It can't be THAT difficult! Can it????

Famous last words...It can't be That difficult can it? I found some discontinued fairings for my bike on Ebay for 300 bucks delivered. Smoking deal as most were around 600 dollars. They weren't the exact ones that I wanted but I could live with the colour until the wheels fall off the bike. 

Pete figured that I needed space to work on the bike so we put it in our front entryway which actually was pretty amusing when you think about it. The jokes were flying about smoky burnouts in the house

Yay! It's off!

 
I must say that I severely underestimated the amount of time that it would take me to remove all of the old bolts and fairings and replace them with the new ones.
The bolt schematic was a blast to try and decipher and I had to make some modifications and reuse some of my old ones to make it all fit together. There were 14 pieces and each piece linked in with every other piece so you had to be very precise when you put it on.

 I did a WHOLE bunch of bike yoga...

Putting fairings on a sportbike is a LOT more challenging that you would think it is. The weather was awful at the time and I thought it would take me a week to get the fairings changed. What I thought I would have done in a week, took me THREE with A LOT of cursing. I don't know how my mechanic does this day in and day out without pulling out every hair on his head!

When all is said and done, I'm happy with how it turned out, but I will NEVER do this again!

Before and After

Taking her out for a test ride

 

September 7, 2012

This started as a normal work day. I worked my shift and was on the way home. I decided to take the highway and stop off at the Shell before heading over Humpback road. I was making good time. I looked at the clock on my bike and thought, "2:07...great, I'll be over Humpback by 2:10 and be home before 2:30.

Then I was waylaid by a pothole in the middle of Humpback road.

the darned pothole..the demise of my bike and my confidence

And there she laid

 I wasn't going fast. I actually was doing about 25 km/hr when this happened. It just happened as there was oncoming traffic. I moved over to pass, didn't see the pothole and continued on down the hill.

My first thought as I was looking up the hill at the people looking at me was "shit". I hit my kill switch and looked at the guys looking at me and asked them if they could pull the bike off of me while reassuring them I was okay. As they were lifing the bike I felt my ankle and told them to stop lifting and pulled myself out from under the bike. I thanked them and reassured them that I was okay so they went on their merry way. 

At this point I was hobbling around on this sore ankle and thanking my lucky stars that my gear did it's job. Then I thought about how I was going to get to the kids. The reason I was looking at my clock in the first place was that I wanted to be home in time to pick up the kids from school. I phoned Pete and he was on the way to get the kids. Then I phoned my mechanic and said, "HELP! Come get me guys, I just hit a pothole on Humpback and I'm in the ditch"

Looking at my bike I realized that it was actually 10 feet down the ditch and the only thing that stopped me and the bike from going down another 15 feet was a tree that had fallen down. I didn't ride faster than my angel that day.

By this time I had made all of my phone calls and a nice man stopped to check on how I was doing. He offered me a bottle of water and could see that I was shaken from what had happened. He was going to Sooke and offered me a ride to pick up the kids from school as he was going there to pick up his granddaughter anyway. 

So, my mechanic was on the way and all I was going to do was stand there anyway so I took him up on his offer.

I tried to get a hold of hubby but he was already gone so I figured I'd just meet him at home. We got the kids, the nice man dropped me off at home, and Pete came home mad that I "left the scene of an accident". Hell, I didn't know that it would be a big thing...My first oops and all....

So we went back to try and meet up with our mechanic and he was already gone with the bike but there were tons of cops and ambulances there. The news camera was also there but I declined to make a statement.

From there we went to the shop to survey the damage. The left fairings were now a mess and my new windshield was broken and I lost a mirror but otherwise the bike was not bad. when it landed it was not only on it's side but it was almost upside down so a lot of oil got in the gearbox. 

Scotty at Adrenaline Motorsports took good care of her and got me back on the road within 4 days to go up to the Port Alberni Toy Run.

Thanks Scotty!

:)

 

Wow...I have a LOT of catching up to do here!

