KLR Seagull Freeriders

Nobody rides for free

When you buy a KLR you are not only buying a motorcycle, the most popular bike of all time,(*) but you are also buying into the lifestyle, and the image. Just buy owning one you are immediatly part of the collective.
------RIDE FREE--------LIVE TO RIDE---------
Part of the lifestyle includes sleeping above the ditchline......for free.

Bathing in the rivers and lakes along the route......for free.

Eating off the campstove.....for free.(if you were at home, you would still need groceries,so really its just the stove thats different)

Riding the lesser travelled backroads.


Foraging in the "take-off" pile behind the bike shop, and harvesting a decent tire.....for free. I had to buy mine, but Thorne managed to score a nice Kenda with 20% tread left on it.


I cant go into a detailed RR, but I can share some photos and maybe inspire a few of you jokers to get out riding before winter comes back.

previous sludge here: http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=362256

Ok, that another place I'd like to ride to.

Well done.

The KLR a wonderful pack mule of our time for sure. Farm machinery simple, utterly reliable, they are eager to haul twice thier own weight, when made reliable by their owners...

After a few nights of free bush camping, pulling into a pay campground is a luxury.

Its not all dollar saving all the way. Some areas don't have much to offer for free bushcamping, and the logical choice is to pull into a nice spot before dark. Several times we stopped for lunch at a nice cafe or McD's after a stretch of free living on the KLR's.

Its something else to be having a $3 coffee in an upscale cafe with the high-dollar folk, with twigs and grass stuck on your neck from sleeping in the boonies the night before.....

Nice spot to fill the waterjugs up, before heading up the backroads for another night of free bushcamping.

Some more nice shots somewhere along the way.

low tide


Time for a swim

might need the rain gear

up in the Gaspe

what the heck sort of fish (?) was that skeleton from?

ee gads. dat was one big ass walleye..

HA. pretty good. I thought it was a massive Northern... lol!

....Thats a load of Mackerel! nice to see the east coast from your camera, whilst upon a 'killer'.
Cool pics. nice to see the water again.

I'm from Maine, but landlubbing it in Wa. Thanks for the views!

-M

subscribed, nice photos and text. Looking forward to more.

.. in .. looking forward to the ride .. thanks for sharing ..

when it comes to sea water fish, I don't know too much.

some other large bones from that great campsite in New Brunswick.

this is where I swam in the ocean. Later this summer I hope to swim in another ocean on the west side of Canada.

Sleeping in a tent evry night, rain or shine, all the way. This calls for a really good air mattress.Some of the free campsites had better smooth ground than the pay sites. Its not uncommon for some places to want $30 for a tent site. Having the good air mattress allows a fellow to get a decent sleep and not wake up with a sore back.

Trips like this can easily add up to big coin if we don't watch where the cash goes.

the Black 07 is due for its 70K service. I drain the oil, but will save the filter for another time. We use an old 1 gallon jug to do the oil change, and then drop off the used oil at a service station later on.



The section of road near Perce in Gaspe Quebec is worth riding twice. We double back and re-ride it with a shortcut over the hill on the way back.
This RR is a bit of a hodge-podge and a lot of the photos are out of sequence of the actual trip. What we did was ride from Lake Superior past Wawa, then out the backroads(Sultans road) out towards Quebec. From there we got to Trois Riviers, and to New Brunswick. We saw the Bay of Fundy at low tide, then got onto Nova Scotia. We rode the Cabot Trail and then the coastline south of Sydney,then did the Sunrise trail and back into New Brunswick.From there we went into the Gaspe.

Nice lighthouse up on the Gaspe Quebec

the hole in the rock near Perce up in the Gaspe.

I as quite impressed ith this area of Quebec. I am thinking it is as nice as the Cabot Trail, but in a different way. One thing we did encounter was extremely high winds while riding.

We had to run quite a ways into the boonies to find a campsite and the next day found ourselves leaving the Gaspe area.

we sa this from afar, and when we got close to it found out they want$14 to go inside. We didnt see the inside

a $30 campsite. When its necessary we will get one. A nice luxury on our trip....

