ever have one of those days

so what is worst, knowing that it is going to snow on the 12th of april or work just sucking...

work won out today, the worst day ever for me professionally, I didn't get 'canned' but I'm really wondering why I am still with this company, stay tuned, I could just pack it all in and head for the hills.

The upside would be that I could ride a heck of a lot more, the downside...  I still owe way to much on too many things.

Wish me luck
PAWS

Spring Riding

I took the little bike out of the shed about 2 weeks ago, actually right after our little trip to Montreal.   Then it decided to get real cold again, the kind of cold that gave us another 5~10 cm so snow.  But this week the temperatures started to rise again and now about 1/2 the snow on the front lawn is gone (yes the pic shown is with 1/2 the snow gone, we can now see the neighbours house ) I once again went back out to the bike shed.

With the temps around 5c I decided I had to ride.  I hooked up the wiring for my heated vest ( a little luxury that I picked up at the motorcycle show this year ), I will be able to wear it on any of the bikes, I have wiring sets for all of them and went out for a ride.  I decided to take a quick pic before I headed out on the road.

I went down and around the Rideau river to a little town near us, about 45 kms round trip.  The roads were pretty wet around hilly areas and I was a little fearful of Black Ice which I have hit in past springs and it is not fun.  The one year I hit it was on a morning ride going to work, it is/was the only time I have had the thoughts going through my head "I'm going off this bike, when should I go to cause the least impact", yes that time I was very much thinking this thing is going to go down and I don't want to go with it.  There was also a point where it started to rain, another bad thing for spring riding, you don't want to be cold and wet.

But I have to say the heated vest did help the ride.  I had heard how the vest will keep your 'core' warm and in that way your extremities will also stay warm.  I'll admit I was a little sceptical, but about half way through my ride my fingers were cold but got no colder.  So I have to say I am now a believer and will use the vest for all my cold riding days.

It is so great to be out riding again!  Bring on the warmer weather, one bike out, 2 to go and one project  bike to get started on.

PAWS

Weekend Away

The winter may finally be going, well at least we can all hope and we should all be riding soon.  It was decided that we ALL needed a weekend away.  Of course with our busy schedules that was going to be tough but, you don't know my wife.  She picked a weekend, got the Monday off (I had already got the day off for the kids March Break), found a place for the pooch and then booked a room in Montreal.

Like all good planning my work started to get in the way.  A release started to go long, I tried staying as late into Friday as i could before dropping off the pooch but...  it didn't look good.  The look I got told me we were going no matter what.  It was the 'suck it up princess' look, we booked the room lets go.  Off we are, we had a nice time yesterday, as we came into the city my son got to check out a lego store that he has been wanting to get to Brick Republic to pick up some very specialized pieces.  Then it was off to the hotel.

We are staying downtown, at the Hilton Bonaventure and as you come in you get to see the attraction the kids are waiting for, the outside pool that is open year round.  'Yes' we tell them we will go swimming, 'No' we tell them not right now.  'Yes' we tell them before you go to bed :).

We check in and then it's off for a walk around downtown, a little shopping, dinner (with a few emails from work, but it looks to be done now) and then back to the room.  We went for the swim, it was great to be outside on a cold March night in downtown Montreal, looking at the stars and swimming outside.  Everyone got to bed and now the sun is up and I have gone for coffee, on my way I pass the pool, it looks even nicer early in the morning.

Siting here my coffee is done, people are moving, time to get exploring!  What are you doing on the laptop dad ;)....  off we go!

Where's my bike is what I'm thinking now, it is in the + degrees this morning :).

PAWS

Snow

I guess I should not really be surprised by a snow storm coming through the great white north in February, but somehow I think 25 cm is a bit much, it was just starting to feel like we would not have to shovel again.  On top of that my 30 + year old snow blower has decided to finally roll over and die.

This is what my back yard looks like.

Can you guess where my bikes are kept?  I make sure a path is there so I can get them out even if the snow is not all gone :).

Come on spring,
Later
PAWS

Drifter

So pictured above in the title bar of this blog is my last bike, it is a 1999 Kawasaki Drifter. I sold it a couple years ago (yes I need to update the photo, I'll get to that this year), and I think it may have started me wanting to get my old bikes back, I still miss riding that one.

I had a lot of custom leather work that I did on that bike, Tank bib, mud flaps, side tool bag, grips, braided leather on the levers and a rear fender bib.  While I was working the motorcycle show in January the guy I sold her to came by, I immediately asked if he wanted to sell her (I had to try :) ) he said no way, but maybe if he ever got his Harley,  I told him I would be interested if he did.  We kept talking and he let me know that the Fender Bib I had done for him (I took the one off I had on it, I didn't think he would want one with PAWS on it) had fallen off one ride this summer.  So I volunteered right away to make him a new one, this worked out well for me as I now have an email address and a point of contact.  You know just to keep in touch, in case he ever wants to sell, I'll keep asking, maybe he'll sell it to me just to stop the harasment.

Here is the progress of the custom fender bib for HillBilly.  I hope he likes it.
Started with laying out the outside boarder pattern:

Then the tooling was done, I kept it simple, sometimes that is the best:

Next came the dying, he said he may paint the bike a flat black so I thought I should get some black in the design:
Finally the lacing, this takes a while but I think it sets my work apart:

I'll let you know what he thinks.
Till next time,

PAWS

Cold

I just had to post, this is when living in the great white north is not fun...  it is now - 31' c, with the wind -40'c.  you don't even think about riding in this cold.

Well most people wouldn't, it just makes me focused on getting at trailer this coming summer. At the end of next season I am going to make sure my bike is nice safe and sound in a trailer and when it gets this cold I'm going to take it somewhere I can ride.

Now that I've written it, it must happen right :).

I'll leave with a few things I've been working on to pass the time. Belt buckles.

Paws

Motorcycle Shows

Ok, so the start of a new year always brings Motorcycle shows to the great white north (btw, this year we are living up to that name even here in Ontario)

Last week I went down to visit the Toronto International Motorcycle show, now this is a big show!  I go down every year, this year was good as I got to go down with my wife, last minute changes meant we got a day together (and a night away) just the 2 of us.

There were some interesting bikes a little bit of everything:

And this past weekend I worked the Ottawa Motorcycle show for the OSC which meant I attended my second show in as many weekends.  Now this show does not offer as much as the Toronto one but hey, at least they are trying.

So I passed away the winter blahs looking at more bikes, can it really be all that bad :).  I'll leave this post with one last pic, this is the newest little brother to my mean streak, a 2013 Vulcan Custom,  I like it, just needs another 700 cc's.

Let me know if you like the pics, I got plenty more...

PAWS