Last April I had to opportunity to upgrade my VLX to something with more power...LOTS of power! I went over to riding a sportbike! I put my beloved VLX up for sale and she went to a new rider who I am sure is loving her to death. I had the opportunity to buy my friend Bobbi's bike ('06 Honda CBR 600RR)which was written off by ICBC because a lady backed into it with her car. The bike fell over but all the fairings on the left side were scratched.
So, I got to pick her up for the tune of $4000 bucks. It didn't matter to me that the fairings were scratched just that it was mechanically sound, which it was.

 23,000kms on her when I bought her which was 1000 more than my lifetime kms riding. Easy to keep track of all my bike time now :)

Bringing her home was QUITE the rush! I was almost afraid of killing myself. Riding a sportbike is COMPLETELY different than riding a cruiser! The tolerances are so much tighter. I just had to twist the throttle 1/4 of a turn and I went from 60kms/hr to 120kms/hr in no time at all.

I was thrilled to move from 4 to SIX count em...SIX gears! What a treat! It was nice to have a motorcycle that didn't have to work so hard to go faster...And FASTER it goes!

I found that I had to use all of my core muscles to hold me onto the bike. It's quite the workout just staying on! :)

I am going to ride this bike until the wheels fall off and hopefully by that time I will be ready to tour and will be ready for yet another bike. I'm leaning towards buying a sport tour but I have quite a few years to decide.

:)

Spring is coming...eventually

This winter has just been awful. I haven't seen this much rain in many years. Might be that we now live in Sooke, but winter has been terrible everywhere this year. I haven't felt too badly about having my bike parked and LOVE that I have a garage to park it in. I am just really getting sick of having to scrape the frost off of my windshield on my way to work in the morning. Usually by now I would have had my bike insured and had been riding to work already.

So, we've been spending our time working around the house and getting the yard in shape for the summer.

So here's to hoping that spring is coming soon and I can get out and play on my bike!

WE BOUGHT THE HOUSE!

Finally! I ended up having to wait ALL day to find out! They say that the third time's the charm and it was so in our case. It took us a year to get all of our financial stuff in order but we got it all done and that was able to help our case.
I am so glad that I don't have to deal with the CMHC again as I think I would pull my hair out!
Time to start packing!

It's all good...

Next: The RENO blog! Whoo Hoo!

April 30, 2010 The fiasco continues...

Unbelievable is the word that I would use to describe this transaction to buy a home. I have never experienced such a poorly managed banking transaction.
Friday morning we had the inspector go through the house and it was pretty much what we expected to see. So that was a "go"
On the other hand it was a good thing that I was working all morning or I would have been a basket case waiting for the phone to ring.
I get home at 2:00pm and make a phone call to Debbie to find out the status of our mortgage.
I have to leave a voicemail.
I come back from picking up the kids at 3:30 and phone Debbie again. She tells me that she hasn't heard anything but she is still trying to get a hold of them.
Debbie phones back 15 minutes later and tells me that "there was a computer glitch". WHAT???
"they can't see your father's application at the other end"..WHAT???
Twitch, twitch, twich...
Great
Now what?
"Can you possibly get an extention until Monday morning?"...um, NO as there are other offers waiting on the house.
So, Debbie gets her bosses boss to phone Peter who then tells them to phone the realtors as it was their "f&%k up" and beg for an extention.
It looks like we got it as we haven't heard anything.
I have never been more frustrated!
So now we have to wait the weekend and find out monday (hopefully morning).
Still hoping to be able to start a renovation blog!
:) Miriam

A change of plans

It's funny how life makes plans for you while you weren't looking. I really enjoyed riding on the fine weather days that we had in the late winter and early spring. I even had my boss giving me the evil eye as his bike was still parked.

As the weather changed for the worse so did our lives (somewhat). At the end of March we received a 3 month notice for termination of rent. We have been renting this house for 4 years so it came as quite a shock as our landlord had told us not two months earlier that she was not going to sell the house. We were settling in beautifully and I had just planted some flower bulbs and had started a garden as I thought we were going to be around for at least a couple more years. Well, that was not to be so we were left with a decision.

