Wallet's, Day trip along the Grand and music that I listen to while riding.

The wallet collection

The Harley Davidson biker wallet

 This is my main riding wallet. I picked this up while at the Harley Davidson Museum in Milwaukee, WI, when I went to Amerivespa in 2014. The ferry across Lake Michigan is there and the museum, so I spent a night there. To be honest the museum is about the only thing worth seeing while visiting Milwaukee, WI (hate mail to the usual address).  I also wanted to get a pic of the "Welcome to Milwaukee sign"on the city hall (Laverne & Shirley), but it was gone :-(. It's everything you want in a bikers wallet. Everything is heavy duty, and I've had it almost 2 years now with no problems. As Josh Ilot would say 'It's the full meal deal".  But they are not cheap, they now go for $60 on the HD web site. But sometimes you don't mind paying for quality and this wallet is one of those times. But for my type of riding, I'll never have to worry about losing it. I also like the zippered pocket, great to keep my Sim cards in without having to worry about losing them. Two sides to keep money in, and for me that can either Canadian one side/American in the other. Or small denomination one side/ large in the other.

Alos there's the carabiner that I use with the wallet and also for me keys, and the one's I like are, Trango from Korea, they reasonably priced and unlike the dollar store one's, they last forever. Here's the ebay link:

Ebay Carabiner link

The Duck Tape wallet

My other wallet has a story behind it. This is my work wallet, as I sit down all day so I have a separate wallet for work. Also I don't need to take my credit cards etc, just in case something happens,  I'll lose next to nothing. The problem is I would buy a cheap wallet, usually on ebay and it would last, say a year, if. So when I saw someone selling Duck tape wallet for $4 on ebay, I decided to give it a try.

As you can see, I've picked up the lovey Union Jack duck tape wallet. It works well at work, I can hardly tell it's there. Unlike some other wallets that dig into me bum. Now here's where this wallet really came into it's own. I'm getting ready for work one morning and I can't find the above wallet. Then it dawns on me that I could have left it in my pants and washed them. So over to the dryer I go and feel around, and as you've probably guessed, yes, there it was in the pants pocket in the dryer!  Upon examining the wallet, everything looked ok on the outside. But me wonders what happened to that plastic $5 bill now washed and dried. I've heard some nasty things about them melting in the dryer.. I open up the wallet and things are a little wet inside but nothing melted. I take all the paper items inside out to dry (ownership, insurance, etc) put back my work ID and off to work I go. This wallet still looks as good as the day I got it, made it through a wash and dryer cycle no worse for ware. I've gotta say it's the best $4 I've spent on a wallet. Here's a few links, if your lazy like me use the ebay link, or if your a cheap bastard (or have some tape lying around) go to the make a wallet link.

Links:

Ebay Duck Tape Wallets


wikihow.com/Make-a-Colored-Duct-Tape-Wallet


Cheers,
Tross

Day tripping on a beautiful June Saturday. Or a ride along the Grand River.

Well what can I say. The forecast for this weekend is all that you look for in the late springs day. High 70's to low 80's, with just a touch of cloud. I've been looking forward to heading down to visit, A vicious cycle, which just got purchased by "Twisted throttle". They are located in "New Dundee" which is just south of Kitchener. So off to the storage locker and go dig out the BMW. The MP3 is now the city scoot, which means work, scooter runs, etc, and the BMW for the longer travels.  One of the problems with the storage locker is the lack of power outlets. I tried taping into the overhead lights, but ended up getting a outlet that has 350 volts.Popped the first transformer that I plugged in as well as the light it was charging.  Guess I should have used the multi meter before connecting it up ;-). Anyway if the bike sits longer than a week it slowly discharges, due to alarm, parasitic drain,  etc. Plus if the battery goes down below 11 volts you can fuse the starter relay open, which I really don't want to do. So finally the big puppy at Canadian tire comes on sale.

The thing about Canadian tire is, if you can wait long enough they will put it on sale, and this was the week it went on sale. Pick it up on Friday, charge it up, then I took it over to the storage locker, plugged in my battery tender and off I go to work.

