Now is the Winter of our ?

OK enough attempts at humour its still early in the year, but I thought it really was time I showed up here again.

Since the two wheel time of year is in the wings waiting to reappear I have been editing some images and enjoying a new sub group I belong to in the computer world (yes, yes just something else I get up to).

Being a proponent of open source computing the local Linux Users Group have a Photography sig (special interest group) which I very much enjoy being part of.

Now with digital images I am sure by now most folks understand one can accumulate a huge backlog of editing and the winter is an opportune time to do this part of all things digital.

I recently found a very enjoyable blog The Sartorialist (more about him another time) and not to beat around the bush it reminded me I have a blog myself !

So onto a couple of images then, the first one is a street image from Old Montreal in late summer 2010.
The colourful underside of the skateboard against the stone and brick shows nicely.


Changing an image to black and white sometimes makes a whole new image so here's one from the early winter I like.
If you drastically increase contrast as part of the editing process interesting things can happen.

Earlier in the fall I was in the same general location and !
And if you don't think I am ignoring my bigger toys I do have a heated toy box to play in when the snow is on the ground,
Just a little something I am working on when getting withdrawal symptoms.

Lets meet up here some time soon OK

Its Fun now I have the second new bike in my long motorcycle career, (had quite a few previously enjoyed one's) getting used to it has been so far mostly getting in the saddle as its kind of tall because of the long suspension travel.
So now I have 7hours riding time on the nice computer that in the good old days used to be just a speedometer and if you were lucky a revcounter.
Compared to the KLR I traded (which was and still is a good machine) in for this bike its more than a 100 pounds lighter and has about the same power in the smaller engine, so power to weight ratio is a huge difference and I have to remember not to throttle up like the old machine or I could be in trouble.

Today's ride was a real eye opener as the first time out it seemed to be very light on both ends but after a rethink on what to do with said throttle I found the bike responded much better to keeping the RPM up a bit and just tweeking the power in and out as needed that also required carefully selecting the right gear to be used.
Safe to say I came home with wet feet and a smile on my face, why wet feet? well jumping puddles on the trails is tricky so you just slow down a bit and drive through hoping it wont get too deep.

By now you are wondering what this machine is I guess, good job I took a picture five minutes before it got wet and dirty (thats what they are for so you get to wash them)
So see below and know that I am having a VERY good year :-))


At the South end of the K&P trail.

Just a Taste for now

So its late on Sunday the 25th and this is the first time I have had good enough WIFI for a blog post !

Well I have been riding the KLR HARD for 10 days now and apart from cleaning the drive chain and routine check KERMIT, yes kermit is performing well thank goodness.

So this image is from the Gemini Bridges ride

More to come as and when I have time and a good enough connection but for now I need a shower and some sleep as I am into Moab for supplies ( ice, food, water and some extra steel nerve powder! LOL ) first thing and off out into the unknown depths of Canyonlands
TTFN

One Year Later

Well I suppose some would call it tardy or lazy!
I call it busy having FUN :-))

That's why its been a year since the last post.

So what am I up to now, you may well ask and I know you do !!

Its Friday evening and I am only two days from another trip to fun land, on Monday morning very early I leave for Moab in Utah in the good old USA.
You see when I acquired my KLR 650 I knew I was going to get to enjoy riding it and not worry about mud and dirt in general, little did I understand just how much fun I would have with it.
And now before I get any more distance under the saddle I thought it would be a good idea to go back to Moab.
Last time I was there was two years ago and in late July at 120 Fahrenheit, much to hot to hang around for more than a couple of days before heading up in to the hills for cooler temps.
Now after spending the last winter renovating the garage so it would be warm enough to work in I got down to fixing the KLR so it was in better shape for such a trip.
I had with much help from another member of the Three Rusty Beards built a suitable trailer for my bike from an old boat trailer by the start of the winter. So with that done I could get on fixing up the bike and see the picture emerging, car trailer and KlR ready to head west!

Hope you like the end result as much as I do :-))

More from the trip when I can hook up to the internet .

Smile and the whole world !

You know the rest I hope.

So today was a milestone in a good friends recovery from a close encounter shall we say.
In Celebration of things to come the "Three Rusty Beards" ( with deference to Dumas ) took to the road in search of Fun.
As a consequence we seemed to arrive in time for tea/coffee and a piece of pie.

The resulting humorous finger pointing and calorie consumption is now well documented.
A sunny but windy day outside kept us in the warm for a few extra minutes before the bikes called us back into the saddle for our return journey home.

Now our good friend can rest a while till we drag him out into the bike riding pie eating world we all love so well.

Now for the proof of the pudding ( I mean pie of course )

Just Staying focused right guys

Life is Good

March Breakup

So Tuesday was a real nice day to put the battery back in the 1150GS and go for afternoon tea.

It was really sunny, I had the camera with me and but waited till the return trip at the back end of the afternoon to stop and see what the ice on the Mississippi river was doing.
Blakeney is a nice spot to view the river close up so the following images are just a very few of what I took from the single track bridge and picnic area access.

A little side stream like this only happens in the spring

Occasionally an ice and snow bridge happens, nice for the small animals, (until it inevitably collapses).

Never have figured out what this is near the parking area!

Pretty thin ice

Interesting what an obstrution will do the the flow of water.
So now need to find time to look at all my images and see which ones to print , maybe in monochrome!

Lets see how that works out, next time then.

Spring into another Spring

Well its been a while but that should prove I have not been idle!

The log pile is getting low and the sun is getting higher, 9C today and this is my second weeks of Sunday rides.
The new to me KLR (last fall) sprung into life last week right after reinstalling the battery, nice!.
Maintenance work soon but first a ride or two.Oh yes I did the tires and checked oil levels and lubed the chain of course David, Ha Ha.
The GS is next on the list to get some fresh air.

The winter was busy with the Christmas season at work and some very fun days of kite activity either with the snowboard or ski's, really getting comfortable with the board now, just like floating on hot butter almost :-))

Now we are into the season of browns and greys with some white overtones, and with the expectation of the greens to come.
Probably going to go all white again for a bit before the real spring hits us up in The Great White North.
But the longer days and fresher smelling air lifts the spirits for all at this time.

So with cups of tea on the occasional stops while on my Sunday rides we move into another season.