We got ourselves a "plan B" and lined up a place to rent but thought "why not try and buy a home" as we were paying as much in rent as we would be to have a mortgage. Well, we did a mad week and a half dash and looked at 7 homes for sale and found one. Now it's not the prettiest thing on the block and it didn't show well, but it had LOTS of potential. Being handy kind of people we thought "why not" and put in an offer. They accepted.

So the insurance came up for renewal while all this was going on and we decided that we were going to park our bikes for the few weeks as we didn't want to have any extra expenses and wanted to put all our cash into the down payment. It hasn't been much of a loss as the weather this spring has been windy as hell and cold so I'm not really missing it too much. The only thing is that I had to give up the women's weekend in Uculet which is a real drag, but I couldn't justify the expenditure of going out to play while all this was happening.

So now we had to get the banking in order...
I would have thought that a 3 day wait would have been normal, but it's been 10 days of jumping through hoops to get this mortgage. I'm beyond frustrated with the whole thing and have lost 10 lbs (which I can't afford to lose) as I haven't been eating, and many nights of sleep over this whole fiasco.
It should be a simple accounting...they make x amount of dollars and the mortgage payment would be as much as they rent for...Shouldn't be an issue but of course it is. I think that the CMHC needs some new accountants that can actually add up the numbers!

So, we now have one day to get the mortgage and the house inspected. It HAS to all happen tomorrow or we LOSE the house as there are other offers in on it.

In the end, if we end up renting plan B I'll be fine with that but I sure as hell would be pretty angry for wasting my time and energy (and money for the inspection) for a house that they don't think we can have.

As soon as the bank says "yay" or "nay" I will be putting the insurance back on my bike and going for a LONG ride!

The fingers are crossed that I'll be starting a new renovation blog on my birthday June 1st. We take posession on the 31st of May and I think that taking ownership would be a great birthday gift!

Happy birthday, here's a sledgehammer...

Parked her for the winter

Well, after riding all last winter and freezing my poor hands off and being waylaid by 3 weeks of snow, I decided that I should park my baby this winter. On the 26th of November I took my last ride and gave her a really good bath and wrapped her up with tears in my eyes. Now I was just waiting for the snow...

The snow DIDN'T come! Darn it! I had her parked for 2 months and at the end of January I re-insured her again. The crocus' weren't too far behind popping out of the ground so I knew that all was well.

Just last week the weather was gorgeous enough that I got to test my new GPS that I got for Christmas and buggered off for about 2 hours. There are some great roads to ride around here but I never know how to get to them. Now I have the ability to meander and not have to worry about where I go because I can always just "go home". You might laugh, but it's totally freed up how I ride. I now dare to explore a little more and can tell that some roads end or take off in a different direction.

I'm really looking forward to the ladies weekend in a couple of months. I haven't ridden out to Tofino yet so it's going to be great. I'm such an island road virgin...sigh...

Here's to months of great riding!

Port Alberni Toy Run, Sept 19, 2009

I was told that this was "the one" to go to so I made plans last year to get the time off so I could go and do this. I headed up to Ed and Sue's again on Friday night and we had a lovely hot tub dip and a beer. Saturday morning we got up later than expected (7:30) and headed out to PA about an hour later.

Our small group got larger by the hour and eventually there were six or 7 of us who met up with the SCRC at a petrocan on the way. Hugs were exchanged as other bikes loaded with toys were racing up the highway to get to the run before the doughnuts ran out!

We pull into little qualicum falls and are later than they expected. By this time there

must have been about 700 bikes when we pulled in. It was an awesome sight to see.

This was just a few of them in the lower bowl and we had to make our way through the throng to reach the doughnuts! It was really nice to see some familiar faces and hugs were passed all around. I thanked Sue for wearing her pink jacket because I would have lost her without it! I was joking with Ed and he said, "yeah I'll be the guy in the black leather jacket...." It was a sea of black!

