Slime Tire Top Off Tire Inflator

I'd had a wonderful sideways slide down the road due to a front tube blowout on my KLR 650, so you'll understand why proper tire inflation has become something of an obsession with me.

Some friends and I made a trip down to the Catskill Mountains in New York for an ADVRider.com rally called "Color in the Catskills" and when the weather turned colder, I noticed that my front tire was a bit low, so my friend Dee pulled out a wee air compressor that bulked a little larger than a ham sandwich, you know the ones that are made with generous slices of ham, have some nice old tart cheddar and a spot of bold mustard on some lovely white bread? The tire inflator doesn't taste as good, but worked very well topping off the tire using the 12 volt cigarette lighter I've installed on my bike. While her gauge was broken, I used the one I carry in my tank bag to sort it out. For a $15 investment at Walmart Canada, it seems like a great addition to a travel tool kit, so I went out and bought one the next time I found my self in Wally Mart. ;)

http://www.slime.com/shop/tire-top-off-40020/

I used it to inflate my tires when I swapped out my street tires to my dirt tires. It took a bit, but brought up the pressures easily although I don't trust the built in gauge at all. ;)

2 Bikes, 2 States, 2 Days and 2 Turkeys

Two Turkeys

I'd taken a week's vacation from work, and had made plans with Dee to ride down into Pennsylvania the following Monday, when I'd had a front tire blow out on my KLR, sending the bike sliding down the road sideways at 40 kilometres per hour, and bashing up my hand to the point where I had difficulty and pain getting a glove on and off of it, so the ride was postponed, but understandably Dee was less than happy about it, so as I'd no plans for the Thanksgiving weekend, we developed a mini ride that would have us leaving Toronto Friday night to cross the border and head for Springville NY to overnight, but as you can see, we didn't quite make it that far...

Night 1 - Richmond Hill ON to Gowanda NY

Everybody was Karate fighting! Those dudes were fast as lightning!

2011 Color in the Catskills

I'm a sometime poster on ADVRider.com under the nickname of Rotten Ronnie, and my friend Willie suggested that we ride down last year to attend the ADV rally held at Hunter Mountain Inn and sponsored in part by Max BMW.

So this year Darryl finally got his BMW sorted and we recruited a few more to fill out our numbers, including my friend Dee and my brother Shaun, who is in his first season on a motorcycle.

2011 Color in the Catskills

Richmond Hill ON to Hunter NY

83,588 kilometres

 It started off with my brother's KLR losing headlight and signals, then failing to start after Shaun rode it down to my house from Barrie, so a quick trip to Wally Mart was in order to buy a replacement. It was exactly what was needed, as three days later the bike was running strong on the new battery and the old one that I'd left on a trickle charger was still not taking a charge. It's a KLR, that battery had been in the bike since Dan bought in (two years ago?), but otherwise those bikes are very reliable.

Crossing over the St. Lawrence Seaway over into the United States.