1 Year, 2 KLRs, and a whole lot of open road...: July 6th, 2010

5 days to go before my cousin’s wedding…

We worked all night yesterday trying to get the tire on, completed the job at 5:00 am in the morning, dragged our butts into the bedroom, and set our alarm to wake up in a half hour. We had to stay on schedule if we wanted to make it to the wedding on time. We did the ol’ trick Aphasia taught us back in Long Island; we both drank a bottle of 5-Hour Power, had a half hour nap, and were up and ready to get back on the road again.

We met up with Kevin in Fort Frances to have breakfast at McDonald’s. There were a few things I still needed to get done on my bike before we could get going. I needed to replace the headlight bulb because it had blown out the night before and I needed to do an oil change.

I picked up the bulb and oil at Canadian Tire and went to a marine shop Kevin knew to do the oil change.

While I was doing that, Amanda helped Kevin pick up a bike he had just purchased across the border in International Falls, Minnesota.

With the oil changed and bulb replaced, Amanda and Kevin (on his new Kawasaki Concours) arrived at the shop shortly after. We thanked Kevin and rode east towards Thunder Bay. One thing I noticed on the bike while I was doing the oil change was that the rear sprocket is almost worn out again. I had a funny feeling back when I replaced only the rear sprocket in Dawson Creek that this will bite me in the butt. I was really hoping that the sprocket will hold up till we get to Toronto and change the whole thing for cheaper online. Now I don’t think we’ll even make it to Thunder Bay and it’s going to cost me twice as much. Real smooth Will, real smooth.

Amanda playing Goldilocks while we stopped for fuel

You know that feeling when you pass out momentarily and then wake up when you’re behind the wheel and you get all freaked out because you don’t know how long you were out for? Yeah, we were getting a serious case of THAT feeling and knew we couldn’t carry on. We stopped at a convenience store, bought 2 Red Bulls, chugged them, and napped for a half hour. This technique really works wonders.

The chain held up and we made it to Thunder Bay. We stopped by at Excalibur Motorcycle Works to see if they had any chain and sprockets in stock, but they were closed for the evening. This was where we met the owner of Old Iron, a bike shop that specializes in restoring old motorcycles. He looked at my rear sprocket and suggested that I shouldn’t be riding on it anymore and that we should come back tomorrow to see if Excalibur had any in stock. He helped us big time when he offered to let us sleep in the storage warehouse. He even told us where to get free showers and food at the homeless shelter just around the corner.