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I hope this post saves others the disappointment and hassle we endured on this journey. I now understand why there are so many You Tube videos of out of control enforcement officers and other individuals in a position of authority, which they abuse. Thankfully some of these rotten apples then lose their jobs as a result of those postings. This was a public area, out in the open and there is no reason the ordeal should not have been documented, IMO. If they are not doing anything unlawful, there should be no issue.
I attempted to take a photo of all the luggage being taken apart, the people involved etc., and each time I was told not to move, not to get near the bike, not to touch my clothing, etc. Looking back, I would have loved to have had one of the $130 pen / video camera recording devices and would have posted this unethical and unwarranted detainment on You Tube.
They refused to provide any identification of the agents involved, no paperwork to document the charges against us in writing, nothing. No pictures, no documentation and unfortunately we had never expected anything like this or I would have had my voice recorder running the entire time.
Amazingly, they had to ask what our flashlights even were! Now how experienced an Customs Agent does it take to identify a simple flashlight?
They could not determine what it was or how to turn it on, due to the end cap having been turned off so the light would not be activated by accident during the journey, which could have resulted in a fire.
This 180 lumens Fenix light gets extremely hot if left unattended, and having had this happen to me when I first bought one in the past, it was a necessary precaution and I do not ride at night with at least two of these lights in case of any emergency.
Now that I have just awakened after a brief six hours of much needed sleep and awakened from back pain which I can not take any more pain meds for at this point, I will be up most of the night and attempting to
forward this message to a few friends, my AAA agent and another MC forum.
Good luck to anyone that visits the area. Had we been forewarned anything of this nature would have been anticipated, we would just have stayed on the U.S. side of the Falls, and would have saved us three hours of hell during a point in time which I was most exhausted and vulnerable.
I had attained my goal of a six+ hour drive to our intended destination, only to be turned back by some way "to big an ego driven idiot", working in a position of authority she was obviously not suited to handle and was extremely abusive and out of control. We did absolutely nothing to deserve this kind of treatment.
The main reason we attempted to stay in Canada was the cost of the rooms in a much more comfortable hotel were significantly less expensive than anywhere nearby in the U.S., at or near Niagra Falls.
Had it not been for the $40 Guardian pepper spray, we most likely would have enjoyed the two days and had another great memory of what could have been a fantastic journey on the new to us Gold Wing. But, being the honest person I am, I told the truth, never expecting to be treated like a criminal and verbally abused by a very young woman that I would suggest is in need of an attitude adjustment and a different line of work.
It rained most of the way home today. Not one glitch in the bike which ran phenomenally. For those of you with transmission issues or concerns, I highly suggest you do not allow your Honda dealer to dissuade you from having the transmission fixed under warranty, if you feel there is a problem with it. This bike runs so fantastic, it is hard to believe it is even the same bike. This shifts as smoother than I ever imagined, due to all the posts on the "clunky transmissions are just built that way", and or you don't know how to shift explanation from my local dealer, this was a real pleasure to drive and THE best two up touring bike I have ever had the pleasure to take on a trip like this.
I also found the Walmart plastic doughnut hole shaped air bladder in the pharmaceutical department a wonderful addition to the comfort seat. I used that for all but two hours of the trip, then put that inside my companions Walmart comfort cushion. I will say it was an extremely painful two hour completion of my ride without that air bladder.
I did use the suggested wheel barrel inner tube last year and that is not nearly as comfortable as this $8 item is from Walmart. We drove 734 miles in 32 hrs, which for me was a massive undertaking with only ten hours sleep in three days, until my much needed sleep when I returned home. I am both terribly exhausted and extremely disappointed with the experience, which was totally unnecessary and uncalled for, IMO.
A very obvious and distinct total contrast in policy compared to what is going on with the U.S. border and Mexico!
Hard to believe, but the most enjoyable moment of interaction was with this ground hog in the album, which we saw while trying to resolve our hotel reservations at a McDonald's in Marietta, Rochester, N.Y.
Thanks to all the great folks on this forum that have provided much needed suggestions on what to look for as potential issues with the Wing, as many items were fixed under warranty I would never have thought to even consider, as we spared no expense to make sure this bike would be as dependable as humanly possible for a safe adventure, as our lives depended on it.
A bit disappointing by nonetheless necessary was the use of the updated OEM Honda GPS. The latest $200 mapping card was dated 2009 and installed during the transmission rebuild in the winter of 2010. It failed to provide routing anywhere close to the recommendation provided for this trip by AAA. However, my companion can not see the print wearing the helmet and there is no way I could have read the much to small a font, with four pages of complex directions which were provided for us. This would have been difficult to understand driving a car, let alone attempting to do this on a motorcycle.
While the directions provided by the GPS were not perfect, they did get us to where we wanted to be, however it would have been nice to take the scenic route on the way home.
If anyone has any suggestions as to how best deal with the Canadian Customs office to file a formal complaint, I would appreciate that being directed to my personal e-mail address please. You can reach me at [email protected].
