With the weather finally looking like summer (we have had a very wet spring), my buddy and I decided to get in a good ride. We decided on leaving from British Columbia, Canada, and heading up to Winthrop Washington for lunch. The distance is approximately 300km each way (185 miles). Giving us a 600km (370 mile) day.

We left around 8:00am, crossed the border, and made it up to Winthrop by 12:30pm. Lunch consisted of a cold pint of their finest (just one) and a Mexican meal. The restaurant was situated bedside a nice lively little river. We gassed up before we set out. We topped up at Sedro-Woolley. I remembered there was a decent gas station at Marblemount and one up at Winthrop. We figured we had enough fuel to make it up to Winthrop and back down to Marblemount. We ended up cutting it pretty fine. Both of our low fuel lights came on a fair distance before we made it back down to Marblemount. The manual for the ZX-14 indicates that it has a 5.8 gal (US) tank. When I filled up at Marblemount I put in 5.37 gal (US) and my tripometer indicated 352 KM (218 miles). I had 0.43 gal (US) remaining.

The ride started out easy on HWY 9, extremely low traffic, back country roads kind of thing. Pavement quality was good, roads clean, some corners.

Hwy 20 starts out as a bit of a yawn. You pass through a series of small towns (I swear in the States wherever a horse stopped and took a dump they named it and made it a town back in the day). Once you get past the town of Concrete the road develops more twists. As you start to head up into the Cascade mountain range you quickly understand why this ride is so popular. The pavement quality is good, road is clean, lots of corners to sink your teeth into. There are not a lot of dual passing lanes, There are some pull outs (nice if RV`s are thoughtful). The passing sections are odd at times, short, and not always offer great oncoming visibility. This is not a problem for our machines as we have more than enough power to make the pass. (funny to watch the Hardly Dangerous crowd whipping their mounts like a rented mules and having to bail on some passes - the ultimate in humiliation.....so much for their screaming eagle upgrades - LOL)

Winthrop is a tiny dry old dusty cowboy town (wooden board walks, rustic wood framed store fronts, and gears for the tourist. My favorite watering hole is the School House Brewery, where you can sit and enjoy a nice beverage on their lower deck next to the river. Winthrop can be an end destination (lunch, or over night), or part of several longer loops. Most cars seem to understand that this road is a motorcycle playground and seem to play along.

Spyglass

* Last updated by: spyglass on 7/8/2012 @ 5:45 PM *

Awesome Spy...geez...THAT looks like a really cool ride!Glad your baby worked flawlessly for ya...

* Last updated by: Grn14 on 7/8/2012 @ 7:23 PM *

How long to cross the border? I'm I correct in that no passport = no crossing?

Thanks Grn14, ran like a swiss watch, made me proud. It is a decent run and gives you a little of everything to make an enjoyable day.

Hagrid you need one of the following to get into the USA. (Passport, Nexus, or if you live in BC you can get an Enhanced Drivers Licence). I use that latter. It costs $30 more than a standard licence. I have a passport but it is too bulky in comparison. I like the old days when you could get into the States with just a smile, and into Mexixo with just your drivers license (after you push the button). The posted wait time was 40min, but we cheated along the shoulder and slipped into the Duty Free..... bought a pack of gum.... and were out and into the line 5 cars from the border booth. I would guess 15 min to get through. On the way home there was no line up at all and I was able to pull right up to the booth..... the gal didn't even make me take my helmet off (I think Canada is just happy we come back).

Spyglass

* Last updated by: spyglass on 7/9/2012 @ 12:29 AM *

Sounds like you guys had fun! Maybe one of these days I share my personal harrowing experience with border patrol entering the U.S. going back to Philly after a weekend in Toronto in 2003.

NINJA ZX-14 MotoVlog

KoflaOlivieri hopefully your border experience didn't involve the dreaded rubber glove.
I think a lot of the people who work at boarder crossings have issues and the power goes to their heads. Women for some reason seem to be the worst. I had one gal make me go in to pay the tax on a $15 purchase. These days they seems to allow you $200 for a day trip before they send you inside to pay taxes. For 24hr the exemption if $400, and 72hrs is $800. Sadly the alcohol is one bottle (wine or spirits), or one case of beer, per person after 24hr (the booze in Canucklehead land is taxes to the hilt.....)

