I have not found any official notice or news piece, but here in Vancouver at least I know from talking to my own dealer that Honda Canada is cutting back to only 3 dealers from the current 5 in the region - and my dealer, CR Cycles here in Maple Ridge, is one of those on the chopping block. The "Find a dealer" portion of their web still lists CR, but does not tell you that your warranty period would outlive their life as a dealer - which expires the end of this year. In talking to their service manager I learned that they won't be able to order parts directly from Honda anymore either - boosting the cost of my repairs, even if I do keep going back to them.

Yesterday I visited one of the 3 shops that is being retained - Holeshot Motorsports - across the new Golden Ears bridge (and a toll charge) away in Langley, and even though it is a much larger dealership, didn't even see a Goldwing on the floor.

My current bike is a 2003 that I purchased new in 2004, and since I ride it both all year and for business, it has quite a few kilometers on it. I'm at the point where I'm looking to trade it in on a new machine this year and now I have to decide if this will be another Honda, and if so, where I'll get it from.

I was speaking to a friend of mine earlier this week and the conversation turned to motorcycles and the Can-Am Spyder he has placed a deposit for. He's waiting for the release of the semi-automatic version as he has problems with his legs and can't use a typical motorcycle shifter. He's looked at all manner of trikes and actually owned one that was being rebuilt for him - by someone with less than noble intentions it turned out, but that's another story.

This story is about how I came to try out the Can-Am Spyder for him and my impressions of it.

Re-post from February 2002

Along with many others who are caught up in the world of technology, I've found myself either too busy or too broke to take a "real" vacation most of the past 20+ years - feast or famine it seems.

The last real vacation with wife and kids was to California in 1991. The last real vacation my wife and I took was to New Zealand in mid 1996 (the kids went to summer camp while we were away). 

Since then we've had a couple of weekends visiting relatives here in BC, and I've done a fair amount of travel on business - but all the while I've had my cell phone and laptop with me and have not been out of touch for more than a couple of hours at any one time.

But I get a chance to "go on vacation" for short periods all throughout the year - by grabbing time out of the day and getting on my Honda Goldwing and getting out of town. In fact, I just got back from the first such ride for 2002. 4 hours of cruising around the Vancouver area following my front wheel wherever it took me. Admittedly it was only supposed to be 2 hours, but hey, it was a vacation and so a little slop in the schedule is ok. 

Most years I ride all year 'round. I have to say I prefer dry to wet and warm to cold, but as long as there's no snow or ice on the road, I'll go. When I had a side-chair, I was even known to ride when there was snow on the road - although I have to admit that finding snow tires for road bikes is pretty much impossible and the couple of times I've actually been on snow were short rides to see what happened.

Well... that was fun!

Our local motorcycle "Toy Run" was this morning - 10AM at Coquitlam Centre - ride from there through Port Moody to Burnaby and then to Hastings Park (aka the PNE) just inside Vancouver near the Iron Worker's second narrows bridge.

It was heavy overcast when I left just after 9AM - and still that way when we left the parking lot for the ride.

The route is closed to cars for the hour or so that it takes all the bikes (have seen 10,000 other years but estimate there were less than 5,000 this year - more probably about 3000) to ride by - police at most intersections and motorcycle club members at the rest. Usually lots of spectators to wave and honk at but by the time we got to Burnaby it was raining hard - so few people :(

I suffered through the rain in just my leathers as of course I'm the optimist so didn't put on the wet weather gear - I wasn't the only one to arrive with a wet crotch ;)

Of course I didn't purchase a toy until I got to the shopping center but Zellers (discount version of the Bay) has found that they do a booming business on Toy Run day so they were open early - got my usual, a construction toy.

Got to the PNE grounds and unlike in most past years we ended up in one of the animal barns (someone thinks this is funny probably  :twisted: ) instead of the old Forum building (original ice rink for hockey) - handed in my toy and got my pin - then got a couple of tee-shirts as usual - they're great shirts and not expensive at $10 each.

Signed up for the BC Coalition of Motorcycles again for the year - they are the ones responsible for getting bikes first on ferries and into HOV lanes - and are working on other things like reduced tolls and "lane splitting" as well as transferable plates for those with more than one bike.

Anyway - got outside and it was still pouring so put on the rain gear - standing next to another guy with a Gold Wing just about to ride off without his - doesn't carry it all the time for some reason - hope he didn't get pneumonia or something.

