Hector's Ride To oVc

25 Jun 07: At 8am on a warm and sunny morning I loaded Hector into the sidecar, strapped my luggage to the rear rack and headed out on our latest adventure. My Ural needed some warranty work and I decided to ride it to the dealer near Guelph, ON (Ken Beach of oVc - Old Vintage Cranks) to let him work his magic on it. This would be the longest single day journey Hector and I have ever attempted, so I planned a route along secondary highways and country roads that would allow for frequent stops. I estimated our total travel time to be around eight hours including "pee breaks" and gas stops so I packed lots of water, doggy biscuits and sunscreen for the journey.

At 8:15am we were ready to roll. The spare rim on the front of the sidecar was a warranty return item that we were taking along to save the shipping costs. It had the effect of making the rig look like it was ready for some kind of an Alaskan adventure.

The first leg of the trip was pretty uneventful, although by the time we did our first gas stop it was starting to get pretty warm out. I made Hector sit in the shade for a bit before we carried on, so he got a bit of a knot in his face because he didn't get to wander around and explore the parking lot.

Because we were heading right by Ural Canada in Peterborough, On, we stopped in for a visit with the staff. Hector was quite happy to sit in the air conditioned comfort of the showroom, as it was pretty hot outside by now and it took a bit of coaxing to get him back outside so we could go for lunch.

By the time we rode through the city of Newmarket it was 32C under very sunny skies. Poor Hector was roasting in the sidecar, so at our next gas stop I bought a large, cold bottled water to pour all over him.

Lots of "shakies" later, I had one mildly annoyed but cooled down doggy. I put the rest of the water in his dish and tried to give him a cookie, but he didn't want to eat anything. He did empty the water dish, though. Twice.

The rest of the trip was uneventful, save for a few ignorant drivers who just couldn't stand being held up by a sidecar rig travelling at 95kmh on an 80kmh posted road. I thought the people in MY neck of the woods were in a hurry, but from Newmarket all the way to oVc in Hillsburgh we were frequently tailgated by an assortment of brainless mouth-breathers in their air-conditioned steel boxes. Most of the truckers, though, kept a respectful distance - which was a relief.
We finally arrived at Ken Beach's house a little after 4pm, a little hot and sweaty but otherwise in good shape. We settled in for the night and headed out to the oVc shop first thing in the morning.

This was Douk's first visit back to the dealer in a long time, so naturally I had to get a photo of it and The Wonder Dog in front of the shop door.

Hector settled in to his new responsibility as Official oVc Shop Dog and spent the next couple days supervising the activities from his spot on the blanket in the showroom entrance.

There was much to do in order to prep the Ural for timing gears replacement, but we managed to get it done in between several delays. oVc is a busy place and there were many people stopping by or phoning as we worked.

One of those delays was the arrival of 7 new Urals and most of Tuesday afternoon was spent unloading and shuffling all the crates around.

Later in the afternoon we were graced with the presence of two of my CURD (Canadian Ural/Dnepr Riders Group) members, Steve and Rick with their Urals.

Ken stayed late in the night getting as much done on my bike as he could, what with all of us hanging around chatting and eating pizza. We almost had to drag him away from the bike to get some water and food into him.

By 10am Wednesday morning my bike was ready to go. Ken took a much needed break by taking one of his customer's new scooter out for a test ride.

Angie rumbled in on her Harley just before noon. She had been in Toronto on a business conference and was coming with me to the CMC 001 Bike Night in Guelph later in the day. The CMC is the "Canadian Motorcycle Cruisers" club, of which I am the 1st Officer of the 002 Thousand Islands chapter.

Our original plan was to tour the region and then attend the event later on, staying at one of our friend's place overnight. But the temperature was just too hot by now and there was heavy rain in the forecast, so we opted to check into a hotel first. And that's when the fun began. Angie spent the better part of an hour on the phone at a local gas station trying to find a hotel that would accept pets. We finally found one a few minutes away, but arrived just in time to find out the last pet-friendly room had just been taken. The sympathetic hotel clerk phoned around for us and eventually located one at the other end of the city. We booked it over the phone this time and headed out, jamming both bikes into one parking spot when we got there.

After cooling off in the air-conditioned room and waiting for the rain to stop, we headed for the Bike Night. There were lots of choice bikes in attendance there, including this nice old Triumph.

Hector and the Ural were, of course, the stars of the show. We didn't get much of a chance to wander around, as I was kept very busy answering questions about him and the bike all evening.

After handing out several brochures, chatting with my fellow CMC members and just plain enjoying ourselves, it was finally time to load up and head back to the hotel.

We had some more luggage to take home with us now, having won the "Bike Of The Night" award. Hector was also awarded the "CMC Dog Of The Week" award, so it was a successful night for both of us

The next morning we met with several of the CMC members for brekkie at a restaurant 20 minutes east of Guelph and just down the road from oVc. As we were all on a relaxed schedule, we decided to pay Ken a visit before heading for home.

Even though Ken wasn't open that day, he made a special trip in just to let us wander around the shop. The Urals and Dneprs inside got a lot of attention and many of the CMC members were quite interested in learning more about them.

We eventually saddled up and headed out. Somewhere before Newmarket we came upon a really cool sight - this dog was motoring along, scoping out the scenery along the way, securely held in place by a harness attached to the top box. I pulled up next to them at a stoplight and introduced Hector. He finally got to meet his first riding buddy!

It was a great ride, cooler than the previous few days, which made for an enjoyable time. Angie was, as always, riding proud and pretty on her Harley.

A CMC couple from Montreal, Jester and Sparrow, accompanied us for most of the trip home, taking some good pics along the way. I think we all looked pretty damned cool riding along the highways!

Due to the relaxed pace and frequent stops along the way, it took 11 hours for the trip home. Hector was some happy to be let out of the sidecar when we arrived, he had logged just over 1,000km in total on this trip and it was no surprise that he spent the rest of the day zonked out on the cool dining room floor in our house!