I felt like I was on one of those television reality shows where the homeowners return in a week, and the remodel has fallen behind schedule. Here is my version.

We’ve been wanting to return to Canada to further explore some of our favorite places, one of them being Jasper National Park in Alberta. We almost made it there last time, but for logistical reasons, we skipped the northern section of the Icefields Parkway. Now was our chance. Knowing that it is one of the most popular national parks in Canada, I decided to plan ahead (imagine that) and make reservations along the way. I booked nearly a week’s worth of accommodations and moved on to other trip planning.

Both BMW motorcycles were due for their regular maintenance service. Deby’s F750GS, with over 75,000 miles on the odometer, was due for a major service that included checking the valves. For some reason, I decided to take our bikes to a different BMW motorcycle dealer that is a little closer to our house, just north of downtown Seattle. I heard they had a mechanic who was well-respected in the area. With 15 days before our departure date, we dropped off Deby’s bike. It was supposed to be a one-day event.

They couldn’t finish it on the first day but promised it would be ready the next day. The next day, I got a phone call. Indeed, the valves needed adjustment, but they didn’t have the required shims in stock. They would have to be ordered, which would take a few more days. Weird, that is something most shops would have in stock. A couple of days later, I got another call. There was damage to the cam chain slider, and it needed to be replaced. It would take a few more days to order the parts. Yikes, now I was getting worried, but they promised it would be ready for our trip.

Nope, exactly one week before departure, I got bad news. They got the parts and assembled the motor but put the cam chain on incorrectly. When they tried to start it, the valves crashed into the pistons, damaging the valves. I am a pretty knowledgeable motorcycle mechanic, and I know this is bad, really bad.

They accepted responsibility, and we worked out an arrangement to get the motor fixed, but parts would need to come from Germany. It could be weeks…

It was a Saturday, one week before departure day, and I found myself online at the Honda dealer near my house. They had a bike that we’ve been seriously considering for Deby’s next bike. The website said they had one in stock, so I drove down to see it in person. Yes, it was in stock… still in the crate.

So what is it??? The box says Honda CB500X, but that was not what was actually in the box. Over the years, I’ve bought quite a few motorcycles from this dealer and know the main people who work there. I tried to negotiate on the price (nope) and get it ready in about two days. Like most motorcycle shops, they are closed on Mondays but promised it would be ready on Tuesday. Tuesday came along, and nope, they were too busy; come back tomorrow. Ok, Wednesday then. That would give us two days to ride a few hundred miles, do the first break-in oil change, and then get a new bike ready for a 3,000-mile trip. That was cutting it close.

On Wednesday afternoon, we got the call; the bike was ready… whoo hoo! Here it is, a 2025 Honda NX500.

For my motorcycle-savvy readers, some refer to this as a Half-rica Twin since it’s roughly half the size of the Honda Africa Twin I owned for many years.

That night, I immediately started preparing the bike for Deby. It was a bit tall, so I lowered the forks and removed all the preload from the rear suspension. Then, I took off the seat cover and used my trusty turkey carving knife to trim foam from the seat. With Deby’s assistance, we removed nearly two inches of foam before reattaching the seat cover. Deby approved with a thumbs up, and I proceeded to install wiring for a phone connector and hand guards for wind and crash protection if needed. Like most new bikes, the windscreen wasn’t suited Deby’s sitting position, so I transferred the wind deflector from my BMW to her bike. It worked perfectly. Now, I needed to figure out the luggage situation. Hmmm.

If you recall from my last post, I had a set of Mosko bags initially purchased for my dirt bike and later used on my Norton. I wonder if those would fit?

Yep, just right. After a couple of late nights and overnight orders from Amazon we were ready to go for a day ride and get some miles in before a quick oil change. Here is the bike in full ADV mode.

We took off early on Thursday, two days before departure and rode one of our favorite day routes on the Mountain Loop Highway. It’s a great mountain road with about a 30 mile gravel section where we could test the off road handling.

The day before we left with close to 300 miles on the factory oil I did the oil change and we were ready for our Saturday departure for Whistler BC. Whew.

Canada, here we come eh!

Thanks for following and all the comments.

Donn and Deby