British Columbia Chat

[old-n-slow]

putput, right from the beginning my friend has been telling me I will be upgrading to a bigger bike. I have kept saying...Oh, no, I will never need a bigger bike....
Now that I have done more riding and gone some of the places I have been, I think you and my friend may be right. I may have to get a bigger bike next year.

May not be any need for a larger bike. Bigger bike - more fuel. You can drop down a gear and run in fourth up the long hills. It won't hurt anything. I started with a 350 cc honda and at the time lived in Lethbridge Alberta. I often had to drop that thing into fourth just to maintain highway speed when traveling west into the strong winds (they call Lethbridge the windy city) (and yes I know there are other cities called the windy city ) consdiering that it could easily do over 100 (mph) in 4th without hitting redline I could see no problem running it 65 - 70 in 4th. It's not like you will be running it uphill forever.

I often drop mine down to a lower gear. It seems not to like running under 1800 - 2000 rpm so I treat it the way it prefers. Mind you it has ample power to pull the hills if the speed is up so that the revs are up. I use the lower gears even if the country is flat providing i am forced to travel at slower speeds.

Here is a link to a few interesting rides in southern BC. Perhaps you have ridden some of this country

http://www.ldrider.ca/BCroutes/bcrides.html

[putput]

yes old and slow ,thats how it done,to bad they stopped putting tac's on these new v stars ,it makes a person wonder if they are running a bit to high or low with the rpm's sometimes , .needing a bigger bike to keep up ?a tack would take away this feer or red linning .I am haveing some clutch slippage troubles now at highway speed and a tack would have answered any doubts I had about what was happening with the bike.It would also let you no how far from red line you are when gearing down for a hill .In BC we probably like the larger cc bikes because of the mountains ,a tack is a lot cheaper then buying a larger bike .Why did they ever stop putting them on the crusers?

[old-n-slow]

Yep. Both my machines have tac's Not really necessary I know but nice to have. I suppose the reason for not having them as standard equipment has to do with manufactures providing less for more. The ongoing story.
Cheapisity I call it.

[blues2cruise]

Hiya, old-n-slow. I hooked up with a group ride of the SCRC Langley chapter yesterday. They were a decent bunch of guys and welcomed me along on their ride.
What was going to be a quick jaunt to Harrison for lunch turned out also to include back roads through Chilliwack and over Sumas Mountain...oh yeah and a stop at Dukes..a popular biker bar. Most of the day I had no idea where I was, but it didn't matter because the road captain knew where we were.
They also told me I was welcome to ride with them anytime.

Next Saturday there is a ride to Merrit for lunch. It will be a big crowd because there will be riders from Kamloops, Kelowna, the lower mainland and the Fraser Valley all going to meet.
Weather permitting, I will go , too if I can hook up with other riders for the trip up.

[old-n-slow]

Hey that's great for ya Blues--- I can't say enough about the great people we have over here (with the SCRC) I'm sure it will be pretty much the same anywhere. Talk about a biker family, they all treat each other like family.

Today we rode only a few kilometres out to Sidney for lunch at the Stonehouse Pub. I was able to talk my lady into coming along since she's not up to longer rides. It couldn't have been a better day. The fresh air must have done her good. Here it is, 6:00 pm and she's sleeping away. I can't tell you how nice it is to be able to do something together to get her mind off the Chemo treatments she is undergoing.

Without being a member of this group I would likely not ride 1/3 as much as I do. It's great having other like minded individuals to enjoy the wind with. Yesterday 4 of us whipped out to Port Renfrew and back for the afternoon. Only 200 kms but the twistiest dang road you can imaging making it slow going for cruiser bikes. I see the sports bike crowd can manage it somewhat faster than we did. I also learned that there is a limit to just how twisty a road I will enjoy.

The SCRC is really begining to get going on the island and the chapter on the mainland is only a couple of months old too. Many of the locals here attend several functions on the mainland. Who knows, perhaps we'll get to meet each other at one sometime.

Just checked the "463" website, Looks like you made a great impression. Good on ya Donna.

[blues2cruise]

I guess I better find the website again so I know what they said.

[blues2cruise]

Weather permitting, I am going on the lunch ride to Merrit on Saturday. Lots of riders from all over the place will heading there. It's the BC Northern Stars and maybe some Southern Cruisers.

Regardless of the weather I will go in the toy run on Sunday. I have rain gear and lots of practice riding in the rain. Since I bought my bike, this is what I have been waiting for.

I think there is a Fraser Valley Toy run coming up. I must find out the date.

[old-n-slow]

Great. It sounds as if you are quite supportive of the various events. Enjoy the ride.

I'll soon be off the road till January. License on the Harley runs out in October and I won't be able to get the collectors plates for the yamaha till January when I will immediately insure it. Then if we get any good riding days I can go..........

Might look at trading the sportster up to something more pricey for next year.

[blues2cruise]

I was out with the Southern Cruisers again today. Not quite the 9-1/2 hour marathon like last weekend....only 6 hours today.

I got dr_bar to come along today as well. Some people didn't show up because they thought it was going to rain, but it cleared up and most of our day was in brisk sunshine.

I went toy shopping last night, so now I have to go and somehow get all the stuff I bought into a "stable" package for riding tomorrow.

dr-bar and I are going whatever the weather. I own raingear and am willing to put it to use.

[old-n-slow]

Good for you. I hope the rain holds off tomorrow too. Might be the last ride of the year for me. I am tripping up to Alberta for a bit and my insurance expires about the time I get back so likely will leave it till January. Then I get to insure the old bike as a collector at cheap rates. whoo hooo. I expect to be back on the road early next spring if the waether is any good at all. I too have rain gear but might not go if it's raining toohard in the AM.

Went to Steve Dranes and had a look at his used iron. A couple of the machines he has there are tempting at the price he has on them but I think spring will be soon enough to look at an upgrade. I was surprised at just how busy the place was. Perhaps because it was saturday? Not sure. The weather was certainly good. It would have been a decent riding day for a longer cruise but what the heck.