Vancouver Motorcycle Show, Tradex, Abbotsford, 2018

I love the motorcycle show. It’s an annual tradition.  It used to happen a little later in the year. I used to ride a motorcycle out to the valley  without fear of snow.   Robbie Burn’s Dinner is later in the month and the two events overlapped.  I’d often be wearing a kilt and scottish regalia to the motorcycle show as we’d go from there to a fine dinner of Haggis and bagpipes.  
I’ve ridden my motorcycle wearing a kilt.  I’d not recommend it in Canada. Maybe Mexico. Nothing’s worn beneath a kilt. Everything is in good working order..  It can be mighty cold in Canada around this.  So cold as to freeze the balls of a brass monkey. And that proverbial monkey isn’t even riding a motorcycle.
I took the Ford F350 Lariat edition truck, my towing machine for my Fusion toy hauler. My  Harley Davidson Electroglyde is presently at Trev Dealey, having hot toddies and leather rubs.  Trev Deely keeps motorcycles through winter reading special night time stories about heroic motorcycles.    I’ve kept mine chained outside in the winter and it was a seriously bad year. I caught the motorcycle slipping a note to a passing truck to call  BCCOM to report cruelty to motorcycles.  I got the guys over.  We got the battery charger on my baby in deep snow, eventually fired her up and ran her for a while.  That was a bad year.
I had a HD Roadster from Barnes which I’d traded in for the Electroglide at Trev. The Electroglide  story began at the Tradex Motorcycle Show.  I saw an Electroglide one year at the Motorcycle Show and it was love at first sight.  I  just sat on it and knew I needed this bike. I even had my picture taken on it.  That night I dreamed of Sturges. That was the miracle of the motorcycle show. That was the machine made for the American freeway and the one I drove to Sturges.
 Emmet Fox in "Sermon on the Mount" talks about a loving god that wants God’s children to have good things.  Because our consumer monkey minds are all over the place wanting this that and the other thing, we don’t know how to ‘manifest’ reality but live in reaction to all the forces around us  If one knows prayer and accepts that prayers are answered, well, lets just say, the most amazing set of synchronistic events occurred, a miracle in my world.   Unexpected money was  Trev Deeley suddenly had had a slightly used year old Electro glide. The ride to Sturges followed.  The ride and being at Sturges in 2013 was it’s own miracle.  I love my HD Electroglide.
However I found myself looking at enduros this year. I was actually surprised at how many people make them.  Right now I have a Honda 500 Pioneer Side by Side ATV for off road hunting and fishing.  The trouble with Canada is that you can’t ride these on highways.  In Europe that’s not the case. I loved running into guys in Instabul and on Crete riding quads legally on the roads.  It would be a real advance for Canada to let us use them off the freeway.
I had a Honda 230 then a 250 CRF a few years back.  Both machines were spectacular off road and because they were street legal I could get a motel and ride on the highway to hunt off the logging roads in northern BC.  We’ve brought back deer hanging over the back seat  off road Hondas.
Indian had some really pretty bikes, looking good with their hassled side bags.  Yamaha ’s snow conquerer was everyone’s favourite.
I do think anything under 650 cc a little under powered for all day driving and especially high speed on the freeway.  My brother road his Yamaha 150 motorcycle across Canada as a young man.   My Electroglide is 1600 which is great for freeways and luggage and 2 people but alone I loved my Buell 600 and the Norton Commando 750 before that.  The Allied Troops in WWII used a 1200 Harley as their bike. I’ve seen one in the Canadian war machine. The Suzuki 650 enduro is really popular with several guys I know who have them. .  I loved seeing the actual Suzuki DR650 Dual Sport bike on display which Nevil Stow drove  around the world . Tough bike.  He’s off to South America this year. It’s definitely a mean machine and the best bang for the buck.  www.motoexped.com. Also www.rtw2013.com
BMW makes great Enduros for more money. Generally you get more bike for more money too. My extraordinary academic friend  and his brilliant  wife used 2 BMW’s to ride a round South America a few years back before starting their familiy .  It was with BMW enduros that Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman did their amazing Long Way Round journey. Honda, KTM and BMW got to the final cut with them getting BMW1150GS all terrain motorcycles for the journey. I loved the book and saw some of the filming that was made into a tv mini series.  Incredible. there is a good  Long Way Round  in wikipedia.
It would just be nice to have a motorcycle you could do everything with.  Alternatively having 2 motorcycles might be the answer.  There were a whole lot of different machines at the show.  Also lots of leather. Lots of auxiliary equipment. A guy out of Richmond is making terrific metal side boxes.  I bought a beanie helmut mostly for use on my electric bike.  I did get a book written by a fellow who would a Kawasaki through central America.  A girl told me about her own trips in central america on a Kawasaki.  Can Am had some great quads and other innovative machines.
Then I met a couple of older guys who’d ridden up to Alaska. One on a Monda and the other on the KTM.  The KTM has been the great performer on the Desert runs in Dubai and Baja. Triumph had a  Tiger 1200.  Ted Simon made the Tiger 500 cc Jupiter  famous when he did his first circumnavigation in 1973. Aprillia even had an enduro on display as did Ducatti. Their enduro’s are extremely popular in Europe. I had an Aprillia scooter so am very fond of the reliable fine built machines.
The Ladies at Barnes where  I bought my first HD Roadster which I rode off rode to Skookumchuck sold me a HD t-shirt. They also found my HD togue which had fallen into my hood.
 It was an all round great motorcycle show.  I do “need” an enduro.  I think I’ll take a hammer.  I’ll  knock out a tooth and put in under my pillow tonight. Maybe that will work:)