Anyone interested in a James Bay Highway tour to Radisson/James Bay week of August 5?

Re: Anyone interested in a James Bay Highway tour

MacDoc said:
The gravel was way too deep for a road bike to do the 12 km to the coast - maybe it was fresh or something.....and I'm not afraid of taking a road bike on dirt and gravel.
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I'm not too happy about riding my bike on dirt/gravel roads. I have done it many times, but I'd like to avoid it if possible.

I'd be willing to slowly mosey down a dirt/gravel road to the shores of james Bay from Chisisabi....but not if it's deep gravel. I'd like to avoid damaging the bike.

It would be a real shame to get there and find out the one road to the shore is a very very bad idea on a road bike.
 
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Re: Anyone interested in a James Bay Highway tour

Could run two groups, paved and gravel?
 
Re: Anyone interested in a James Bay Highway tour

stevie t said:
Could run two groups, paved and gravel?
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There might be two different routes to James Bay, and I don't mind spending a few hours exploring up there -- maybe check out the Chisisabi route and the James Bay road fork that crosses that dam (if accessible).

I should be good for packed gravel, and possibly a few km of loose gravel. Will have to gauge it when we get there.

Anyway, we should work on getting a confirmed list of riders and come to a consensus of when we are leaving. Steve said he has to work on the first weekend, and I am ok with leaving on Monday Aug. 5th.

I've got CAA Plus or Premium or something for the not so remote areas, and I will be bringing a set of tools, spare oil, water, fuel, etc. Everyone who is considering joining -- make sure your bike is ready for this. As Macdoc said, one gap is 380km between fuel -- so this area is extremely remote; if something happens to your bike you could have to make an expensive decision about towing versus ditching.
 
Re: Anyone interested in a James Bay Highway tour

I'd be willing to slowly mosey down a dirt/gravel road to the shores of james Bay from Chisisabi....but not if it's deep gravel. I'd like to avoid damaging the bike.
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This was two years ago and might have just been done and it was late in the day so did not want to linger.

I think that fork off to the right is the correct one to get to the bay.

You are far enough north you are into boreal forest and there are caribou - one ran in the bush beside me - was very cool. It's near on 1,500 KM north of Toronto and trees are stunted and small with many signs of wildfires.

Still it's worth while.....check out the other threads here
http://www.gtamotorcycle.com/vbforu...-to-Radisson-The-James-Bay-Road-in-June/page2
and the The James Bay Road websites

http://jamesbayroad.com/jbr/index.html

http://www.jamesbayroad.com

http://www.quebecmusts.com/road-trip-james-bay-road.php
 
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Re: Anyone interested in a James Bay Highway tour

I just checkeed my schedule. I'm working the majority of those days so I am unfortunitly out. :(
 
Re: Anyone interested in a James Bay Highway tour

Really looking forward to the ride reports for this one! This is on my bucket list and will most likely do it next year once I have some more miles under my belt (and possibly a bigger bike!)
 
Re: Anyone interested in a James Bay Highway

I can only do 250km on my bike max. I need to calculate how much liters of extra fuel I need to bring. Any input from those with SS?
 
Re: Anyone interested in a James Bay Highway

RockerGuy said:
I can only do 250km on my bike max. I need to calculate how much liters of extra fuel I need to bring. Any input from those with SS?
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I think you'll need to buy a few rotopax or kolpins then. I saw them in stock somewhere recently... could have been Cycle World West or Two Wheel Motorsports... been to too many bike shops lately to remember exactly.
 
Re: Anyone interested in a James Bay Highway

from the sounds of it you need 10 litres and a light hand on the throttle.
 
Re: Anyone interested in a

10l of fuel is a lot to carry on a ss.
Does anybody know if the bay itself has 91oct??
 
Re: Anyone interested in a

how are you going to get 380 km with a barely 250 km range.

To be cautious ( headwinds etc you can only allow 230) that leaves 150 short. I'm figuring a 15 litre tank.
That's 15 KM per litre - = 10 litres spare and not much wiggle room....so that means taking it easy on that long stretch.

Now any 600 should get 20km per litre at 100 kph so the big key is keeping speeds down on the long stretch....and the pavement has frost heaves that will take your teeth out anyway.

The best way might be two 5 litre gas cans slung like saddle bags to keep it balanced and don't fill them till you have to at that last station before the long run. That's about 12 lb per side - not too bad.
 
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Re: Anyone interested in a

Be conservative on your mileage estimates. Not sure if the gas up there is crappy or what but on our trip we didn't the kind of mileage we were used to.

MacDoc where is the boat storage area shot from. That looks similar to the area of the coast we got to. There were a lot of snowmobiles parked (some more like abandoned) where we were. Did you see this too?
 
Re: Anyone interested in a

No - we did not go up that fork - it was late in the day - we were going to stay in Chisisabi but the tribal police guy said the bikes would have to be locked up to safe and we did not like the look of the teen juvies hanging about.

