January 19th, 2013
Cheryl and I rode out to the Vancouver Show Saturday to check out the latest and greatest. Not that we haven’t been keeping an eye out for all these great bikes but seeing them in person is always a treat. Riding out to the show we were confronted with our infamous FOG. Cold out and frosty, this fog makes it almost impossible to see. At times it freezes on your shield but the real nuisance is how the fog saturates your shield making you wish you actually had a wind shield wiper.
Both Cheryl and I agree riding in this type of FOG is not fun and we would rather be poured on versus this crap. Having said that, there were pockets where the sun broke through and the glare off the wet roads was blinding. Sun glasses came out, FOG rolled back in and it was like this to the show and back home. We only live about 40 minutes away from Abbostford but riding in this stuff makes it seem further. In the end worth it though, we get to park for free and right in front of the entrance. Anyone driving a cage by the time we got there, around noon had to park FAR away and paid! 😉
I think the “star” of the show was the new 2013 BMW1200GS. it was hard to get a clear look at this bike as there were too many people all around. My pictures were not so calculated because of the crowd and we were often getting stopped by some nice folks who read this blog. I ended up just shooting what I could and unfortunately over looking some cool bikes. Hardly even got near Triumph as we kept getting distracted. Rather I did, Leslie with chatting to everyone. Such a great social arena.
I like the new look of the 1200 but not sure about the front fairing to be honest. Kind of comes to a point too much and too forward. You can see what I am talking about in the first pic.
Love the LED running lights though. Can’t see them here but I have and all bikes should have this as standard for better visibility. I am sure someone will come out with an accessory for our F800’s if not all ready that we can add to the front lamp.
Have to post a pic of the owner of ADV Travel, Mike and his wife Michelle. Great people and BWM owners. Michelle has a 650 and Mike 1200. Michelle is learning to get her off road feet and seems to love the ADV world. Both were helping out our dealer, Pacific Motosports with crowd “control” and info.
Another bike getting a lot of attention was the Yamaha Super Tenere. Here in matte gray looks pretty nice. I am just not sure about the no beak look. I think you either LOVE it or not.
Now what do most people think of the Victory bikes? I swear they can fly!
I’ll post the other pics into a slide show instead of one by one.
Another year until the 2014 Show ;-). I have fun just checking out all the people, some new stuff I have not seen, always love the Twisted Throttle farkled to death bikes, this year the Triumph Tiger was their choice. Interesting how some folks actually recognize Cheryl and myself from our BLOG. Love talking to new riders, older riders and hear about so many different experiences.
Oh, so the majority of people who rode were of course Harley’s. Our bikes stood out from the crowd and received quite a bit of attention outside. In the pic you see sun. It was like over the complex there was this patch of beauty in the sky and then about 10 minutes west of here came back that dreaded. fog.
we hope every one is counting down until the rest of you can get your bikes out to ride for the 2013 season. We are counting too even though we ride all year. Can’t wait until the roads heat up a bit….until next….we leave you with this last awesome bike
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Advgrrl Motorcycle Adventures & More 
Hey Girls. We had our Motorcycle Expo down here (Melbourne, Australia), in November and it was great. The other half and I are looking at moving into adv bikes but it’s hard to decide what to get. Love your blog and various travel stories – thought I should post a ‘thanks’ rather than stalk in the back ground. Cheers, Meaghan.
Thank Meaghan for posting and it’s OK to lurk in the back ground too! If we can be of any help with your entrance into the obsessed world of ADV riding let us know. Hope to hear more from you! Happy Summer down under hope it’s cooling of for you all~
Thanks, I may just take you up on that offer of help. We’ve had a really hot summer so far and fires at our doorstep over the past week (we live in Gippsland, Victoria, approx. 3 hrs from Melbourne) so there hasn’t been much riding unfortunately (have to stay close to home).
I spent many months down there after I graduated from Undergrad…back packed through Australia and NZ. Did not make it to Melbourne but almost everywhere else…we will get there one day again for sure! Beautiful place to live! Good luck with the rest of the summer and hope you get back to riding soon!