An Electric Experience With All Season Motorsports

Sanjay and I had a real treat yesterday, after getting a special invite from Steven down at All Season Motorsports on 10 Ave.,S.W. in Calgary. Aside from a great selection of entry level motorcycles and lots of different styles of rental bikes, All Season sells the Zero electric motorcycle and let us take two of their models out for a spin around town. We had the DS and FX models, with the former being a sport bike and the latter being a dual purpose bike, with the higher stance that you expect on an all terrain bike. Still, the FX, which weighs in at a mere 130kg and produces 70 ft-lbs of torque with the equivalence of 44 hp, was so much fun to ride and has so much zip you can't help but smile when you twist the throttle.
There were several things that took some getting used to, that's for sure. There's some fun with clutches and gear changing, second nature for Sanjay and me, but we both did admire the seamless acceleration on the Zero bikes, with no hesitation in the throttle response no matter what the speed. Setting up for curves and twists in the road took some adjustments but, overall, the straight up throttle power was pretty cool. I also had a bit of an adjustment to make for the sound, which is so minimal that you start to wonder if the bike is running. At the first stop sign after leaving All Season Motorsports, Sanjay actually thought he had stalled the bike, which of course had us laughing!
Check out Blue Circle's Facebook page for the little video of me on the RS model, cruising around McMahon Stadium parking lot in what I referred to as 'stealth mode'. Silent as a ninja (the warrior, not the Kawasaki bike! haha)
Many thanks to Steven and the great crew at All Season for welcoming us and taking us out for a really fun and interesting test ride. Sanjay enjoyed the experience so much he is seriously thinking about getting an FX, a huge testimonial in itself!

Sanjay on the Zero DS

I started out on the Zero FX

No clutch and no gear changer

No exhaust pipes either!

Getting ready for stealth mode

Steven, from All Season Motorsports, and Blue Circle's Sanjay, pose with the Zero DS and Fx 

Pike's Peak June 29th 2014

Pike's Peak is an annual time trial race that takes place in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, within Pike National Forest. The track measures 12.42 miles (19.99 km) and has 156 turns, climbs 4,720 ft (1,440 m) on grades averaging 7% from the start at Mile 7 on Pikes Peak Highway, and finishes at 14,110 ft (4,300 m) above sea level. It once consisted of both gravel and paved sections, but the highway is fully paved as of 2011.
It has taken place since 1916, making it the second oldest motorsport event in the United States of America. It is currently contested by a variety of classes of cars, trucks, motorcycles and quads. There are often numerous new classes tested each year, and often discarded. Lately, there have been several categories of electric vehicles, including motorcycles, as displayed in some of my previous posts on the latter. On average there are 150 competitors in multiple categories, but in the case of motorcycles we have.....

• Motorcycle 1205 CC
• Motorcycle 750 CC
• Motorcycle 450 CC
• Motorcycle 250 CC
• Motorcycle Vintage
• Motorcycle Sidecar
• Exhibition Powersports (Electric)
• Heavy Weight Supermoto
• Exhibition Powersports-Z (Electric)
• Quad Modified

The 'Track'

There are multiple car categories

One of 156 curves

The Motorcycle Division has a side-car category

One of the Electric bikes

This gives you a good idea about the nature of the track

Crashes do happen and they're not pretty

Super Turbo rig

A modified Quad

More track action

Carlin Dunne won it all on the 'Lightning', a very fast, super-sport electric bike

The end!

Wind Up BBQ

After the parade, riders take off on the poker run and end up at the Springbank complex for the BBQ and wrap up, where prizes are handed out and the raffle winners are drawn. Once again, lots of bikes, and lots of volunteers to help make it happen.

Wherever there's motorcycles, you can find the great people from Ride Stop n Go 

CJAY92 was a sponsor and had some fun with the day!

About 1200 horsepower that gets you 0-100mph in .8 seconds, producing 4.0g of force on the driver

Darkside Racing with their dragster.

Another event which will help the Prostate Cancer Centre

Team Zeus was there to showcase their project, an all electric super sport race bike

Many businesses pitched in with prizes and items for the silent auction

The Man-Van also has a team of dedicated volunteers

The Man-Van was busy at work

Handing over $1000.00 to the 50/50 winner

More great volunteers, who helped with merchandise sales

The bikes lined up down the road, around the corner and into the parking lot behind the complex

Calgary Motorcycle Ride for Dad 2014

Blue Circle is pleased to be a sponsor of the Calgary Motorcycle Ride For Dad, but on the flip side are a big group of people who really make things happen. it should be known that something as big and as successful as this year's Calgary motorcycle Ride For Dad would never take place or run as smoothly except for a core of dedicated volunteers who have worked hard all year long to get things organized, not to mention a whole lot of others who stepped up on the day of the ride to pitch in where needed. I just got word that the unofficial tally for the day was 561 riders who, along with the sponsorships,  raised over $165,000.00 for awareness and research of prostate cancer. Way to go calgary, and way to go volunteers!!

Ang, from Ride Stop n Go, and Ashlee, from One Broken Biker, helped sell 50/50 and WestJet tickets!

The bikes are rolling in early

It was overcast and chilly, so it was great that Van Houtte graciously supplied hot coffee.

Drew is helping organize a Christmas toy run

The Magic Of Christmas Toy Run

The Sheriff Department was there, along with the CPS

Steve Adair, co-chair of Calgary Ride for Dad, is a key member of a dedicated team of volunteers

More bikes lining up

Harley Davidson Of Calgary was another sponsor, and also brought the 2014 Street Glide along with the dyno tester 

Bikes of all kinds

More of the volunteers who made this event possible

Not your average bike, as I was admiring this cool KTM adventure bike

Many thank you speeches.

Co-chairs Steve Adair and Ron Parkinson show last year's donation amount for prostate cancer research

Go Blue Circle!

Blue Circle's prez, Gerry Baert,  is a Platinum Level sponsor and also joined the ride!

Almost ready to ride.

It took 15 minutes for all the bikes to pass me while I filmed