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Aug
28
Three Years
Filed Under Being Canadian, Life, Vancouver | Leave a Comment
It’s the morning of the flight to Canada and everyone’s up early. A new life beckons.
Running out of space. A dash to Maidstone for another case.
The taxi is late, the M25 is stationary, there’s a fire alarm at Gatwick, but we’re on our way.
Forms stamped by immigration, “Welcome to Canada”. A new beginning.
Week 1. Hotels, motels, apartments, bank accounts, Social Insurance Numbers, cell phones, schools and a house sale that fails.
Months go by. Kids in school, a move from Vancouver to Burnaby, networking, letters, doorstepping, discovering that being an Apple Tech is not for me.
3 weeks money left and the UK house sale finally completes. Sigh of relief.
Five former Essex schoolkids share a beach on the Shuswap. Surreal.
Invest in a house. Burnaby to PoCo. No income, but once again mortgaged.
Full time work so close yet passed over for a local despite the verbal assurance. Frustration.
Level 1 insurance agent. Relentless pace, long days. Short lived.
The big break, back in to the green world, someone’s taken a gamble on me.
And suddenly it’s 3 years.
Time to contemplate citizenship.
Aug
17
Vespa GTS 250
Filed Under bike, riding | Leave a Comment
The scooter commute has changed from Kymco to Vespa GTS 250 and the smiles have increased with the additional cc’s.
Having sold the second car back in May, the plan was always to commute to Richmond during the summer on a scooter. The only thing preventing this from happening was the fact that I didn’t own a scooter. But why on earth go all ‘hairdryer mod’ when already the owner of a cafe cruising/mile munching Ducati? 
Well, I’d ridden the Ducati to work a couple of times and as enjoyable as it was, the route through New West being really start stop just leads to clutch hand cramps. Not a pleasant experience at the best of times. The obvious answer was to ‘twist ‘n go’ on a scooter. No clutch, no cramps, no decision to make. Just do it.
Anyway, I’d checked out the price of new scooters and as much as I like my Italian motorised transport, I simply couldn’t justify the price of new Vespa. I remembered that I’d looked at Kymco scooters at the Vancouver bike show earlier in the year and thought they’d be worth a look. The price was right, but a trawl of the local craigslist turned up a year old Kymco Frost 200 at a very good price. So, at the start of June the scoot commute began. As reliable and as fun as the Kymco was, the seating position turned out to be a touch uncomfortable and so I hot craigslist again. Why I hadn’t looked for a used Vespa previously I don’t know. The timing was perfect and a couple of GTS 250′s were available. I was hooked on a well kitted out, 4 year old scoot with low mileage. I was now a 2 scooter, 1 motorcycle owner. The 2 wheeled Italian fleet was growing.
A couple of weeks in to my Vespa GTS 250 commute and I’m more than loving it. There were plenty of smiles on the Kymco, but there’s something special about riding the Vespa. The seating position is higher than the Kymco and to be honest it feels a touch unstable because of that, but I’m getting used to it. 
The big difference is the engine. The extra cc’s really make a difference and the water cooled 4 stroke is silky smooth and silent compared to the Kymco (which is actually a 175cc). Acceleration is effortless and I’m getting the last laugh on the stereotypical mulleted mustachioed truck drivers as I leave them standing at lights. Let’s face it, a scooter is only supposed to be 50cc and I can almost feel the ridicule pouring over me when a RAM 2500 pulls up beside me. Until it’s green on. Then it’s grin on for me.
So, my scoot commute is proving to be even more high smilage and low stress. I’d previously written about the changing the commute and the ride along the Fraser and I’ve continued to use this route as it’s just such a chill out ride. But now the ride is a Vespa, it’s totally cool and yes, I was forced to sit down and watch Quadrophenia again. Oh, and naturally enough Blur’s Park Life is replaying in the mind far too often.
Now, how many mirrors could I fit on a GTS 250?
Aug
15
Steveston cycle ride
Filed Under Life, Scenery, bike, riding | Leave a Comment
Steveston is a quaint village in the south west corner of Richmond that has some great cycling along the sea front; and cycling was the order of the day.
What to do on a searingly hot Sunday morning? Air conditioned mall? Nope. Relax by one of the numerous lakes around here? Nope. A 3 hour round trip on the dykes to the west and south of Steveston? Check!
Steveston as a settlement has been around since the late 1870′s and became renowned in the area for its Salmon canning. There’s still an historic cannery in the village, but it seems that today the big earner is tourism and, in particular, whale watching tours from the likes of Seabreeze Adventures.
