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When I was learning to ride, one of the instructors told us about the Motorcycle wave. Simply put it’s when one motorcyclist waves to another.

During our recent trip and you have lots of things to consider and this is one topic I kept thinking of. WHY?

When I first started riding, I could barely keep my left hand on the bike I was so excited to wave at other riders. However as time progressed and my riding skill level went up, I found that I waved less and less often. Until finally when riding I pretty much stopped waving, unless the opposing person had a really nice custom chopper or something unique.

However, during our recent trip it re-ignited my waving spirit. I attribute this to the fact that the the “trip wave” means more then the “city wave”.

Below is my thinking on the two different waves.

City Wave:
Have fun and watch out for speeding tickets!

Trip Wave:
Enjoy your vacation, have a safe trip, and watch out for deer!

From the above perspective you can see why I enjoy the trip wave much more then the city wave. However, in the whole scheme of things waving is stupid anyhow, since taking a hand off the bars at any moving speed is not a good idea…

After a few days on our trip it became apparent that we would be unable to out-run the rain. Having spent most of the time driving threw sheets of rain or drizzle we were getting a little annoyed.

So, we decided to head home early. However, we still covered 3,722 km in eight days! Survived rain, snow, rain, wind, rain, and short bursts of sun!

Happy to be home, here are some random images of our trip.

When starting out on a motorcycle trip you can never know what to expect. However you always hope for the best and see what happens.

So far everything has been going really smooth. We’ve had a couple of days of hot sunny weather, followed by night time showers. Only once have we spent a couple of hours riding threw the rain.

As always you never know what you will see on the trip. Unfortunately just a few hours after we began our ride we came across a fresh motorcycle accident. This usually takes some of the steam off your tires.

However, other then that, everything has been going great. We’ve had no less then five deer cross the road before us, and I may have even killed a bird.. But it flew into ME!

The roads that we’ve been on have been great. Lots of twists and turns and changes to turn your throttle! It’s really nice having the Harley Road Atlas to see what roads are recommended for an area. Not to mention talking to the locals about what’s nice.

We’ve had only two incidents on the negative side.

1) The saddlebag harness bolt on the V-Rod was rubbing against the rear tire shearing off hunks of sidewall during cornering. Obviously this is a little un-nerving so the first evening I ended up turning the bolt around adding more air to the tires and every thing is fine now. Plus, the tire does not need replacing.

2) The chain on the Suzuki 500 has stretched during the rain. It seems to be on it’s last legs, but I was able to tighten it up a reasonable amount, re-oil and we’re hoping it lasts the trip. Otherwise we’ll be stopping at a bike shop for a few hours!

Having Fun, and safe!
Hope you are too!

Well we are almost ready to hit the road. I’ve finished installing the saddle bags and the windshield on my bike. As well as added the battery harness for an electrical vest to the wife’s ride!

Tomorrow we hit the road for two weeks!

Within the last month, we’ve finally had our front driveway, and walkway poured. With the new addition of cement the house finally looks complete ( well excluding the exterior landscaping we have yet to do). Up until two days ago I was thinking that having a drive way is the greatest thing ever. It easily allows you to pull your vehicles into the garage, and is a nice place to pull the BBQ for some grilling.

However, now I’m undecided… Actually I’m not undecided, I’m mad at it.

Why? I pulled my V-Rod out of the garage onto the driveway and put the kickstand down. I decided to start it while I was off the bike so it could warm up and I could suit up. While the V-Rod was running I was casually standing beside the bike putting on my gloves and other gear. All off a sudden I feel this pressure that started above my knee cap and quickly descended to the foot.

My instant reaction was to look down. To my horror, my V-Rod, was planted on it’s side on the Driveway. Kickstand NOT in the original place I put it rather in it’s stowed away form ready for road action.

At this moment I swore.. A LOT .. and was scared to pickup my bike to see the damage the Driveway caused. However when I finally calmed down I picked up the bike, rolled it off the driveway to the street and put it back on it’s kickstand. Gladly, inspecting the damage did not take long, since it basically fell on me on it’s way down, it was more like setting it down and there is a minor scrape on the left hand clutch and that is all.

Well last night I picked up a new (used) motorcycle, for our friend Amy. She just completed the motorcycle training course on the weekend and was extremely exciting about getting a bike. So after some shopping she found a nice 2000 Honda Shadow Ace 750 Deluxe. I went with them to pick it up since they wanted someone to drive it home from Bragg Creek.

For me it was like a blast from the past. Not only was this the exact bike, year,make and model that I had for my first bike, but it was the same color too! I really enjoyed riding it home, it brought back memories of the week long trip I did with that bike through out BC.

The downfall, was that I got home late.. Now I’m just shaking off the end of some drowsiness.

My final ride of last year was in late September when it was getting cold and snow was due within the next few weeks. A few blocks from my house I ran over some debris where my tire immediately started to go flat. Since I was only a couple of blocks from home, I rode it and threw it up on the jack for the winter.

Anyhow, the weather has finally been turning nice again, so I called the tow truck to come and pick it up to go to the dealer for some new tires. The guy that towed it was very nice and totally respectful of the bike. When I asked about padding some of the tie down straps so there is no chance of scratching, he said “don’t worry I’m going to use new straps, I know how you harley guys are.” So I knew right then my ride was in good hands.

When we arrived at the dealer, it was “demo days” so there were a tonne of bikes around the shop. I unloaded the bike and then talked to the guys about getting the new tires. While I was talking to them some of the “demo days” riders where checking out my 2004 VSRCB Anodized Aluminimum ride.

Anyhow I left it and with the dealer and came back later that day. When I arrived I found that they have cleaned and washed the bike (even though it was all polished up before I brought it into the shop) and was sitting out in the parking lot with the tonnes of other bikes around.

Still to this day when I see my ride I think there is not a nicer bike or a different one that I would like to own. It’s kinda a weird feeling as I thought I might want to go to some other type of bike (even a custom). But nope, I just love it too much.