Ontario Ride 2011 Memorial Day

Mike650gs and I made it back to Toronto by 2:00pm. Hat's off to Deadly and everyone for organizing this epic event we had a fantastic time!!!
Next year, I'm putting wheels on a submarine
Lets see the Jacques Cousteau video Skypilot

Blackdonald campsites. Beautiful spot

Skypilot checking the menu



Rudy nurses his wounds:huh










day one carnage



day two silent lake main loop

most improved winner mike650gs

I had a blast!! The amount of water was insane! Thanks to everyone who had a hand in putting this thing together. Great to meet all the new people and actually be able to ride with some on Saturday. Next year maybe some one will be able to keep up on Friday.

We've made it home - Nolan is on his way to get the guy from Holland with the busted Honda 350, Skibum is airing out his tent, all is good!

Had a great time....

oh yeah! good times, nice to meet you all. Now all I have to do is figure out how to get to CroMag!

Back home too. There was an accident on the 401 east of Brockville this afternoon. I was stopped for 5 minutes when I realized I was going to be a while. So I crossed the medium, crossed the west bound lane went up the side of an overpass, around a fence and up unto a service road that ran parallel to the 401. I can imagine there were a few envious caged commuters watching. Who needs roads...


BTW very special thanks to Ted and Andrew,and everyone else that put this ride together, it was great...except for going scuba diving.

Made it home. Rolled out of Silent Lake at 6:26 am and arrived home at 6:24 pm. 590 miles, 11 hours 58 minutes, nothing but fuel stops. Got rained on for the first few hours, but then it just kept getting better until I got home - 75F & sunny here. Me and the little DR need some rest, and I need food!

Great weekend!

Big thanks to everyone!

I'm home relaxing and smoking a cigar.
What a great weekend.

I noticed that my camera stayed in the case way too long.
Wish I had taken it out more often.

She's one of us, of course.


He shows up at 9:30 after doing the route twice.

Safe and sound, back in a warm bed. Thanks to all involved

Edit; So much for the warm bed its now 9AM. Who can sleep when they are sitting on a gold mine of video clips, not me obviously

cheers

<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/24412525" width="400" height="225" frameborder="0"></iframe><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/24412525">Roaming Rally, Eastern Ontario May,2011</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user3590610">Nolan Watts</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

Wow! I'm inspired to go to this trip next year. My Versys would of been a fail at the deep crossings. So Should I be shopping for a DR650 or would a KLX250 or a WR250 be even a better choice for such a trip?

great video Nolan, thanks!

dc

Any of the three would be a fine choice for this trip.

Epic video DB! It looks like you guys had a great time.

I'm slightly biased - but my lil KLX250 did just fine on this ride (with the exception of a stupid front tire death-wing choice when I had a perfectly good 606-shod wheel sitting in my garage) - and I had everything packed on my bike to be self sufficient for three days (no restaurants), even a chair (Pic to be added soon).

For sure a bigger/faster bike (Husky/KTM) would have been more fun & capable, but for my tame riding, my lilKLX was a blast, and likely alot less tiring than the KLRs and other bigger bikes (?). There were no slab sections where one would need to do over 100kmh - the speed at which the KLX becomes too buzzy and light to be fun for extended periods. Gas stops were scattered throughout making the 200km max range a non-issue. The WR250R seemed to devour the trails as well.

FWIW, YMMV yadda, yadda, yadda
-Pete

PS - A huge THANKS to all who made this ride possible! What an epic ride!

PPS - and what a great bunch of riders! Never seen so many ADV'rs in one ride before - too cool!

Terrific video !!!!

Here's my lame video... Lately my GoPro hasn't been recording sound properly... mostly it records scratchy static noise. It's being replaced under warranty, tough.



video 1
<iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/O3jKiZU4w7Q" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


video 2
<iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/1CPZpsfqaHg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Can I ask that everyone please post their pics and vids into the TCAT thread ?


LINK

Thanks lads....and thanks for the great weekend

Thanks for the awesome ride, I had a blast!

too bad the liitle XL blew out on me on the way home.
Many thanks to Drif10, Dancingboy, Z50R for the roadside save (and all the others), I was home even earlier than expected... :huh

Next time I'll bring a real bike

I give the nod to the WR250X/R. Practically the same price as the KLX, but it's capable of 120km/h all day long. Well, loaded with gear, and a headwind, knobby tires, rain, uphill, sometimes you drop down to 100 and have to downshift to 5th. But it's always smooth as butter. It's capable of 150km/h unloaded in a tuck. Supposedly, I've never done it and wouldn't try.

P.S. And a LOT of people asked me about the fat front tire. Other than the fact that it was too wide and had to be trimmed, I'd call it a success. I was hesitant to answer the question at first, because I wasn't feeling to great at first. But once I got my new steering damper figured out, and dropped the pressure in the front tire to 20, it worked really well. On the Saturday afternoon unloaded loop, I was really moving. I'd say about as fast as I ever did on the 250F. Slower in some places due to less ground clearance and suspension travel, but faster in others due to the fact the seat height is much better for me. (I'm short) Anywhere I felt I had to dab a foot, I felt more confident. In snotty terrain, mud and rocks, I like the fat front tire. Everywhere else, my own sense of self preservation is the only thing that held me back.

Whew....just rolled in to home. Fantastic 5 days of riding. Someone mentioned rain but I didn't notice any. That was some amazing terrain for riding.

Thanks to Deadly99 and Juames for figuring out the routes and organization. Thank you Emmbeedee and Dresda for the local support before and during the rally.

Thanks to everyone who came to the Roaming Rally '11. You all made it a great success.

My photos and videos will be posted soon. I have loads.