However, this trip was more about 2 wheels and sight seeing rather than getting in to the local history. Steveston is around a 45 minute drive from PoCo, so bikes were thrown in to the back of the car as I certainly wouldn’t be riding there, as much as I love cycling. Rather than head downtown Lesley and I decided to park a few Km away near the west dyke recreational route. 
Which reminds me, these British Columbians adore getting outside whenever the sun shines. Walk, cycle, skate, board, whatever it takes to get mobile, BC’ers will do it. It makes it virtually impossible to live a couch potato existence here as one is just shamed in to activity.
Our route took us along the west dyke and in to the village proper. The views are, just like most views here, pretty spectacular,.With the mountainous northern vista’s to the beautiful blues of the Gulf of Georgia to the west and south, the scenery is the complete stress buster. 
Arriving in the village, the relaxed pace changed to serious speed as we’d happened across the inaugural Steveston Sockeye Spin. A multi-lap 900m circuit around the downtown area provided some additional entertainment before the ice cream stop beckoned – it was after all, very hot work watching the real cyclists.
Our ride continued along the south dyke until we decided to loop back and take a quick wander around the street market. The market is very much a farmers and artisans affair and I’ve never seen so many local organic coffees on offer in one place.
I can thoroughly recommend the ride, it can be as vigorous or as relaxed as one wants to make it as the route is flat, very flat and even though we didn’t tackle the complete dyke circuit, it was smashing morning out. I’m certain that we’ll be back to finish of the missing sections of dyke another day.
All the pics are on my Picasa site. Sorry iPhone/iPad users, the slideshow is Flash based.
Jul
24
A chance to get out on the Ducati in the brilliant sunshine led us to Stave Lake near Mission.
Lesley hasn’t been on the back of the Ducati since last summer when we took a couple of trip to Fort Langley on the old Albion Ferry. As the sun was shining we decided to head out to Stave Lake, just to check it out.
The journey was well worthwhile as we ended up at yet another stunning lake location within 40 minutes of home.
The site is part of the Stave River hydro-electric project and is essentially a reservoir that has a dam for generation, leading in to Hayward Lake reservoir and Ruskin Dam. The whole area seems littered with these hydro created recreation areas and people take full advantage of easy access to the water towing mainly speedboats to launches and simply chilling out on the lake. With the mountain backdrop it’s easy to see why messing about on boats is so popular here.
Bike wise, the Ducati performed flawlessly and there’s power to spare even with 2 up. 
The only downer about these rides is ending up at the destination in jeans rather than shorts. Having said that, it never ceases to amaze me to see so many bikers out in T-shirts and shorts. Maybe I’m just too risk averse (wimpy) to do it, or maybe I just know my limits.
Having chilled whilst others launched and landed their boats we headed back for a delicious Gelato at Matteo’s. The Dine Here reviews say it all. Great Gelato, great people.
Life in BC – brilliant.
Sorry iPhone and iPad users, the slide show is Flash, but you can view the full set of pics on Picasa
Jul
14
Decision mad. After 5 days on the road on day 6 I’d make the home run.
I could still do the final loop through the forests on my road trip or I could hit the freeway home. The weather appeared better than the previous day but was still windy. When the guy on the front desk at the motel mentioned that the wind had caused fires to double in size in the Wenatchee National Forest (my original route home) it was decision made. After 5 days on the road, on day 6 I’d make the home run. My route back would be freeway all the way to the US-Canada border. First stop Seattle, then straight up I5 to BC.
I’d spoken to another biker the previous evening who’d travelled from Seattle over the Snoqualmie Pass. He’d mentioned that it was chilly, so it was definitely inners in the riding gear before setting off. Although not as bad as the previous day, the winds were still high and gusting so I braced myself for another endurance ride. Within the first few miles I made my first big call of the day. I was not going to be overtaken by a house.
Glancing in my mirrors I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. A large tractor trailer was gaining on me doing around 65-70 mph (110-120kph), not so unusual as these rigs really travel over here. What made me take a second look was that it wasn’t a 53′ container being lugged along, it was half a mobile home. Even though the wind was blowing hard and I was riding cautiously, I was not about to be overtaken by a house. I eased the Ducati away from the gaining residence and it would not get near me again.
The ride to Seattle wasn’t as challenging as the previous day’s experience but did add very chilly temperatures over the pass. Another biker hassle that had to be negotiated was grooved paving. The road surface was just concrete finished in what I can only describe as raked line along the length of the carriageway. In a car you’d probably not notice any change in driving conditions. On a large cruiser bike with fat tyres there may be minimal impact, but on my bike that has relatively thin tyres I was running along tram lines that varied in width. Throw in the gusts of wind and the experience interesting to say the least as the bike would suddenly wobble as tram lines were changed. Another learning for me.