I wake up early Saturday morning and head over to the storage locker and wonder if it worked. I'm greeted by that lovey green light on the battery tender telling me she's ready to go!  The powerbox says it even has a full charge ( I doubt it, but it's still full enough). Take the bike outside and the powerbox  back home to be recharged for next time. Drop the scooter off at the locker, dig out the trailer, though the moving guys where hogging up the elevator so I had to use the rear ramp, it just takes more time. Every thing is now done, except I've left my mesh jacket back at home, so back I go :-(. I've got plenty of time,  just some mornings things just don't come together easily.

The nice thing about early Saturday morning is that there still is not that much traffic out. So a quick trip on the 401 and 400 and off to Radioworld. I've got a new helmet and need another mic for the Scala G4. Even though I was tempted to upgrade to the G9X I just ended up getting  the mic. They carry all the Garmin stuff, Ram mounts, Go Pro etc. Kind of a one stop shop for motorcycle/scooter electronic toys. The mic for the Scala was around the same price as it's on ebay, so why not support a local shop. Here's the link to check them out.

Radioworld


From there it's off to "A vicious cycle" in New Dundee. But first a coffee which is now becoming a favorite stop for me. The Onroute in Cambridge and Starbucks. End of the day is, that, I love these chairs. They are really relaxing. The kind of chair that you want to sit after riding.

From here it's only a 20 min ride to vicious cycle. They started carrying twisted throttle stuff and then got bought out by twisted throttle. Which is great as I've ordered stuff from them before, sending it to my American mailbox. My Givi top box for the MP3 came from them at a considerable discount over the usual Canadian suppliers. So I'm looking forward to visiting the store. Also since I got some room on the trailer I wanted to pick up a couple of these to carry some spare oil and gas:

The funny thing is that the only time I've run low on gas is when I didn't carry any extra!

ps: I found the extra one I had lying around, so now I have an extra, contact me if you want one ;-)


I've already got 2 on the MP3. They work well and you don't have to worry about spilling oil and gas all over in your storage compartment, clothes, tools etc. The thing about twisted throttle is they carry lots of neat and interesting stuff. Here's some other things I picked up:

Since I'm here, I might as well pick them up for the trip.

They are cheap,  good quality and a great size for the stand.

Hey, it was only $2.99, so I'll give it a try. Into the rain kit it goes.

As you can see, it was a busy Saturday afternoon. Sorry about not taking more pics. They are renovating the diner next store, so don't worry.

I asked for a few of their great reflective stickers for the bike and trailer. They will throw them in as long as you buy something or just ask for them. 

Here's the links for the shop and twisted throttle catalogs.

A Vicious Cycle

Twisted Throttle Canada

I asked about what they carry from twisted throttle. They have most items in stock (the stuff that sells on a regular basis). So if in doubt, e mail them ahead of time or phone them. They will be glad to order it in for you, so it will be waiting for you when you get there. Otherwise they can ship it to you! The difference on the prices, American/Canadian are small, so it's worth going here instead of the ship to a border mail box. I just wish more of the great american motorcycle retailers would come to Canada.

From here it's back to Guelph and Royal Distributing. So why the back tracking? Well,  A vicious cycle is only open till 2 pm on Saturdays, so off to New Dundee first, then Royal, which stays open later. I can't say that I've ever been impressed by Royal's Guelph location, it's seems small, doesn't carry that much motorcycle stuff, and nothing on sale. They seem to save those for the Whitby location. Which means again that I walk away without buying anything. I went to see if they had any replacements for the gloves that went missing in Bradfort, Pa, a couple of weeks ago. No go.

Now I'm off to Kitchener and over to the grand river. While taking Hyw 7 into Kitchener I pass Bingemans Park. O those fond memories of Doing some Oktoberfest scooter runs. One mod kipping on a picnic bench in his parka and it was snowing that morning. Why we did it, I never know (not true, alcohol, drugs and great friends) . But I can tell you that the best cuppa hot chocolate that I ever had was on that cold morning. I wonder if Darren still has that pic of him standing in the empty field after we all left. Anyway back to the new century. As I'm driving I come across this place.

