May 29, 2011 - "Ride to Live" the ride to save BC men (prostate cancer)

First let me say -- wow what an awesome day! The first signs of summer arrived today and with perfect timing for this 140KM ride.

We were up at 6 (yep in the am!) After a brief stop for gas, we headed to Tim Hortons to meet Shawn.  It is very interesting what you will see in Timmy's at 7am on a Sunday!  Apparently in is a great place to stop before you get home from the night before, two very lovely "ladies" who could barely stand.  I was happy to see they had a driver, who made him self very scarce while they were in Timmy's.

Anyway on to our day. We headed to the Chevron in Port Moody to pick up Ron who was gassing up.  Ron rides a V8. I thought I took a picture of Ron's ride but it seems to be missing.  Nice bike!

From there we headed to Trev Deeley for the start of the ride. We were there by 7:30 and the ride did not officially start until 9.  But we were by no means early.

 

Views north and south along Boundary

After a brief opening ceremony, including the national Anthem, Amazing Grace on the bagpipes, a few speakers and a Lion dance for luck the starting gun sounded.

Can we actually call this a starting gun??

 


With the Vancouver Police as the ride escort we headed out. North on Boundary to Hastings.  Anyone who knows that intersection can imagine my panic of that corner -major hill start, but Mike reminded me the road was closed - no stopping required!  YEAH!

There we many spectators along the route.  It was an awesome sight to look ahead down Hastings to see a long line of bikes riding in two lines, then to see the same in the review mirror. 

At Concord Pacific we drove thru the "Poker Run" tents. I was so excited at Trev Deeley to have pulled the queen of hearts.  I was sure it was a sign of good things to come.  Second card at Concord as a 7 of spades :(

From this point the ride was much on your own although with that many bikes you are rarely alone.  We headed down First to Boundary and north on Boundary again to Hastings.  So last time we had the closed roads and police escort this time we were bound by the laws of the road.  CRAP! 
Before I could even get there, other bikes were stuck.  I stalled - no surprise there. In my panic to get going I have no real idea what I did but I got moving after hearing a bang (yikes) Just as I got going the bike two  ahead of me stalled and rolled back into the bike between us.  I was fortunate to have the space to go around and some really great bikers had blocked the intersection so I did not have to worry about traffic.
Mike, Ron and Shawn were now far ahead. But by the time we got to Coqutilam we were all together again. I was starting to realize there was something wrong with my bike - the clutch felt funny.  I played around with it riding down the Barnet and realised that the cable seemed to have slipped as the "sweet spot" was now at the very end of my finger tips!

At Coquitlam Town Center another poker run tent - 2 of clubs :-(

We parked and Shawn took a look at my bike and made a quick adjustment (which I could do myself now) and all was now good with my clutch.  Thank you Shawn!

From here we headed out with a fairly large group east on the Lougheed to Mission.  As we entered Mission mike and I could see Ron and Shawn behind us in the group.  Crossing the bridge to Abbotford, Shawn pulled up with us. Ron never appeared.  We were riding alone now and stopped to see if he was with the next group or two of riders.  He was not.  We decided the best course of action was to assume he was with another group and to head onto the next stop.
With Mike in the lead we headed off.  I must admit I had no idea where we were much of the time and we were not seeing any other bikes, I started to assume Mike was on his own route.  But I knew eventually we would get where we were going.  I was a little worried a couple of times when we saw groups going the opposite direction, but Mike said they were the Chilliwack starters.  The ride was lovely.  We rode along the south side of the river into Fort Langley, then into Langley and straight to the event centre.  Well not quite straight - there was a missed corner fixed with a little synchronized motorcycle riding in a church parking lot.  We parked at the Poker run tents (I got a Q of spades) and waited for Ron.

He arrived about 15 minutes later with a large group that had gone into Abbotsford and had to figure out their way back.
Together  again we headed to Fraser Downs Casino and Racetrack (Cloverdale Racetrack for those who know the old name)

As we arrived we were directed on to the race track.  It was very cool to drive around the track and park.  By the time all were there the double lined parked bikes stretched from the finish line well around into the backstretch.

This was an interesting sight.......

It was at Trev too!

Lunch was served and live music was played and we got the last of our poker cards. I got a 7 of who cares what :-(  Mike had four 8s.   The draw for the Harley was done and the 5050 draw´and the poker run prizes handed out.  The sun shine was amazing and the crowd fun. Ron and Shawn headed off after lunch and Mike and I stayed till the end.  We are glad we did this ride and hope to do more.

