Taking Chances...Toronto to St John's via the Translab

sleepyhead65

Active Member
I'm also posting this in ADV which is why some of this may seem obvious.

It was a rainy spring and downright cold in St John's this year. Perhaps that is the why the price of a used bike seemed elevated once the fair weather hit. Further there just didn't seem to be any that I liked ...er not in my budget anyway. When looking for a second bike I had to question how much money I was going to spend on it (and still keep the Honda Varadero).

No problems with the Varadero. It's been a great bike for me: smooth, comfortable, powerful, and it handles regally on the road. But it isn't a dual sport in any imaginable way. I live in Newfoundland. It's rocky and muddy out here when off road.

So I've been wanting to buy for a long, long time but due to financial constraints couldn't. I still have financial constraints. I had to rule out every KTM dual sport in good shape in my neighborhood. But there weren't many. For that matter I couldn't find an XR or a DR for a decent price. I had decided I was NOT going to go KLR although there were a few of them around. No, I decided I would look further afield. Nova Scotia, PEI, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario...finally I found an old DR650 (2001) at market value but heavily farkled out. Suspension, fairing, tank, luggage, uncorked, lighting, everything all done but 50K on the odometer. It was near Toronto, Ontario

Discussions ensued and it looked for a while like it was not going to go through mostly because of vacation timing. But eventually a plan was worked out. I sent him half the price of the bike, he sent me the ownership papers which I then transferred to my name and got a plate. The balance is due when I pick up the bike.

So this is a motorcycle story about taking chances. It's a big chance to fly halfway across the continent to pick up a bike from someone you have never met. Even bigger to take them at their word that it is good to go on a 4000k trip. It's also a risk to do a trip on a bike you have never ridden before...at least in the case of the TLH with high speed gravel. The TLH has it's risks at any point in time. But that is exactly what I intend to do. It's a bucket list thing.

As I write I am about 8 hours from my plane taking off to start on this adventure of mine. I intend to chronicle all of my successes here and as many of my woes as I can bear to bare. I have the feeling that I have little certainty about much that is going to happen in the next week. It's very exciting!
 
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