Nova Scotia

You could say I've been bitten by the touring bug.

For 15 years I've been visiting the Smoky Mountains from Florida. Most years we rode up but some years we would trailer depending on the situation. Last year we trailered from Florida to NY then jumped on the bikes and road all over New England and I do mean all the way to Maine! We had a blast. The VFR was great on that trip but I sold it shortly after I got back as it wasnt the most comfortable bike for me even with helibars.

This year is Nova Scotia and I am going on an NC700X and cannot wait! Our plan is again to trailer from FLA to Albany NY and jump on the bikes and ride to Nova Scotia. We intend on staying 10 days on Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. Cannot wait to bond with the Honda on this trip!

Anyone done Nova Scotia? Looking for tips.

Craig

Sounds like fun. Haven't been into Canada yet, maybe next year. Pictures or it didn't happen.
I do seem to remember my dad saying something like "...*grumble* cold...*grumble* wet...*grumble* unfit for human habitation" but I think he was there in the spring.

First while in Maine Acadia Natl Park is nice stop and get some lobster
This is in Trenton

I am sure you plan on the Cabot Trail


Nova Scotia we stayed in Truro, Tidal Bore Inn, motorcycle couple nice owners kinda central for a couple of day tours. Prince Edward the bridge going over is free Ferry is about $40 cost $17 taking bridge back. We did Newfoundland and Labrador also.


Have fun

What Next, thanks for the photos!!!! Oh man I cannot wait!!! We are spending two nights on P.E.I. The info on the bridge was great! Didnt know you only pay one way. We spend three nights in Sydney(we will definetely enjoy the Cabot trail). We then do three nights in Truro then finally three nights in Digby. I cannot wait for mid-July!

Craig

Greetings from Nova Scotia. So far I'm 2000 miles into the trip on the NC and having a blast. I dont know where to start.

The NC stock seat absolutely sucks! Not news to most I know. I'm averaging about 72 mpg. One tank yeilded 80 mpg. The bike will go 80 mph all day long and not flinch. The 22" Cee baileys rocks! I am glad I got Dales plates because the rubber wellnuts didnt hold on the trailer from Fla to NY. Never lost the shield but the bottom two wellnuts pulled free.

The bike even with all three honda hardbags loaded handles very good. With a good seat this is a fantasric bike. I am traveling with two others (Harley Road King and Vulcan 2000) and I get most compliments and questions at stops.

Prince Edward Isand and Nova Scotia are beautiful. Yesterday we rode the famous Cabot trail. Many incredible views. Throughout our riding we hit many roads in disrepair and the NC has done well. I see how the cruisers im with struggle. Im on the right bike for this trip. Just needs a good seat.

Well, I'll be sure to post a more comprehensive report when I return home in a week and a half bur untill then enjoy this photo!

Craig

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

If you can pick up an Airhawk cushion somewhere your Butt will thank you over and over.... Just remember you only want JUST enough air in it to keep your butt BARELY off the seat and you will ride on a cushion of air.
With mine I usually let the air out until I can bottom out on the seat just barely when I am leaning hard in a turn.

If you can find one along your travels it is well worth the $150 to $200, especially on a long ride like your taking!

Enjoy Brother!

If it is the sliding forward on seat that is so bad ,, I leave it disconnected at front and shim it up with a towel. It was somewhere on Cabot Trail that we found a sheepskin shop I bought a scrape piece for $20 , it does extend the ride somewhat.

Craigmri said:

Greetings from Nova Scotia. So far I'm 2000 miles into the trip on the NC and having a blast. I dont know where to start.

The NC stock seat absolutely sucks! Not news to most I know. I'm averaging about 72 mpg. One tank yeilded 80 mpg. The bike will go 80 mph all day long and not flinch. The 22" Cee baileys rocks! I am glad I got Dales plates because the rubber wellnuts didnt hold on the trailer from Fla to NY. Never lost the shield but the bottom two wellnuts pulled free.

The bike even with all three honda hardbags loaded handles very good. With a good seat this is a fantasric bike. I am traveling with two others (Harley Road King and Vulcan 2000) and I get most compliments and questions at stops.

Prince Edward Isand and Nova Scotia are beautiful. Yesterday we rode the famous Cabot trail. Many incredible views. Throughout our riding we hit many roads in disrepair and the NC has done well. I see how the cruisers im with struggle. Im on the right bike for this trip. Just needs a good seat.

