September Day trip

I put the chore list aside on Thursday and went for a ride. Perfect day, 70-75 f temps, hardly any traffic, old roads and nice scenery flowing by.

http://m.youtube.com/?#/watch?v=13LiTO5oY7Q

http://m.youtube.com/?#/watch?v=xUgyCQBhU2M

http://m.youtube.com/?#/watch?v=hiZM8GAAGdA

http://m.youtube.com/?#/watch?v=0swEL8vfVe8

http://m.youtube.com/?#/watch?v=9og7Giz0-GI

Links don't work for me.

Hmmmm,/still working fine when I try them. This might be the USA/Canada YouTube censorship thing.

Glen

I'm in UK.
All I get is a generic utube sample/thumbnail page, same one each time.

Links don't work down here either.

I'm in UK, links work fine for me, don't ask me why tho cos I haven't a clue!

worntorn said:

This might be the USA/Canada YouTube censorship thing.

Click to expand...

No, just the wrong codes.
Try these:
[video]http://youtu.be/13LiTO5oY7Q[/video]

[video]http://youtu.be/xUgyCQBhU2M[/video]

[video]http://youtu.be/hiZM8GAAGdA[/video]

[video]http://youtu.be/0swEL8vfVe8[/video]

[video]http://youtu.be/9og7Giz0-GI[/video]

Thanks LAB.
Glen the countryside is a lot dryer than I expected it to be. So are these areas full of snow in winter?
Thanks for posting clips.

Thanks for fixing that Les. I'm still not sure why it worked for some but not for others.
Mark, there is generally not a lot of winter snow in the areas I was riding in, as it is semi-desert. That arid strip just runs along the river valleys though. Heading west thru the Coast Mountains would see several climate changes, with heavy winter snows on the western side of the Coast Mountains. One of the areas on the west side on the Coast Mountains is the Whistler ski area, where the Winter Olympics were held a few years ago. As you travel south on the coast toward Vancouver the vegetation is quite lush. Vancouver has a very moderate winter climate with lots of winter rain, some winters no snow.
Here is the back home picture to give an idea. We live in the Fraser Valley close to Vancouver . The Fraser Canyon widens out into a lush Valley at Hope, about 90 miles inland from Vancouver, which is right on the coast.

Glen

That is beautiful country there Glen. When I lived in Seattle we would go up the Fraser to go rafting/river kayaking - never did ride it on the Norton. Did the North Cascades Hwy loop on Hwy 20 to 395 to Spokane a couple of times, and that was great. Except for the WSP giving me and my buddy tickets...

I've done the Cascades loop by car but not on a bike. Next year for sure, it's a lovely road, just have to watch the weather closely on that one. Or do it mid summer.

Glen

Its an early or late summer ride, for sure. Mid summer can get a bit warm out east for the Norton's liking, at least.

Here is a shot from last year of Duffy Lake, please excuse the modern Triumph.
The lake is about halfway along the road intended but not taken on this day trip. I opted for the warmth of the canyon instead of going west up and over the mountains to the coast.

Glen

I parked the Vincent after this September trip and dragged out the Commando. The weather has been almost spring like all winter, so there were lots of day rides on the Commando. I find it best to ride the bike, find a problem, fix it, ride to check out and move on to the next problem. I guess the British call the process fettling and the Commando is now fettled, for now at least.

So today I brought the Vincent out to give it a going over after the seven month lay up. With all of the recent talk on the Commando forum about wetsumping, I went to deal with that problem first. There is no antisump valve on this bike. Before pulling the sump plug I had a look in the oil tank expecting to see it dry.
The oil level in the tank looks to be in the same spot it was when I parked the bike last September, in a word, full!
Also the battery is still up above 12 volts without having had a trickle charger on it.
So it just needs a dusting off then get on out there and ride.
Great old machine and super comfortable for longhaul travel. Time to get out the map and start making plans.

Glen