How could I not stop? From what I could tell, it's a real Spitfire. You could see all the rivets, etc. The tank, I'd say Russian by the shape of the turret.  Since K-W Surplus has "Lot of Camping stuff" I head in there first. One thing Toronto doesn't really have anymore are good Surplus stores. This place is the real deal. Which means I spend over an hour in there. By the time I get out and head over to Spitfire, they have closed :-(. Well I'll save that for another time and time. From here it's taking back roads along the Grand river down to Cambridge. These are roads that I've taken during my mod scootering times, when we used to ride up to Kitchener for mod do's. Not much has changed, just more box stores. They've brightened up Cambridge a bit, some new stuff where to old mill used to be, etc. But nothing worth stopping for. Down hwy 24 to East river and onto Paris, Ont. I like Paris, now only if I could find a parking spot! No so it's up on top of the hill and three I find a Pioneer station to stop at for some Hydration and the bank machine. 

From there it's a short, and I mean short, ride into Brantford. Had some really good times here with Ben and the Brantford crew. Always made you feel welcome.  Now to head through downtown Brantford. Well it's about on par with Oshawa and that doesn't say much . They've replaced some of the abandon buildings with Gov't offices which are closed on weekends. With almost everything else empty or closed.  It's not a bad as it was 30 years ago, but it's not far off. I would have thought Brantford would have done something more, but I guess not. So from there it's on to Hwy 18/54 for the drive down to Caledonia. Well I learned something new, that if you ever need smokes or cheap gas, or fireworks, this is the road to drive down. Since I'm not a big fan of the local Indians after their crap in Caledonia and I don't support shopping there to save a few bucks.  I was going to stop by and visit Dave and make plans for PVSC but Dave was still at Walleys. It is what it is, and I'd should have given Fish a heads up that I'd be coming down. So I ended up seeing nobody. The drive back was the usual way, hwy 6, 403, QEW, Gardiner, and finally the DVP. As long as you take Lakeshore around Parklawn then come back on the Gardiner at Dufferin you will miss most of the construction. I made a detour to head up to Davy Love's new digs, The Bristol. The problem on a Saturday night is trying to find a parking spot, so with non to be had I headed home. Not a big problem as I'll be there for the world cup games. As of writing, it will be a few hours away for the England/Divers-Italy game.

A great day overall, with my next adventure being a 4 day road trip on the BMW to PVSC. I know, why am I not riding the scooter?. It's a few things, the belt needs to be replaced on the MP3, I've ordered it but it won't be here for PVSC, that is if I don't want to pay Piaggio's going rate of $220 for a belt. I'd rather order one for $80 and have it shipped up with the variator tool. It still comes in cheaper. So I was kind of tarty on that and as well as the hobbits are not doing the ride this year. Rob and Andy are trucking their scoots down to Eire and riding from there. So no ride down this year :-( So I'll take the BMW, leave early and visit a couple of Army surplus stores and ride a bit of the Lincoln hwy that I've not ridden yet. Plus with packing the tent and stuff it will be good to see how everything goes before I set out to the East Coast and Lammyjammy next month.

Cheers,
Tross

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What I'm listening to while on the road.

Run (instrumental), Gnarles Barkley

Great to listen to while fighting the traffic on the QEW.


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Matchstick Men, Status Quo

Funny how early stuff from bands that I hated in the 80's could be so good. Sometimes you need some good old Psychedelic music.

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House of the King, Focus

I'd totally had forgotten this song. Then I watched the English series "Saxondale" which uses it as their title song. But I known that I heard it before. Back in the old days it would have driven me mad trying to find this song. But with the internet it's easy. For those still guessing, the show had Magus Pike in it.

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How many times, The rovin' Flames


One of those songs I found on Youtube, by going to the songs on the right of the page. I've found a lot of good stuff that way. The vid is good as well, it's a good way to find out about good/campy 60's movies that you'd otherwise never hear about. This is a song that I can play over and over, from cheesy organ to great lyrics, I just love this song.

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Scoobidoo Love, Breaking Bad

When I first heard this song on a tv ad, I had no idea that breaking bad had used it. At the time I was just starting to watch it. A well put together video. Though one guy looks like Amir. One thing I'm looking foward to this fall on my "Route 66" ride is the couple of day stopover in the ABQ and doing all the "breaking bad" tour, picking up some "blue meth" candy and see if they are filming "Better Call Saul". 

Enjoy,

Tross