After a final pit stop I was on the I5 heading north and by late afternoon had arrived home.
Final reflections from a road trip noob.
I’d covered around 1350 miles (2130 Km) over the 6 days. My previous longest ride over a day was a total of 120 miles (200Km). I’d ridden about twice that distance for each of 6 days on the road. Physically and mentally I felt fine. No saddle sores or bandy legs and most importantly, no back ache. In fact the only stiffness was in the shoulders and that subsided fairly quickly after taking a break. The day after the ride I feel totally okay. I’ve impressed myself. Maybe as not as couch potato as I thought I was.
Did I enjoy the experience? Absolutely. An 8 out of 10 that given better weather would have been a higher score.
Would I do it again? Absolutely. Riding is such an all senses experience and is probably the best way to do a road trip for that reason alone (I’m sure the guy I met at Crater Lake that was on his his back from Alaska would agree).
What could be better? More planing, more defined places to visit would have added some structure, having said that, the freedom to just replan and do whatever I wanted really has it’s attractions. I’d also like to share the experience with someone. There comes a point when having someone to talk through the day with would be the best end of day.
So, am I a changed person? Probably not. No tattoos, piercings or other questionable mid-life ‘choices’ made or indeed desired. There is a sense of satisfaction, of rising to a challenge. Okay, motels are not a challenge, but the bits in between were.
Now, about that cruiser……
Jul
12
Road trip day 5 – Endurance
Filed Under Travel, bike, riding | Leave a Comment
When the guy at the gas station in Biggs said that he didn’t know how the heck I could ride a motorcycle in that wind I realised that I’d just done something pretty amazing/foolhardy.
The day started easily enough with a browse around Best Buy in Bend considering the merits of a tax free 64Gb 3G iPad. Another of those road trip moments occurred when some guy asked where I was from. When I said SE England he mentioned that he’d visited Tunbridge Wells on a couple of occasions. Tunbridge Wells is no more than 30 miles from where I used to live in Maidstone. Small world moment. Oh, and no iPad as I could be sure that I’d get it back in one piece.
I was following the 97 with my target for the day being Yakima. The route took me across what get’s referred to as desert but to me was more prairie/scrub as there’s a fair amount of vegetation. What was a bit of a shock was to get delayed by roadworks – resurfacing no less. By the time I hit the roadworks the wind had got up and was making riding a touch unpredictable. The wind was constant with occasional gusts. The Ducati is a light bike and was thus being blown around. Little did I know that this was only the start of a very windy journey (and not a can of beans in sight, well, it is sort of Blazing Saddles country).
The ride became more interesting after the roadworks as I had collected fresh tar and gravel on the tyres. So, now it was 2 wheels with a ring of gravel and wind. Great. I needed a break and Shaniko came along at the right time. 
Shaniko was, well, strange. It appeared to be a small collection of buildings aimed at tourists, but who on earth would visit, and why? Anyway, another road trip moment saw me chatting with another biker, he was riding a BMW and was on his way back from a rally in Seattle. He said that the wind was pretty bad. Surely it couldn’t be as bad as what I’d already ridden through? I was about to find out.
Biggs is the last stop in Oregon before crossing the Columbia river back in to Washington. It was 58 miles from Shaniko and I don’t know how I made it. I could feel the back end starting to slide away on more than one occasion as cross winds hit me hard. Add in the huge wall of pressure created by tractor units lugging 53 foot trailers passing in the other direction and one has the recipe for some real yeehaw moments. I soon learned that laying down on the tank can sometimes be an act of genuine streamlining to aid self-preservation rather than it being for crotch rocket riders trying to get an extra few mph out of their screaming 650cc.
During this testing period I’d realised how much ‘in helmet’ self talk and singing goes on at times. I’m now trying to remember the internal soundtrack of my road trip. “I will survive’ would have worked well on day 5, but for some reason that particular track passed me by.
On an aside for a moment. I forgot to mention the day 4 somethings down my T-shirt moment. A few miles out of Bend on day 4 I suddenly started to get slight stabbing sensation around my navel. Sure enough when dismounting in Bend I shook out a hornet thing that had managed to get sucked down my T-shirt. Fortunately my protective spare tyre had saved the day – no harm suffered.