The one thing I must mention - it is important all men are checked for prostate cancer.  If you have not had a digital check, please do so. It is important!

Catch up

May 28, 2011

yes we have been on rides since the last post.  We just seemed to busy for me to sit down and blog about them.

On April 23, Mike and I rode out to Harrison.  Very nice ride and great weather.  There were bikers at every corner.  It seemed riding season had begun.

 

On May 1, 2011 we rode to Britannia Mines up the sea to sky.  Again a nice ride but a little more work on the twisting road.  We will do this ride again but continue on to Squamish and eventually Whistler.

On our way back home we stopped at our favorite downtown restaurant - Scoozies - but they close early on Sundays :-(

We ended up back in Coquitlam at Wings, North Road and Lougheed.  Nice bar/restaurant good food.

May 23. The weather was a little iffy but i wanted to get out for a ride.   I met mike after his noon meeting and we headed with a friend of his, who rides a V8 motorcycle, toward Port Moody.  The buddy veered off toward home and we headed onward.  We ended up heading up Seymour mountain.  The higher up we went the darker and colder it got.  Fearing rain, we stopped at the view point, then headed home.  This is a ride I want to do again.

Today, we rode over to Trev Deeley to register for tomorrows Ride to Live ride.  I was quite excited to do another large group ride.  I knew the ride started at Trev and finished at Fraser Downs.  A nice50 Km ride.
Imagine my surprise when I read the planner package to read the comments from the planning committee that they had "shortened the ride to 150Km"   WHO KNEW! The ride actually goes into Downtown Vancouver, then to Coquitlam, then Mission and Langley before heading to Surrey and Fraser Downs!  Oh well that is tomorrows story.

After Trev, Mike and I headed over to John and Ruth's.  Mike only had time for a quick hi and bye as he had plans, but I stayed for a visit.  We swapped travel stories about searching out Harley stores.  I think they had me beat in unique stories.  My travels had me finding the stores in Minneapolis - in the airport!, Key West - on the main shopping street, in Tampa - at the airport.  John and Ruth spent hours (so said Ruth who gave up and had coffee in a local coffee shop) in Marrakesh!  We also swapped general travel stories and caught up on Family news over coffee and fresh muffins - Thanks Ruth!
I then enjoyed a ride home.

We will be heading out tonight - Mike will be riding to a meeting in North Vancouver and I will follow and somewhere along the way we will gas up for tomorrows ride.

i will post of tomorrow adventures with pictures hopefully.

Rubber side down, my friends :-)
Alice

March 20, 2011 - First day of Spring

What a great day!  It seemed every biker was on the rode today.

We went to the Motorcycle Swap Meet at the Agrodome.   Interesting.  Not sure I have ever been around that many ``Bikers`` before.  We had a quick look and left.  We saw nothing that interested us.

It was close to lunch so we headed to our favorite downtown lunch place.  Scoozies!  The best Chicken Rice soup ever.

After lunch, our plan was to head to and around Stanley park but there was insane traffic downtown and on Georgia. We found out later there was a St. Patricks Day parade.

We altered our plans and just head east out of the city.  We dropped in at Trev Deeley.   Our whole outing was to look for chaps, HD ones are WAY to expensive!  so we thought we would try Louie's leather in Maple Ridge.  We headed out the freeway, not my favorite place but I have to get used to riding the freeway, so....

There were no chaps at Louie's.  It seems he took them all to the swap meet.  How did we miss that!!

Oh well, the day was beautiful and the roads were good.  We saw lots of friendly riders on the road and we enjoyed our day.

Heading home...

March 20, 2011

10:00 to 3:00

100Km ,lunch and shopping :-)

March 6, 2011

Beautifully sunny and highs of 6
Sounds like a great day for a winter ride!

Mike heads to Starbucks for coffee with the Sunday gang while I pick up Rebecca from work before I can join them. The hope is there will be a few bikes planning on heading out.

I head out to meet the group for breakfast and after a filling meal of bacon and eggs, it is only Mike and me riding.

We head out the Lougheed to the Golden Ears over to Langley and head in to Cloverdale. We were thinking we would check out Stampede Feed and Tack (they sell Biker stuff too) for chaps. They were closed. :-(
We decided to head to Stevenston. We headed to River Road and toward the tunnel. It was odd for me riding over that way - toward Rich and Colleens and not dropping by their house but I suspect the new owners may not be impressed with a couple of leather clad bikers pulling up in the drive way.