We tried the gravel to the north of the town and then raced the sunset back to Radisson....was a very cool 120-150 ride.

But I think where the boats are shown is the way to the bay and we did not see it.
 
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It's two days to Radisson. So one day to get from Radisson to the bay and back. I am leaning towards pavement, but that's just because I want to take Darth ZXAD.....yah I will need extra gas too....

800px-James_Bay_Road_fuel_station.jpg



Back to the maps....

Looks like there is a paved road that runs to the water.....just take the right at the fork to Chisisabi [point MacDoc] and it runs to this little island in the bay....google maps sz it's 133 kms from Radisson to the shore...not sure how you get across the channel/river from the bay to Radisson...my guess is ferry...

It's not really a bike trip unless you put the bike on a boat anyway...

Back to the ferry schedules.....
 
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Re: Anyone interested in a

So 5 days is ample time to make the bay and back then.
Leave Monday morning, back on Friday?
The road called James Bay Road seems to hit the bay just up the coast from where the Chisisabi road does...and it is yellow all the way to the water.
The other road stops at Chisisabi and then goes light grey...
 
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Yeah, I am thinking we can budget 5 days, but lets say Wednesday morning we wake up in Radisson, make it to James Bay, and decide that there is no point in hanging around anymore... it doesn't get dark up there until 9:30pm so we could probably make it South to a hotel in Matagami or something and then could be home Thursday night. It all depends how hard we feel like riding.

As far as routing... I am thinking on the Monday we depart we could all meet up at one of the gas stations on the 400 (perhaps the Husky on the East side) and go from there. I am thinking of taking Trout Lake Road out of North Bay (Highway 63 to Quebec Highway 101) on the way there and Highway 11 on the way back.

I don't know if you guys that are thinking about going want to meet up some weekend between now and then to at least meet each other -- or just meet on the road during the trip. I don't care either way.
 
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I am good with riding long days...I will be on a ZX 14 so no worries if decide we want to be home on Thursday night, we can even try to make an iron butt run on the return, just to make it interesting.
Husky is good, I eat there when I do the trans canada out west...pretty open to the route, I think google liked 117 or something I will take another look this weekend for details. Will probably look at rigging up two 5 liter gas cans etc. for the trip. Not sure of the tank range on the bike yet, but it likes it's gas.
Maybe next week we can meet up for a ride...my weekends are free until the 3/4 of August, so maybe one of those.

Damn, looks like this is coming together....just gotta get CAA now...

photo-31.JPG
 
Re: Anyone interested in a

Yeah, I am thinking we can budget 5 days, but lets say Wednesday morning we wake up in Radisson, make it to James Bay, and decide that there is no point in hanging around anymore... it doesn't get dark up there until 9:30pm so we could probably make it South to a hotel in Matagami or something and then could be home Thursday night. It all depends how hard we feel like riding.
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That's effectively what we did. There were two 900+ KM days.

A nice early break is just north of Huntsville - there is a small plaza with a good coffee shop and fuel - easy on and off.

If you make NorthBay by noon which is relatively straight forward on the slab then Matagami is doable.
There are some alternatives into Rouyn Noranda to look at.

Hop east and take 391 instead - it was just freshly paved when I went the second time to Rouyn and really nice road.
63 is the smart choice and then take 101 on way back home.

Why take the chance with OPP - QPP pretty scarce up there

Going North just swing to the east right at the y there



Take 391 north and then on the way back take 101.

Both nice.

Hwy 11 is boring and cop infested.

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photo-31.JPG


I'd put a single 10 litre on that set up - on your pillion in some sort of a carry bag and use a stretchy net to keep it in place...you just have to make sure it stays put as the long stretch has very stiff frost heaves.
 
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Re: Anyone interested in a

MacDoc said:
That's effectively what we did. There were two 900+ KM days.

A nice early break is just north of Huntsville - there is a small plaza with a good coffee shop and fuel - easy on and off.

If you make NorthBay by noon which is relatively straight forward on the slab then Matagami is doable.
There are some alternatives into Rouyn Noranda to look at.

Hop east and take 391 instead - it was just freshly paved when I went the second time to Rouyn and really nice road.
63 is the smart choice and then take 101 on way back home.

Why take the chance with OPP - QPP pretty scarce up there

Going North just swing to the east right at the y there



Take 391 north and then on the way back take 101.

Both nice.

Hwy 11 is boring and cop infested.

•••

photo-31.JPG


I'd put a single 10 litre on that set up - on your pillion in some sort of a carry bag and use a stretchy net to keep it in place...you just have to make sure it stays put as the long stretch has very stiff frost heaves.
Click to expand...


You can't see it in the pic, but there is sw motec rack on the bike, that's probably where the can will live, yup one ten makes sense......
phpXyL1Uk.jpg
 
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