Gearing up for planning for a long tour

I noticed sometime ago that Richard MacDonald updated his site and its now Wiki based. Rich wouldn't remember me, but I recognized him as my in class OSC instructor years later. A mustache like that doesn't go unrecognized. He not only put together one of the best local Ottawa-Carleton area ride site on the net, but also documented his long, multi-day trips. This site is a great place to dig up long trip planning tips, not to mention his travel logs are definately interesting and inspiring. Hell, I warn you against reading his long trip entries if you're easily influenced with the romantic idea of hitting the road for a week on your hog. ;-)

I've been thinking about planning a tour out east to New Found Land for almost a year now and its about time I get down to business. I decided to make a short list of pre-planning task I need to get working on:

• Get a CSA membership. (road-side assistance) Getting it for your car is reasonable, getting it for you bike is essential on a long trip. They'll come out an replace your bike tires and full up your gas tank if you need it.
• Start hitting the gym regularly. My back has never been the strongest it could have been. There's no way I'll last riding 4~5 hours per-day, no matter how many breaks I take without strengthening my lower and upper back.
• Get a couple of travel & tourist books for Quebec, Nova Scotia and NFLD so I can start marking off points of interest that would help make planning the route out beyond a straight line.
• Plan for a B trip. I might cop out and setting for Quebec city in 2 days. I'll see how brave I feel the closer I get to booking my vacation and getting my act together.

That it for now. Just a lot of talk.

Got a new bucket! HJC rules!

Wow, 2 posts in one day.

Sure enough, last weekend was the brightest and nicest on record this dark Winter. I've been meaning to replace my 5 year old Zeus craptastic basic full face which has been sort of falling apart. I spent a good part of last year going through the same models from the same stores, somehow expecting them to magically part and the perfect fitting helmet with all the right features (and a great price!!!!), to appear. No such luck.

As it happens, I was Powersports on Sunday. They have a good selection of HJC and Shoei helmets, including a bunch of decent modulars. I was looking at a couple of different Scorpion and Zeus models at another location but I wasn't jazzed about the prices I saw. I was willing to go at high as $300, maybe $400, but it better be a decent helmet and last! I happened upon the HJC IS-16 and tried a medium on. Wow! Not only did it fit great for my head shape (sort of narrow I guess) but the padding around the temples wasn't too tight. (I wear glasses) The rest of the padding was very snug, like a new helmet should be. Finally the IS-16 line notably includes an integrated sun visor. You lower the visor by a lever that runs along the top of the helmet. To pop the visor up, theres a big button on the top. The protective, regular visor is also apparently anti-glare and anti-fog.

I picked the "Scratch" design which was the sharpest of the bunch. I'm half expecting to see more than a couple of these helmets with this design on the road this Summer. Oddly from the picture, what looks like real scratches doesn't look half as dramatic when a camera flash isn't going all. Seriously, I didn't know half the lines where there until I look the picture.

Oh! The price? $220 Canadian, at a local shop no less! I'm used to either leaving bikes shops disappointed or pissed off when it comes to selection and price compared to what I see on the net. Bike pants are a prime example. When I can order dozens of different $140 USD (free shipping) riding pants (with armor) from the States online, yet be stuck with 3 different styles at $300+ from the same brand at a local shop, I leave disappointed.

The only other purchase I have planned for the year is a new jacket. I've got a reasonable Infinity air jacket now, but its starting to get loose and is due for a replacement. I'll likely look for something a little heavier and swap between the two.