Back to day 5. When the guy at the gas station in Biggs said that he didn’t know how the heck I could ride a motorcycle in that wind I realised that I’d just done something pretty amazing/foolhardy. I still had to push on, Yakima was another 70 miles away. The wind dropped slightly during that section of the trip, or maybe I was now just used to the conditions. Yakima was reached, all I had to do was grab a motel for the night. |For some strange reason I started to look for bargain basement, not even budget. Why I decided to check in to a $35 a night place is still beyond me. The place was truly the pits, a dive, a hovel or worse. Decision made, replan, I could not spend the night in Yakima and Seattle was only 1.5 hours away. I’d head to Seattle.
Only Seattle was out of reach as the wind now seemed even stronger as I crossed a high range outside of Yakima. The target was now Ellensburg. The 30 miles was covered very gingerly, sometimes at a mere 40 mph, trying to hide in the wind dead spot behind a tractor trailer going up a hill. A real motel was spotted and booked in to. Time to east and rest.
Today was about endurance. I’m still an inexperienced rider, but learning all the time. Wind is definitely the sworn enemy of road trip bikers. Day 6 could be the last leg of this intro to road trips.
The slideshow is Flash based so sorry to iPhone and iPad users. The full set of pics are on Picasa
Jul
11
Road trip Day 4 – I only use awesome sparingly
Filed Under Scenery, Travel, bike, riding | Leave a Comment
The word awesome seems to be well overused in Canada. I’m not a great user of awesome, but Crater Lake fully deserved the superlative. It was indeed awesome.
Time to hit the road again. I followed the 138 to my next port of call Crater Lake. En-route I pulled over several times to take in the gorgeous scenery along the Umpqua river. With numerous curvy bits and enough straights to check out the views, the ride was pretty special. I even had time to think about all the stuff that’s not had a mention yet as well as “why on earth was this road built in the first place?” 
Anyway, on to the collected thoughts and musings of a chilled biker.
Large birds. I’ve been seeing plenty of eagles and probably other varieties of raptor, mostly just gliding over fields ready to drop on some unsuspecting meal.
Slapping Salmon. At one of my stops today I heard a slapping noise in the water. I waited long enough to catch a view of a Salmon leaping and slapping back in to the river. Wondrous.
Bikers wave. I can’t remember the official gesticulation for UK bikers, but the Canadian bikers acknowledgment travels across the border well. There’s probably a 95%+ success rate in greeting other bikers as we pass each other. Great camaraderie.
Bungees are a bikers friend – wind is a bikers sworn enemy.
Similar but not the same. The Pacific coastline that I’ve travelled reminded me (when I got to see it) of Devon and Brittany. My ride through the Umpqua river valley reminded me at times of Kamloops, with more rolling hills and probably a touch greener.
What ‘make/brand’ are those enormous yellow butterfly’s?
Peace. Despite the engine and wind noise, riding is peaceful. Someone mentioned to me that you’ll never meet a stressed biker. I’m starting to understand why.
Road trip. Is the whole purpose of a road trip to be a transient being? Surely that’s what a road trip is – being on the road just taking ion the sights, sounds and smells around you and feeling the trip through the road surface. Sure I haven’t stopped at all the places I could have, but it doesn’t mean that I haven’t experienced anything. I’ve dipped in to other people’s stories as paths intertwine with both parties moving on knowing just a tiny bit about a stranger that crossed their path.
Ducati GT 1000. Until today I’d never seen another bike like mine on the road. Today I stopped to refuel in a small town called Crescent on the 97 towards bend. To my amazement another GT1000 owner had just finished refueling. He was from California, had had the bike for a couple of weeks and was heading back to San Francisco from Seattle. A rare moment of GT1000 togetherness.
I’m not a real biker. Even in the UK I was not a hardened biker. My longest ride in the 2 years of riding in Canada was to Harrison and back. Over the last 4 days I’ve covered some 1350Km (840 miles) and I think I’ve coped pretty well. Today I ached, the shoulders and feet in particular, but I’m not saddle sore or feeling stiff. I soon recover after a short break. Am I a real biker now? Probably not, but I’ve certainly improved.
Today’s highlight was without a doubt Crater Lake. I don’t tend to use the word awesome, it’s far too liberally spread about over here. However, today I am happy to use awesome as that’s exactly what Crater Lake is. So awesome that it needs video to start to get a sense of the splendour. It’s around 5 x 6 miles across, some 7-8000 feet above sea level and was formed after a volcano exploded around 7500 years ago. The ride up to the rim was fantastic. Snow still on the ground but not the road, the air tasted pure and fresh and the sunshine kept temperatures respectably warm. I was mightily impressed with just the appetizer, the main course was mouthwatering.
The video is Flash based so sorry to iPad and iPhone users.
Suitably awesomed out and chilled I left Crater Lake and head north. My overnight stop was to be Bend.
The full set of the days pics are on Picasa
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