May 29th, 2006
It really astonishes me how much of a lifestyle change owning a motorcycle can be. First, off, traffic takes on a new menace to life and limb. Really, it's all about inattentive people talking on cell phones, doing makeup or hair, reading while they drive (if you can believe it!)
And I find myself making pointed little movies of myself riding my bike.
But there are other things as well: Like motorcycle forums where you find a group of people with the same motorcycle and realise that you all live in the same city. So, because of that, we decided to get together for a "group ride". This one was small by any standards; there were just three of us: me, a 51-year-old named Brewski, and a former (reformed?) off-road biker named bakwheeltango.
Here is what I wrote about it:
Well, the meet up happened as planned. I can't seem to get my desktop computer's USB port to recognize my wife's camera, so pictures are still on the way.
Brewski: Got any pics you can show us?
I started out at noon, riding to New Westminster, and met up with Brewski. We rode together to Surrey to pick up bakwheeltango.
Still without a rain suit, our first destination was to pick up a rainsuit for me, since the weather clearly wasn't going to be our friend!
So, the three of us start out taking some nice back roads through Surrey, and East out into Langley. This part of the ride was fairly slow and sedate, but the backroads were a lot of fun, and it also gave us a chance to get a feel for each others' riding skills. After a quick stop at a regional river-front park where I put on the above-mentioned rain gear, we continued to the Albion ferry.
Just as we boarded the ferry to cross the Fraser River to Maple Ridge, the rain started. Lightly at first, but once we left the ferry and climbed the hill to the gas station, it was really dumping on us. (Thanks to bakwheeltango's suggestion I stayed dry.)
Speaking of bak, we wanted to know how far the road we were on (Dewdney Trunk Road) went along to Harrison. So he approached a mini-van full of kids and a soccer mom at the gas station, and I think the three of us black-clad helmeted motorcyclists scared the crap out of them. Oops ...
From there we took a secondary road through ever-drying conditions. We eventually found a very satisfying fairly twisty road, where "Wild Bill" Brewski took the lead and demonstrated that the 650R can maneuver nicely with the right rider. He wasn't nuts, by any means, but he took the twisties nicely, leaving me and bak behind for a while.
(I love this bike Pt1: This bike has just the right balance. You can swing it back and forth, take satisfying corners without worrying about control, then stop on a dime.)
Unfortunately, that road eventually turned into a logging road (unpaved, lots of puddles and dips), so we back-tracked a ways and eventually twisted our way down to Highway 7.
We followed Highway 7 all the rest of the way to Harrison, where it was threatening to brighten up and become sunny ... except that it was just a cruel joke, and after a burger and posing for some pics with Harrison Lake behind us (on a pedestrian foot-path, ahem), we drove through some more rain as we cut across the Fraser River again (this time by bridge).
We found some rural back-roads again, cows and hay everywhere, and bakwheeltango challenged us to keep up with him as he used maximum acceleration away from some of the stop signs.
(I love this bike Pt2: The acceleration was enough to be satisfying, not enough to tear your clothes off. Exhilarating.)
Eventually we got onto Highway 1, we decided to fly home, bak peeling off in Surrey, and Brewski and I continuing to our side of the GVRD. Here is where, after watching Brewski have some fun on the twisties, and bak do some kick-ass accelerations, I wanted to have a little fun all my own, so I got into the HOV lane and opened it up a bit, pushing it most of the way home.
(I love this bike Pt3: We all know it's not a super-sport bike built to fly to the moon, but it's got some sass in it, and it's not afraid of some pretty good speeds. The wind and the sound of the engine is a real rush.)
I never saw bak peel off the highway (sorry, dewd), but Brewski and I rode together back to New Westminster, where I turned up home to Burnaby and he continued home.
6-1/2 hours of riding and I was a bit tired, but super happy.
Guys, what are you doing next weekend?
And here are some pics of the event:
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