Tornados: Ultra Scary Version

After my recent post about the twister that hit Alberta last week , titled "Yard Work Must Get Done", I thought this video of a really big and nasty tornado down in Colorado would be a good follow up. Not that the Three Hills, Alberta twister couldn't have been deadly, but when you see this massive beast in the video, it really gets the heart pumping. The video is 5 minutes long and really gets going about midway through.

video shot by Reed Timmer

Yard Work Must Get Done!

Photo by Cecilia Wessels

Yes, a tornado can be terrifying and one should take care when the alert goes out. Just recently, one did touch down in Three Hills Alberta, but Theunis Wessels was 'fully aware' of the twister behind him and knew it was far enough away to not be an imminent threat, so he carried on calmly with his yard work. This photo was taken by his wife and obviously, with such a dramatic scenario taking place in the background, it went viral. It sure does look surreal, as did the time lapse of the tornado as posted below, taken by an unknown photographer.

Two Wheel Sunday 2017

Two Wheel Sunday Motorcycle Association is an event that brings all motorcycle groups, shops, riders and enthusiasts to one place at one time and our 2017 version was the biggest and best version yet, if over 3000 attendees is any indication!

BlueCircle is ready for guests

For the fourth year in a row, we not only had great weather, but a record number of booths and attendees. It looked a bit suspect in the early hours of the day but good motorcycle karma kept the clouds at bay and not a drop of rain fell during the day of the event.

Many thanks go to the core group of people who put this thing together by taking on key positions...Darcy Lucyk, Bobby Baum, Gail Lane and Jack Burrows...along with several other people who take on some of the bigger jobs required to make TWS run as smoothly as it did. Way to go crew! We couldn't put on a show like this without some corporate help either, with major contributions from Cycle Works Calgary and BlueCircle Insurance. Both are involved in a big way with the motorcycle community outside of their own direct business so thank you!!

And also, many thanks to Lucid Moto and Jack Burrows for arranging to have the beautifuul blue Duc at our booth. So nice to look at and certainly a draw for the visitors. Not only did we have the cool blue bike, we had a lovely and energetic young artist, Taylor Odynski, at our booth, showing her talents by doing a live painting of the Ducati. Tay has done many quite a few amazing bike portraits, a unique and interesting way to capture the personality of your own bike!

Check out some photos from the day.... 

Lucid Moto had a huge display of a lot of their cool custom bikes

HOG Riders group was setting up the BBQ, where we generate all our funds for the charity

Ride Stop n Go and their colour coordinated footwear to match Troy's 2017 Indian

Yes, shoes to match that vintage green

CJAY92 DJ  Graeme Reaper

Our pals at Ride For Dad Calgary

And The Man-Van, funded in part by The Ride For Dad and BlueCircle

Checking out some of the bikes

Vince Aiello from Cycle Works Calgary chats with artist Taylor Odynski

Did we mention that TWS is a family event

  

BlueCircle was involved in 3 awesome motorcycle events in the span of 6 days (ROTM for our  Tuesday evening ride and CJAY Rocks for Saturday's cruise)  finishing off with the 4th Annual Two Wheel Sunday on Sunday. Even though it's only just completed, we can hardly wait for next year!!

CJAY Rocks!

Registrants got there early!

Well, there was another fantastic turnout for a fun event on the weekend past, when CJAY 92 hosted their Kids Foundation Motorcycle Rally. this was the second annual and we had a larger group of riders than year one, with about 250 bikes congregating at Trail Appliances on Saturday morning, enjoying some Starbucks coffee and treats while waiting to hit the highway.

BlueCircle was there, along with our friends at Cycle Works Calgary and the ever involved Ride Stop n Go team of Angela Murray and Troy Carlson. Always such amazing support for the motorcycle community from these people and it's truly inspiring.

BlueCircle was in charge of Pit Stop #1 and we hung out with CJAY Street Teamer, David, at the Mosslight Bar n Grill, about 45 minutes south and east of Calgary. A nice ride along such gorgeous, rolling prairie roads and the perfect little spot to stop and grab a bite to eat and a beverage, even when just out for a ride on your own. A real great group of ladies running the show there and they made us feel most welcome, not to mention filling us up with a fantastic home made burger! Might be time to revisit the "10 Great Rides 10 Great Burgers" and put them on our  BlueCircle Ride Guide maps!

After a refreshment break at Pit Stop #2 at the Longview Twin Cities Saloon, 

Do you recognize these bikes?

