Ducati Panigale 1199 R

We have a new Ducati Dealership and their Grand Opening was last weekend

They also had Ducati reps on hand to introduce their new superbike.  I posted a photo of the Ohlins shock on my prev post and asked you to guess which bike this was.  The one and only guess from Karen was correct.   She has a secret walking encyclopedia who knows just about everything about motorcycles

I was also enamoured of the radial brake system

Everything about this bike was designed for speed and visual beauty.  With 195 HP you need serious stopping power

I was told that this bike was "tricked out".  I was talking to the rep and I told him that this was too much bike for me and he said that there was a safety mode which cuts down the power to safe levels

Here are the specs from the Ducati website, only 414 lbs wet and 195 HP

Here's Liz,  I asked her to be my model.   She is a Triumph rider

but I caught her trying on a Ducati.  Last month a car made a U-turn in front of her and she could not stop in time.  She is currently recovering from a concussion and still in healing mode

Ducati Richmond also owns Pacific Motorsports (click here) .  If you click their link you will see that they also sell; BMW, Triumph, Aprilia, Motoguzzi, Husqvarna & MV Augusta.    Must be Spring as I notice a few sold bikes

Here's a brand new Triumph Tiger 800 still in its crate

and also a beautifully restored vintage Triumph.   (I wonder who likes Blue?)

I spent some time chatting with Will, the mechanic who used to work at Urban Wasp (the Vespa dealer whom recently closed down)

it was nice to spend some time looking around.    Karen, your guess was right . . .  You're learning a lot from your neighbour

Martha: a greenhouse, and deep Doo Doo for me

A while back I mentioned to Martha that we had many large glass greenhouses here and I told her that I would snap a photo for her when I got down there (there = Delta BC)

I don't know who owns these but they are massive and cover a big area.  I know they are gas heated with a central heating system

This is another large complex right across the street.  I would imagine this extends our growing season due to our colder temperatures

Most of the greenhouses we have here are on level ground so a photo would not show you much except for the frontage.   Now you can see how massive they are and how far back they go.   There is a complex on each side of this road

A video is worth a thousand words . . .



Martha, we have lots of these up here.   You wouldn't have to work outside anymore . . .


Yesterday I managed to go out for another ride.   My gate is not as wide as I wanted it to be but I managed to squeeze my bike out and soon I was heading south and hit the highway.   I went here and there, met a few people, talked to a mechanic, ordered some parts and fluid for Nu2Me, my R1200R Beemer and I ended up

meeting a friend,  Benny  whom I often meet for lunch on Saturdays.   I parked my bike and went inside but soon other riders started arriving and he went outside to greet them .  He came back inside with a puzzled look and he asked me a strange question

Benny: " Is it February 2014? "

Me:  "No, it's February 2013 "

Benny:  " No, I mean your decal should be February 2014 "

Me:  " what do you mean ? "

We went outside and he pointed to the decal on my V-strom

Me (with a smirk):  " See, it's February 2013 "

Benny:  " Doesn't that mean February 3rd, 2013 ?

Oh Oh,  now I see what he meant.  Today was February 16th and my insurance had expired on February 3rd, but somehow I thought it expired sometime during March . . .

Now I'm in deep Doo Doo.   Here I was miles from home with expired tags and with no insurance . . .  I've been riding all day all over the countryside and  now I was stranded with no wheels



Karen has recently been playing "guess the motorcycle" from posted photos.  I don't have any neighbours called Ken but I do have this photo and I wonder if any of you know what this is from ?

I hope some of you managed to get a ride in too.   We had record temperatures on Saturday.  I think it went up to 12°c  (54°F).  I managed to see a few riders enjoying the day

Galiano Island: Part Deux

We decided to rent a cabin for an extended weekend. 

It is self contained BnB: Bed 'n Breakfast called the Tree House  (info Here).   Because it was November it was a bit chilly but we had a jacuzzi to keep us warm.   The property has two cabins, a main house and a sauna building

It was very private but you had to walk down the hill and light it up yourself

This is what it looks like inside.   We didn't light it up but now that I look at these photos I am tempted to go back there just to use it .   As mentioned before we drove on the only road farther up the Island and came to a pier.

