Tuesday 7 February 2012

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!

3 comments:

Dar said...

Sounds like you had a very nice ride. I wear a fleece vest under my jacket with the quilted liner. My jacket is a TourMaster which I believe is made by Cortech which owns Corrazo(?) Today it was really warm & I had to shed layers. We are in for rain now & hopefully no more BlackIce for quite awhile now. I haven't experienced a lot of freeway traffic myself yet, I'm sure I would feel a little nervous too.

Keith - Circle Blue said...

I am glad you are on the road and all seems well with your new to you scooter. I look forward to the day where the time it takes me to go places on my 110cc bike will be diminished by a larger ride.

I like your painting. I'm glad you made it your header photo. It brings a smile to my face.

Thanks for the share.
~k

Dave Dixon said...

Dar... It WAS a nice ride. I think I'll dress a bit warmer but the jacket I have doesn't have a ton of room for layers underneath. Looks sharp, tho!
I was really on a highway, not a freeway, and while it was nice to be able to keep up, I did prefer the 'country road'.

Circle Blue....I can get to a lot more places with a bigger scoot so I'm looking forward to lots of adventures! Glad you liked the painting - I'm sure I'll get a lot better but it's where I am right now!