Long gone are the days of navigating by the stars with the use of a Sextant. The skill is now foreign to all but the oldest of sailors. Even today, basic knowledge of how to use a map and a compass is also falling by the wayside and seems to only be taught to school children. With the introduction of Global Positioning Systems aka the GPS, basic navigation is no longer deemed as an essential skill. The GPS, which uses satellites to triangulate your position around the globe, is the most revolutionary navigation tool since the map itself, which has been around since cave drawings.

I’ve used a GPS for many years now and they are without a doubt very handy to have with you when you travel. Not only can they help you get to where you want to go but also they can track where you’ve been, which can be especially handy when you get disoriented in the woods.

The features of modern day GPS devices are long and vast so I won’t get into the details since they can all be found on the websites of their respective manufacturers. Instead, I want to touch on some of the lesser-known drawbacks and limitations of relying on a GPS as a sole means of navigation.

Accuracy
Commercial GPS units are now accurate to within as little as 1sqr metre (which is good enough for most military applications) however, they are not consistent. This depends on how many geo-synchronos satellites the unit is locked on to and how strong those signals are, which by the way are ever changing as your position changes. Herein lays the problem. If the signal weakens, you could find yourself positioned on the wrong side of a river or past the road that you wanted to turn on.

On a recent ride along the Seaway Trail, which skirts the southern shores of Lake Ontario, my GPS signal weakened and suddenly placed me 5km offshore in the lake. Yes, thoughts of Moses on a Motorcycle came to my mind also. At the same time though my GPS was unable to accurately calculate my speed and showed me travelling across the water at 225km/hr. (GPS units also record top speed and at one point logged my max speed at 555km/hr).

Reliability
One of the other shortfalls of relying on a GPS is that they require power. You would think that this would be obvious, but time and time again, people have been caught off guard with drained batteries leaving them without a clue as to where they are and up the proverbial creek without a paddle, so to speak. The simple rule of thumb here is to always ensure that you have a fresh set of batteries on hand.

Safety
Although using a GPS is convenient, they do present a safety risk as a visual distraction while riding. Some people simply view them through the map window of their tank bags, whereas others use proper ram mounts affixed to their handle bars, placing the unit higher up making it easier to view while riding. No matter how you choose to use it, it still presents a visual distraction. Each time you look at the screen, you are effectively NOT looking at the road ahead.

In summery, the modern GPS has a long list of advantages when used properly but never make the mistake of relying on them as “fact”. In the end it’s still a good idea to carry an old fashioned road map.

A map never “crashes” and a compass always points north.

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After 5hrs of effort, 4 spark plugs, a litre of oil, one chain, 2 sprockets, valve adjustments, and a few other essentials…it was NOT priceless. It was however necessary and could still make for a good MasterCard commercial.

Motorcycles are expensive, not only to insure but also to maintain. It is a fact of life for every rider and needs to be done at regular intervals. Having a bike in a poor state of repair has far greater safety implications when compared to a car. Drive-train failure on a car simply means rolling to a stop. Whereas on a bike, a broken chain could snag in the rear wheel causing it to lock up followed by a nasty fall.

I’m not here to preach, just offering up a little advice. I would personally hate to be a speed bump because something on my bike broke as a result of poor maintenance.

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What a difference a day makes. I awoke to a very warm and muggy morning and hit the road around 9am. I still had a lot of ground to cover and considering the holidiays (Thanksgiving in Canada and Columbus Day in the US), I was concerned about long wait times at the border.

I continued my trek across the 104 into Rochester then north again so that I could continue following the Seaway Trail, which was the route I had been following since entering the United States. This took me all the way to Lewiston then on to Niagra. I was hoping to cross at the Whirlpool bridge, however, that is now only accessable by Nexus Pass holders (of which I am not). So not wanting to double back to Lewiston, which is mostly commercial traffic, I crossed over the Rainbow Bridge back into Canada. I waited a whopping 5min to cross the border.

Okay…what the hell…I might as well drive past the falls since I was there anyway. Here I had bit of a rest (parked illegally) and took the chance to check over the bike.
Simply put…it’s in rough shape. The chain and sprockets are completely ruined and the chain is about to fall off or break. It wasn’t long before a cop passed by to check me out. I told him I had to check over the bike and that it wasn’t doing well but I would be on my way soon at which point he left me alone.

Not wanting to waste any more time or do a lot of extra shifting, I took to the highway and headed straight home.

All in all, the trip around the lake was a total of 849km long and when you add that to the riding from Friday and Saturday, I put on a total of 1547km over four days.

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Sunday started off with some miserable weather. Cool and damp for most of the day and wearing layers was the key to staying comfortable.

The first leg of the trip started at 11am and consisted of a straight run across the 401 into Kingston where I waited to catch the ferry across to Wolfe Island and after making the short 11km run across the island I had to wait again for the second ferry to the US. Total time wasted from Kingston to the US was a whopping 3.5hrs (mostly spent waiting for ferries).

Once across the border I hooked up with route 3 to route 104 then westward along the south shore of Lake Ontario. Oswago was the halfway point and time to stop for dinner. Sheppards Pie and a cold beer hit the spot nicely after which I continued well after dark finally stopping for the night in a small town just east of Rochester.

I wasn’t expecting such open arms at the motel that I checked into. Not only were they ready and willing to take in the “noisy motorcycle”, they even offered extra towels to wipe the bugs and road grim off the bike.
Total distance for the day…512km.

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