    Looking South

Galiano is known more for their cliffs and rocks, rather than nice sandy beaches

There is not much of a shoreline and the currents are treacherous.  This is part of the section that goes through Active Pass known for rip tides, whirlpools and fast flowing water.   This is the route that the BC Ferries takes on their way from Tsawwassen to Victoria

Along the south coast of Galiano you come to a park

called the Bluffs, because it is on a Bluff overlooking Active Pass (next photo)

What luck to see a BC Ferries in the "pass", the part between the two Islands (Mayne & Galiano) .  We were running out of food options so we decided to have dinner at the Hummingbird Pub 

and wouldn't you know that it started to snow.   Driving here in the dark is not like driving in the city.   There are no street lights and no one to plow the roads.  Also there are ditches on both sides of the road in some spots.   Lucky we had AWD as we nearly couldn't navigate the road back to our cabin.  Wet snow is very slippery without much traction

We actually noticed this car on our way "home" but took this photo the next morning as we were heading toward the Ferry terminal on our way back to the City.   We didn't think it wise to stop in a snow storm on a dark road on a curve.    This car actually belonged to our hosts of the BnB.

Here is the Terminal.   That lonely car ahead (Subaru WRX) is ours.   There is no one else here

I saved the best for last.   When we were investigating places to stay here on Galiano, I wanted to stay at the Cliff House but it was booked for part of the time and we didn't feel like moving our stuff.   But on our last morning there I noticed that the people must have left the day before and it was empty so naturally we went over to check it out

Here is your private deck overlooking the water.   Notice the snow on the deck.   It must be a nice place to stay during the Summer.   Disclaimer:  No !  I have nothing to do with this place.
but I wouldn't mind staying here the next time

   The Cliff House, Galiano Island, BC

The main floor has the kitchen and eating area, plus a room for you to relax and read.   The single bedroom is on the upper level with windows all around.    It seems like a very unique place

Galiano Island

Between Vancouver (on the mainland) and Victoria (on the Island) you pass through the Southern Gulf Islands

Saltspring Island is the most well known but Galiano is larger but sparsely populated.   We had never been there before and sometime during November 2009 we decided to take a visit.   We boarded a BC Ferries and arrived there about an hour later

Not every BC Ferries makes a stop here you have to check their schedules to find one that "island" hops.  Most scheduled crossings go directly to Sidney (Victoria).   Loading on these ferries are a bit different as you have to drive onto the ferry then make a U-turn and aim your car back towards the way you boarded.  You are given a colour coded card for which island you want to disembark.  Some cars are going to Saltspring Island, Mayne Island, Pender or Saturna Islands.

When I was doing my due diligence my job was to find suitable accommodation and of course where to find food.   According to the Galiano Website   there were 6 eateries and when we arrived we were hungry and found our way to The Harbour Grill, which of course was Closed for the Season

No problem we thought.  We then headed over to the Galiano Spa Resort to check out their upscale restaurant.  After all, we were on vacation for a few days and could splurge for one gourmet meal.  Well, the parking lot was empty but we went inside anyway only to find the restaurant under some renovation.  The Restaurant was closed as the cook was taking a few days off and went to Vancouver

Oh, what to do.  We drove around for a bit and found most places closed for the Season.  Even the moped place was closed.

Then we decided to head back to the Junction where there were a few stores to check out the bakery

and Guess What ?    It was closed too.   It seems like November is not a good month to visit Galiano Island

There is basically only one road which goes up and down the spine of the Island and most of the stores are here, at this junction and thank goodness we found one place open so we could have a meal

Here it is; coffee shop, gift shop and Diner, all in one.   Little did we know at the time that we could only find 2 places open and we ended up having most of our meals here.  There is a small grocery store and gas station around the corner but we did not have cooking facilities where we were staying

Our Bed & Breakfast was north of the Junction but we had time to explore and head north to a small park where the road narrows

There is not much traffic so there is plenty of time to stop for photos.  I liked these overgrown and dilapidated cabins.   I often wonder where these people went

and who is going to rake up the leaves

Sometimes I like to walk around and take photos from different angles.