Before I forget, I enjoyed the posts you made using your video cam on your bike. I just bought a Drift HD cam and hope to make a few ride videos myself. What editing software are you use for your videos.

Spyglass

Kofla, hopefully your border experience didn't involve the dreaded rubber glove.

Lol, not the rubber gloves, but even though I had all proper documents, including an American passport, agents pull me over, search my car and put the drug sniffing dogs through my car for what it seemed like an eternity. My friends claim I was profiled because I was driving with my (then) girlfriend, who also happen to be a pretty hot blond with blue eyes. And for a long time I had long dreadlocks, some people thought I was Jamaican. The agents were not happy when they didn't find what they were looking for, lol

I enjoyed the posts you made using your video cam on your bike. I just bought a Drift HD cam and hope to make a few ride videos myself. What editing software are you use for your videos.

I am still trying to capture different angles on my rides, and ways to improve my recordings. To edit my short videos I use Cyberlink Power Director, but in the future I plan to get a 30 day free trial of Sony Vegas Pro and see if I like it. The problem is that most of these programs have tons of features and it takes a while to learn to use them.

Kofla

NINJA ZX-14 MotoVlog

* Last updated by: KoflaOlivieri on 7/9/2012 @ 1:24 PM *

I have always been a huge Adobe Photoshop user, so the natural move was to get Adobe Premiere. It is more program than I need right now (and the initial learning curve is wee bit steep). Like you said, some software is packed with a ton of features and it takes a while to get up to speed. I have figured out the basic editing and transitions (thanks Youtube Tutorials and the people who spend hours making them). I have had some audio related issues where the audio won't play in the finish "rendered" sequence. I also have to understand all the different video formats. I had played around with Windows Movie Maker but it hug up all the time, and had too many limitations. The write up on the Cyberlink Power Directory seemed good (and reasonably priced)
I am still getting used to the HD cam and it strengths and limitations. I have taken several short movies under different conditions. So far the cam is impressive. Len flare is it's biggest downfall, and dramatic light to dark transitions. The viewing angle (170 deg) is quite extreme..... have my 12" flippers / feet in a lot of the first few videos. - LOL The Cam can zoom to decrease the viewing / capture angle so it is just a case of getting familiar

Spyglass

I have always been a huge Adobe Photoshop user, so the natural move was to get Adobe Premiere.

I use Adobe Photoshop Elements on my socio/political commentary blog. It is the reason why my God of War Diaries blog exist. I love manipulating images to use on my blog. lol Not sure why I didn't get Adobe Premiere.

Kofla

NINJA ZX-14 MotoVlog

* Last updated by: KoflaOlivieri on 7/9/2012 @ 2:57 PM *

KoflaOlivieri,

I just checked out your site. I see you do like your PhotoShop - LOL

Has anybody ever told you that you look a little like "Gustavo 'Gus' Fring" (Giancarlo Esposito) off of the TV series Breaking Bad.

Here are a couple of images that I took and PhotoShoped:

Spyglass

I just checked out your site. I see you do like your PhotoShop - LOL

Has anybody ever told you that you look a little like "Gustavo 'Gus' Fring" (Giancarlo Esposito) off of the TV series Breaking Bad.

Lol, not "Gus", but when I lived in New York people used to say I looked like the late Gregory Hines. Those are great photoshopped images you made.

As you can tell by looking at my God of War Diaries blog, I love video games and use their characters to personalize my blog posts, lol

Kofla

NINJA ZX-14 MotoVlog

Not to steer things from post processing suites but I happen to enjoy GoW as well. Excellent score... not points, the music.

"May the rage of the gods fuel your blades"

;)

I happen to enjoy GoW as well. Excellent score... not points, the music. "May the rage of the gods fuel your blades"

Hagrid, you can probably find the game official soundtrack at your local music store, also at Amazon. God of War 3 is a great soundtrack.

Kofla

NINJA ZX-14 MotoVlog