First day under my belt – in a word, wow! Had an awesome day after a late start and couldn’t have been more impressed with what I found. Plenty to see and never knew what was going to come up around the next corner. It’s all just starting ….
Well, that wasn’t so bad.
Looked up Air Canada Cargo on Dr Google and found an address out by the International Airport. A $35 taxi ride with a VERY talkative and impossible to understand Indian driver and by 2.00 pm I was there. No queue and a really helpful bloke behind the counter where I handed over my waybill (thanks Ivan) which he processed. He said the bike was there (yehaaaaaaa) but I needed to take the paperwork to Canadian Customs – a 2 minute walk away. He said a lot of bikes had been sent back to their point of origin for being too dirty. Mostly UK bikes. The owners weren’t given the opportunity to clean them, just back on the next flight! I said I’d spent close to a day on it which impressed him. He said to make sure I reinforced that with Customs and that they usually don’t inspect them (didn’t make much sense after the earlier comments). But, he said, if they did, it would be a worst case scenario.
Took a while to get to sleep last night and woke up at 8.00 am a bit raggedy. However, I think the body clocks going to be pretty right going forwards now – doesn’t take long to shake the cobwebs out and I reckon I got away with the jet lag well.
A maintenance and admin morning coming up I think. Some washing, a few e-mails and belatedly updating the blog. I’ve never done one before and am enjoying it.
….. kinda.
After 12 hours sleep, a bit of breakfast and then another brief snooze, it was time to get back into it. One of the best bits about traveling is street food. Walking through the commercial district Downtown, I saw a huge line up at a pretty grotty looking Taco Van. Always a good sign. I had the most awesome chicken taco with avocado, chilli and lime. It was one of the nicest things I’ve ever eaten! Nearly went back for another but, nope – so much more to try. Think I’ll be grazing all day!!
Well, here I am in Canada – all the planning and plotting has finally come to be! First impressions are great. In and out of customs in about 10 minutes, an e-mail from my AirBnB saying to check in whenever it suited and then a taxi into town.
The flight was easy and relaxing – movies, a brief snooze, not a lot to eat, but no complaints about what was served. The 16 hours went in a flash.
Well, I reluctantly made the call a few days ago. The final parts I needed to finish the KIT690 build simply didn’t arrive. They were posted by Jon in early July, but have disappeared into the ether. Just bad luck – lots of complaints from heaps of people about ‘Australia Post’ lately – nothing more could have been done. Thanks to everyone for their help in getting me this far – it was an awesome effort, right to the end. As always, I had a Plan B – time to put it into action.
The bike’s looking like a bike again! It’s taken a while, but am really starting to get a feel for what the finished product is going to look like. Got the clear screen mounted, the spoilers, bark busters, a Kako throttle lock and have retro fitted a new Mosko Moto Reckless 80 luggage system. Looks like it will be awesome. The header, exhaust, bashplate and decals still haven’t arrived, but it will only be an afternoons work to fit them before heading off on a shakedown ride. The decals (wait until you see them!) will be a bit more of a job. I did a test of the electrics the other night and all’s in order. Held my breath, turned the key and bam ….. lights, indicators, horn, dash – the works. Quite a relief, I can tell you. Continue reading “How cool is the navi tower?”
It’s been a busy month – lots of late nights and weekends pretty much dedicated to the bike, but plenty of progress has been made. The build’s gone well and, while I’ve encountered many challenges, these were expected and part of the deal. I’ve had lots of interest shown by all my mates and a huge amount of assistance from them. Special thanks to Steve Passlow, Luke Buenen, Reg Thompson and Darren McAlpine. There was one other, and that’s Jon Florea. Seriously, the man is a saint. He’s given me hours and hours of his time, day, night, weekends, it didn’t matter. So many messages, emails and assistance with some seriously dumb questions being asked.
Boxes ….. the word all on everyone’s lips. It’s an agonizing wait, as silly as that sounds, and every KIT690 recipient goes through it. The order had been made, the parts packed and it was on it’s way. Anxious checks of the post every day ….. waiting, waiting, waiting.
‘Man, are you crazy’ ….. was the comment I got from my good mate Ray Powdrell when he first saw these photos. ‘Why are you cutting up a perfectly good KTM motorcycle?’ His parting words were ‘You’re going to regret that!’.
It was a hard thing to do, I have to say, pulling out an angle grinder and hacking into the 690. The kit still hadn’t arrived and, while I was fully committed, it kind of became the point of no return. What possible reason could there be for doing something like this?
Adventure USA 