We love Canada but our DR650’s don’t, and they let us know!

trees, dams, a cracked frame, a busted battery, two carbs that needed rebuilding, lots of welding, the biggest crane game in the world, loads and loads of beer, icebergs, black flies, amazing people and one complete dickhead on the ferry in Quebec is how I’ll remember Canada this time around, but I digress.

Running around Lab City with Darren and later getting to see his first ever motorcycle that he owned that he bought as a basket case in multiple boxes and built this killer Norton with right side shift left side brake

We got a new battery for Egle’s bike and we were good to go after a few checks to confirm it was just a battery issue. Once you are about 50km from Lab City you are on your own, seriously on your own, a mix of pavement and dirt for the run down to Baie Comeau was a tree and lake lovers paradise

paved or dirt – you get both

Dams, yeah they’ve got those too

are they big, yes they’re ‘dam’ big…see what I did there?  Can you spot Egle?

the occasional bridge

and some more trees…

We stopped in Baie Comeau to meet a rider ‘John’ (not an inmate) who I’d spoken with on FB who was coming the opposite way on the TCAT/ TLH when he was t-boned by a car and rushed to emergency with his leg broken in 4 places…get well soon buddy if you see this.

When we came out @Doogle passed us at an intersection but didn’t see us so we carried on to Saguenay to meet @jackalsour, thx for your amazing hospitality btw.

To get to him we missed a turn in the fog and ended up on a ferry which allowed us to meet the most obnoxious Quebecer ever, who worked on the ferry. We were crossing here

as we docked, we go to ride off and as I’m almost off the ferry he puts his hand up, so I stop then the conversation starts

him – blah, blah, blah in French
me – !
him – do you understand me?
me – no!
him – you have to respect the line
him – you have to respect what I say
him – you have to respect me!
me – what line?
him – FUCK YOU
him – if you don’t like it leave my country
him – fuck you, fuck you fuck you!!!
me – ok…
….twist of the throttle and I ran him out of the way and I might have said something on the way off the ferry

and Quebecers wonder why they get a bad name, just wish I had it on video, it’d go viral but he’d still keep his job and probably be a hero in Quebec

and back to the trees!

All was good for a few days heading towards Toronto and then my bike was not starting, the starter had nothing, not even a click, a little roll backward and forwards initially got it to start then this changed to a full on bump start. We headed for @roadcapDen in Toronto and his well-tooled garage and we did a fix by taking the bike apart and doing a starter rebuild.

While putting the starter back in I notice the crack

I check the other side and that has one too

We left @roadcapDen place and headed up the road to meet some other friends @waterlilly and Les of No Agenda World Tour, and former owners of Dual Sport Plus in Stoney Creek, as luck would have it they were at a farm with a fully equipped workshop which I was given free run of and got to play with a MIG welder which I haven’t touched one in about 10-12 years so my bead was a way off but my strut cutting was more important to reinforce the frame to make it all good again and better after rewelding the frame

So a very uneventful/ eventful ride across eastern Canada, these bikes need to leave the country, they really don’t like it here, to date in Canada, carb rebuilds x4, broken fuel filters, cracked luggage rack, broken spokes, busted battery, failed starter, failed GPS, failed GPS mount, cush drive rubber failures and cracked frame in two places…and fixing @waterlilly bike when she broke down in Toronto the other day riding with us.