About two days before the World Superbike races were set to start in Utah, a good friend hooked Nita and I up with a couple of tickets and paddock passes. With little time to plan we prepped the bikes and got ready to ride the 4000km round trip from Calgary. The Revoluzione and Reel Rydes crew were also heading down so we planned to meet up with them in the evenings for some fun with some great folks.

We headed down through Sweetgrass and spent our first night in Great Falls, MT after about 7.5 hours on the road. The next day was a grueling 12.5 hours that had us pulling into Salt Lake City at about 10:30. We rewarded our long day with a couple of drinks and a great snooze at the Little America Hotel.

2 days of wandering SLC, finding a great microbrewery (Squatters) we found ourselves sitting at the exit of Bad Attitude at Miller Motorsports Park watching the likes of Haga, Fabrizio and a personal fave – Gary McCoy riding the Triumph 675 (with a reported 145hp!) during the Supersport race. Pretty freaking sweet.

Next day, we packed up and headed back to Calgary. It was a last minute trip that I’ll never forget.

For more pictures, go here.

Happy wrenching!

Lately I’ve been getting the itch to go riding – track, highway – it doesn’t matter. The snow has been plentiful this year and the garage has flooded almost every day the temperature has hit 5 degrees celsius. Still, I feel more excited everyday. I realized that I hadn’t posted any pics from last years many track days on the SS800. I have loads but thought I’d just post a few up here for posterity’s sake. Enjoy!

For more pictures, go here.

It Gets Worse For Freddie Spencer: Honda Repos Bikes, Instructors Unpaid

Keith Codes reaction to the closure:
Keith Code Issues Statement Regarding Closing Of Freddie Spencer’s Riding School

Well, it’s ready for the track. I got too busy painting that I forgot to take pictures of very Dexter-esque clean room I put up in the garage. All in all the painting went fairly smoothly and I’m happy with the quality for a track bike. 

I swapped out the stock windshield with a double bubble from the guys at Revoluzione – my better for someone my size. Now I should hopefully be able block a little less wind when I’m at speed :) 

Derek at Trillion hooked me up with a sweet 2-into-1 exhaust which is rediculous. It’s a *little* quieter than when there were no pipes at all which is, actually, a good thing. Idle volume is nice but she’s very loud when opened up. Currently the mix is too rich and I’m shooting some flames – we’ll have to look at that. 

That sweet little early 90’s Ducati sticker is from Malta – I purchased a set off of Ebay. He closed down shop shortly after I received them so I’m not sure If you can get them anymore. 

Other than that, I think she’s done until the winter…

Well, after a winter of dreaming I finally got around to getting the bike rolling. You may ask why I didn’t get started earlier, well let’s just say that there was a lot going on at Veer (like the acquisition by Corbis in November and the release of my project Veer Ideas) and at home – a new house actually. I have to admit that a large part of buying the house was the garage which I could turn into a shop for the bike itself.

So after all of the *thinking* about what to do, I called dad over to give me a hand in stripping the SS800 down to it’s bare bones. The fairings came off, the electrical was slimmed down to the bare minimum and decisions were made about the final look. I had ordered some Sharkskinz race fairings in December and was really happy with the level of service I had received. However, there was something about the look of the late-model Ducati Supersports that I didn’t like – the upper and lower fairing was so bulbous – it just didn’t seem to fit the overall beauty of the bike. This feeling was only reinforced when all of the fairing had been removed – the beauty of the trellis frame, the engine and the space between the rear wheel and seat made it seem like a shame to cover. I loved the Sharkskinz tail design so decided to keep it, but the rest of the fairing is likely going to end up in the basement or on Ebay. Thinking of the bare racing style I kept coming back the styling of the NCR Millona - a simply stunning naked racing design. All I can say for now is that’s the direction I’m heading ;) More to come later.

For pictures and step by steps, go here.

STATEMENT ISSUED ON BEHALF OF COLIN McRAE’S FAMILY

Speaking on behalf of the whole family, Colin’s father, Jim McRae, said today:

“It is with much sadness and regret that we have to make this statement.

It is unbelievable that Colin and Johnny’s lives have been taken so prematurely and in such a tragic manner.

Colin was a great son, a loving husband to Alison and a fantastic father to Johnny and his big sister Hollie. Johnny was a great wee guy, spending every spare minute with his dad, and even at this early stage it looked like he had the potential to carry on the family dynasty.

Our thoughts are also very much with the families of Ben Porcelli and Graeme Duncan. Ben was a great buddy of Johnny’s and they had always spent a lot of time together both in and out of school. Graeme, who now resides in France, had been a close friend of Colin’s since their schooldays and was back in Lanark on holiday.

We are thankful for the overwhelming number of messages of support we have received from all around the world. Colin was very much an inspiration and role model to motorsport fans the world over.

As you can imagine this is a very difficult time for the family and we would ask that our privacy be respected and we be allowed to grieve in private.”

This trip had been planned for a little while – originally a four day trip out to Nelson but schedules and work conspired to make it a rushed attempt rather than a holiday. Instead, Nita and I decided to relax for one day in Calgary before heading out to BC. Ideas of heading south toward Going to the Sun highway loomed but in the end we decided we were in more need of good rides with plenty of relaxation time on either end

Fernie seemed like an obvious choice – I knew that the roads leading to the resort town were lush with curves and the scenery was stunning. Since Nita hadn’t been out that way after living in NY for so long I thought the mountains would be a welcome relief.

The first day was overcast but the temperature was a nice 18 degrees centigrade – good for the full leathers. After our normal route out of the city via Bragg Creek we hit the lovely HWY 762 and 549. We stopped in Longview for a cuppa joe then continued south on HWY22 until we hit HWY 3 – the Crowsnest Pass. Now if you’ve never done HWY 22 you should know that the valley is simply stunning – it’s right out of a novel. The sun in that valley is like nothing I’ve ever seen and well worth the trip. Not to mention, the roads are made for bikes.

Heading west on HWY 3, we stopped at Frank Slide to take a closer look at the “mountain that moves”. Basically the a third of the mountain came crashing down in the 1800’s due to mining despite repeated warnings from the indigenous people. The carnage is unbelievable. Getting back onto the bikes we wrestled with the wasps that were enjoying the buffet on our fairings and headed back out on the highway. Looking forward we knew we were in for some weather as the nest valley over was completely black with heavy storm clouds blocking the sky.

About 30kms from Fernie we were engulfed in torrential rain with huge wind gusts – not the end of the ride we were hoping for! Still we pulled into Lizard Creek Lodge and called it a day. Luckily they had a sweet little loft for us and settled in for the night.

The next day the sky was moody so we stayed close to Fernie – riding in for coffee and a walk around the town with a little exploring but we were happy to take it easy. On Wednesday we started back to Calgary.

We took the same route back toward Longview but decided it would be a good time to hit the Highwood Pass to Canmore. The original idea was to spend the night in Canmore and head back to the city in the morning. However, places were full or expensive so we decided to skip Canmore and make our way back home. The Highwood Pass was nothing short of stellar. The road was ours alone for nearly 1.5 hours and the tarmac was in fantastic shape. The twisting roads through the pass saw cows and bighorn sheep roadside and spectacular valley views. This road is *highly* recommended.

After filling up in Canmore we headed back to city – tired and happy that we had spent 7 hours on the road. Simply fantastic.

* Ride duration: 11 hours (best as a 2 day)
* The route