The Lonely Rider

I am participating in Ride for Sight, which is the longest running motorcycle charity in Canada. By sponsoring us in the Ride, you will be contributing to finding a cure for blindness! One hundred percent of funds raised by riders go directly to The Foundation Fighting Blindness, which continues to fund significant research breakthroughs.

I will be heading up the night before and riding with hundreds of others on June 20th, who are supporting research to fight blindness.

You can help support us by making a secure online donation. Click on the link below:

http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?SID=1830014

For more information on how YOU can participate in Ride for Sight, please visit us at www.rideforsight.com.

Thanks for your support

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Hi Everyone,

Some of you may be aware, some not so aware, but last September the Ontario Government passed Bill 203 into law now called Ontario regulation 455/07, or better known as the Anti-Street racing legislation.

The premise was to crack down on street racing by posing harsher penalties. Although the intention is pure, the premise it was lobbied on was not. The true fact is, this legislation was lobbied under false pretense under the guise of safety for all. The public was lead to believe that “street racers” ( at the time profiled as any car enthusiast according to Attorney General Bryant) are a gross danger to the motoring public and must be cracked down on or eliminated all together.

Road safety is always a good thing, but existing rules under the existing highway traffic act can effectively deter speeders and aggressive drivers if properly enforced and issued, the new law effectively was not needed.

The new law not only targets speeders traveling 50 kph over the posted limit under one portion of the law, but can target any and all motorists for various other infractions that are for lack of a better terms left to the judgment of an officer, under the rest of the law.

Based on what an officer claims he sees you do, he can effectively at the side of the road seize your vehicle and suspend your drivers license for 7 days. The vehicle is sent to impound and all towing and impound fees paid out at the owners expense (this includes vehicles loaned to a friend).

This law does not just target speeders, it has a very wide blanket, with a great deal of gray area. If you think it can’t happen to you, think again. A simple failing to yield the right of way could land your car in the impound, you sitting on your butt for the week at home, and in court trying to defend a $2,000 – $10,000 fine! Even if proven innocent later in a court of law, there is no recourse for compensation to reimburse for towing or impound, you are stuck with those costs!! Basically an automatic $1000 fine before being proven guilty, is this not too much power for a police officer at the side of the road?

It is the Car Enthusiasts who immediately saw this law for what it could become (years of being profiled and unjustly pulled over), the general public was and still is under the impression that the law will not effect them. Considering over 4500 people have been charged under the new street racing law, with a fraction of a percentage being charged actual car enthusiasts, its pretty clear this law has become more of a cash grab with a gross violation of our civil rights, then it is a law to make us safe. Many times I have witnessed minivans being loaded onto a flatbed truck, leaving some poor soccer mom stranded for a week without her vehicle.

The attached petition asks for support to ask the Ontario Government to remove the seizure and license suspension portions of the new Street racing legislation, but keep the fine amounts and infractions the same. It is something that effects all of us, not just the so called street racers. The streets Must be safe….but they must also be fair!

Petition Link >>>>
http://www.petitiononline.com/civil013/petition.html

Details of Regulation 455/07
http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/index.html

Please pass this on to anyone who you feel would be interested in regaining their civil rights back. It starts with a small law like this one to set a precedent…what will our government do next?

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Toronto’s municipal government has agreed to let motorcyclists use High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes controlled by the city, even with only one rider aboard. The change is effective May 1st, 2008.

City councillor Case Ootes announced on Wednesday that a motion to let motorcycles and scooters into HOV lanes passed in council. City staff now will amend bylaws to formalize the matter.

This is not something that came easily, with municipal government staff recommending that single-rider motorcycles be kept out of HOV lanes when the HOV lanes were originally announced.

However, pressure from motorcycle lobby groups convinced councillors that allowing motorcycles into the lanes makes environmental and economical sense, and would improve, or at least not worsen, safety.

HOV lane signs will be changed over time, but for now, motorcycle stickers will be put on them. Toronto will also advise other Ontario jurisdictions with HOV lanes that this change has taken place.

This news comes as a huge relief to riders in Toronto and is a great step forward for motorcycle safety. Hopefully other municipalities will also ammend their local bylaws and finally a change to the Provincial HTA would be nice allowing motorcycles on highway HOV lanes.

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Even though I’ve been riding nearly all winter (depending if there was snow or ice on the road), I’ve been itching to get out and tour through some nice country roads. So with that in mind I planned out a route spanning just over 350km. The plan was to start in Markham and ride to Port Perry, Bobcaygeon, take hwy 507 up to Gooderham and circle back via Kinmount, Fenlon Falls and Sutton. Having done a very similar route before, I knew that this would certainly make for a nice day.

However, I decided it might be nice to have some company for this little trip, so I decided to post an open invitation for other riders to join me. I announced my intentions and my proposed route on some of the online forums that I’m involved with and see what happens. My comfort level usually hits its limit with groups around 10 riders. Much more then that and the rides turn into a logistical nightmare. Everyone needs fuel at some point and refuelling several bikes takes a long time. Also rest stops, turn into social gatherings and take far longer then needed because everyone just gets to yammering about whatever. Also with larger groups, you end up with a wider range of experience and attitudes, which can both play a factor to the overall safety of the group.

Well you can imagine the look on my face when 30 riders showed up at the starting point! I think I still have a bruise on my chin from where it hit the ground. An hour before the ride was supposed to start, bikes began pulling into the parking lot. I tried to introduce myself to them and find out their experience level but eventually I couldn’t keep up with all the faces and bikes pulling in. One fellow named Steve did stand out, as it was only his second day riding ever! Well I made a point to Steve that he just became my shadow for the day so that I could keep an eye on him.

At 10am, we finally hit the road and headed off to Port Perry, which was to be our first stop. I was expecting to find a few more riders waiting there for us. However, once again I’m sure the look on my face was priceless when our numbers grew much more and we picked up another 12 or so riders. Hell, we were already stretching our parade of bikes over 1km long and now we exceeded 40 bikes in this “little tour” I had planned. This was too much and we had to split the group for safety sake.

From there our next stop was in Bobcaygeon so that we could regroup and stop for lunch. I was glad to hear that those who knew the way from here and wanted a faster pace continued ahead of us and those who were already getting tired, turned around and headed home. This left us with about 30 riders to worry about. Once we got to the bottom of our run up the 507, I stopped the group again for one last fuel stop and to hold a little meeting.

The 507 is one of the best sport bike roads in Ontario but it’s still not a race track and this group had some very new riders. I explained to everyone that riding your own pace and not trying to keep up with faster, more experienced riders was an important concept that needed to be understood before they began. I also explained to the group that I had gotten reports from other riders who had just come from the northern end, that there was already a rider down just a few corners up the road.

I was pleased to find that at the end of the run, everyone was accounted for and we began our journey homeward to the starting point. After nearly seven hours, I returned to the start with only 10 riders remaining. The others had left at various points along the way home to take routes that made more sense for them depending on where they lived.

All in all, it was a great day without incident and many of the riders are looking forward to my next group ride.

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