South Okanagan/Similkameen rides

[gerrychuck]

Trailered the bike from Saskatchewan to the South Okanagan Valley in British Columbia, and got 4 great rides in between all the winery visits, bicycle rides, walks with the dogs, etc.

Ride number 1 was from our cottage on the northeast side of Osoyoos Lake, up the winding Black Sage Road to Oliver, and up Hwy 97 to Penticton, where the bike received its 1000 km service while I literally had a cup of coffee.  Shoutout to the guys at Vantage Motorsports, who are rock stars.  From there I took 97 up to Kelowna, slogged through the city from west to northeast, and exited onto Hwy 33 for a glorious run down that beautiful road through Beaverdell and on to Rock Creek. What a great road; smooth pavement, many, many corners, and beautiful scenery.  From Rock Creek back to Osoyoos via Hwy 3, culminating in the descent down Anarchist Mountain into Osoyoos.  On any other day I would have been choked that I got stuck behind some heavy trucks on that famous corkscrew section of highway, but I'd had enough fun already that day that it didn't bother me.

Second ride took me up Black Sage to Oliver and north on 97 nearly to Penticton, where I took 3A southwest down one of my absolute favourite roads in BC to the Similkameen Valley.  So many great peg-bending sweepers.  Done this road a bunch of times and it never disappoints. From there, back east on 3 to Osoyoos.

Third ride saw me ride up to Penticton where I branched off westward on the Green Mountain Road, which runs up to Apex Ski hill. Very twisty, with a lot of blind corners.  Fun, but not my favourite of the trip.   Intersected with my old buddy 3A, and was forced to retrace the first 16 km of that great road, which happens to be my favourite part.  Darn.  From there back down 97, Tucelnuit Road and Black Sage home.

Last ride I took Black Sage (just to be clear, you basically can't go anywhere from where we were staying without going on the Black Sage, but that's ok, as it is a really sweet, winding road through beautiful vineyard country) and Tucelnuit to 97, a bit north on that road to Okanagan Falls, then took Lakeside Drive on the east shore of Skaha Lake into Penticton, around the north end of Skaha, down 97 to (surprise) 3A, where I ran the length again down to Keremeos and back east to Osoyoos via 3.

Altogether about 850 km of great riding in mostly great weather.  First chance to get the Tracer on the roads it was born to ride, and it did not disappoint.  I've done all those roads on my old XR1200 and enjoyed them very much, but the Tracer was just spectacular; lighter, more confidence-inspiring handling, more comfortable riding position, ridiculous fuel economy (I got a little over 4 litres/100km on the trip, which equates to nearly 70 miles/imperial gallon, or 58 per US gallon).  My overall fuel efficiency since new is down to 4.6 l/100km, or 61 miles/imperial and 51 miles/US.  Unreal.  My only complaint was that my new Corbin seat didn't arrive until the day we got back to Saskatchewan; my butt would have appreciated having it earlier!  Oh well; next year...