High_Sides Trips and Pics

[Theweapon52]

That super duke looks killer with those new tires, hope your getting more riding in than i am!

University has its downside....

[High_Side]

That super duke looks killer with those new tires, hope your getting more riding in than i am!

University has its downside....

So does work!

[High_Side]

We managed to get out for a great ride with friends on Saturday.......but I forgot the camera Luckily Scott grabbed this photo before we left. An eclectic group to say the least. The Duke, the Duck, A Hog and a 'prilia RSV Factory. Not seen are Kerry's Harley, and Scott's V-Rod Muscle (about the coolest bike going and fun to ride! Thanks Scott )

We followed it up with a great feed, beers, and tequila shots at Marcel and Kerry's. Awesome end to an awesome day.

[High_Side]

As it's the dead of winter once again, I thought that I would dig up some old stuff that I had never posted here. Excuse the grainy pics as they are scans of a disposable Kodak that I had with me at the time!

Sometimes the measure of a successful bike trip is nothing more than great weather and a lack of mechanical problems and accidents. Sometimes you have to go slower to get more out of it….

A wide range of riders were to join together for an overnight group ride from Calgary to Kalispell in the later part of June. While I normally prefer to ride alone of in very small groups, the plan spiraled out of control when myself and a group of co-workers who had never really ridden together at any time previously, began to dream up a team bike trip on a nightshift in the early spring. As others entered the room we began to gather a whole legion of volunteers, for what was going to be the beginning of an annual team event. There was the guy with the Madura who gets out for about 500km of annual riding, and the guy with the Magna sitting in the garage that requires a few days of electrical trouble-shooting, tires, brakes etc., to get in road worthy condition. The guy that used to have a bike 8 years ago enters and gets caught up in the conversation and is soon pondering the purchase of another bike before the trip takes place. A younger guy with a Triumph T-Bird is definitely in, and has a few friends who would certainly come along….

You don’t need a crystal ball to predict that this ride was going to turn into a Gong Show, but as it was just going to be an overnight ride it might be fun to see what happens. As the big day approached though, there was rain in the forecast, and the participants were dropping like flies. As I awoke that morning and the weather forecast was for rain and a high of 10 deg., I joined the rest of the flies and dropped. There is no joy in riding through Glacier Park in the rain only to discover snow at the top of the Going to the Sun mountain pass. The trip was a washout.

Luckily the advantage of being a shift-worker is the amount of time we are not at work at all. After an intense week spent stampeding in what had to be some of the hottest weather in recent Calgary history, there was still a week left before we had to return to work. A last minute call to the young guy with the Triumph, and we had a four day bike trip with an open destination. There was no time to organize the others now, so group would be small, the weather great, and the headaches minimized.

I was looking forward to riding with Triumph guy. He is easy going, likes to ride an easy pace (something that I try harder to do every year, with somewhat limited success…), and normally prefers camping while on the road. I am a little softer however, and I convinced him that after a 1000km a day on a bike, nothing beats an air-conditioned motel room with a pool and a pub. Everything was falling into place. We would leave first thing Monday morning…

Triumph guy is on the phone Sunday evening and we aim to set the final blast off plan. We would meet at his place and get fuel on the way out of the city before beginning the Trans-Canada drone. All that was left was the time….”How about 10ish” says Triumph guy. Er, what?(!) Normally I have 300km under my belt at that time but hey, it’s not just MY trip, and I really should be easy going about the whole thing. After all, my plan was to slow down, relax, and learn to smell the roses when on the road (not land in them). Maybe this was just the kind of relaxed start that I needed to break the mould.

Monday morning arrives and I am at Triumph guy’s house at 9:40. A quick plan is made to head west, eat lunch in Golden and from there we can decide where our evening destination will be. Nice and casual. Triumph guy shares his concern about fuel range on the T-Bird, and I assure him that as a VTR owner I will be the weakest link. (When you own one of these, you quickly learn where every little gas station is hidden….) After Triumph guy swings by the video store to drop off a video (very casual..) we are off like a herd of turtles.

