Category: Articles

Conquering the Commute: Riding to Work

With gas prices continuing to climb and free time being a limited and cherished resource, riding a motorcycle to work just makes good sense. Check out these points below to see how and why to make motorcycle commuting work for you.

Portland to Dakar: the Most Important Adventure Video since Long Way Round

I am watching a video go viral, sweeping through the office of a motorcycle accessory distributor from one 20-something to another, with a lot of age bracket spill over. The 30-minute long protracted abuse of Triumph Tiger 800XCs and riders is The Raiden Files: Portland to Dakar. Despite this flick’s underpinnings of promoting Icon’s latest line of urban assault cum adventure gear, it may be the most important video to hit adventure motorcycling since Long Way Round.

Travel in Juxtaposition: Harrison Hot Springs Resort & Spa and Sloquet Hot Springs

The overnighter to Harrison Hot Springs offers it all; farm fresh locavore dining at Limbert Mountain Farms, quality time bobbing around in the manmade pools of the Harrison Hot Springs Resort & Spa, dinner at the Copper Room. At the opposite extreme is the hardly-developed Sloquet Hot Springs, a site where campers have built semi-natural pools mixing river water with the outflow of geo-thermal heated water flowing from the rock walls. What will it be? All the creature comforts, or the stark quiet of nature? Really, that’s the rider’s choice, or none at all, because you can have it all and do both.

Blowdown Pass: Expedition in an Afternoon

“I don’t think we’re making it through that,” is Mark Binstead’s first response surveying the tricky re-mix of terrain slopped across the Forest Service Road (FSR) to Blowdown Pass, one of the most accessible alpine back entrances to BC’s famous Stein Valley, ahead of us. Composed of rock, trees, branches, mud, top soil and other debris set atop a base layer of compacted snow and ice, at first glance the slide looks impassible. The statement gives me pause, a rider whose selection of routes and honed dirt skills have constantly pushed Kevin’s and my off-road bounds, Mark is not a man who turns back easily.

Standing Illegal: BC’s New Motorcycle Safety Laws and Re-emphasized Flaws

Amongst the fanfare of British Columbia Ministry of Justice’s April 30th, 2012 announcing new motorcycling laws requiring DOT, Snell M2005, Snell M2010 or ECE certified helmets are far reaching penalties for being out of the saddle. The release re-emphasizes Motor Vehicle Act Section 55, which sees standing to improve motorcycle control on unpaved surfaces as illegal. Largely rural, a majority of BC’s roads are unpaved and by the letter this law does endanger, if not make outlaws of, responsible dual sport, adventure and supermoto riders.

Blisters, Bruises, and Bliss – An Adventure Rider Does the Desert 100

It’s one of the most massive mass starts any rider could concieve. I’m one of 1000 riders forming a mile-long line of dirtbikes. We’re all waiting for the firing of the start cannon, before sprinting to our bikes and launching across the open desert towards a 25-ft wide choke point in the course. Welcome to an utterly unique motorcycling experience, the Desert 100.

Fifty Years of Kicks: Off-Road Inspiration for a Youthful Later Life

Aging, agism, youthfulness, mortality on the trail, and the soul of off-road riding are heavy themes for a motorcycle documentary to explore in 19 minutes, but 50 Years of Kicks examines these with a deft and graceful touch that highlights the ills in current motorcycle media.

Returning to a Brand: A Story of 2 BMWs and 1 Jack

I don’t like salesman Jack much; my inner voice has dubbed him Jack, short for “Jackass”. Despite my introduction including I’m a former BMW R1200GS rider, he’s walked me over to a bike that, “would be perfect for me.” It is a KLR 250. A 250. I repeat, a 250. So what’s delivered me into the hands of the sexist now HOLDING THE HANDLEBARS FOR ME? As if I, a girl, couldn’t possibly hold the meagre 250 up by myself.