Epic Sidecar Journey

I recently did a post titled 'Freedon At Both Ends Of The Leash', all about Ara and Spirit on their epic motorcycle and side car adventure. Here's another interesting adventure of a similar nature, only this one took place many, many years ago, in Canada, when there were no real roads connecting the country and older technology meant a rougher ride and far less communication amongst other things.
Englishman J. Graham Oates was on a stop over in Canada while returning to his home on the Isle Of Man, after 4 years in Bolivia overseeing a mining operation. Apparently a scheme to cross Canada was hatched during a heavy drinking bout with Oates and Charles Bowne, his former World War One Cavalry mate. Browne was the nephew of Lord Wakefield, the owner of Castrol Oils, who were having a difficult time breaking into the Canadian market and wanted to sponsor some sort of event.  Oates had already been involved in several adventures, including some road and boat races and The International Six Days Enduro, as well as a motorcycle dispatch rider in the war. he also built his own brand of Aurora motorcycles after the war and had the mechanical skills necessary to make this journey possible.
Of course, the only true continuous connection between most of the country was the railway, so Oates and Castrol petitioned CP Rail to use the railroad as an unscheduled freight train! Permission was granted but only if Oates attended a rail training school, where he learned the basics, including pole climbing. This was needed to gain access to the overhead wires along the tracks so Oates could hook up his field telephone which was carried in the sidecar.
For his vehicle, Oates chose a 1928 Ariel, a 'two port' 497 c.c. O.V.H. machine with a Canadian made zeppelin style side car. Needless to say, man and machine probably took quite a beating, as the motorcycle rode on the timber sleepers of the track and the constant bouncing created many issues. The side car had to be repaired or replaced multiple times and the Ariel motorcycle had it's own set of troubles such that many times new parts had to be delivered to wherever Oates happened to be a the time.
All in all, a crazy 21 day adventure, the first crossing of Canada on rubber tires, accomplished with a lot of grit and determination, as documented in the book 'Aurora to Ariel' (Bill Snelling, Amulree Publications, 1993.  In a later adventure, Oates rode an Ariel Red Hunter to Fort Churchill, the furthest north a rubber tired vehicle had ever been, and he was also the first person to reach Hudson Bay on a motorized vehicle fitted with ordinary tires.


J. Graham Oates and his 1928 Ariel, with sidecar

J. (Jimmy) Graham Oates

A slightly beat up bike and side car at the end of the ride!