I do not authorize ANY portion of the use of this thread without my express written consent!
All Rights Explicitly Reserved, With Prejudice
Wayne Brunner
Lehighton, Pa
I attempted to take a photo of all the luggage being taken apart, the people involved etc., and each time I was told not to move, not to get near the bike, not to touch my clothing, etc. Looking back, I would have loved to have had one of the $130 pen / video camera recording devices and would have posted this unethical and unwarranted detainment on You Tube.
They refused to provide any identification of the agents involved, no paperwork to document the charges against us in writing, nothing. No pictures, no documentation and unfortunately we had never expected anything like this or I would have had my voice recorder running the entire time.
Amazingly, they had to ask what our flashlights even were! Now how experienced an Customs Agent does it take to identify a simple flashlight?
They could not determine what it was or how to turn it on, due to the end cap having been turned off so the light would not be activated by accident during the journey, which could have resulted in a fire.
This 180 lumens Fenix light gets extremely hot if left unattended, and having had this happen to me when I first bought one in the past, it was a necessary precaution and I do not ride at night with at least two of these lights in case of any emergency.
Now that I have just awakened after a brief six hours of much needed sleep and awakened from back pain which I can not take any more pain meds for at this point, I will be up most of the night and attempting to
forward this message to a few friends, my AAA agent and another MC forum.
Good luck to anyone that visits the area. Had we been forewarned anything of this nature would have been anticipated, we would just have stayed on the U.S. side of the Falls, and would have saved us three hours of hell during a point in time which I was most exhausted and vulnerable.
I had attained my goal of a six+ hour drive to our intended destination, only to be turned back by some way "to big an ego driven idiot", working in a position of authority she was obviously not suited to handle and was extremely abusive and out of control. We did absolutely nothing to deserve this kind of treatment.
The main reason we attempted to stay in Canada was the cost of the rooms in a much more comfortable hotel were significantly less expensive than anywhere nearby in the U.S., at or near Niagra Falls.
Had it not been for the $40 Guardian pepper spray, we most likely would have enjoyed the two days and had another great memory of what could have been a fantastic journey on the new to us Gold Wing. But, being the honest person I am, I told the truth, never expecting to be treated like a criminal and verbally abused by a very young woman that I would suggest is in need of an attitude adjustment and a different line of work.
It rained most of the way home today. Not one glitch in the bike which ran phenomenally. For those of you with transmission issues or concerns, I highly suggest you do not allow your Honda dealer to dissuade you from having the transmission fixed under warranty, if you feel there is a problem with it. This bike runs so fantastic, it is hard to believe it is even the same bike. This shifts as smoother than I ever imagined, due to all the posts on the "clunky transmissions are just built that way", and or you don't know how to shift explanation from my local dealer, this was a real pleasure to drive and THE best two up touring bike I have ever had the pleasure to take on a trip like this.
I also found the Walmart plastic doughnut hole shaped air bladder in the pharmaceutical department a wonderful addition to the comfort seat. I used that for all but two hours of the trip, then put that inside my companions Walmart comfort cushion. I will say it was an extremely painful two hour completion of my ride without that air bladder.
I did use the suggested wheel barrel inner tube last year and that is not nearly as comfortable as this $8 item is from Walmart. We drove 734 miles in 32 hrs, which for me was a massive undertaking with only ten hours sleep in three days, until my much needed sleep when I returned home. I am both terribly exhausted and extremely disappointed with the experience, which was totally unnecessary and uncalled for, IMO.
A very obvious and distinct total contrast in policy compared to what is going on with the U.S. border and Mexico!
Hard to believe, but the most enjoyable moment of interaction was with this ground hog in the album, which we saw while trying to resolve our hotel reservations at a McDonald's in Marietta, Rochester, N.Y.
Thanks to all the great folks on this forum that have provided much needed suggestions on what to look for as potential issues with the Wing, as many items were fixed under warranty I would never have thought to even consider, as we spared no expense to make sure this bike would be as dependable as humanly possible for a safe adventure, as our lives depended on it.
A bit disappointing by nonetheless necessary was the use of the updated OEM Honda GPS. The latest $200 mapping card was dated 2009 and installed during the transmission rebuild in the winter of 2010. It failed to provide routing anywhere close to the recommendation provided for this trip by AAA. However, my companion can not see the print wearing the helmet and there is no way I could have read the much to small a font, with four pages of complex directions which were provided for us. This would have been difficult to understand driving a car, let alone attempting to do this on a motorcycle.
While the directions provided by the GPS were not perfect, they did get us to where we wanted to be, however it would have been nice to take the scenic route on the way home.
If anyone has any suggestions as to how best deal with the Canadian Customs office to file a formal complaint, I would appreciate that being directed to my personal e-mail address please. You can reach me at [email protected].
I do not authorize ANY portion of the use of this thread without my express written consent!
All Rights Explicitly Reserved, With Prejudice
Wayne Brunner
Lehighton, Pa