Well, I'll be sure to post a more comprehensive report when I return home in a week and a half bur untill then enjoy this photo!

Craig

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

Click to expand...

I'm excited to hear the report. I am riding OH to Nova Scotia mid Aug

Amazing trip!

I'm home from an amazing trip. We left Florida by truck trailering to Troy NY on July 11th. 22 hours later we unload the bikes before getting a good meal and a good night sleep. On the morning of July 13th the three of us hit the road leaving Troy NY with the first night destination of Bangor Maine. This was the first 400 mile day on the NC and while I expected the seat to be bad I didnt realize just how bad. Initially I thought, either the seat will break in or my butt will....I thought wrong!

The first days ride took us through Vermont and the White Mountains of New Hampshire. We did this area last summer so I knew I was going to ride some beautiful countryside. We stopped for lunch at our favorite area eatery. The Woodstock Inn and Brewery. Their signature dish? The "Double Death by Burger". Not a chance I would subject myself to that....I split a small regular burger with one of my travel companions....Delicious still. After lunch we head out on the Cancamangus Hwy heading east. A nice winding road with mostly decent asphalt. In N.E. and also obvious in Canada, many secondary and tertiary roads are in disrepair. Unlike say western NC where you can look at a map and find the twistiest sickest looking roads and prepare for an amazing ride, in N.E. and Canada some of these roads may be OK or they may be totally frost heaved cracked up pot hole ridden suspension abusers paved before Honda ever built their first CB750. Heck even the Garmin GPS set for "Avoid unpaved roads" took us on unpaved roads in Canada.

Day two we leave Bangor and make the border crossing at Calias(US)/St Stephens(CA). Bob on his Road King go right through Canadian Customs after only a couple of minutes of questioning then its my turn. Ater a series of questions the agent apparently didnt like that its been 30 years since I've been to Canada so he sends me inside for a background check. Tina on her Vulcan 2000 with licence plate "Evil T" also gets a few questions but she's permitted through....I was like WHAT THE....I'm the yuppie of the group on the primm and proper Honda, I've never even smoked a joint in my life yet I get pulled for a background check???? 25 minutes later I was on my way with my group. We soon get on the coast roads heading for Prince Edward Island. This is where the GPS took us on a Gravel road that really gave the cruiser peeps trouble. I thought it was amusing but was worried about my exposed radiator taking a rock so I too took it slow. We detour off the route to pick up asphalt again but this new route avoided the "Flower-pot" formations in the northern end of the Bay of Fundy. This bay experienced unbelievable tidal changes. Something in the order of 50 feet twice per day and this has created some unbelievable formations. Sadly we didn't get to see them. We take the confederate bridge(about 7 miles of it) onto Prince Edward Island. Here we spent two nights in Summerside. PEI is fantastic. Tons of cow farming and some amazing wind farms. We were told that much of the energy produced is actually sold to Texas of all places.....Wierd I thought. We also quickly discovered that PEI(and also later found in Nova Scotia) that there are more churches per capita here than anywhere in the world. I'm talking about beautiful old churches. Obviously the settlers from Ireland, Scotland, England and France back in the day brought their religion with them in a big way. We could have devoted the entire trip to Church photography and not seen a fraction of them. Besides the seafood the best Ice cream in the world is made right here in Charlottetown. Cows Creamery makes the best stuff on earth. I love Ice cream and I was told this stuff was good but I had no idea just how good. Unfortunatly its not sold in the USA :-(

From PEI we head to Sydney Nova Scotia for three nights. From here we take in the famous Cabot Trail. Its a great seaside route with wonderful views and some really night sweepers. To be honest I thought it was nice but not mind blowing. I actually think Acadia in Maine is a far more impressive experience. Still, we get many great photo ops and enjoyed a nice lunch along the way. The next day we tour the rest of the N.E. side of Nova Scotia before leaving for Truro where we spend another three nights. Truro was just "OK". We went to see the Tidal Bore. This is basically a basin that twice a day experiences sudden tidal surges So sudden that a small wave(bore) is visable and the tide rises several feet in minutes. We also went to Halifax(the biggest City in N.S.) and visited the waterfront area where we were lucky enough to see the USCG Eagle tall ship as it was in town for a few days. We got to board her and talk with the many wonderful Coast Guardsmen and women. GREAT bunch of young men and women I will say! Makes me proud to call myself an American after meeting many of them. We have an amazing dinner here and another stop for Cows Ice cream(did I mention this stuff is ridiculously good?).