Troy, Ang and I with the CJAY crew, thomas, Reaper and Sibyl

You can always count on Cycle Works Calgary and Indian Motorcycles of Calgary to give support

Interesting decals on this bike.

The CJAY 92 sticker!

Olympic Luger and BlueCircle client Tristan Walker joined us for the ride

We're starting to get quite a few bikes now

Big Chief is a sponsor and supporter of Ride Stop n Go

These two ladies know how to put some km on the bikes

Biker babes <3

Pit Stop #1 has a line up

Get your passport punched and enter to win the custom wrapped fridge from BlueCircle

Tristan Walker filled out a ballot

The Mossleigh Bar n Grill was home to our Pit Stop

I wasn't the only one snapping photos of all the bikes and riders

Tristan filled out his entry form and then helped us sell 50/50 tickets

I'm heading back to calgary to get my bike

Always delighted to sit and wait for a train when you're in a hurry to catch up with your friends

Reaper gets the crowd gathered in for the draws

The winner is....

Thank you all for joining the ride!

Fire Up Those Bikes!!

Here's a little taste of my upcoming post about the CJAY 92 Kids Foundation Motorcycle Rally that BlueCircle was proud to be a part of and helped sponsor on the weekend past. Well, over 200 bikes and a lot of big-hearted and generous riders took part, but more on that later.

In the meantime, enjoy CJAYs' video of all that iron getting fired up!

Same Day Sunrise and Sunset

Heading to the the PYIB golf tournament in the early morning, with this unusual cloud formation to gaze at on my way

I'd sure like to clear a few more trees away from this spot at the camp, to widen the view.

ROTM

ROTM is "Ride Of The Month" at BlueCircle Insurance, and we held our first one on Wednesday, May 30th. We were thinking we'd get a few people, maybe 15 or so, and were hugely surprised when over 60 riders showed up to join us on the ride. Wow, what a great turnout and many thanks to everyone who joined the group!

 Some of the 60+ bikes that showed up, including cruisers, sport and adventure bikes, even a Spyder


Riders have arrived
And, what a perfect evening! Sunny and warm with no wind, plus lots of bikes with eager riders, quite a few who've never been on a group ride before. It's was great to see some new riders, along with some very experienced vets, on all sorts of bikes, coming together for the same reason. Our ride across town was tricky, with so many bikes trying to stay in a pack and maneuver through city traffic, so kudos to all the riders for looking out for one another and sticking together. We all want to get there as a group, safe and sound, all while enjoying the beautiful scenery along the way.

Some of our guest riders, including Rebecca Wong from Motology, with Ang from Ride Stop n Go and BlueCircle

Speaking of which, what an awesome part of the world we live in, witnessed as we wound our way through the lush and green countryside, with many fantastic panoramic views of the Rocky Mountains as we came up over the many hills throughout the ride. Though it was pretty much all back-country roads after we turned off Hwy 22X, the pavement was all pretty decent and there were quite a few nice twisty sections. Lots of our riders had never been out that way and were interested in seeing the actual route on a map, so check out this link to Google Maps about Plummers Road, or view the map in the photo below.

This version of the map shows the start of the back-country road route, at Hwy. 22X and 96 St.S.W. Calgary

Ang and I with Brent from Big Sky BBQ

The idea was to take our little tour and end up at Big Sky BBQ Pit, for some of their great food. If you didn't already know this, they're featured in our 2017 Ride Guide map, along with some other awesome eateries throughout Alberta and neighbouring provinces and states. The food at Big Sky was great and double bonus was that that they were such huge portions that we got to wrap up a bunch of ribs to take home and have for a leftover lunch the next day!! I do so love leftover lunches!!

We also gave away some swag, so look for some photos in another post coming soon. However, the real prize treat of the night came courtesy of the great people over at Motology School, a Calgary-based motorcycle training academy. They generously donated a free basic training course to one lucky winner who was pretty pumped about giving it to his brother. I mean, if you love motorcycles and had enjoyed such a fantastic ride with your fellow biking enthusiasts, why wouldn't you want to share that with your family and friends. What better way to get them started in the motorcycle world than a top notch training session with the experts at Motology, who put emphasis on teaching you the skills with safety as a priority. Many thanks to James and Rebecca at Motology for adding that extra prize bonus to top off a great evening!

And let me add in that, as your hosts, Ang and I had a great night too and hope to see you all out there on the road, somewhere, sometime. If you see us, please be sure to come over and say hello :)

Ang has this beautiful 'Habnero Orange' Victory Magnum on order from Cycle Works and can't wait for it to arrive!!

Finishing up a great day with this beautiful sunset