Better Late Than Never - Pt. One - White Rock

It's been a while, blog-wise, but I have been busy riding - I just haven't been very good about keeping up with the blog. Well, enough of that - time to catch up!

At the end of March, it was a very nice day so I decided to scoot down to White Rock, something I do quite frequently. I was wearing just a T-shirt and my Corazzo jacket that I was given for Christmas from the spouse, as well as a pair of jeans. It was uncommonly warm, about 16°C., and I was happy to take advantage of it, having recently returned from Maui where the warmth and lack of rain seemed very foreign. The Corazzo is a great jacket - waterproof, pretty warm, and definitely stylish!

The scoot down was uneventful. I took yet another quiet country road and thoroughly enjoyed being able to keep up with, in fact, actually pass, the traffic that I encountered.

I stopped for a few minutes, parking in the 30 minute free parking spot where a number of other two wheelers were parked. I snapped a couple of nice shots and then walked back to my scoot.

I decided, for some reason, to continue on and cruise by the beach. Since I have had this Vespa, there's been a bit of a shudder just when starting off. I figured it was something that could wait until the next maintenance time as my bank account was still reeling from my last servicing.  Well, the traffic was very stop and start and proceeded to lurch forward up a big hill.

My Vepsa was not amused. Instead of just a bit of a squeak and a shudder, it started making a loud grinding noise. It did this about three or four times until I finally could get away.

At this point, I almost drove it right to Vancouver to drop it off at Vespa Vancouver and have them do whatever they needed to do. But I didn't. Magically, as soon as I left the lineup, the scoot stopped making the noises. Happily, it's been over a month now, and it still has not returned to making that hideous sound. Will definitely have to get it checked out before the summer riding starts in earnest...

Going home was a bit more exciting. I took the #15 highway until the Golden Ears Bridge and it felt pretty safe! I am definitely getting used to the faster speed. Is that a good thing?

White Rock, Revisited

Yesterday, I got up and figured, hey, it's a beautiful day - sunny and delightful - why not scoot to work and then go for a ride after school? Well, it was -3° C. outside so that plan was a no-go.

Then, yesterday evening, I thought, hey, maybe it would be nice to do a night scoot to take care of a few errands. When I got out front of our building, a skating rink of black ice greeted me in the front drive.

So today, the last sunny day for who knows when, I got home as soon as I could and decided to take one of my favourite rides, the tour to White Rock. It was 14° C. out and I was ready for a nice ride.

It's not a really far ride but enough that on my LX50 it takes a good 90 minutes at least. Imagine my delight when I was able to keep up with the traffic almost all of the time!

The first test was the Golden Ears Bridge. The traffic does go fairly quickly on the bridge and I averaged between 50 and 60 mph - yes, mph, remember this is an American market scoot - and had to deal with pretty strong winds on the bridge. I don't think it was actually really windy outside, it's just that on the bridge I am exposed and speeding along fairly fast. I do tend to hunker down so the front doesn't blow away....

After the bridge, I took Highway 15, keeping up to similar speeds as I had on the bridge, I really enjoyed being able to keep up but I didn't like the rush going on the highway. Varying from 4 to 6 lanes, this isn't a freeway but is pretty fast. I think I like the quieter roads better. I did get to the beach, however, in record time - about 40 minutes!

The sun was setting but the temperature had dipped. My trusty Vespa thermometer read 9° C. so I made my break rather quick and then headed back towards Maple Ridge.

I took my favourite road, 184th Street, and went at a comfortable clip on this country road. My overall return was probably 10 or 15 minutes longer but was very nice. As I got closer to home, the temperature rose, ending up reaching 13° C by the time I got home.

I felt warm enough for the first half of the ride but got chilled starting out on the second half. I was wearing my new Corazzo jacket with the zip in vest and a T-shirt. Maybe a fleece sweater would make my core a bit warmer. My hands, wearing cycling gloves nested in my Chinese handlebar muffs, were warm most of the way. The only worry there is that I have to take my hand out of the muff to operate the turn signal and I worry because I actually let go of the left side to get my hand out and in. Gotta work on that part of riding.

Overall, it was a great after school ride - especially for February! Now for some more sunny days!

From "Free RIde" to "Running on Empty"

Wednesday started off as a way to take advantage of a couple of things that will no longer be around. It turned into something quite a bit different, as things turned out.


I first decided to go to the beach for lunch - White Rock beach. I had gone there previously, taking the Albion ferry, but on Wednesday I thought I'd take the newly completed Golden Ears Bridge.


