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Post by polarpilot on Dec 14, 2008 9:33:33 GMT -5
Well although I have been lurking for about 2 months, today I got confirmation that my offer to purchase a 1978 SR500 has been accepted and I will have a new ride for next summer so it time for me to "come out"as it were. I am an old semi- retire educator - living in Iqaluit Nunavut which is on Baffin Island - and no that is not near Alaska - it is near Greenland on the east coast of North America - now that will be confusing - try looking it up with a search on the word Iqaluit. I have a long standing love affair with Thumpers - when I was 19 a buddy of mine and I bought an 1939 Ariel Red Hunter - Today I am 64 but I still vividly remember the power pulses for that big honking single. I have been riding a Suzuki Savage since 1999 with all of the joys and hates that particular motorcycle carries! You can read into that that I had the trouble with the head cap seal leak and my Savage decided to bun oil on a highway engine and when all the oil was gone - it seized a valve and destroyed the engine. A new engine from ebay solved that problem fortunately. As to my SR - well amazingly I have purchase the machine site and condition unseen and unknown. A flying buddy of mine passed away from cancer this fall and I am purchasing the bike from his estate. The SR will join my "stable" which presently includes ( in order by age) 2004 Yamaha TW200 1998 Yamaha Big Bear 1990 Suzuki Intruder 1989 Suzuki Savage (S40) 1981 Honda 126 S 1974 BMW R90S 1968 Suzuki X6 No favorite in this list - each machine has a story - the old x6 Hustler has been in my hands since it was new in May of 1968 for example. The old Beemer is presently being professionally rebuilt,The Honda is up for a rebuild and should get some attention next summer. I am looking forward to learning lots more about the SR from this forum. Polarr Pilot ( yes I have a partnership in an airplane but it is for recreation only here in the arctic) |
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Post by StewRoss on Dec 14, 2008 14:35:28 GMT -5
Welcome to the forum! Good that you have decided to buy an SR...I reckon you'll be pleased with it.  You have had the Suzy since new! Well done to hang onto it for all this time. SR  |
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Post by davedunsboro on Dec 15, 2008 3:13:51 GMT -5
Welcome & I did google Iqaliut ,& pardon my Aussie ignorance but I never knew that anybody lived in those parts of the world! The isolation is amazing & you'd be really bummed if your SR wasn't going by summer ,I mean you've only got 11 months to work on it?I bet you get all kinds of excuses from the shipping/couriers saying pitiful things like- sorry I couldn't send the gear the planes can't land & the sea is frozen so can you wait till next summer?I read that the fishing is good! G.Man would probably be the closest SR rider to you also. SRs have definately made an impact word wide! Cheers Dave.
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Post by polarpilot on Dec 15, 2008 8:35:36 GMT -5
I must confess that most of my stable are at our summer place in southern Canada with the exception of the TW which was purchased specifically for use at home
We are a long ways from as far north as you can get - with about 2000 kms between us and the north geographic pole.
There are no roads connecting our territory of Nunavut with southern Canada - but we do get more than 20 flights per week from Edmonton Montreal and Ottawa. All of our inter- community transportation is done by airplane.
The indigenous people here - the Inuit or as they used to b e called , the Eskimo,have inhabited this land for about the past 4000 years, It was only in the post WWII period that southern Canadian became aware of Canada's eastern arctic and its resources.
Government is our biggest employer at this point followed by mining. Canada is now producing 12% of the worlds production or gem quality diamonds for example.
The sea ice is frozen about 7 months of the year so shipping is restrricted to the July - September period for all practical purposes.
It does not get extremely cold here because we are always within 100 kms of open water which moderates our climate. Temperatures range from a high of +27C ( new record set last summer) to a low of -45C. Yes I am a believer in global warming because we are seeing the impact here already.
The learning from this board has already started - and sharing of knowledge too - looking forward to lots more learning before I start messing with my SR likely next July
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Post by davedunsboro on Dec 16, 2008 7:32:11 GMT -5
you must be the most furtherest SR forum member to me(about 16000ks) Hawii being smack in the middle 1 way & Cairo the other !Let me know when the ice melts & the surf starts to break on the beaches(probably July 2010) as 27C would be a scorcher up there for sure(the polar bears would have needed sunglasses on that day).That-47C wouldn't appeal to me though? Brrrr Those Eskimoes sure are tough cheers Dave.