We were meandering around for a few hours just relaxing and enjoying our time together

and I notice another overgrown home from happier times.  I sometimes have the urge to explore further but I don't like to invite myself onto private property so I keep my distance

It's hard to believe that you can find yourself in such a rustic place only an hour away from Vancouver and feel like you are in the middle of nowhere with no one around.  It is quiet and you can actually hear your own thoughts

There is also a Golf Course here where you pay by the honour system.  Notice that the Clubhouse is closed !     Again, no meals for us

We finally decide to look for our accommodations for the next few days and wonder how we are going to fill our time with nothing to do

 We keep a lookout for signs to our BnB:  Bed 'n Breakfast.   Nope not here

but we are getting closer.  It is down another gravel road with a teeney weeney sign.   And here is our view from our overlook

Here we are on Galiano Island, no TV,  no internet,  just a small cabin with a hot tub, two of us alone in the forest, with a view overlooking the water and no one to interrupt us . . .  (to be continued)

Happy Chinese New Years

Today is Chinese New Years.   Mrs Skoot wanted to head down to Richmond to view the festivities.  Richmond has the largest Oriental population in the Lower Mainland Area and Aberdeen Centre is one of the largest Asian Malls.

It is usual tradition for shop keepers to hang money in front of their stores.  It is considered good luck for the Lion to dance in front and "capture" the funds.




Happy New Year to everyone,  it is the year of the SNAKE.    I was born in the year of the DOG, so I have nothing to celebrate.  I don't need anymore birthdays

I've picked up a malware

I've only been using my old new computer for less than a month and I have already picked up a malware called   home.sweetim .     I'm not a computer guru and I don't know how to get rid of it.  It has attached itself to google chrome and I wanted to use chrome because it interfaces with blogger and picasa.   I've deleted chrome and reinstalled it hoping that this would fix it, but it didn't.   I couldn't figure out why my i7   4 core computer was running slow and hesitating.   home.sweetin is something  like an adware type program and it is capturing all of my keystrokes and sending the information to big brother, somewhere.   I can't use Internet explorer because I had problems posting photos on my blog entries so I have resorted to using Firefox for now.

I think that I take more photos now, than I did before.  I was one of the last to accept the digital age and most of my older photos are still on negatives and all of my photos are stored in various boxes in "random" order.  I am not thrilled with the prospect of having to scan/digitize everything as it would take too much time to organize but I did come across some "oldies"

I did have a few bikes back in the early 1980's.   I bought a new 1981 Suzuki GS1100L which was one of the fastest production bikes back then but I wasn't riding very much and everyone thought it was too dangerous to be riding a motorcycle so I sold it and switched to sports cars.  I had a few MGB's and even a couple of Alfa Romeos;  a Guila spyder 1600TC, and a Veloce 2000 GTV.  With our seat belt laws and only two seats I could only drive these cars when alone so that's when I decided to switch again to full size convertibles with a rear seat.  Now I could bring the whole family in one car.  From there we progressed from a 1981 Rabbit cabriolet, a couple of Chrysler Lebaron's, Sebring convertible and Jeep YJ.   At one time we had 3 convertibles in our fleet.

Then one day I got the bright idea to downsize and get into riding again.    My plan was to buy a scooter for Mrs Skoot and then I was going to buy a motorcycle.   We looked at various models and she settled on a Yamaha BWS 49cc which we bought new in 2003

   Fisherman's Wharf, Granville Island       April,  2004

After riding it for about a week, Mrs Skoot said it was too tall for her so we had to buy her another one and my plan to buy a motorcycle was foiled.   We looked around and eventually bought her a "nearly" new Yamaha Vino 49cc

  Bowen Island ferry,  Summer 2003

So with the motorcycle funds spent on having to buy the Vino, I had to put off my motorcycle purchase for another year.    Since I had been away from riding for a few years I decided to buy a smaller bike and ended up with a Suzuki GS400s to get my feet wet

                 Finn Slough, Richmond, BC              August 2004

My cousin wanted to get into riding so he bought a  Honda CB400 and restored it.   In order to obtain a BC motorcycle license you have to take the Learner's written test, and then a MST: Motorcycle Skills test to show proficiency in a parking lot.   Then you have to ride with a Supervisor until you take your road test, so I was his mentor for a few months.    During this time you can only ride in daylight, carry NO passengers and keep off the highways

I don't seem to have many photos of this bike.   I suppose I was doing more riding than photographing.   I sold this bike in 2009 when I bought my V-strom


The following photo has nothing to do with riding.   It was taken late August 2004 when I was carrying our Grand-daughter.   She is nearly a young lady now . . .

my,  how time flies  .  .  .