So SaturdayI sold my Z1000. Sad day, no more riding you say? Nope! A good friend leant me his ZX-14 Sunday, for a nice ride organized by Ducati Montreal. 20 bikes total, a bunch of Ducatis, a few BMWs and some japanese bikes too.
All real riders as it was only 4 degrees at 9am ...



It was damn cold indeed. I made it through ok ... big fairings, proper gear, heated grips. Some weren't as lucky and claimed they needed to stop for gas every 5min.

We made a pause in Shawinigan, ex-industrial city converted into something nice yet touristy. Not too bad. Everyone had extra bacon for the 11:45am lunch.

Thankfully, the clouds and cold wind disappeared leaving us with a nice brisk air and full-on sun! Very pleasant.



Almost 8$ to visit a natural park, that's kind of a ripoff. Whatever. We all fueled up before the 85mi (back & forth) of fun park roads.





Looks just as nice in real life.





I'd never been there, and had been told it was hell, full of police (because the road that goes through is so nice). Not a cop in sight, and mindblowingly nice fall colors.



Quite a few curves, too.



The nice Sport Classic hung around ...



We all stopped at this really nice belvedere. I certainly wasn't expecting it to be that nice. Note ATGATT on foot on the trail.



Yep, it's nice alright.


And we keep on going ...






The organizer of the ride ...




My bike for the day. My arms still hurt 2 days later.


This is where we reach the end ... which means we now get to do it all over again!!!









Some just get carried away looking for comfort. Hopeless.



Last break.









And it got pretty cold damn quickly as the sun set ...







All in all, one hell of a nice day.

 

Looks like a blast! Great photos while riding.

 

Absolutely top stuff.

You pretty much summed up fall riding in New England with those shots.

So what bike is next for you??? You know it's only a matter of time....

 

Oh no!!! Don't think for a second I'm quitting or even just taking a break from riding!

I sold the Z because I'm looking at something else and can't keep 2 bikes at the same time.

Next up, I'm aching for a 1x98 real bad. Being a twenty-something male and living in the city makes insurance a bit on the annoyingly expensive side. Been shopping around for the past few days, found a few companies just under 3k/year, which is probably as good as it'll get considering we have a mandatory 1410$/year bodily harm insurance from our nanny government (included in my 3k figure, vehicle insurance ranges from from 1400-1800$). Still pains me to see that I'll have paid 12k insurance in 4 years ... the price of the whole damn bike.

Otherwise, I'll most likely just go for a Super Duke or Hyper. As much as I love(d) the Z1000 and it's elastic-like 4-banger, I want to try something different and ride a brute-hammer twin for a while.

 

great shots!

 

Looks like a great ride... I am so in love with the 848 lately.

 

the shots were amazing good sir...sad to hear the bikes gone...it was a real nice looking piece of motor!!!

 

I did feel bad when it changed hands. I was like "dayum ... I had quite a lot of fun with this bike".

The next one should not disappoint, though.

 

Great pics! Thanks for sharing them.

 

Great pictures. Looks like a great time.