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Post by bigshingle on Dec 16, 2008 10:04:13 GMT -5
Yes, Welcome. And this being a Canadian site you'll find many here who know where Iqaluit is.
Some of the people who know Baffin Island best have probably never seen the air field, but go up on the fishing boats out of Newfoundland. With the legal restrictions on cod catches in waters closer at hand, many of the commercial boats go up into the Davis Strait every year and the crews sometimes go ashore on Baffin Island to fish for salmon.
What jumped out at me was mention that the Inuit have been there 4,000 years. (A typo?)
I think they teach in Canadian schools that the Inuit arrived there about 1,000 years ago. The timing is especially interesting because it's generally believed the continuing migration of the Inuit and their arrival in Greenland (around 1300) was the last straw for the struggling Norse settlements there. After that all contact between N. America and Europe stopped, leaving the door to "discovery" and fame open to Columbus.
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Post by soonerfan on Dec 16, 2008 16:17:34 GMT -5
Welcome! It is absolutely fascinating to read these posts, especially for an American residing in a State that was Indian Territory just a little more than a century ago. The SR cadre reaches to all corners of the Globe it seems.
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Post by polarpilot on Dec 16, 2008 20:53:01 GMT -5
Some of the people who know Baffin Island best have probably never seen the air field, but go up on the fishing boats out of Newfoundland. With the legal restrictions on cod catches in waters closer at hand, many of the commercial boats go up into the Davis Strait every year and the crews sometimes go ashore on Baffin Island to fish for salmon. Those folks catch a lot of chat for this kind of action too! My wife works for DFO and has especially in northern Quebec struggled with stories about these fishermen!!! www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/news/phoenix-20081201.htmlWhat jumped out at me was mention that the Inuit have been there 4,000 years. (A typo?) I think they teach in Canadian schools that the Inuit arrived there about 1,000 years ago. The timing is especially interesting because it's generally believed the continuing migration of the Inuit and their arrival in Greenland (around 1300) was the last straw for the struggling Norse settlements there. After that all contact between N. America and Europe stopped, leaving the door to "discovery" and fame open to Columbus.[/quote] Nope- 4,000 years back ancestors of the Inuit arrived. They are referred to as Arctic Small Tool tradition people. They were followed by Dorset culture abd then at about1300 is the arrival of the Thule culture people. That is a new idea on Greenland - Iand does not get a lot of credibility from my readings. Columbus was an opportunist - he gets credit but he surely was not the first! L'anse au Meadows and Red Bay pretty graphically demonstrate that |
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Post by bigshingle on Dec 16, 2008 22:24:01 GMT -5
Hmmm. Followed the link, but it was about the Mars mission. Ah well, what we're most interested in is SRs — congratulations on buying one. As for the other stuff, well, I'm pretty certain you don't teach anthropology. I'll PM you. Any sources you have that place the Inuit in NE Canada before 1000 will certainly be appreciated. Why I'll even trade you some SR parts for them.  Let me know what you need. |
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Post by polarpilot on Dec 17, 2008 1:05:39 GMT -5
Hmmm. Followed the link, but it was about the Mars mission. Ah well, what we're most interested in is SRs — congratulations on buying one. As for the other stuff, well, I'm pretty certain you don't teach anthropology. I'll PM you. Any sources you have that place the Inuit in NE Canada before 1000 will certainly be appreciated. Why I'll even trade you some SR parts for them. Let me know what you need. pm SENT - HOPE MY BIKE DOES NOT NEED TO MANY SPARES! |
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Post by bigshingle on Dec 17, 2008 10:06:03 GMT -5
Thanks for taking the time to track down sources.
A few years ago I interviewed a guy who was on the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Storis when it and two sister breakers pounded through the ice to make it around the top of Canada in the summer of 1957. The crew had a 50th reunion in the far north last year and found all the ice gone. It's no trick to take a boat that way now. Open water all the way.
If you've been in the Arctic since '65 you've seen a lot of change, and there's apparently a lot more ahead. It may be hard for the next generation to imagine what it was like.
As for not needing many spare parts for a '78 bike, the only way that's going to happen is if you don't ride it. Well, actually not riding an SR is harder on it than riding it.
Anyway, here's the compound-double welcome I promised, and if it turns out your SR does need help down the road, you've found the right place to get it. Lots of expertise here.
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Let me know what you need.