In this story my “cart” is this little white trailer.
It took me 2 years and plenty of searching to find a good fit. I looked at mono-wheels with no luck there. I looked at used, new and home built but nothing was the right fit. I saw an add I liked, called – then on a road trip I stopped in Chilliwack. The owner pulled it with his Goldwing. He previously used a pop-up Leisurelite tent trailer and was going back that route. I gave it a good look and decided it was the right fit. It fit my guitar perfectly. I left a cash deposit and came back for it a few weeks later.
When I returned for my prize I had nothing with a hitch to pull it. The former owner did me a big favour and towed it to a friend’s home to store it for a few weeks. I ordered a hitch from our friends in the USA, installed it on Big White and off I went. I hitched my trailer up and rode around the block 3 times. I had never pulled a trailer with a motorcycle before. I was mighty nervous. I pulled over again at the freeway on ramp to check it over and presto – it was good! Off we went up highway #3 to The Sunny Okanagan.
A week later I rode Hwy 3 to Creston for Fred and Jaye’s wedding. It was a superb wedding and ride. I always stop at the summit (Salmo-Creston Hwy, Honeymoon/Wizard Lake) to have lunch and take a photo. And I always point my bike in direction of travel to take the photo. I always know from the photo whether I was heading east or west. Funny quirk!
Fast forward to getting a new guitar. It is a custom made oversize classical made by Jean Larrivee based in Victoria. It had become to big for the owner. I wanted to make it my own for a few years but the circumstances and timing were not right. Well one day it all came together. St. Valentines day! I drove to Langley City to pick it up – right after a crazy storm. There were 21 cars, trucks and people in the ditch, median and mud between Princeton and Langley. All was in my favor though. It was St. Valentines Day and I had my new guitar. It even had a custom made hard shell case that was manufactured in Calgary.
Well the beautiful and durable case did not quite fit in my trailer! It was 4 inches longer with a bigger body too! I had a challenge! I thought about it for months; stretching the body, cutting a hole in the rear wall, cutting a hole in the front wall, making a rack for the top … I did make an exterior rack, took my ride with guitar strapped to it all the way to Vancouver and back. The photo was taken by me at the city park in Hope, BC. That was my fuel stop for Big White and me. Hope is fast becoming The Chainsaw carving Capital of Canada. It is well worth the stop. Lunch was at Moose Coffee Shop next to the park – always great, sometimes busy. The experience scared me half to death, worried the whole time I would see it in the mirrors bouncing over the blacktop. I returned home and scrapped it. Back to square one.
I reconnected with a dear friend I had not seen in many years. On the scene came Shawn Morgan. He is a fine mill right, fabricator and engineer. He looked at my trailer and had a solution in 5 minutes. I would cut the hole in the front wall (yikes)! He would make the box. Weeks later I sat in the trailer for what seemed like a long time before the first incision! Shawn would build the box out of metal. We glued and bolted it in place. Voila, I get to take my favourite guitar on my trip! Ha! We celebrated with beer and burgers. A worthy reason to celebrate indeed! It took a few months to sort it all out but I got it done with his expertise playing a large part. He also reconstructed the engine guard (no small feat) in order to mount my wind deflectors, reinforced the bumper mounts and welded a rear pan above the bumper.
And that snazzy bumper you see on my trailer – well I designed it! I had a machine shop create it on their laser cutter. Shawn made the flag holders that will carry one Canadian Flag and one flag of the country I am currently riding in. That’s going to be plenty of flags!
The garment bag under the lid holds my less wrinkled clothes for special events.
The tires are not made in my size with a white wall. So, I painted them. Ha! I took me an hour to learn how to mask a circle the same width all the way around. The second one took me 20 minutes. It takes many many coats of paint to keep the black wall from bleeding through. I use bias ply rather than radials – bias ply squish around less for better control. The black box on the reach is an old school cooler. That is the story thus far of my still unnamed trailer. VB