After making our way through the coffee line, I yacked with some of the Victoria CMC who were also there, passed around a few hugs, and had a good laugh.

Finally they start their presentation, the cannon fires and we get underway for the ride.

Little did I know, this was not a ride but a PARADE! Wow! I was so impressed by the turnout from the townspeople. They were lined up and honking and waving and holding thank you signs. Some moments just brought me to tears they were so touching. Parents had their sick kids by the road and they were waving. There was an entire home of elderly people out waving. It was just unbeliveable! There were bikes as far as the eye could see! The count was around 1100 bikes for the day.

I was expecting to go home afterwards, but ended up getting hoodwinked by a few cronies...but that's another story!

Sunday, July 19, 2009... The ride home

In the morning I arose a little later and Bill wanted to get going so I had to pull up my socks and get to work tearing down camp. It took me about an hour or so and I wanted to take a few minutes to say my goodbyes to my wonderful hosts for the weekend! I really appreciate everything they did for me and I have to say that it was a BLAST!

So Bill and I take off on our bikes and head out to a bit of adventure! We were originally going to head down the Killarney Beach road to Kelowna and catch the connector, but there was a large forest fire raging at the time the closed the connector down so we decided to take the 5A (Lac Le Jeune) from Kamloops to Princeton. What a lovely road! The scenery was FANTASTIC and I REALLY have to stop and take some photos next time! I kept thinking as I was riding that the mountain roads are much more interesting than any of the island roads that I've explored so far, but I still have lots of island exploring to do!

After a bit of a detour we make it to Princeton without much trouble and stop at Billy's family restaurant in Princeton. Bill and I have a lovely chat and he points me in the right direction and I'm off on my own!

Riding through Manning Provincial Park is a lovely ride and I only had to change my underwear about 3 times as the cars in front of me decide to break in the MIDDLE of the turn which in turn makes me have to straighten up mid corner and apply my breaks which is always fun! There are a few good 30km/hr corners and the hairpin turns are definately interesting!

I've come to the conclusion that I'll be going to the stomp for many years to come just so I have a reason to try all the different roads home!

The funny thing is I stop at a chevron somewhere around Maple Ridge or so and who's whistling at me but Suzie. They left about an hour after Bill and I did and took to Coquihalla. I think I got the better deal! So we ride together towards the ferry and they decide they are going to make a stop for beer and I carry on. There was a 1 sailing wait for the ferry, but in all my motorcycling glory I made it just in time for boarding! I was on the ferry by 5 and home at about 7:30pm.

I had such a great time but it was sure nice to get home to hubby and the kiddos! I sure missed them! But, I can't wait to go back next year!

Saturday, July 18th...The biker games!

I first woke up that morning and thought, "that's interesting, the band's still playing!" It was about 5:45 am at this time. I'd had a whole 4 1/2 hours of sleep (wouldn't have had any had I not had my ear plugs!) and I was ready for another day! No one was up in the camp at this time so I thought I would light up my little camp stove and make a coffee in my little one-cupper.. Forget it! I couldn't get the darned thing to light and gave up trying after about 20 minutes. My horrid camp stove experience was saved the the camp waking up and putting on the 20 cup perk.The day before I had bought "bribery muffins" for breakfast for my saviours. I figured that it was the least I could do to thank them for being such great hosts. It didn't take long for them to disappear either (the muffins, not the hosts!)

After a lovely coffee, I wandered over to see if anyone was awake at Bee and Bry's camp and there was! They also had some blessed coffee on and even wanted to share too! After visiting for a while I decided to go and jump in the creek again to cool off as the temperature was rising quickly! It was a little chilly when I got up in the morning and had started in sweatpants, but within the hour it had to be up to 24 degrees and I was ready for shorts! I was planning on spending the afternoon in camp so I had great reserve and cracked my first beer at noon...

