Ohhhhhhh deeeeerrr.....
The first tour of 2012 would be with the lovely Jennifer and my brother in law Chris. We managed to persuade Grammy to watch the kids and headed south west in early June. This year, things would be different with a new VFR1200 replacing the awesome old VFR750 that had originally started as an e-bay fixer-upper winter project but ended up filling many of the pages of this blog. I have high hopes for this bike, with Honda seemingly dropping a lot of money on developing a bike that got mediocre reviews, and was constantly criticized for it's lack of fuel range. The looks didn't really do it for me either but they grew on me over the two years it took for the retail prices (at least south of the 49th parallel) to come in to reasonable range. The thing about bike reviews however is that they often consist of a new bike being thrashed for a short period over their initial break-in period by journalists who may or may not get the concept of what the bike is all about. Still, it was a stretch to think that they could all be wrong and I went in with my eyes wide open with regards to the likeliness of needing to do some upgrades in order to get things working the way that I wanted.
While I have already given s short glimpse into a couple of the issues in the previous page of this blog, there are two key things that need to be addressed by every owner of a VFR-12. The first is the ridiculous engine restriction that is built in to the bike from the factory to severely limit the power below 6K rpm in the first two gears. Having been a Ducati owner, I am used to buying bikes where the engineering is half baked and it is up to the owner to sort it out. In this case however, it's like Honda had engineered and awesome piece of machinery that was caught up by the lawyers on the way out of the factory and "tamed" so the potential geezer clientele of the bike would not harm themselves if they inadvertently opened the throttle! The resulting choking-engine-to-heavy-6K rpm-hit transformation actually made the bike more difficult to ride than if they would have just left the damned thing alone. No matter - around $70 later I had installed the Bazzaz eliminator to straighten the entire thing out with the only downside being that the gear indicator would read "3" any time the bike was in 1st or 2nd gear. It's no wonder the bike got mixed reviews in the way that it came from the factory. It's a damned shame that they shot themselves in the foot so badly with such a silly idea.
The second key issue with the VFR-12 is the tires. This issue was only fully understood a little later in the story of my 1st summer with the bike, with the understanding growing throughout the tour I will cover now
This tour is over familiar territory if you have been following this blog, but out there riding it, well, it never gets old
We would start the day with a wash-job killing ride in the rain to Pincher Creek where we could pick up Chris. After we meet-up we head south of Pincher for a riding through the rolling hills to the border near Waterton National park. This really is one of the sweetest spots in Alberta, where the road winds through the foothills in the shade of the Rockies. Still lovin this road after all of these years.
Blue sky opens up for long enough to get some pics:
These tours with Jen and Chris are a nice mix for me, where I can pick my spots to jet up front with Chris or hang back and smell the roses with Jen. Both are great riders but while Chris is getting faster each year, Jen is exercising much more caution which is fine with me. As it turns out that caution would be a good thing later on this ride
I was optimistic this past winter when I picked up the Givi windscreen for the baby Duck. Jen has decided that she loves the bike (with all of it's flaws) and we were going to take every effort to improve how it works out on tour. The Givi screen looks the business, and even comes with bike specific brackets. Unfortunately out on the road the difference is minimal below 140km/hr. The simple solution would have been to set up shop at 150km/hr. but the Gestopos would have likely taken issue with us. Not that I have anything against the meter-maids tasked with "keeping us safe from ourselves" - nope, not at all.....
After a night spent in the Best Western in Polson Montana we cruise down to Missoula and south to the Lolo Pass. The rain and drizzle are on and off but it's finally here that I get to push the Viffer on a familiar road. A few "whoa" moments ensue as at different times I feel both the front and rear start to break loose when pushing in the corners. The Viff is a big bike (relatively) with shaft drive and I'm really working to understand if I'm really just that I am asking it to do something that it wasn't meat to do. It's the kind of thing that makes me question if it's something with the road not being fully dried or something spilled on the surface, but after the first few times it seems it really was the bike - or more so the tires. The crazy thing is that I would have easily been able to keep a faster pace on the old VFR right up to the point that the road straightened out and the new Viffer left it for dead....
Stopped to ponder whether we can trust the weather along the Lolo
At the west end of the Lolo we stop in Lewiston for lunch before going to play on the "old spiral highway" that I have covered multiple times in this blog. Its still great, but given the traction issues I am having on the new bike I ride with a whole new level of caution, missing some of the fun that I have had here in previous years. Still there is never a bad ride around Lewiston Idaho:)
I stop for a breather and grab a pic of Mrs. High_Side playing on the Old Spiral Highway
After leaving Lewiston the weather decided to suck the fun out of our ride to Sandpoint by being chilly and raining on and off for the first hour before finally breaking loose with torrential rain. We are timing our gas stops based upon my knowledge of the new bike thus far and end up quite nervous with my fuel-light flashing at the 240km mark. It's at this point that I end up getting that sinking feeling when I find that the gas station I was counting on out in the middle of nowhere has shut down and we are out of options. With a quick calculation in my head we I determine that we can't make it and stop at the local pub and were lucky enough to buy a couple of gallons of gas from a local.
With our near-disaster behind us, the last hour in to Sandpoint was when we finally found the limits of what "rain-resistant" really means. While the Tourmaster suits were holding up fairly well, my rain resistant gloves were saturated. The hotel hot-tub was beckoning and we set up for the evening in Sandpoint.
Even with all of the rain this would be the only dam I pass on tour this year that is not flowing over the spillway
Refreshed and dry our final day began with a beautiful ride down hwy 200 along the Cabinet Gorge Reservoir as we made our way to Libby. As we begin to ride along the Koocanusa Reservoir I lead the group on the VFR and start to have a little fun with the traction issues on a familiar road. Coming out of the corners and on the throttle the bike was actually breaking the rear loose in a somewhat controlled fashion. It's great fun, but common sense prevails and I dial it back as to not finally earn the name I keep on TotalMotorcycle.
Not much further down the road though I noticed the Ducati has vanished from my mirrors and my heart sinks as I race back to find Jen and Chris at the side of the road
Of all the people I know Jen is always the one who notices the wildlife before anyone else. As fate would have it though there was no chance to respond to the deer who jumped in front of her mid corner in a right-hander as we rode along the Koocanusa. Chris had a front row seat as it happened, and witnessed the deer complete three circles on it's side as it slid underneath the guard-rail looking seemingly dead after hitting her. Jen, as it turns out managed to keep the Duck upright as the deer had hit her on her kneecap armour, jamming her leg and hip. From her point of view, the deer didn't even hit the bike which makes it even that much more amazing that she kept it upright while the deer took such a spin. Once we were sure that she was going to be OK (although in a lot of pain), we went to check on the deer who had apparently overcome his injuries and ran away. Another few centimeters one way or another and this could have ended up much worse for both of them. I am very relieved that Jens knee and hip pain went away after a couple of weeks. Scarey - and a great reminder to take it easy.
Not bad considering.... And you shoulda saw the "other guy"!
More tours to come after I sort through all of these damned pictures....
