Sunday, May 22, 2011

A pleasant day for ice cream

When I attempted to start my bike, I was on my way to meet the guys for breakfast. We got our wires crossed. I thought that they were on the way to my motel when in fact they meant that we should meet at the restaurant. I was so busy outside trying to start the other scooter that I did not realize that they were trying to contact me as I left my phone inside. Luckily it was not far and I walked over to satisfy my bacon & eggs craving.

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I headed back to the motel to get my bike and head down to the Causeway. This is an area across from the Empress Hotel in Victoria's inner harbour

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I think that there are fewer bikes this year. In years past there have easily been over 150 bikes. Many of the familiar faces are not here. There are many activities and rides scheduled so the bikes are spread out over different locations but I think we total around 100 bikes.

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(looking North)

and looking South

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We are a little early and many of the other scooterists have gone to the local markets to kill some time before the ride leaves at 1pm. There are two rides; the long ride, and the ice Cream Ride

Orin is here, along with Safety Ed from Seattle

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Soon it is 1pm and scooters have arrived from out of the woodwork and vie for position

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Our ride is delayed until 2pm as we wait for the groups from Vancouver and Bellingham who arrived on later ferries

We opt for the slower ride for Ice Cream up at Matticks Farm . As with other group rides it is difficult to stop for photos . Sorry, no photos of the ice cream. We had to eat it before it melted.

It was now getting late in the afternoon and our group leader decided to lead us to dinner, where there were a lot of vintage Vespas

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(You can't have too many mirrors)

It's been a long day and we never even realized that we missed lunch

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the best thing of all is that my V-strom made it through the whole day, under its own power

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9 comments:

  1. Wow Bob, that scooter with the lights and mirrors takes me back. Straight out of the "Mods and Rockers" days in the UK when there used to be running battles between the 2 groups at the seaside town of Brighton. (Type in Mods and Rockers Brighton into the Google Images search engine, it's great!)

    I was a rocker and my neighbour was a mod but we were great mates!

    Thanks for the memories....

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  2. Even though you say numbers are down, that still looks like a lot of scooters. Since you are up and around, I'm assuming that your foot is doing better but missing lunch? You must really be distracted.

    Glad you got your bike running again. Inquisitive minds want to know what the problem was....

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  3. Bobskoot

    That scooter with all the mirrors reminded me of the scooter ridden by one of the Topgear characters in their "riding the length of vietnam on scooters" episode.

    And yes, you can have too many mirrors!

    Dom


    Redleg's Rides

    Colorado Motorcycle Travel Examiner

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  4. Wow "...under it's own power"? Would you swap a tachometer for the Bonneville's record of reliability? 85,000 kms and counting!

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  5. I am glad your Wee recovered. You are right about group rides, and not being able to do all the photo ops you would like to do.
    However, I would like to go to one of those scooter events. Some of the rides look pretty cool. Maybe next year...
    Time for a cuppa soon to do summer travel planning. Give me a buz when you are back in town.

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  6. Geoff:

    that's it ! you were really a MOD. I tried looking ahead and the mirrors got in the way. You could hardly see through to the road ahead.

    RichardM:

    We never even thought about lunch. Lucky we had ice cream to tide us over until dinner.

    I think it was the kickstand, 1st gear interlock

    Charlie6:

    Even with all those mirrors you would not be able to see your rear due to all the vibration, plus you can't see ahead because the mirrors are in the way

    Mr Conchscooter:

    I didn't break down. It was operator error. Suzuki is known for their legendary reliability.

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  7. SonjaM:

    the next rally is in Bellingham

    http://www.scootersofbellingham.org/hamster-run/

    you will love the rides, esp Mosquito Lake Road, just watch out for the reducing radius curve, many have ridden off the road.

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  8. Dear Bobskoot:

    That one scooter with all the mirrors is straight out of Quadrophenia! What a cool bike! Why were you afraid of your motorcycle crapping out? If your motorcycle had crapped out in front of all those scooters, Seppuku would have been your only alternative.

    Fondest regards,
    Jack • reep • Toad
    Twisted Roads

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  9. You monster V-Strom looks so out of place next to all the cutie Vespas :-) mean looking V-Strom, ha ha, just kidding ;-)
    Glad you feeling better. Would love to visit the Empress.

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