By the time I wandered back, Jenn, Len, Ed, Sue, and Bill had woken up and were having a coffee with Bee and Bry. Seating was becoming a rare commodity and we were playing musical chairs for the afternoon. Jenn wanted to touch Len, but Ed kept getting in the way!

Watching the biker games was a HOOT! I'd never seen them before and everyone kept saying, "You can do that!" to me and I think that next year I'm going to enter them! It looks like WAY too much fun!

The first game involved picking up a potato from the cone and dropping it in the bucket then going over two see saws.

The second game was rolling a keg in front of the bike while keeping it in control, but the weenier competition was one of my favourites of the night! As you can see, the pillion had to chomp on a hot dog while balancing and not using her hands! Only one crash happened and the one that took the biggest bite won! After this, Bee, myself, and Sue went to go and get some dinner. I LOVED my perogy and sausage dinner that I had! I figured for 10 bucks it was worth not having to cook in the 34 degree heat!

I think next year I'll get Sue to do this one as she really wanted to do it this year...

This is the potato game where bikes have girls on the back that dive into a stack of hay to find a potato. Lots of wrestling seems to happen during this game! I guess some eyes get poked out and some fists get swung, but I missed it this year

And of course there has to be a burnout competition! This was the second guy that got the people running! The smoke was so thick and the smell of burning rubber is not one of my favourites!

Soon after this the bands started. I was REALLY looking forward to the HOT BUNS contest that evening and kept yelling, "BRING ON THE HOT BUNS!!!!!" By this time I had about 11 beer and was having a great time! I had to get through the wet t-shirt contest first before getting to see the buns. It sure brought me back to the days when Pete worked as the bartender in the strip bar (which BTW may be where the two guys knew me from...)

So, the hot buns competition begins and there is one ADONIS of a man up there that was just a pleasure to look at. Before the good stuff begins, some A-HOLE in the crowd decides that he's going to throw a beer bottle up on stage and ends up whacking the announcer on the head who then requires a whole lot of attendants, and an ambulance pick up later. The girls in the crowd were disgusted with the entire thing and I decided to call it a night, disapointed that I didn't get to see Adonis' butt! Meanwhile they were trying to figure out who did it. I sure wouldn't want to be the guy responsible for that!

So after borrowing Bill's flashlight (again...) I settled in for the night after organizing my stuff in the tent a bit and sticking in my earplugs again. I think between the 12 beer and the heat of the day, I fell asleep in about 10 seconds!

Friday, July 17th...The first night of the party

Who said you had to sit on your motorcycle seat? Not these guys obviously! The evening started with a stellar bike jumping display by two very brave young gentlemen. You have to be young to do this stuff as I'm pushing 40 and look at it and think, "YOU"RE CRAZY!"

It sure makes those mountain twisties look lame!


After these brave souls entertained us for about half an hour, I cracked another beer (probably about my 5th for the day) and settled down to visit a bit more with Bee, Brian, Jenn, and Len, Bill, and everyone else who wandered along to say hello. I'm thinking that next year I have to be up on the grounds to take in the entire experience and I'm going to drag my sis along!

The band began to play and they were good. The music was alright but not my genre. Had I been about 10 years older I would have probably enjoyed it a bit more. I kept waiting for more upbeat tunes. I guess the last band of the night was the one that I was waiting for, but I had long since gone to bed before they started. That was at 1am!

I learned that night that there are some things that are extremely important to enjoy your weekend. The first thing is a cooler full of beer and the second is EARPLUGS! I guess the third would be a swimsuit to jump into the creek with!

Friday, July 17th...good morning

Friday morning began with a need for sustenance. Marianne was kind enough to have some coffee on so I stayed and chatted for a while then I headed up to the grounds to hunt down some breakfast and to meet up with Jenn and Len. I got the pleasure of meeting Bee and Bryan who were wonderful hosts.

I wandered over to Mom's to get a sausage and egger and was pleasently surprised at how little the cost was and thought that I might as well eat at the vendors rather than buy groceries and try and make myself something to eat every day.