Wednesday was an excellent day to take the bridge as it was the last day that it was free. Starting on Thursday, a toll is to be applied ranging from $1.40 for a motorcycle that's registered all the way up to $3.90 for a car that is not registered. I scooted up this new structure happily (and freely) and crossed into Surrey in no time.



From there I headed down to White Rock. I arrived there and parked the scoot ($2 for an hour) and wandered around, in search of lunch. I didn't want a really greasy fish and chips lunch (although I absolutely love fish and chips) and settled on a place called the Kahuna restaurant.

I ordered a bowl of clam chowder ($3.50) which was excellent. The lady who ran the place, a German, asked if I'd like some fries as she was just eating them as they were leftovers. The fries were super - and the price was certainly right!

After that, I walked on the beach.

I saw this person flying a kit - seemed like a good idea.

After, I saw this girl - I like how she was isolated on the beach.

I did have some camera problems as this was my daughter's camera (my old camera) and had junk on the lens. I photoshopped what I could...

After my walk, I headed east on my Vespa. I passed a gas station in White Rock on 16th but thought I was fine until the next station. My low fuel light then went on. I'll be fine, I thought, there'll be lots of gas stations in Langley. I was on a fairly major street and I kept looking up and down the street whenever I came to a light or stop sign. Nothing. No stores, gas stations - just farms and houses. I ended up riding 60 minutes and about 45 kilometres until I came to a gas station. I filled up and my Vespa took 5.7 litres - which seems way less than the 8.6 litres it's supposed to hold. This seems rather odd to me - did I really have another 3 litres to spare? After an hour with the low fuel light on?

I finally made it to my in-laws in Abbotsford, there to borrow my father-in-law's truck. A couple of neighbours wondered if he'd traded his truck for a Vespa and his tenant congratulated him on starting a new motorcycle game!

White Rock Beach

It's been a while but I really haven't had anything to say up until now. I've ridden my scooter to school and to a few appointments but the unseasonable crappy weather and the busy-ness of life has affected my blogging.

Today, however, I have a reason to blog!

I had finished my planning for the week, done a couple jobs around the house, and had some time left in the afternoon. It was a beautiful sunny day, although only a crisp 9° C. (whatever that is in Fahrenheit - maybe around 50°). I decided to see if I could make a round trip to White Rock beach in the two hours before dinner. It was, as it turned out, a bit of a challenge.

I first took the Albion Ferry to cross the river. I'm getting quite nostalgic about the Albion Ferry. The Golden Ears bridge will be opening downstream in June and so the free ferry will stop running at the end of July. The bridge will have a toll while the ferry doesn't and the bridge is really out of the way for me. People have always complained about the lineups at the ferry but if you're on two wheels, you go right up to the front! I'm hopeful that some private operator will take over the route....

My way to White Rock, a beach on the ocean, was a bit busy. I chose roads that were very well travelled and I ended up pulling over quite a bit. One place that I pulled over had this lovely, friendly sign greeting people from the road.

I arrived in White Rock and my mind was flooded with memories from my past. When I was small, my parents took us there quite frequently for holidays. It's funny, I lived in Vancouver but we hardly ever went to Vancouver beaches as a family - always to White Rock! I think it held a special place for my parents as they met there. The Cottage fish and chips restaurant has gone through many changes but was the favourite place for my family many years ago.

I parked my scoot near some motorcycles and I'm sure we were all illegally parked. Problem is, it's pay parking everywhere else and I knew I wasn't going to be there long.

I walked over the tracks to the beach. When I was a kid, I remember putting a bunchy of pennies on the track just before a train went by and collecting as many flattened pennies as I could find. Do kids still do that today? I don't know.

I spent a grand total of 15 minutes admiring the scenery. It was a busy place with lots of people milling around. As I sat at a picnic table I saw: on the other side or the table was a women and her baby; the bench next to me had two teenage girls chatting and laughing; on the beach in front of me, a biker guy sand girl were lying against a log smoking a joint. Interesting mix.

I headed back a different way which was much better. Going up 184th Street most of the way home, there was little traffic and not too many hills. There was a patch of construction where I had to go over gravel for half a kilometre but it was fine other than that.

Just before turning back to Fort Langley, I came across the almost completed Golden Ears bridge. It was quite the sight and quite the engineering feat.

Finally, I took the ferry back home, arriving just as my wife was serving up a warm stew for dinner. It was a good ride, one well worth blogging.