After our time in Truro we spend three nights in Digby. We stayed at the Mountain Gap Inn. I swear we rode onto the set of Dirty Dancing as we all agreed this place reminded us of "Kellermans" from the movie. First opened in 1915 it has a charming vintage feel to the 65 acre property. They have everything from Typical motel-like rooms to cottages to antique houses. This property is right on the Annapolis Basin and the views were spectacular. Highly recommended. It was here where the weather started to change on us and intermittant rain began. No worries though because Digby is reknown for Scallops and Lobster and enjoy them we did! I'm a seafood lover and this was the best food I've ever enjoyed. If you love Scallops and Lobster you cannot leave this world without visiting Digby NS.

All good things must come to an end and we take the Digby to St John Ferry(3 hour trip) and ride back into the USA. This time the US Customs ask a few questions then quickly permit me through without issue. We spent one final night in N. Conway NH(trendy Ski town) before returning to Troy NY where we loaded up the trailer and cannonballed it back to FLA not before getting into a car accident at 2am at a gas stop. Tina(driving at the time) got t-boned badly but fortunate for us didnt disable her truck so we were able to resume our return thankfully.

OK enough about NS.....The NC700 was an AWESOME travel companion. Mine is equipped with the following:

22" Cee Baileys Windscreen
Honda Saddlebags and Honda Top Box
Honda Center stand
Garmin Nuvi 765T GPS with RAM Mount to clutch-side pedistal

The Frunk is one of the best parts of the bike. I cannot believe how useful it was. To be honest, I dont know if I could have another bike without it. My phone was always in it charging, it held my passport, my rain gear, tie downs for the ferry and even a bottle of Canadian maple syrup for my wife and it all stayed bone dry and locked.....LOVE IT!

In all I rode 3,401 miles and averaged a little better than 70 MPG. The NC ridden at speeds below 70 gets incredible mileage. Above 70 it falls off. Low MPG was 60 and high was 80. My cruiser buddies were envious considering the fuel up there equated to about $5/gallon and they were getting around 42 MPG.

The NC handled all road conditions(good and bad) with confidence and agility. Never did I wish for more power, brakes or suspension. I did however wish for a better seat. Neither the seat or my butt ever break in after two weeks of riding. I now understand what I've read numerous times about the seat rolling you forward too much. The foam is wrong and shape is not good. While it may feel decent on a showroom floor for five minutes, every day after about 30 miles I started to squirm. I'm going to hold my breath for Sergeant to develop a seat for the NC. if not Ill bite the bullet and go Corbin but man are they pricey!!!

My rear tire(properly inflated) with 4500 miles on it is squaring off and has some signs of cupping on the sides. It still feels fine but I suspect after another couple of thousand miles it'll need changing. The front still looks good.

The honda saddlebags and top box were great and carried everything I wanted. I do wish the saddlebags held more and the inside shape is peculiar but they operate so slick. I carried enough clothes for six days(I wear jeans two days each). I also carried Hiking boots, sneakers, sandles, bike cover, detailing products, chain lube, paperwork and tour guides and more. While on this tour I used the laundry facilities twice and I always had clean clothes.

Overall if I had to do it again not much would change. The bike was the right tool for the job(except the seat). Its remarkable how an affordable, relatively simple bike can be so capable on a big trip like this......GREAT BIKE!!

Thanks for the write up. Sounds like a great trip.

Thank you for the wonderful pictures. You did a outstanding job on the write up of the adventure.

Old Can Ride said:

Thank you for the wonderful pictures. You did a outstanding job on the write up of the adventure.

Click to expand...

OCR, I cant hold a candle to how you illustrated your trip. I felt like I was along for the ride. How are you feeling BTW?

Great write up, I'm going to have to get to the maritimes again someday. Used to holiday there lots as a kid, but haven't been there since.Sounds like a excellent ride.

Nice trip, very nice photos! Thanks Craig!

Sound like good and also has great trip report bikes are especially good one I do not know why every road trip master use Honda bike many other brand also in the market what reason behind them?