Of course when it is wet my cell phone isn't on the dash, so when it rang I couldn't answer. Turned out that Shirley called to let me know the power was out at home but I didn't know that until I pulled into the garage and noticed the lights were out.

It's Thanksgiving - and we're supposed to cook the turkey for dinner with my sister-in-law and her husband and their kids (and our #1 son Michael too) but no power!

But I have all this solar stuff - batteries, inverters, etc. for the Chehalis estuary. Hmmm... wonder if I can run the rotissary on the barbeque with it (of course I can - the real question was could I run the sump pump?)

So I made a little hole under our back sun-room where I could run the 'Q - hooked up an extension to the solar setup and got ready to cook.

The new 'Q has a side burner fortunately - so cooking the stuffing was a cinch - except that the storm has lots of wind and it blew out the flame at least once - thought I had run out of gas but no.

Shirley and I were just about to skewer the bird when  the power came back on - but I was ready just in case. We had the recipe all chosen and everything. Problem is that the timing would have made us a bit late for dinner but hey - at least the turkey would have been cooked!

All this running around made me think about what it would be like to be "off grid" with a complete solar system instead of connection to the pole. I'm not sure I could do it with all the computers here - but hey, maybe some day.

I'm "cooking" some pictures as I write this - but I just noticed my drive is almost out of space so I'll have to move some stuff around to fit them in - will post them and some others from the hatchery install soon.

At 5AM the sun was just thinking of peeking over the mountains as I rode South along Lougheed Highway in Coquitlam on my way to the Port Mann bridge. I'm a couple of weeks late in my "longest day of the year ride" due to weather mostly. I don't mind riding in rain a bit, but if I'm going to be in the saddle for 30+ of the next 48 hours I really want it to be dry, even if not all that warm.

Thursday, July 5th, was predicted to be warm and the clear sky at sunrise was portents of things to come. It was about 15C as I left Pitt Meadows - warm enough that I foolishly rode without golves; something I'd fix before I got half-way to the border at 176th st. in South Surey as it dropped to 13C just past the bridge over the Fraser river. I'd thought about taking the Albion Ferry but was anxious to get on my way as I was thinking hard about trying out my new Destination Highways Northern California book.

I'd ordered the book last year at the motorcycle show in Abbotsford and it had finally shown up earlier this year. I have the other two, BC and Washington State, and have ridden many of their excellent choices in the past.

I got to the border and encountered a new twist in US border guard activities - he wanted my wallet, even though I'd handed him my (expired) passport and otherwise answered his questions. "Are all these items in here yours?" he asked. Hey, I have nothing to hide - but I have to admit that this was just a bit more than I'm used to.

Anyway, having satisfied his curiosity he bid me a good day and off I went to I-5 and South. With only a maximum of 2 1/2 days before I had to be back I had decided to blast South as fast as I could. I got to Burlington before my stomach reminded me I had not yet eaten breakfast and that I needed gas. I pulled off and as I was passing the McDonalds noted another wing in the parking lot so pulled in. I don't normally eat at McyD's but breakfast is an exception as their Sausage-egg-muffins are ok for my diabetic diet in small quantities well spaced.

I had hoped the Campbell River store would be open at 8th Ave before the border to get some US$ but it wasn't - so all I had was Canadian and cards. The server offered me a whole $15US for my $20CDN (25% discount) which at a real exchange rate of about 10% was just a bit over the top for me, so I used my card. Dont' these guys know that our dollar has gone through the roof lately and is threatening to beat theirs any time now? Anyway, I got the muffin and coffee but didn't see the owner of the bike, so sat and studied my DH books. These trips are always a last minute thing for me - I look forward to them for at least 6 months - then don't plan but simply let things happen.

Late last year I purchased the two (soon to be three) "Destination Highway" books for motorcycling. These books, one for BC and one for Washington state, list and rate the top roads in each respective place for those of us who like the "twisties".

I finally broke down and traded in my GL1500 for a new 1800. I didn\'t even test-drive one, just took delivery right out of the crate.

One of the local talk-radio hosts (Michael Campbell on CKNW) was asking this week about "how much would the price of gasoline have to rise before your driving habits changed?"

I was on the 'Wing, and even with the hands-free on my cell phone figured that they would not be able to hear me well, so my answer is here. Warning - it is not just about motorcycles.

While it is fairly straight, the ride along Zero avenue in the Vancouver lower mainland is really quite interesting. Zero avenue runs parallel to and inches from the Canada/US border. I've had a friend and customer who lives on Zero avenue for over 10 years now, so have watched it evolve over the years.