I’m Sort of Legal To Ride a Motorcycle Now

So this past Thursday, I had another Motorcycle Lesson with my instructor, Dave Clayton, at 2Wheel 2Ition Motorcycle School. First off, he obviously doesn’t have super web design skills as evident by his website. However, what he lacks in Interwebs Skillz, he more than makes up for in being probably one of the most patient and thorough instructors of anything that I’ve ever been instructed in. Motorcycle riding is extremely dangerous if you lack the proper experience and education and I’ve felt safe riding with Dave every step of the way, from front wheel sliding in the parking lot and almost dumping the bike, to slightly wet pavement in the downtown core of Maple Ridge. Despite never being on a motorcycle, I certainly faired much better than a certain segway crasher.

The thing I’ve been particularly impressed with about Dave is how he keeps his cool even when his students lose it. This in turn makes his students feel at ease. I wonder if he could teach Kwanye to ride a scooter rather than crashing it? I guess after being on the Vancouver Police Force for thirty years he’s seen it all, but I’ll have to ask him if he’s seen anyone bite it on a Segway in his long tenure on the force.

During the Thursday class, I met up with Dave again with one of the other students and we started the day with a road ride. We ended up doing a lot of turns with lots of stop signs in the suburbs of Maple Ridge including a lot of hill starts and U-Turns. When we got back to the parking lot, he setup cones and he ran us through the Motorcycle Skills Test that we’d be going through to get my restrictions pulled off my license so that I could ride by myself during the day without any supervision. This would of course open up the doors to shopping for a successor to Scooter.

After about half an hour or so of practicing, he informs us that the Motorcycle Skills Tester would be stopping by to do our test. I wasn’t nervous since I was doing pretty good in my low speed maneuvers, but a little notice would have been nice. Wasting no more time panicking, I continued to practice as we waited for the tester to arrive. About half an hour later, tester shows up and it’s show time.

With none of the students willing to volunteer, Dave volunteers the other student. I breathe a huge sigh of relief. Not going first also allows me to observe what the tester is watching for and what things the other rider screws up on. About 20 minutes later, she passes within the maximum allowable amount of demerits. Relief for her. Great anticipation for me. The tester beckons me to take my spot at the line and runs through the first part of the test with me verbally. Part one of the test includes a slow, walking pace ride, a stop, then a u-turn in a box not much bigger than two parking spots and then a slalom through some cones.

I run through the first part of the test carefully and make it through. I’m relieved. The tester goes through the second part of the test and I’m off again. Since the second part is the same as the first, but with a left hand turn to start, I feel pretty good and complete the course and return to the starting area. Next up was the third part and then the final part.

Part three consists of a quick acceleration to about 25 - 30 KM/h, then a wide sweeping right hand turn. At the completion of the turn, you are to accelerate up to 20 - 25 KM/h to a set of cones and then stop before the second set of cones. You are not to stop until the tester says so. I do the acceleration, the right hand sweeper, and accelerate up to 20 - 25 KM/h and wait for the testers signal. At the first set of cones, the instructor dropped his hand and I came to a controlled stop. Not bad. I thought I almost slid the rear wheel which is a demerit. I couldn’t recall.

Part four is the same as the third part, except you start the straight line acceleration with a wide right hand turn. I made the turn, accelerated, hit the sweeper, and then came down the straight stretch to the controlled stop area. The tester drops his hand, I grab the front, then the rear brake and come down for a controlled stop. Perfect. To add to the great finish, the tester tallies up my total and declares that I’ve done the whole test perfectly, with no mistakes. He signs off my test form and gives it to me so that I can take it to ICBC to have my restrictions removed.

Since I rode Scooter in, I twisted his throttle as far as it could go and did a little over the speed limit so I could make it to the ICBC Office to have my license updated. After my license was updated, you get a new piece of yellow paper that limits you only to riding between dawn and dusk. Since getting my license updated, I’ve been out looking at motorcycles and scooters and I’ve narrowed the list down somewhat. I have one more test ride tomorrow and then I’ll share my final choices with you guys.

Back To School Madness for Stephen Fung!

The thing that deteriorates the most as you age is your brain and it should be everyone’s goal to continue to learn throughout one’s life. As long as I have the opportunity, I will never stop learning. That’s why I love new gadgets and learning about new products. It’s what keeps me going and keeps me engaged because, as some of you know, I have a pretty short attention span. Here’s what I’ve gotten myself into this Fall…

More Mandarin For Me!

Last year I started taking Mandarin Lessons at Langara College on Saturdays. Although I still suck pretty bad, I know that you can’t learn a new language overnight, or once a week, intermittently, over the course of the year. Hopefully, I’ll fail less next year in Taiwan by continuing my commitment to learn this language. It sucks when you’re more understandable in English than you are in the local language. So far, after my first class back, I feel totally overwhelmed. I really hope I can get back into it quickly.

Speaking of FAIL, after my class on Saturday, I met up with Ed Lau and Leo Chiang for some impromptu “Dot Com Tandori Action” at All India Sweets and Restaurant. It wasn’t an official meet up per se, but I did send out a Tweet if anyone wanted to stop by. This week’s DOT COM FAIL is brought to you by Ed…

Ed likes to season his food. So much so that he decides that the lid of the pepper shaker must come off and he must get all the pepper that is available to him. It’s kind of like how our people like to steal napkins, load up on condiments, and take them home for later use. However, Ed’s interpretation is definitely FAIL. I’m not too surprised though. With a College blocks away, I’d check every shaker before shaking in this hood. PWNED!