We stop at Garry Point and grab a couple of bottles of water and sit and enjoy the view. Now here is the odd part - it was warmer on the bikes at 60-80Kms that sitting at Garry Point. But what a beautiful day!!!!

My riding partner :-)


After a short rest we decided it was best to get back on the bikes and head toward home.

We did not see many other bikes out today but saw enough to let us know we weren't the only ones. I can`t wait until it warms up and we don't have to be quite so bundled up.

Today's ride was about 80km (my trip odometer reset it self half way through) We were out for about 3 hours, not including breakfast.

Man we got some nice bikes

till next ride!
A

January 9, 2011

Last night we had the pleasure of spending the evening with friends celebarating Lucille Wilders 50th Birthday. Lucille is the first of many of my friends to reach that milestone this year. I have been concerned about turning 50 but after seeing Lucille do it with such grace, my fears have been calmed.

So waking this morning and realizing you are only as old as the things you accessorize with, I decided to just stay in my jammies. Standing in the living room this was the view at about 11am today.

Seeing the beautiful day and knowing I am only as old as Iaccessorize - I accessorized with leather and my Honda!

Mike and I headed out at about 12:00. We had a few things to drop off for friends so that was the ride. Into South Burnaby from Coquitlam. We didn't see another bike. Is it really that cold?

While Mike was doing the deliveries I sat in the sun and warmed up. Our bikes look great in the sun.

Mike doesnt look to bad either :-)


We then headed back toward home. Now the roads were full of bikes, all enjoying the great winter weather. What an awesome day.

We stopped for coffee just before getting home. Great coffee and a nice sit in the sun. Unfortunately the sun went very low while we were sipping coffee and that last leg to home was extremly cold!

Stats - 44.5 Km; 3.5 hours; Temp 3

First Ride of 2011

Jan 3, 2011
It is a beautiful winter day. There is week old snow on the ground, just a dusting and only on the grassy areas. The morning starts with very frosty roads but as the sun rises the frost disappears and the roads clear.
Mike heads out at 11:30 to a noon meeting on his bike. I take time dressing very warmly - leggings, and jeans. Tank top and sweatshirt. Leather jacket and winter gloves.

My bike seems to protest starting in the winter weather but once started sounds good.

Backing down our steep driveway and getting straight on the road at the bottom has been my challenge. There is evidence of such in the minor scratches on the side of the bike :-(

So today with frost and an audience of about 8 street workers I mount up and plan for a perfect start! Slowly down the driveway, stop at the bottom to let a car pass, straight back across the road then a sweeping turn to the left and I am off! Plan worked!

The main roads are clear and dry and there is not a lot of traffic.

While waiting for Mike at Shaunessy and Lougheed, I confirm a full tank of gas and reset my
trip odometer 1 to 0 for 2011.

We head out toward Pitt Meadows, Mike in the lead as always. We ride some back roads south of the Lougheed. As we near Harris Road my legs are chilly and Mike`s finger tips are freezing! So we head north on Harris to Old Dewdney the to the Lougheed and home.

It was a short ride - 30Km, but with the beautiful sunshine a quiet roads it was a great ride.

looking forward to more winter rides :-)

My Ride Blog

Hi all,

I have decided that this year I will blog about our rides. Just a way to keep track of the adventures we hope to have.

Some background, in the fall of 2009 I bought a brand new 2008 Honda Shadow. I bought it much the same way I bought my first car, no licence!

Mike and I had decided to take lessons in early 2010. I went into the lessons thinking I would be able to do it. Half way thru I was sure I couldn't! I must here give kudos to all the instructors and staff at Pacific Riding School. They stuck with me and in the end I just needed to relax. I passed my motorcycle test with no demerits at all.

The switch from the schools little 250`s to my 750 was...... interesting and a story for another day.

Just before we finished classes Mike bought a Harley Road King. Big Bike! I dropped it the first day in the carport - oops! It is much to big a bike for me.

We spent the summer riding when we could and getting more and more comfortable. The farthest we have ridden is to Mission. We have stayed in the lower mainland, but hope to branch out this summer.
By the end of the summer I was riding to work - 30Km into the downtown core. The ride in was hard work with traffic but the ride home was always fun.

We did the Toy Run with a bunch of friends - That was awesome and a little intimidating



During 2010 I dropped my bike more than I wish to admit to and stalled more often than not but those event became further apart with more miles.

I ended the year with 2500km. Not a ton of miles but a good chunk. Mike ended the year with twice that.

As we move into 2011 - We look forward to more riding and more adventures.