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Went grocery shopping today, threw on my old trusty BCIT backpack and rode into Ladner to pick up a few items I needed. Could of just gone up the road to the local Safeway, but any excuse to ride right?

Picked up about 5lbs of loose potatoes, couple pounds of butter, milk and other goodies, got the funniest look from the girls at the cashier when I said no bags please.

Stuffed the backpack full and then relearned how bloody hard it is to put back on over leathers....

Got home after a nice ride back, but soaked in sweat....so much for my morning shower.

My vacation starts on BC Day, and I been thinking about what to do. Mulling over the idea of cruising North, first to visit mom in Penticton, then wander up to Prince Rupert and catch the ferry to Port Hardy on Vancouver Island and work my way down south.....have to think about it a bit.

till later,
you friendly author,
Ceemes

The ride to Penticton via the Hope Princeton is a terrific ride. Make sure you leave early enough to get ahead of the geezers in the motor homes and Cadillacs.

Hello fans.......

All two of you.

Okay, I've now had the Sabre on the road for around two weeks now and I think I have noticed a number of health benefits from riding.

First off, let me admit to a shameful sin on my part.......I am a......oh lord this is going lose me a fan or two......a smoker. Yes, that is right, I suck on the evil weed, shameful I know, but there it is. However, since I started riding again, I find that my consumption of the filthy weed has decrease a fair amount.

It could be because it is next to impossible to smoke a ciggie while wearing a full-faced helmet and traveling at around 120KPH to and from work. That alone has cut down at least four smokes a day.

Funny thing is, when I first started riding, I also smoked and tried quitting a number of times without any luck. After about six months of riding, I did successfully quit. Pity I started up again when I got injured and was in school again. Perhaps history will repeat itself.

Which brings me to the next benefit, mental health and de-stressing. My work can be very stressful, what with being bombarded with phone calls, emails, demands for rates, solving operational problems for dispatchers (my own and the carriers I hire) along with dealing with the office politics from back east. When I drove to work in the Horizon, I'd arrive at my office with my arse dragging behind me and at the end of the day, the commute home did little de-stress me. But when I ride to work, I find I am wide awake and ready to tear into my work with a gusto, and at the end of a trying and tiresome day, the ride home perked me right up. And come the weekend, instead of doing little or nothing, I jump on the Sabre and head out to where ever the road takes me, again leaving me refreshed, revitalized, re-energized and renewed. So, riding seems to be good for ones mental well being.

And one last benefit, I seem to be losing weight. I haven't really changed my diet, nor the amount of exercise I get, and yet looking in the bathroom mirror after a shower (I know, its not a pleasant mental image for any of your to imagine, but too bad) I have noticed the old spare tyre is deflating , it's not as round and full as it seemed to be before. Nothing really radical yet, but a definite improvement.

So, taking all that into consideration, I have to opine that getting back in saddle again has been a win-win for me health wise. Now if only riding again will stop my hair and beard from going gray......

Your friend and author,
ceemes

Just think...if you quit smoking...you wouldn't have the hassle with the airlines, either.

As most of you know, I have a well earned and healthy dislike for pick up trucks sharing the road with bikes......seems a lot of jokers turn into right arseholes when they get behind the wheel of a pick up.

Yesterday was a good case in point. I and my rather inexperienced passenger were riding down Highway 99 heading west doing between 120 and 130 KPH in the fast lane, the speed limit is 100 KHP however, the average speed of most cages and even big semi's is around 110 KPH. I was in the fast lane, passing cages and trucks and keeping up but aways behind the traffic in my lane......when in my rear view what do I see? A great ugly white pick up truck tearing down at me.......well, with the traffic in the slow lane, I didn't really have room to get out of his way , meanwhile this arsehole is riding my back tyre, flashing his lights at me.

As soon as an opening appeared, I turned on my blinkers in order to change lanes, only this twit cuts into to the slow lane to go around me, no warning, no turn signal, just zip and there he went....cutting off a tractor trailer to do it......can you say organ donor looking for a place to happen?...anyways, as he goes by me, out comes his arm and I get the one digit salute, which of course being a well mannered gentleman, I return as I back off the throttle to give the idiot more room to get in front of me.

