Stargazer's Garage

VPD Motorcycles Originally uploaded by istargazer . My wife and I went on this charity bike ride at the end of June. It was a great day and marred only because I thought I had lost one of my memory cards. Luckily, I found it just the other day and have been busily uploading the pictures. This is a picture of the Vancouver Police motorcycles. The VPD were really great because they gave a police escort for the group of riders all the way through Vancouver, onto Highway #1 and across the Golden Ears Bridge. It was a weird feeling not stopping for red lights!

DSC_0259 Originally uploaded by istargazer . My wife and I took part in the 7th Annual Vancouver Firefighter's Bikers for Burns ride today. It started in Vancouver at the Flying Swan Cafe and followed a route that included going over the new Golden Ears Bridge and continuing on to Harrison Hot Springs where there was a motorcycle stunt show to end the day. There were over 270 motorcycles and it was a great ride. What was really cool was that we got a police escort all the way to Maple Ridge. We got waved through intersections and the VPD even did rolling road blocks for us on Highway 1! On top of that I won a t-shirt and a hat registration prize! The only damper to the day was the discovery that I had lost one of my SD cards. It had pictures from the first half of the day including pics of the Burgman and the Vancouver Police Motorcycles. I do have some video footage that I'll upload soon.

The camera mount that I put into the STI worked pretty well at the track. What you see here is 2 laps around the track at Mission Raceway. We were divided into groups and took turns being the lead car while the instructor sat beside us giving tips. This is the 3rd out of 4 runs we did during the afternoon (so I'm a lot smoother than I was at the beginning) and I'm following a 2006 STI right before it's my turn to lead.

Whoo, hoo! I just completed my first track day! This was an event organized by Geremy from Specialty Subaru in North Vancouver specifically for Subaru owners. The instructors were from Driving Unlimited and I had an awesome time practicing techniques like heel/toe shifting and trail braking. Going down the straightaway hearing the roar of the boxer engine at full throttle had the theme music from Gran Turismo 2 playing in my head and put a huge grin on my face. The event was held at Mission Raceway Park and started at about 8:30. There were 24 vehicles (including a few non-Subarus) registered for the course and once everyone signed the waiver.... ...the instructors began explaining basic concepts about setting up the proper seating and mirror positions on our vehicles. They also explained the three warm-up exercises that we would be doing on the track. Slalom: To practice our distance vision an instructor stands at the end of the slalom and signals when we need to skip a gate. Avoid...

Smoke Break #1 - Mission, BC Originally uploaded by istargazer . I went out on a ride today on my Suzuki Burgman 400 with a group of bikers I met on a (Subaru) online forum. We took the back roads from Vancouver, BC to Mission and then up to Hope where we had lunch. Then we took Highway #1 back to Vancouver. All together, the trip was about 250 km. It was a nice ride and while there was a lot of long-weekend traffic, there were some stretches of open road. I was able to try out my new Shift Havoc pants , which are a combination of leather and textile. I really like them because they fit just like jeans and are very comfortable. They have armored padding on the knees, and leather for abrasion protection as well as 3 very convenient zip pockets. The fabric let through enough air while we were moving so that I did not feel overheated even in the 30-degree Celcius temps we had today.... I'm also glad to say that the 400 did admirably well keeping up with the sport bikes. Whil...

This was my 1999 VW Passat on Canada Day in 2002 :0) We were at a VW Vancouver meet on Cypress Mountain. And here's what we were doing with our Toyota Sequoia on Canada Day in 2005 (also a VW Drivers of Vancouver meet): This year we had a picnic lunch at Norm Staff Park--sorry, no pictures!

This is Part 2 of the pictures I took at the Alki Beach 2007 meet in Seattle, WA last weekend. Alki Beach Photos, Part 1 is here . Click below for more pictures.

These are some of the pictures I took at the Alki Beach 2007 meet in Seattle, WA last weekend. The VIC pre-meet photos are here . Click below for more pictures.

These are some of the Alki Beach-VIC pre-meet pictures. Pictures from the actual meet at Alki Beach are here: Alki Beach Part 1 . Guildford Town Center: To the border in a downpour: Click below for more pictures. Waiting in line at the Pacific Border crossing: Gassing up at the Chevron: Cruising the I-5: