ROCK THE ISLAND EVENT - International Female Ride Day Friday May 3/2013

Come on Ladies lets ROCK THE ISLAND! May 3rd is the 7th Annual International 

Female Ride Day.

#femalerideday on twitter

WOMEN ACROSS THE WORLD will be taking to the roads riding today, from Canada to Britain to South Africa to India to Russia to Thailand to New Zealand to Brazil to the United States and Europe.  

IT'S EVERYWHERE!!! 

Women riders of all rides from sportbikes to dual-sports to cruisers to scooters come together to Celebrate the sisterhood of riding! IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT YOU RIDE, JUST RIDE!!!

Come ride with us and be a part of this fantastic day!

CHECK OUT THE VICTORIA IFRD EVENT PAGE - HERE! Remember to RSVP!

We will be heading up Island for the daytime ride to West Coast Roar 2490 Trans Canada Highway, Mill Bay, BC.  Check out WCR web page There will be a lunch truck at the location, live music, and spa services for 15 minute mini massages for $20.

Intinerary 

9-ish Coffee @ Moka House - COOK STREET VILLAGE

10:15am Kickstands up Depart for WEST COAST ROAR MOTORCYCLES - MILL BAY

10:30-ish PICK-UP Westshore @ TIM HORTONS MILLSTREAM (By FUTURE SHOP)

11:00am Lunch & Roundup @ WEST COAST ROAR *There will be a food truck, please remember to bring money for your lunch.  There will be live music from 11 to 12.

12:15pm Ride Safety Briefing

** There will be two rides leaving from ROAR

12:30pm Ride 1 -DEPARTURE FOR LONG & TWISTY RIDE (Oh yeah baby!)

2:00pm Ride 2 - DEPARTURE for 1 hour leisurely ride.

3:00pm Meet-up back at WEST COAST ROAR for raffle Prize Draws.  Tickets will be available to purchase. There are great prizes to be raffled off!  *Funds raised from raffle will be donated to Cowichan Women Against Violence. 

#femalerideday on twitter

**Please remember to practice safe riding habits and obey traffic laws and regulations.  RIDERS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR OWN SAFETY AND LIABILITY, anyone not riding responsibly will be asked to leave.

Mama's went riding

Last night was a gorgeous night and 3 of my friends and I decided it was ride night. We went for a good 2 hour ride and the evening was spectacular! We were too busy to stop for picture taking so you will just have to take my word for it.

Lunchtime view

It is a gorgeous day in Victoria and I finally was able to sneak out & have lunch on the balcony. In the distance you can see beautiful Mt Baker.

Moto Attitude

Scoot or motorcycle does it matter?

I have been thinking about this post for quite awhile now and have been trying to figure out a way to delicately broach this subject.  I started riding about two years ago on a little Yamaha Vino 50cc scooter and was looking for scooting buds and stumbled across a  local group or two and when I enquired if I could ride with them, I was told flat out "No" because I didn't have a particular brand of scooter.  I get that there may be  moto specific clubs, but honestly to not let someone ride or to give attitude over the type of ride they have in my estimation is a little extreme and ridiculous.  So I had a strike against me and rode solo for the first year. 

I did however go to a local rally where I was barely tolerated and at one point left the rally because no one would chat with me and it was quite disappointing to encounter this type of attitude.  I did meet a few very cool peeps, ironically though they didn't live in Victoria, they lived across the pond and these fellas didn't care what you rode as long as you wanted to ride and have fun.  *You know who you are :) At a rally a year later I was called a "Shifter" and was told "You don't belong here, go home" - my reply to that was -  I am hanging with my friends - get over yourself - I don't tolerate foolish people very easily and if you have ever been on the other end of my Moto Mama death look it can be pretty withering. 

It seems to me the moto riding culture can be a little bit harsh  at times and there is a lot of attitude across the moto spectrum and sometimes it is not very pleasant.  You get those who are brand specific riders and who buy into the whole identity of the brand and then you have those who don't like scooters and then you have those who don't like it that women ride and then you have those that are in a group of their own and have their own rules and usually don't have anything to do with anyone. 

Then you have a person like me who is an equal opportunity rider who doesn't care what brand/make/model you ride and I am pretty welcoming.  What is more important to me is how you ride your bike or scoot, the bike doesn't make the rider, its the other way around.   

I ride a Honda, I choose to ride one, and I love my bike, but that being said given the opportunity to try other bikes I embrace it and I love the diversity of bikes out there.   I have faced some  negative attitude from others who don't wear gear, I am a confirmed ATGATT-er and wear full gear and a full face helmet, because I have had a close encounter of the pavement kind and learned early on in my riding journey that I prefer to keep my skin intact, so it is a choice that is right for me.

I still love my scooter and think that scooters whether mini (50cc) or maxi are awesome bikes and offer so many advantages over motorcycles when it comes particularly to urban commuting and the maxi scoots can go long distances.  Its funny because once I got my motorcycle license I never judged people for what they rode and I still offer camraderie to those riders.  You have to start somewhere and if it is a small scooter - AWESOME!  I think my attitude comes from the perspective that we all ride two wheels, face the same challenges and road rules and I started later in life, which may give me a little different perspective perhaps.

About a year ago I started up a women's riding group and we are a very diverse eclectic group of female riders and our ages span the decades and the rides are varied from large motorcycles, vintage, sportbikes, cruisers, dual sports, maxi scoots and scooters.  For me it isn't about the type of ride someone has, its more about the rider and the sense of community we have when we get together and we support each other through the highs and lows.  We come together for social events, regular rides, encouraging new riders and charity events and to me that is what it should be about. 

Riding season is upon us here on the Island and is starting up in other parts of the country and everyone is thrilled to be getting back out their on their bikes or scoots.  Most of us get a thrill when we get the 'wave' and I must admit to feeling a little miffed when someone doesn't wave.  I always think you just never know who is under that helmet that you are snubbing, and  they may be on a scooter and have another bike or vice versa, something to think about. 

So if you come rolling my way I will wave at ya and I am happy that you are out and about on your gorgeous ride enjoying the asphalt ribbon.  Ride safe!

My town - Chinatown

Over the coming weeks I am going to do a series on my town and Island. Sightseeing blog style, stay tuned.  We will be starting out in Chinatown, it is such a lovely little tourist destination filled with wonderful little shops and restaurants.  I still have more to explore and snap photos of.  The Chinatown in Victoria is the oldest in Canada and was established around 1858.  It is a vibrant community in Victoria filled with cultural events and shops and lovely people. 

                                    This is the Chinese cultural school and it is a beautiful building.  The cherry blossoms out front were so picturesque and represents what it is like in spring in China

                                          Nice little vespa! 
                                 

These murals a absolutely lovely and I couldn't resist taking a picture of these

What's in a name?

I love my blog and it has been an amazing way for me to document my journey, the best part however has been the people I have met through the blog.  I am feeling a little spring fever and feeling like I need to change things up a bit and have been mulling over my bloggio.  I have moved beyond the scooter and at this moment in time do not see myself scootering any time soon.  I am completely enjoying my motorcycle and all that it brings me.  So here is my dilmena do I stick with the name Princess Scooterpie - which is kind of cool or do I find something a little more motorcyclish that reflects my personality now?  Hmmmm what to do?  I would also like to change my http which is http://scootermayhem.blogspot.com, not being very techy though I don't want to lose my blog that I have started so far and would like to import my posts.  Any suggestions for how to acheive this and name ideas? 

Today the weather is still manic

I was a very good Scooterpie today, it was sunny and gorgeous this morning so I figured it would last and I decided to do chores. Wouldn't you know it as soon as I finished it started to do this....

Spring is schizophrenic

Today I met up some of my moto mama friends for coffee at a lovely bakery in Chinatown. The weather was all over the place today, it was sunny, torrentially raining and hailing. When I left the house it was sunny with heavy cloud cover, but I thought I would take a chance and it was worth the lovely carrot cake and chat time with my girlfriends. I snapped a pic or two, but it was raining so hard I decided not to venture forth for more pics. By the way the cake was delicious!

This was my first experience of hail rat-a-tat-tatting on my helmet, this is my least favourite thing and it would drive me insane if I had to drive a lot in it.

For all those who want winter gone

Cool places to park a motorcycle challenge

Gary France has issued a challenge of cool places to park a motorcycle. See here http://garysusatour.blogspot.ca/2013/04/competition-cool-places-to-park.html. Here is my contribution.  And yes the bike is the centre of my universe ;)

Music to my ears "Mom let's go for a ride"

Today was supposed to be rainy and cold, but as with all things weather on the West Coast wait 5 minutes and it changes. Scooterpie Jr decided she needed some ride time and called out "Mom let's go for a ride!" Well being one to never pass up a ride in the sunshine off we went. We kept it local. Here are a few pics. We stopped by the Chinese Cemetery and rode around Beach Drive.