Hi I'm Neil (Irish) and I'm travelling with my girlfriend Franziska (German) on a 990 Adventure. We set out from Halifax last Friday and we're currently in Quebec city heading Montreal direction today or tomorrow then onwards to Toronto and continuing in Canada all the way to Vancouver. After that we'll turn south for south America. We set up a blog at Pan Adventura | One year on two wheels through the Americas it would be nice to hear and advice people have or possibly meet some other travelers along the way.

Hi Neil and Franziska,


You are in a great part of the world with some very friendly people, have a good trip. You can contact people via the HU communities and there is also the ADVrider tent space thread which has some friendly, helpful people on it.
Tent Space Map, Tent Space Sign-Up, Campsite List - ADVrider

Hi Mark,
Thanks for the tip about tent space, that will definitely come in handy.

Neil

How far along are you Mark? I'm in Ontario near Haliburton.

Hi Neil:

Welcome to Canada, I hope you have a pleasant trip.

Do keep in mind that it can get quite cold at night north of Lake Superior (from Sault Ste. Marie on through to the Manitoba border... that's quite a long distance). It is not uncommon to find frost on the ground some mornings in late August. So, stock up on warm clothing, etc. before heading north.

Also, be aware that on just about every map of the Province of Ontario, Northern Ontario (typically drawn on the reverse side of the map) is shown at a much reduced scale than Southern Ontario (typically drawn on the front side of the map). Don't let this catch you unaware. The distances across Northern Ontario are huge. By way of example, on a trip from Toronto to Vancouver, you are more than halfway there before you even leave the Province of Ontario!

There are a few stretches of highway across Northern Ontario where you have gaps of 100 miles or more between gas stations. Be aware of this, and think twice before heading out to the next town.

Michael

Also, another bit of information worth considering:

There is a KTM dealer in Barrie, Ontario (about an hour north of Toronto). The next one west of there is in Thunder Bay, which is 1,300 km (800 miles) down the road.

The next one after Thunder Bay is in Brandon, Manitoba, which is a further 920 km (570 miles). The next one after Brandon is in Calgary, 1,100 km (700 miles) further west. That's a total of 2 dealers (Thunder Bay and Brandon) across a distance of 3,600 km (2,200 miles). Hell, that's like crossing Siberia, so far as parts availability is concerned.

If you need KTM parts and you don't happen to be in one of the above-mentioned towns, the fastest and least expensive way of shipping the parts to you is to have the KTM dealer send the parts by "Bus Parcel Express" (BPX), to be held for pickup at the bus depot of the town you are in. Intercity busses run numerous times a day across the Trans-Canada highway, and stop at most small towns. BPX is a lot faster than courier... you can often get the shipment 'same day'... and there are not very many courier offices in small towns along your route.

Michael

The main reason I bought a trail bike almost 4 years ago was to ride across Canada east to west, via the back gravel roads. But travel plans changed and I'm still hoping - I'll follow your blog with interest.
Safe riding

__________________
Elaine

Striving to live the ordinary life in a non ordinary way

Micheal thanks for all of that information, up until now we've had no bike problems except for when I accidentally knocked on the high beam while the ignition key was turned on when I was checking the odometer and it ran the battery flat. Got a jump easily enough though. We're in Barrie now hopping that the weather forecast for the next few days is wrong.

Montreal is fun city ... Toronto is OK ... but after that heading West across Canada gets pretty boring, IMO. One straight road until Vancouver, quite bleak. My biggest gripe was super low speed limits and over zealous RCMP. Pay on the spot fines.

Enforcement in the states is more liberal ... In Montana there really is no speed limit even though it's posted, hard to get nicked there. We easily did 500 miles days. I got $300 worth of tickets in Canada. Be careful.

Maybe think about dropping South into US, see some of the highlights on your way across. Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Montana, all spectacular riding with FAR MORE diversity than Canada ... and probably better weather too.

Or you can continue to Vancouver, then drop South and see some places on your way towards Latin America. Your Pound will go farther once you cross into Mexico and beyond. Be careful there in Canada ... I think Winter starts in a couple weeks.

In California, Sept, Oct, November ... can be the best time of year for riding. Oct. to December are great months for Mexico and Cent. America. Cooler, no more rainy season (hopefully). Ride safe!

Hi Neil,

Hope your enjoying the journey? I'm considering doing much the same trip and was wondering if you shipped your bike from the UK, if so what was your experience of that.

Colin

Hi Watson,
The shipping process was a breeze. I shipped the bike from Bremerhaven in Germany with a Roll on Roll off ferry owned by W&W. The ferry stops at Bremerhaven then goes onto Sweden to pick up mor vehicles it then turns around to Belgium and finally Southampton before setting off across the Atlantic for Hallifax. Halifax is only it's first stop in North America, I could have chosen to have the bike offloaded in New York, Baltimore or Charlestown as well. I asked W&W for a quote and a forwarding agent who uses them, as the quotes came back identical I went with the forwarding agent In-time based in Hamburg. Both were asking for 1100 euro plus 150 dollars to be paid direct on the other side for canadian customs. From that point all I had to do was drop the bike off at Bremerhaven 5 days before departure where it was stored indoors. Key was left with the bike so they drive it onto the ferry. Received some paperwork, when the ship departed I paid In-Time and was able to track the ship on vesselfinder.com. The shop arrived in Halifax a day after us, Halifax is a small city that you can easily get around by on foot so we walked to the office of W&W and handed them a money order which I got at the Canadian post office. We were in and out in 5 minutes, they stamped our paperwork as paid and all we had to do then was walk to the Canadian customs office then they stamped it and we could go to the Autoport and pick up the bike. Pretty painless process.

Hi Neil,
It does indeed sound painless. From reading some of the forums you'd get the impression that shipping by sea is more expensive than Air freight, but you'rs seems very reasonable.
Thanks for the insight and hope the trip is going well, what bike/s hare you on and how are you finding Canada cost wise?

Regards
Colin

Hi Neil,

Welcome to the HUBB,

As MollyDog mentions you are cutting it a bit late in the year for being in the Canadian Rockies, we can quite often ride in late October and even into November - IF the snow holds off, but you had better make sure you have some warm gear - we can get snow at anytime during the last half of September in Banff and up the Ice Fields Parkway (93N) to Jasper which looks to be where you are going from the map on your website. This morning it was 2C in Banff with clear skies, our first frost will hit in a week or two. We normally get a cold snap in mid December with the temperature dropping to ~ -40C air temperature with some wind chill on top of that too.


Stay warm!

__________________
Cheers
Grif

'11 KTM 450 EXC
'09 Suzuki DR650
'00 Discovery Series 2 V8
'95 Defender 90 300 Tdi Overlander
http://gipperstravels.blogspot.ca