I decide to let Triumph guy set the pace and he settles in around 120km/hr. This is slower than my norm and I soon discover that is the one speed on the VTR that will make your hands numb in 2 minutes. No big deal, and after an hour, one twenty doesn’t feel THAT bad anymore. I am soon reminded why it is better to get an early start though, when the Trans-Canada shrinks to two lanes west of Lake Louise,…….Traffic! No matter how many cars you pass, there are more to pass, and you soon must accept your fate of traveling at 90km/hr. Perhaps the early start was not such a bad thing? Next time. For now we just take in a lot of scenery at a snail’s pace.

As we discuss our travel plans over lunch in Golden, we rule out Vancouver Island, due to the limited amount of time we have and our easy-going pace. Triumph guy’s mountain riding experience is fairly limited, so I suggested one of my favorite roads to “ease him into it”. We would turn south at Revelstoke, head south to Nakusp, head west through the Monashee pass to Vernon, and then on to Kelowna. There was only one small catch though; the VTR will not pass through Nakusp without a stop at Wiley’s pub. I’ve tried it before and it just can’t happen. Triumph guy is not a hard sell and the deal is done. We have a plan.

Revelstoke BC happens directly after the Roger’s Pass, and when you take that magical left turn off of the Trance-Canada the traffic is gone, the grass is greener (nothing to do with getting closer to Nelson,…..ahem), sixth gear is once again an option, and the pace is back in the comfort zone as we race off towards the Shelter Bay ferry terminal. I’ve never seen the ferry lined up like it was that day, as they had one boat out of service due to a lack of trained personnel to operate it. Triumph guy thought that I was just being incredibly rude as I rode up to the front of the line past many people who had been there for hours. When we got there, I pointed out the sign that said “Motorcycles and Vehicles Carrying Livestock Report to the Front of the Line” Damn I love BC Ferries! Two minutes later we were getting on the boat. Triumph guy quickly started raving about how great that road was. I tried to explain that it was just the road to get to THE road, but he wasn’t really buying it. Really, you just can’t go wrong in the West Kootneys….

After the obligatory stop at Wiley’s in Nakusp and a quick tour of the town (one of my favorites), we head off on Highway #6 and the Monashee Pass. It is getting on towards 6pm as we leave the Needles ferry and begin climbing the pass. This road has improved vastly over the past few years and corners that were formerly sprinkled with gravel over broken pavement are now coated with smooth new asphalt. The incredible twisty-ness is still there, but our enthusiasm is soon tempered by the multitude of deer out moving in the dusky conditions. This, combined with the sun in our eyes as we came around corners to head west may have ruined the ride on a lesser road, but even taken at an extremely cautious pace, the road is pure magic.

We arrived in Kelowna fairly late to start bargaining on motels, and after some quick price checking we ended up at something fairly low budget. It may not have been the Roach Motel but it was right next to it. When in Kelowna though, the last thing you want to do is stay in the motel room so we were off to a roof-top patio for a Corona.…or two….

Tuesday morning arrived at 6am with a dry mouth and sore head for myself. Triumph guy was able to overcome the noise that comes with sharing a room with someone who can’t sleep in with a hangover. I am packed up, have my bike loaded and both chains lubed before I wake him. We decide to go for breakfast and hang out at the beach for a while to get a feel for the place before we get on the road. Taking the time to actually do this was new for me and really made the bike trip more enjoyable. We wouldn’t be making a lot of km this day, but again I would begin the day far more relaxed than usual.

During our conversation at the pub the night before, we had decided to head towards the Sea to Sky highway north of Vancouver. I had tried this route once before on my way back from Washington, and when the traffic was parked south of Squamish, I was forced to turn around and head home in a different direction. A few friends had told me that the road was incredible, and once you get past Whistler the traffic disappears. It seemed to be do-able in the time frame that we had and as usual T.G. was keen for whatever.