He cuts into my lane, still saluting me, so I quickly give him the reverse V-For Victory signal, to honour his victory over me, along with the universal wanker salute....which he returns......as he passes a parked radar car........Seems the Queens Cowboy figured the guy was saluting him, and decided to have a word with him........have to admit I got a good laugh as I passed him pulled over to the side, as he tried to explain himself to Constable Do-right.

On a related note. Why do people buy these huge 4 x 4 pick up trucks designed to go bush bashing or mud slogging at the work place if they are not planning on going bush bashing with it?

Here is case in point:

meet the driver of this Ford while taking a rest at a Starbucks last weekend, and asked him what were the odds of him taking his pretty chromed up F350 four wheeling....he answered rather sheepishly, not a chance in hell. Makes you wonder about people.

your friendly author
ceemes

It's been five days now since I last took the Sabre out, and even then it was just to commute from home to work, and I got home just as the rain started.

For the past five days it has been miserable, last week we had scorching hot temperatures and now it seems we have fast forwarded straight into your typical Vancouver winters, wet, gray and miserable. Hopefully tomorrow we will get a break, at least one long enough for me to make a quick run to the local grocery store.

As it is, I have one weekend of local riding left before I head out to the Philippines for my first real vacation in ten years, I pray its a good one, the weekend that is.

Yesterday I went to rescue my passport and birth certificate from the safety deposit box, a 20 something mile drive from my office to my bank.....took almost two hours.....groan.

There is a Suzuki dealership near my bank and I popped in to see if they had any riding pants that would fit me. The answer was no of course. What is with gear manufacturers? Do they think all riders stand 5 foot zip and have 28 inch waists???? I have been looking for a good pair of riding over pants, preferably in leather with armour, that are comfortable, fit and affordable....so far no luck and I continue to tempt the fates by riding only in my Levis. Maybe I can get some custom made while I am on vacation, we'll see.

Anyways, while my search for pants was a bust, I saw and sat on what is arguably the most sexy looking production bike I have ever seen, the Suzuki Boulevard M109R.



Ladies, please forgive me for the following and feel free to call me a sexist pig, boarish male or what have you.

Take a close look at this bike, it oozes pure unadulterated sex and seduction, it is a piece of rolling exotic and erotic art. The design team must of drawn heavily from the female form when they sculpted this masterpiece of form and function. I defy any red blood healthy male to tell my that they don't see the image of a goddess laying supine when they view the lines of this bike.

This a machine designed to seduce its rider, and if I had a spare C$20,000 in my wallet, it would seduced it away from me. They say sex sells, and the designers of this machine took that lesson to heart.

Till later,
your friendly author,
ceemes.

Nice to see someone else coming back after a long spell.

The Beezas in the photos look like A Starfire B25 (250) replaced the C15
(the starfire was my first real bike in 75 - the bike being 69)
I've still got the odd bit from it.

The other bsa is a bantam looks like a 125. Memories.
Keep writing

Ade

....is about the only way I can honestly describe my ride home from work today.

Got up this morning and I knew something wasn't right, the old gall bladder was giving me minor signals that it wasn't happy and just might throw a major hissy at me......but it was such a beautiful morning after a dreary weekend, I ignored it and decided to ride to work.......

Well, not more then an hour at my desk, the gall bladder went ballistic on me and I was doubled over in pain. Figured I would tough it out, after all these attacks usually only last an hour or two and then I am good as gold....but not today, by 11:30, I can't talk on the phone much, and absolutely useless...so its off to the clinic I go.......

The ride was surreal to say the least, between bouts of pain in the old guts and paying attention to what I was trying to do, its a bloody miracle I didn't crash out or ride under semi's trailer.....

Got to the clinic, saw the doc and went through the usual pokes and prods of an examination. He then gives me some liquid Graval to ease the queasiness and a jab of morphine to dull the pain. I ask about having it removed, just like most in my family on both sides and he says, its not quite chronic enough yet to warrant surgery. Blah.......

So now somewhat doped up on Graval and Morphine, get back on the bike and ride the four blocks home. Somehow made it without killing myself or others. Drew a steaming hot tub and crashed out in it for about three hours, now feel right as rain.....

Moral of this story...if you don't feel 100%, don't flippin' ride.

your friend and author,
ceems

congrats on coming back

shame....taxis are for getting to and from places when you are incapacitated or impaired. And, yes, you were impaired. It's fortunate for all around you didn't have a mishap...and fortunate for you the police didn't stop you.