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I'd Rather Be Riding
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Hello and welcome to my website. As you can see by the pictures I ride and love every minute of it. I have been riding since I was a young 'un and God willing will be doing lots more of it in the years to come when I become an old 'un.
As for a bit about moi, my first bike was an old WWII bike, ($50 bucks I think, my brother bought it for me) a 50cc Villiers motor in a James frame. (a springer front end of sorts no less) The rear tire had a garden hose wrapped around the rim for a tube and no clutch so it stayed in 3rd gear and no brakes. I think I wore out a few shoes on that sucker. No on/off switch, you just grab the ole spark plug wire and yank. Watch out for the metal part on the plug lead, tends to make a person do the funky chicken dance till you can let go. I only grabbed it once, learnt that lesson pretty quick. Later I graduated to a 65cc Honda, a Honda 90, and a 250 Yamaha. Each bike didn't cost more than $50-$60, so needless to say a person didn't worry too much if it was dropped. In 1973 I got my first new bike, a 650 Yamaha, I put close to 10,000 miles on it that summer. Myself and a few friends, we all had bikes and rode all over the countryside. I got to travel all over Ontario and even made it out to the east coast. Lots of good memories from that summer. I had that bike for a couple of years and then sold it.
Fast forward to 1993 and I purchased my first Harley, a 1200 cc Sportster Anniversary edition. It sure felt good to be back in the saddle again, the wind, sun, rumble of the pipes, the outdoor smells, it just can't be beat. I managed to go to a HOG rally in Reno in 95 on the 1200, sure saw some awesome country on that trip. The only thing about the Sportster, the ride turned into an endurance ride, I had one hell of a sore butt by the time that trip was over. Still an excellent trip tho and I would do it all over again. In 2002 I became single and lo and behold I had some money to spend so being the spendthrift I am I bought me a brand new Springer in the springtime (go figure). I did my first trip to Sturgis and horror of horrors I trailered it. All I could think of as I was trailering was all of this beautiful countryside I was missing by not riding in it. So in 2003 I rode from Dawson Creek to Sturgis and back. The weather was awesome and the ride more so. There was the Hot Springs Rally the weekend before Sturgis in where else, but Hot Springs South Dakota at the Allen Ranch and I spent more of my time there. The HSR was put on by Swede and it was quite an enjoyable time and I got to meet lots of other members who post on the Hot Springs Rally board (now defunct).In 2004 I met a great lady and she just happened to ride her own 2002 Heritage Classic. She had never been to Sturgis so what the heck, one more trip, riding both ways of course so she could experience Sturgis and all that goes with riding 6000 Km for herself.
Well here it is 2005, I married that awesome lady I traveled to Sturgis with in May 2005 and for our first Honeymoon we are planning a trip down the Washington, Oregon coast in July 2005 with lots of sidetrips. We are looking forwards to some new adventures, meeting lots of people and seeing lots of great countryside.
Another year later and into mid summer of 2006 and the wife and I did a smaller ride over into Alberta, down on into Montana, across and over into Idaho and Washington and back on up into BC and home. We stayed mostly to the back and lesser travelled roads and this was the first trip I can remember where it was sunny and hot every day and not a rain drop in site, kinda nice.
In November 2006 we did a Caribbean cruise with an outfit called Hogs on the High Seas. There wasn't much motorcycle riding, but there were 1500 other bikers to get to know and share the cruise with. It was a pretty good time, only thing was there weren't enough hours in the day to do it all. We travelled with another couple, but actually didn't see too much of them, we were all too busy doing our own thing.
Well here it is 2007 and another trip down through the mid states, hmmm, must be something about riding those roads, the scenery and putting 6000 km on in a few weeks. We lucked out on the weather, sunny and hot everyday, which was good cause since we have gotten back I haven't put any more miles on cause all it has been doing is raining every weekend. If nothing else the farmers around here are happy campers, lol. Well this weekend is supposed to be nice so who knows??
The wife and did a trip to Melaque Mexico in Jan 08. If you are looking for a quiet place to just kick and tan then this is the place. It has been quite awhile I have read a book and I managed to polish off 3 of them while there for two weeks. That should give you an idea of how quiet it is. That aside there are things to see and do with lots of great seafood places to chow down but more of that in the Melaque exertation.
Summer of 2008 is almost over and another ride under the belt. Did the Montana Idaho thing, but we spent a bit more time in Washington doing the tourist thing and riding back and forth across the Cascades. Again the weather was pretty nice, had a bit of rain off and on during the trip, but nothing too heavy. The temps weren't as warm as one would like, but hey, all part of the riding, right? This might be the last post of any of our riding trips, we are selling the bikes and hopefully getting a "geezer glide" sometime down the road, time will tell.
Anyhoo check back once in awhile for more pictures and stories of our future travels to new and exciting places, future bike rallies I hope to make it to, and past travels of some of the various countries I have visited and even rode motorcycles in. It takes a bit of getting used to riding on the other side of the road in Thailand. Who knows I might even get some of my 13 years living in the Yukon put on there somewhere too. "Hasta Luego!"
I'd Rather Be Riding