I figured some junk from the tank might have got sucked into the gas lines when I ran out of gas so I tried to do what I could on the side of the road.
- cleaned the petcock and filter
- removed the petcock to check for clogs
- checked the fuel lines
- emptied the float bowls
None of this helped so I decided to rent a u-haul truck and get back home before it got too late. So the last 150 miles of the trip were by u-haul but it could have been a lot worse. My bike ran great for all the best parts of the trip. The only other issue that cropped up on the trip was that it started to get hard to shift into neutral while stopped. I'll look into that along with the other issue this week so I can get back on the road ASAP.
The total ride on the bike for the two days I road was 750 miles. My two BMW friends road about 900 miles total.
Christian
