Touring Essentials with R. Bruce Thomas

My winters are usually spent poring over maps, online resources and GPS software trying to design interesting motorcycle adventures that sometimes begin before the snow has left the ground. Trip planning is serious business, but not this year. What with the Coronavirus restrictions and border closures it's hard to know if we'll be able to...

While doing research before a 2016 trip to Australia I discovered the wonderful writing style of Bill Bryson. Bryson's In a Sunburned Country was a terrific primer for touring Down Under (which was also the title the book had in the UK) and provided plenty of laughs throughout. I have since read a number of...

I consider my library card an essential piece of my riding gear. And the card is FREE! At least in Edmonton. I can login to the Edmonton Public Library system and request materials from any city library and I can also login to talonline.ca (The Alberta Libraries Online) and request material from any library in...

I started butchering some Sinatra the other day. If you've ever heard me sing you'll know it was a good thing I was outside in the driveway, alone. "And now, the end of winter is near, And so I face the final snow shoveling

What’s on your bookshelf? It's cold and miserable outside. Your bike has been parked for two months already, and many more months will go by before you are riding again. How do you pass the time? Pick up a good book. Since you ride, that tells me you are a bit adventurous, which also tells...

Every rider knows they should not leave home without some duct tape. Like The Force in the Star Wars galaxy, duct tape has a light side and a dark side and appears to hold our universe together. For a number of years now a subset of contemporary motorcycle riders have been putting tires intended for...

In a recent Touring Essentials blog we looked at some pointers for being able to enjoy riding in the rain. One point was to ensure you have a good rain suit to wear over your gear or rain liners to put on inside your gear. This isn’t always necessary.

"Sign, sign, everywhere a sign Blockin' out the scenery, breakin' my mind Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign?"

Now that riding season is fully underway it is time to get back to good habits to help keep you safe on the roads. Before you go for a ride, there are a number of things you should check to ensure your bike is as ready to go as you are.

R. Bruce Thomas' latest Touring Essentials blog entry features advice on riding in the rain...

I had no idea how easy it was to ruin a helmet. I hope that everyone is aware that your motorcycle helmet is basically a single-use piece of protective gear. I don't mean throw it away after you've worn it once, of course. I mean if your helmet takes a good bash, you'll likely need...

They say there are two things in this life that you can’t avoid: death and taxes. I’d like to expand that list with a third entry: gravel.