I was of course on holidays, so I had to buy myself a "little something" or 3 and I had to get a "suck up" gift for hubby. I got some great choices as the vendors were just opening up and were fully stocked (and they took visa..)

Ed and I went out for a bit of a ride to Vernon and back and things started to get a little busier in the afternoon.

By the time we got back from our ride it was 34 degrees again and I HAD to get down to the creek to cool off or I was going to melt!

It was a LOVELY dip although I was so hot that the water felt ice cold getting in! I was unprepared for this and didn't have a bathing suit, but shorts and a tank top did just fine! I walked back to camp which was about 10 minutes away and couldn't believe that my hair was dry by the time I got there. It usually takes 8 hours to dry! I was really looking forward to the party in the evening. After I got back from the creek I left my bike parked and decided that it was time for a beer (or 12 as it turned out...), but that's another story!

The evening of July 16

Myself, Rusty and Pepsi (the worlds' worst little hooligans...har..har..not!), Keith and Marianne, Dan, Bill, Karen, Arlene Chris, Scott, Scott, Heidi and Jim, and Ed and Sue were all hanging around the "campfire" yacking away for the evening. I was greatful that Keith and Marianne saved us some camping spaces which ended up being in one of the best spots, right on the corner not too far from the grounds or the creek, although that didn't save me from getting blisters where my sandals rubbed on my heels, but that's another story...

I found out that night that I brought WAY too much stuff with me, now I'll know for next time as Keith and Marianne not only set up camp, but they had brought a complete camp kitchen with them as well! I was very impressed!

So although there were no campfires allowed, Keith had a snazzy propane fired one with briquettes and everything in it so it was great to sit around and tell horror stories. They don't call it the "geritol section" for nothing. I swear I saw an entire pharmacy come out that night as everyone had to take an assorted pill for something or other...quite amusing...

I think I headed to bed somewhere around 10pm. I was pretty pooped from riding all day but couldn't wait to discover what was waiting up at the grounds the next day! I had to borrow Bill's flashlight so I could find my flashlight (I know....) and my ear plugs. I had a feeling that between the bikes going by all night and the general chatting going on that I would need them.

Thursday, July 16th

What a great day!

Ed, Sue, Bill, and I all headed out to the ferry at 5:30am. Len and Jenn weren't too far behind, getting into the lineup about 10 minutes after we did. It sure is different being at the front of the line with no waits. It's a real treat.
So after learning about parking on the ferry everyone proceeds to book it upstairs to the buffet while I stay behind and yack for a few minutes.

After I find out where everyone is, I wait in line to get something to eat, and wait, and wait. I don't think the line moved for 20 minutes. I met a nice lady and her kids that were travelling back to Edmonton and was joking as another walked by with a coffee, "She has coffee! Get her!" The lady laughed and said, "If I was waiting for coffee I could go to the front and get it and that I only had to wait in line for food". DUH! Off I go to get a coffee and meet everyone who have been sitting down and have already eaten. I think they were wondering if I fell off the ferry. I'll now know for next time. I haven't been on a ferry for 4 years...

Finally we get to the other side and disembark into the great blue yonder.

The roads were spectacular! The scenery was breathtaking. We stopped by a rest stop around Hope and wondered if my tank had an eternal gas spring as I was at 205 kms and hadn't even hit my reserve. As we were stopped I looked around at the mountains and thought that they confirm that I'm only here for mere moments so I'd better make the best of it!

We stopped off at the log cabin pub in Spences Bridge or also called "the middle of butt-f**k nowhere" but it was really cool inside. They had an old harley on display as well as some other interesting articles. The beer sure tasted good as the temperature outside must have been nearing 30 degrees, but you won't hear me complaining! The burger I had was really tasty too!

After riding for about 12 hours we arrived at our destination...THE STOMP! I learned a couple of things here...

1. It's interesting trying to park your bike on uneven ground

2. That piece of metal that I brought with me sure came in handy, and

3. Setting up my tent at home was MUCH easier! Murphy's law...