Vancouver Island Day Ride

To Raro and digitallyhip:

I really appreciate you guys hanging around to wait for the tow truck driver and to help load my bike.

That's worth a couple of burgers and beers to say the least so let me know when it's a good time for either of you to hook up.

I'm off for the next eight weeks so anytime after the surgery is good and I will drive to the location of your choice.

Thanks again!

 

I'll start taking the plastics off as soon as I can then get it to a shop to see if any other damage exist.

 

Meeting point on Vancouver Island where the Lower Mainland guys met up with the Islanders



Getting ready to hit the road



Borg has the BBB ( Big Boo Boo)



I offered him a fair price for his Sergent Seat



Lunch break at Lake Cowichan. We were directed to this pub by a highschool student who claimed this place had the best burgers around. He was right but how the F%$k did he know



At the ferry line up to return to the Mainland



On the outside deck seating area on the ferry to the mainland



Randy's attempt at being Artsey Fartsey with JasonSmith's lid



This is why the female Mountie never made it to Borg's accident

 

got the surgery done on monday. dr pinned my broken finger and put cast on my thumb which had torn ligaments. hand is swollen at the moment but it has gone down a bit. as soon as the swelling is completely gone i'll start working on the bike.

finally reported the collision to rcmp, first i went to langford detachment, they told me i had to go to sooke. i went to sooke, they asked me where i lived and where collision occurred, i tell them and they tell me i only need to report to icbc??????

i tell them who i am and who i worked for and they changed their tune, then they tell me that i didn't have to come to sooke since langford could have taken the report. wtf!

never thought it'd be much of a problem reporting a collision but it's done now.


thanks again.

 

Yup Typical Mountie stuff. Some spend more time looking for ways out of work than they do completing the work required. As you know "ALL" injury accidents in BC "MUST" be reported to police with in 24 or 48 hours of the accident depending on where it took place. And any police agency can receive that report. Talk about passing the buck.

Good to hear you are on the mend. Will mom let you ride when you have healed? Will you sell me that Sergent Seat?

Next year we will all stop at that spot and reflect for a moment.

 

All the best in your recovery borg!

Here is a clip from the last video I have before the "shit hit the fan". Not terribly interesting - we were stuck behind cars. That's why I shut off the camera. The video file was created at 11:15 am, so not long before.

YouTube - borg - in happier times

 

All Winter to regret it!!

Wow some crazy pic's!! It looked like you guys had some great weather wish i could of made it(my boss is such a DICK i dont want to get into it,in fact he's a F@#%ING DICK) and to top it off i had a SHIT day at work like i knew i was going to, Borg so sorry to hear about your misfortune,the pic's are so hard to look at!! Get well soon bro!!! As far as not making the ride i have ALL WINTER to REGRET IT!! Its going to be tuff but all the more reason to not miss another ride!!.......Mark

 

"mom" is a rider herself so she understands my pain, she did say that i will not be going down same road again unless i was on 4 wheels but a minute later said that she was mad that she didn't have a riding partner for her coming days off for a planned trip to pt renfrew.

sorry randy, it looks like i will be hanging on to my sargent seat for a while. but if i decide to sell you will be the first to know.

 

i remember trying to wave someone to come up and take the lead just before those cars pulled over for us....strangely no one took the invite......so i pressed on at the front.....then as you say the $ # ! + hit the fan.......i guess it was my time..... just glad i didn't take anyone down with me considering the rash of vfr crashes lately.

 

make sure you give your boss lots of heads up for next year's ride....should be fun.


no worries i will be bringing up the rear and stay out of trouble.....i hope.

 

Hey all. I'm going to be riding up in Victoria/Vancouver Island on Thursday and Friday this week (first time in Canada, woo!). How were the temperatures? According to the forecast it looks like it will be sunny, but a little chilly. Is there elevation on that route that was posted? Will it get colder? Anything else I need to know?

Thanks.

 

welcome to canada.

not much in the way of elevation, but it does get colder by a couple of degrees towards port renfrew but i suspect that has more to do with it being located on the southwest coast of the island. temps should climb back up approaching cowichan lake.

things to watch out for:
gremlins they are everywhere.......just kidding.

watch out for gravel on some parts of the roadway, it may cause distraction and cause a crash.

you will be unfamiliar with the roadway so take it nice and easy specially in sections with multiple undulating esses.

fog/mist is a common thing in the port renfrew area especially in the morning, so the sun maybe out and the roads dry but when you come around a bend to a shaded area the road maybe wet.

i have ridden the route 2 1/3 times, except for the last one i've thoroughly enjoyed it. i'd rate the route at 7 out of 10.

ride safe and enjoy.

 

Consider....Are you looking at temperatures in Farenheit ot Celsius? Greg. You don't say where you are from. If you are from the PNW, you should expect similar temps to what you get there, maybe a degree or two cooler. But this week, the temps predicted are right in there for riding. Like Borg said, watch for loose gravel and stay on your side of centre.

 

I'm pretty sure I'm looking at temperatures in fahrenheit. I'm coming from Seattle, but I don't know wtf a kilometer is. Google maps said that route takes about 6 hours, is that correct?

 

a kilometer is an electronic measuring devise used to record the efficiency of a mercenary while on duty.

Just hav'n some fun. 1 km (1,000 ,meters) = .62 miles

Miles to Kilometers Conversion Calculator and Table - Convert Miles to Kilometres (km)

I think 6 hours is being a bit optamistic though.

 

Well, I'm back from my trip. I spent 3 nights and 4 days in Victoria to check out the Rifflandia music festival and to ride.

I never needed my rain jacket, although my heated jacket came in handy on the logging roads around Port Renfrew.

Two things suprised me: Hwy-14 was under construction and had two gravel sections, and the back half of the Lake Cowichan loop was all gravel. I decided to skip that part of Lake Cowichan and just head back to Victoria. Still was a great ride though.

Here are the pictures from my trip:
Greg Fagan's Photos - Victoria '09 | Facebook

Thanks for the route advice.