I did some routing through Quebec to get us off the main roads and stumbled upon this route. It follows some river roads and is real pleasent cruising. The small green sign denotes a bicycle route. This is prime KLR riding. No semi's, people wave as you go by slowly, and the bike isnt straining, and its just so much better than the big highway. I have the gps file saved. The route goes from Quebec city to Ottawa on all backroads.


stopping for snacks along the way

The shipping lanes of the St Lawrence

The KLR's went to Parlamint Hill

After leaving Ottawa we got onto the backroads around Calaboogie and beyond. Some great riding to be had here as well.


what could be better? a nice summer day, 1 cylinder motor, smell of the pines, great paved twisting road..

A day or 2 later and we are at the Ferry from Tobermory to Manitoulin Island.

we got to the boat on time, but it was too full. We had to wait for the next one. That meant simming in the big Lake and coffee.



Time to load onto the ferry and by then there is a line-up, ith several classic bikes. Thorne's KLR is having trouble starting, and i am guessing its a battery with the fluid in it too low. (KLR common to slowly go low on the battery water)...we boost it off my bike and get into the boat.

It cost $65 or so for two bikes + riders to cross

So we had 2 oil changes due, a bald tire, and a battery cooked dry. we wanted to make it up to Wawa and stay at Finndians, but with the late boat and bike problems, and then finding out about the vintage bike rally on manitoulin, it made sense to just stop early and sort the bikes out at the rally.



I worked on both bikes and it was almost dark when I was done. I managed to get some help on the tire from some of the vintage folks, who were a great bunch to be around. Just before dark I walked around a bit to see some of the cool old bikes there.

The next morning Thorne rides her KLR north on Manitoulin Island.

North of Sault St Marie Ontario along Lake Superior



Gas stop in Wawa

Hey! That's my bike. One of them anyhow. And no, I didn't pull that toy hauler with my buddy's Harley in it...
but I could have if I wanted to

Great report Hektoglider. Looking forward to the rest of your photos and story.

Relic

The KLR's run around the top of Lake Superior....the sat image showed clear sky until Nipigon.
We hit some fog near Terrace Bay.

the ride is a great one around the top of superior


the area near RedRock /Nipigon we can see the rain coming.

I signal to Thorne that we should suit up with rain gear. I wonder why she chose to pull over at such a poor location for stopping. She had no choice, as the float in the carb stuck and the engine flooded out. I dug out the tool kit while she put her rain suit on. I drained the bowl, and got the bike running, but it soon began overflowing gas again.

The KLR carb acted up a bit more before returning to normal once again. We made it back to our base camp near Thunder Bay.

We are taking a break from travel, and will work on the motorcycles, as well as get some R&R to prepare for the next leg of our journey.

A few servings of Finn Pancakes

We took a short canoe trip through our backyard to recharge our mental batteries






It has been nice to relax at home, and enjoy the backyard, but now its time to resume the FreeRide. The Hayseed segment of our ride should begin in the next few days.

Great report

After a nice break at Basecamp it was time to roll west.

Noden Causeway outside of Fort Frances

Rainy Lake

Lunch break at the marina waterfront in Fort Frances.

Bikes are clean, lotsa fresh supplies on board, stove fuel food, etc....things are good

Near Emo we hit the backroads. Working our way to hwy 71 and up to Nestor Falls.


and Souix narrows, really nice country

As soon as we hit the Trans Canada hwy off 71 we immediatly got off of it onto a side road into Kenora(Longbow Lake Road) and went through town,
eventually hitting Hwy 1 just until we could do the 44 through Whiteshell






We got into Winnipeg and bunkered down in our tent in the backyard at Justins. Later that evening we rode
across town to visit Backroader and Jimtoe for a bit

The next morning we took off north to the big lakes region going across the narrow part. It was a less than spectacular route




We took the turnoff for Duck Mountain and found our 2nd free campsite in 2 days

gd, $30 to tent camp? Is that common?
Tuned in for the RR of course.
Jim