We would however, have to go through Merritt and then take the Coquihalla highway if we were to have any hope of getting enough ground covered that day to make the Whistler-Pemberton-Lillooet loop in the time that we had remaining. The road out of Kelowna towards Merritt is 4-lanes of open cruising that seems massively over-built compared to anything else in B.C. The grade is very steep for the first 40 km, and the pace is quick at last. T.G.’s Triumph is surprising, as it seems to handle the odd blast into speeding never-land and be right in my mirrors as I slowed down. It had also impressed me the day before as it looked like a cruiser but handled far better than any cruiser could ever have. The ideas started rolling through my mind as the miles blew by; “Now I wonder how a modern Speed-Triple/Daytona/Sprint engine would fit in there?” “Surely, there have to be a few crashed ones around”. “And with rear-sets, sticky tires and some suspension….”. One thing is for sure; every bike enthusiast we ran into would walk right past my VTR at the gas station to ask Triumph guy about the T-Bird. It may be 5 years old but many people have never yet seen one on the flesh.

As soon as we arrive at Merritt we find ourselves on the Coquihalla with no fuel stops to come before Hope. After considering how the pace we were just running likely drained the tank of the VTR and we would never make it to Hope, I decided that I would have to return to Merritt for fuel. Unfortunately I came to this conclusion about 5km after the last chance exit and I started to find out how serious they were with the term “last chance”. With seemingly nowhere to turn around, (and concrete barriers dividing the lanes), this little “whoops” added an extra 40km to our day. We decide to grab some lunch while we are here….only to be entertained by the annual country music festival girls who left all of their regular fitting clothes at home to get by in tiny bikinis. We had better get outta here before single Triumph guy decides to become a resident…..

We get to Hope in no time at all and find a small lake where we can kick back for a while a take a breather. The Coronas from the previous night still had left my head buzzing and a little R&R was just the ticket. We then jumped across to highway #7 on a tip from a local rider we chatted with earlier, and took the “old highway” in to Vancouver. This route is far more scenic than the #1 but by the time we reached Maple Ridge we were submerged in the Vancouver-esque traffic. It would not thin out again until we passed Horseshoe Bay. At that point, all of the freeway droning and traffic battling we had come through that day was worth it. The Sea to Sky Highway is a gem of a ride that takes you from Horseshoe Bay up to Whistler on a twisty ribbon of asphalt with mountain scenery on one side and an expanse of water on the other. We stopped to grab a couple of pictures, and because it was getting late we decided to pay the big dollars and stay in Whistler where there was bound to be something going on.

Having never been to Whistler, we didn’t know what to expect and cruised right through what we thought were nothing more than condos, only to discover that we were leaving town! It seems as though everything in town is designed to look as if it were a small mountain chalet, but as you move into the pub/hotel district the tiny McDonalds/ Dominos signs start peeking out at you. After pricing a couple of rooms downtown where the fun was, we are given a tip by a local couple (pausing to look at the T-Bird…), about a place where the back-packing kids stay called the “Shoestring” on the edge of town. $90 for a tiny room with a bed and a cot wasn’t exactly a shoe-string for most people, but at this point it looked very good. They also had dorm rooms where you can stay with up to 6 new friends for $35/person. While the more-easy-going T.G. was willing to give it a try, I once again talked him into upgrading into something where I was likely to get a decent sleep…..

After a change of clothes we were off to explore what could possibly be happening on a Tuesday night in a tiny ski-village in the middle of summer. Quite a lot it seems, and we really didn’t have to even leave the Shoestring to get started. As it turns out, Tuesday is culture night and there was a performance of the “ballet” at the small pub within the motel. From there we moved downtown where the pub-district was over-flowing with patios filled with much of the young eclectic crowd. The atmosphere is fun and the town is almost Disney-esque in its cleanliness and perfection. While the crowd is young and eclectic though, you do get the feeling that many are there with strong financial backing from mom and pop. It was particularly amusing to watch the back-packers leaving the Shoestring the next morning as they moved into their air-conditioned F-450 tour-bus. Even the transients here have money!

