Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Merrickville Ontario to Sudbury Ontario

I was up early again and showered in what had to be the smallest stall I have ever encountered. I needed to step outside to turn around. Then I paid a visit to the nice ladies at Brewed Awakenings for another breakfast including a fresh sliced tomato. I read the paper as I sipped coffee and watched the locals come and go.

Back at the hotel, my outside key worked and I was able to get back to my room. Paul picked me up at 9:45 and we headed back to his place where he finished reassembling the front end and and retorqued the steering head bearings.  The new anodized aluminum fork brace, complete with the fork guards, looked really good.

Starting out for home, I found that the bike had a deceleration wobble at about 60 KPH. This was one of the key things that the Traxxion/All Balls bearing/fork brace modifications corrected so I took it back. Paul reset the front axle and fork brace and the problem went away.

I headed north on Upper Dwyer Hill Road until Highway 7 where I turned east and followed 7 to 417. Traffic was not bad until I got to the construction zone at Arnprior where the two-lane road started. From there to Pembroke it was moderately heavy, compounded by three sections where the road was down to one lane controlled by a flagman.

Through Stonecliff, the temperature was showing as 30C. Then, for a long stretch after Deep River, there were no vehicles going my way and few going the other. I set the cruise at 18 over and motored along without interference.

I stopped just before 6:00 at McDonald's in North Bay for a quick bite and ended up making it home about 7:00.

The suspension initially seemed stiffer and I wondered about a break in period. As I bounced along the unrehabilitated sections of Highway 17, it got more compliant and I believe that the new back shock is actually damped a little softer than the one it replaced. In any case, it handles great and I won't need to do this again until the bike has 300K Kms on it.


Today's Route (313 miles):


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