School Wouldn’t Be School Without a Hook Up

Unfortunately, I won’t be hooking up at school. My life would be at risk. But it doesn’t mean I can’t live vicariously through someone else…

My little scooter friend decided that while I was back in the classroom, he would get busy with a sexy little number in the parking lot. Oh scooter! You’re such a player! Hopefully, I don’t see little mini-pocket bikes running around somewhere that I don’t know about. I’m sure he’s responsible enough to use plenty of lube and keep the rubber side down.

Taking Much Gooder Pictures

Last year, I took a course that really helped me open up the possibilities when it comes to my photography. Whether it’s just pictures for reviews or for fun, the ten week course put on my Vancouver Photo Workshops really gave me a better understanding on how to get consistently better pictures by avoiding the flash or using lots of flashes. I even got to shoot models. Most importantly, I got to try a bunch of different styles of photography that I would never venture into under normal circumstances. Heck, I even took some shots at a wedding.

This Fall, I’ll be filling in the gaps. I’ll be returning to Vancouver Photo Workshops to do an intensive weekend Photoshop Session for Photographers and a Product Photography Course. Although these are probably things I can read about and learn on my own, it’s no substitute for a hands on experience in an environment where you can ask questions and learn from others. The class starts in October so I’ll report back when things get rolling.

I Thought I’d Never Do It…

Although I had always sworn off getting myself on a motorcycle for fear that I would kill myself on one, I guess the scooter was only the first step. I’m hooked, and there’s nothing I can do about it now. On Monday, I got my motorcycle learners license, and then this morning, I took my very first motorcycle riding lesson.

My first ever motorcycle ride was on a Suzuki Marauder 250. My course will be lead by Dave Clayton at 2wheel 2ition Motorcyle School. I figured a good education on two wheels would be a good investment and would help ensure that I pick up the good habits I need to be safe on the road. Although I’ve had lots of saddle time on my scooter, as I found out today, a motorcycle is a whole different animal.

I guess my fear of learning to ride a motorcycle stems from the fact that I know myself too well. It’s not that I ever doubted my ability to be able to ride one, but what I was most concerned with was the mindset of a younger Stephen Fung. A younger version of me wouldn’t have even considered getting professional instruction or taking my time, stepping up from a scooter and learning proper road sense. Not to mention the impulsiveness and daredevil attitude as a young gun scared even myself at time. Now that I’m older and wiser, I think that I’m finally ready to do something that I’ve always wanted to do.

There’s definitely going to be a lot of learning in the next while and I’ll definitely pass on the good stuff. Stay tuned

I Knew It! Phelps is Some Kind of Marine Mammal!

In my last post of complete randomness, I mentioned how I was heading back to the pool to work on my swim. I’d never been a good swimmer, and in fact, I’m about as clumsy in water as Michael Kwan is on a Segway or a Scooter. I guess we have something in common…sort of…nah…not really. I’m not that uncoordinated. At any rate, I’m a bad swimmer. So bad, I had to be saved once, and I nearly drowned myself in a kayak…in a swimming pool. After watching Michael Phelps take home more Gold medals than the entire Canadian Olympic Team, I was inspired. On TV, he makes the butterfly and breast stroke look so easy and the freestyle look like a walk in the park. Well, looks are very deceiving.

On my first day out, trying to do my best Michael Phelps imitation, I ended up doing a Michael Kwan Segway imitation: I failed. I was so useless, flailing around in the pool and barely made it to the other end. I I knew in that moment, if I was on a cruise or a boating trip, and the boat sank, I’d be going down with it. I would not go down like that, so I swam harder. After two and a half laps, my body was full of lactic acid and it felt like my chest was going to explode. Maybe I should have had a Phelps breakfast that consisted of a bowl of cereal, three egg sandwhiches, bacon and eggs, and two chocolate chip pancakes to wash it down before heading to the pool.

Today, I had a bacon and egger (as close as I had to the Phelps breakfast at the time) at A&W and swam much better than the day before, but it was still the hardest four laps I’d ever doggied, flailed, something resembling freestyle, swam. There had to be some explanation as to why Michael Phelps can do it without seemingly any effort, while I was killing myself to stay afloat. Then I found this…

It appears that the Onion News Network has unearthed the true reason behind why Phelps is the man that he is: He is not…a man that is.

Shortly after his return from Beijing, his handler, Bob Bowman, coralled “the 6′4″, 200-pound aquatic mammal, and the first ever SeaWorld swimmer to be raised in captivity by foster swimmers (Mark Spitz and Dara Torres)” back to his tank at Sea World. Apparently, in addition to fried egg sandwhiches, he has an even greater love of “Dutch Apple Pie” which Bowman used as bait to get him back into the 5,500 seat stadium known as “Phelps Happy Harbour”.

Although they let Phelps out every four years to play with the US Swim Team, the “World Society for the Conservation of Olympic Swimmers” alleges that he’s not really as happy as he seems. “When he was placed back into his tank, the slightly loose portion of his black swim cap immediately folded over to the right side, a telltale symptom of stress and angst”.

No wonder this guy swims like a Dolphin. He practically is one! However, I now feel sorry for him being all locked up like that. I’m sure that there will be a movie called “Free Phelps” somewhere down the line. I guess I’ll stop pitying myself and go back to flailing like a human being. I must not be doing as bad as I think I am.

You can read more about the Marine Mammal known as Phelps at the Onion News Network. Thanks for the laugh guys!