Wednesday arrived far too early, and even T.G. had managed to get up and at ’em before me. Either I had consumed too much alcohol the night before or I was really getting into this late start-short day style of touring. It had rained while we were sleeping and the clouds were looking quite ominous as we leaving for Pemberton so we decided to go for the rain-gear. We were quite lucky though and only managed to catch about four raindrops that day as we rode some of the most spectacular roads of the entire trip. Things begin to flatten out after Lilooet , and with miles of flatter, straighter roads ahead, it is tempting to turn around ride the whole thing again. Time is against us though and we decide to continue on. The clouds are still threatening, but the heat is making us wonder if we would be better off riding without the rain-gear, and risk getting wet…..

Following Triumph guy out of a gas station in Cache Creek I noticed one of his tailpipes was loose and dangling dangerously close to the ground. While pondering how to fix it over lunch, another old “biker” interested in the Triumph offered to let us use his garage and tools. While the tools were not really helpful (we required an odd-ball Torx head driver), this old guy would have done everything in his power to help out a “fellow rider”. Later at the town Polaris dealership, the attitude was the same, where the owner spent over an hour helping us out and would take nothing in return. If you have to pick the place in the middle of no-where to break down, Cache Creek is a great choice. After all of the fooling around and finally jettising our rain-gear we were east bound once again.

The final night of the trip was spent in Revelstoke. T.G. was ready to get home, and wanted to continue the ride through the Rogers-Pass in the dark but once again I talked him out of it. The riding the extra 5hrs wasn’t a problem but the deer in the evening could be. The heat of the day had really gotten to us and we decided to blow an extra $25 each and stay at the place with the pool. A walk through the town later, showed it to be a far nicer place than you would ever imagine when blasting through on the Trans-Canada Highway.

Thursday broke with us both eager to make a mile to get back home. The bikes were all fueled and prepped the evening before, but even in our haste we still managed to keep things far closer to legal than I ever have previously. This was aided even further as Triumph guy’s “British Bolt Dispenser” once again dropped one of the muffler bolts, and a makeshift hanger made from a tarp-strap was used to hold it together (no gum or duct tape was available at the time…..). As we cruised the last few miles into Cow-Town I reflected on the sanity of it all; no tickets, no near misses etc. and I still had a great time. As I waved to T.G. and turned off to head toward the south end of the city, I merged onto an empty two-lane highway. “Maybe one little blast up to two-hundred won’t hurt anything…….”
A nice collection of bugs proves that the VTR was working hard...

[sunshine229]

Looking through your photos from BC and Alberta is really making me home sick... it's absolutely stunning scenery...

[High_Side]

Looking through your photos from BC and Alberta is really making me home sick... it's absolutely stunning scenery...

The problem is that you guys haven't been in any of these photos since page #3. We really should meet up for a ride once in a while....

[sunshine229]

Looking through your photos from BC and Alberta is really making me home sick... it's absolutely stunning scenery...

The problem is that you guys haven't been in any of these photos since page #3. We really should meet up for a ride once in a while....

Come on over then and we'll pile on Mike's bike together!!!

[High_Side]

Come on over then and we'll pile on Mike's bike together!!!

So in lieu of being able to do that, I pulled out the Viffer today (your b-day or thereabouts) and went for an awesome February ride in Calgary! Nothing like the sound of the V-Four to flush out 3 months of winter work stress in about an hour. I would have went longer but I got a late start after watching Canada take the gold in hockey!

[sunshine229]

Woohoo! Way to go Canada!

Wow, it's great you could get out in February/March for a nice ride. Boy do we miss those days when the winter is coming to an end and you can pop out for a good ride in the beautiful sunshine.

[High_Side]

And finally a riding update:

On Friday I got together with a few riders from the Calgary Motorcycle meet-up group and had some fun out west of town and out to Johnson Canyon by Banff. There was a lot of rocks on the road and the threat of rain but overall it was a great day. Thanks for Brad at Rideprints.com for coming along and taking a few snaps of the group!

It's funny how there are still side roads out there to be found were you think that you've looked. It's the bonus of riding with new people who can point out the ones that you've been missing. Again, there was lots of gravel but a fun road nonetheless.