too funny, I met and talked to that lady because she had the same breed of dog that I had, Blueheelers. And they and her were sleeping in that little car. It was in Dawson.
I was going to go south or north this year - looks like both are out. With the way covid is going in the US and Ont/Que I can see how the border will be shut for a quite a while. Im hoping now for next summer too. Luckily there’s lots of good riding in Alberta and B.C.
The suspension in those Smart Cars are terrible (transmission too) ... I couldn't imagine taking it on the washboards. Heck, my in-laws have one, they rarely take it out of the garage much less out of town.
Fuzzy had a spare wheel and toolkit that she had borrowed for the trip. Unfortunately, they were from her sister's GMC truck. Those Smart car wheels are held on with three bolts rather than the normal studs and lug nuts. That's why she didn't have the right wrench. When she told me her name was 'Fuzzy', I replied 'There must be some logic to that. (Fuzzy logic - get it?) Yeah, that flew right over her head too. I waved down the semi-trailer in the background and borrowed the drivers toolkit. Turned out he lives just near me in Alberta. Small world. Talking small world, about a week later in Grand Cache, which is a small town north east of Jasper, I pulled into a gas station for fuel. The car in front had California plates and I got talking to the driver. When he heard I was on the way home from Inuvik, he started to tell me about a lady he met at a hotel who had broken down on the Dempster and been helped by a passing biker. That must have been Fuzzy, I said. Cue, puzzled look - How do you know, he asked?
The CarShare here had a Smart car which I booked just to try it out. WEIRD transmission for sure. Its a manual that the computer shifts. A few times on my short drive it seemed as though it was in two gears at once. The CarShare got it rid of it. Nothing but problems, had to be serviced at a Mercedes dealer, nearest one was four hours and a couple of mountain passes away.
SMART CAR vs. touring bike. The later model Smart Cars are vastly improved. They're still a standard transmission shifted by servos, but it's a dual clutch transmission. You couldn't tell it from an automatic. Wheels are now 4 lug. Motor is a turbo charged Mitsubishi, big power increase. Much better gas mileage than our Pius got. When the weather gets cold, the Prius gas motor starts even if you don't turn on the heat - has to warm to operating temp. Our Prius mileage dropped to 30. Honey Bager (Smart) don't care the weather. Gets 43 ~ 45 at worst, 55 on a trip. In Europe Smart was offered in gas, diesel or all electric. It's Mercedes' flag ship electric car. Ours is a cabrio and we love it, much more than the older model we had and kinda liked. The Smart Car forum even has a section by older touring rider/couples who say they switched to the Smart for ease of traveling and no worries about weather, but still enjoy the small vehicle mobility, fun ride. So there, this write up does have a moto connection. No, I wouldn't drive ours to Tuk.
A week later and we wouldn't have done BikeWeek.... Heading out west w/ the truck camper last 2 weeks of July. .
Hey, my bike resembles the remark! Back when I was riding a 650 V-Strom I parked next to a smart car, the V-Strom was longer!
I'm not going to name names here, but chatting one to one last week with one of the top three peeps in the GNWT Ministry of Health, he/she said that the 14 day self isolation requirement in the NWT would remain in place until there is a vaccine. They then said that that may mean it will be in place throughout summer 2021, even.
The Yukon announced this morning that they are opening their borders to folks from the otehr territories, ad BC and Alberta residents on July 1st. No self-isolation required. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/yukon-covid-19-june-24-1.5625811 No update on NWT though.
This is fully understandable, Medical facilities are very scarce up North and if Covid took a hold of any of the small communities it would be devastating. The whole respect for elders ( who would be hit hard by Covid ) has great meaning up North, something us young-uns need to learn-- I think, Patience is in order, the North ain't going any where and will still be just as fantastic when this whole epidemic issue is over.
IF ? And when the border opens back up, how crowded with bikes is the Dempster gonna be ? Glad i went the first year now, but really want to do it again !
It may be helpful to us lesser informed...can you please tell us what community, race, ethnicity doesn't share a great respect for elders?
