2012 has been an interesting year...Leslie got a new job and is now working for BC Transplant as an Organ Donation Coordinator and Organ Donation Specialist.
Cheryl continues to do well in her police career and we got engaged. Wedding will be next August 2013. More info please read below.
Cheryl and I met in 1997 in Bellingham, Washington. We kept in touch over the year via the internet plus flying back and forth. Before we both knew it I moved all the way across the country to a new country no less in march 1998 and been here ever since. I, meaning Leslie grew up in New York on Long Island where her family still remains except my brother.
Went to College in upstate NY and grad school back on Long Island where I got my Masters Degree in Social Work. In 1999 I started working as an Intensive Care Unit Social Worker at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver, BC and loved my job after all those years.
Cheryl grew up in the lower mainland of BC and many of her family members are here as well. Beautiful place to grow up and go to school. Throughout Cheryl's teenage years and adulthood she worked for her mother's family business. However, at the ripe old age of 35 she decided to embark upon a career in law enforcement which she has been enjoying for over 5 years. Cheryl has found a passion within the Police force working with kids in schools.
We have been together as partner's for 15 years and after Cheryl graduated Depot (Police Training) we both got motorcycles and our licenses. I grew up on bikes and Cheryl always wanted to learn to ride. Learning was easy for Cheryl and getting back on a bike for me just made sense. Cheryl thinks I am obsessed with bikes but to be honest once she is on the road I can't stop her.
Cheryl loves video games, I love wild life, Cheryl dreams about white sandy tropical beaches, I dream about seeing the polar bears in Hudson Bay, Manitoba.
Opposites attract and we both share a passion for adventure motorcycle touring. We learned this after buying our first 2010 BMW F650GS bikes. We travel well together making sure we are both taking care of ourselves. Cheryl is the brains, mechanic, navigator and packer, I am the organizer/planner.
Cheryl is the quiet one, I am the loud New Yorker. Cheryl loves video games, I love live web cams featuring Bald Eagles, Falcons, osprey's and Owls. In the end it seems to work.
There has to be some comments about this bike. Please share.
I don’t know about this. I really like my Tiger 800 but think the 1200 with 140bhp and extra weight might just be a little bit overkill, especially off road. It is a beautiful bike and I can certainly understand why Triumph has chosen it as its flagship touring bike, just not for me.
Brian
I agree…the weight could be an issue but in reality for the roads we really enjoy the weight might not be such a big deal. it does look like the 800 on steroids doesn’t it? The price will be high I bet…just like the BMW 1200GS when loaded. I hope Triumph makes a few changes to the 800 like the abs switch etc….things I would love to see….we will be in the market next year so….i am curious as to what we will buy in the end!
My comments on the Explorer are in another thread. I want to share my thoughts about using male models for adventure motorcycles. The average woman is shorter than the average man. Also, given the same amount of physical activity, a man is more heavily muscled than a woman, due to the levels of testosterone present in men’s bloodstream. Even great female athletes, like the Williams sisters in tennis, do not develop the same strength as male athletes. (Let us not forget that the female stamina is unmatched, as any working mother with a very sick child can testify, for instance, while we males collapse after a couple of days of non-stop work). So, if a female rider appears “modeling” a motorcycle, the advertising is saying implicitly that the machine is suited for shorter, weaker riders. I am a short person (1.72m or 5’ 7”), so that would mean good news for me. Also, if I am to do extreme rides, it is almost a certainty that I will be picking up my motorcycle after a fall, perhaps in slippery and steep terrain. The lighter the motorcycle, the more likely it is that I may be able to get it up again even if nobody is available to help me. So, a smaller and lighter motorcycle may be just the ticket for me and many men with the same build as me, but sadly, for many of them their manhood must be permanently proved, because very often we short guys are ridiculed and deemed as less manly than larger folks. This is childish and ridiculous, but on average, men are much more immature than women, so many men prefer to be caught dead than riding a “girlie” motorcycle, meaning by this any motorcycle advertised by a female model. Advertising agencies know how the human mind works, so they carefully avoid making their customers lose market share unnecessarily.
It is a very different issue to give the wrong signals. For instance, if around your area the gay community is using a specific decal on their vehicles to declare their preference, it would be advisable to avoid riding one of those if you are not gay, because it would not be fair to make believe a gay person think that you are a member of their community if you are not, risking a lot of misunderstandings, tense moments and even unnecessary rudeness. The problem that advertising wisely recognizes is that the delicate line between respectful decisions and biased ones is very often lost to many men, so that is why we see female motorcycle models once in a while and very discreetly, like the one depicted on the second page of the BMW F800R brochure. Anyway, any effort made on behalf of a better, more respectful and inclusive world for women is a blessing from my point of view, living in a Latin American (machismo is the name of the game around here), married for 32 years and with 5 kids, 3 of them girls, you can understand why I will gladly support a better world for women. By the way, this site is a phenomenal showcase of the courage and strength of women once they set their minds onto something. Again, congratulations.
WOW….Ok makes sense in the marketing world….so then Triumph really made a Huge mistake having us ride their bikes….we are both short in a man’s world and we are grrls….so, I wonder if many are thinking the Tiger 800XC is a grrly bike now? Just kidding you….I get your point but in this day and age with so many women wanting to get into riding and ADV riding to boot it is a shame the message is still men ride these bikes. Grrls? Well we are just models on bikes half naked or we should ride Harley Davidson’s because their advertising has really been geared towards getting women on their BIG 1600cc bikes and it is working.
Oh well….maybe I was delusional to think our trip could make a dent in this market….
I wonder if some reading this BLOG think we are credible or full of crap? never thought about that a woman run BLOG about ADV riding might not be read because we are grrls…..things that make you think.
This looks like an awesome bike. Wuld love to rip this through the forest hear in Cali.
All the bikes I have posted have good qualities about them in their own way….nice to see the ADV options growing eh?
Looks like a big honkin’ beast. Looking forward to a test ride, but I really can’t see it replacing my 800XC. The frosted windscreen is an interesting touch.
no pressure to replace anything. It’s great when a rider finds that right bike…but did you vote for the 800XC?