Slow Life Fast Bike

14/02/2024

I'm lucky to have found someone who loves me, believes in me, and has my back no matter what. Find you someone who supports your wild ideas, picks you up and dusts you off when you fall over, and buys you motorcycle parts AND flowers on the other days of the year. Happy Valentine's Day!

31/01/2024

Larry the lorry! What do you think? All white was the dream but the blue and silver has really grown on me.

In case you missed it, this is my new home! Now fully switched over from a pickup truck pulling a toy hauler fifth wheel to a toterhome pulling a trailer.

What is a toterhome? A toterhome is a motorhome built on a semi-truck chassis, designed to pull heavier things like trailers. Ours is a Freightliner M2 chassis and can tow up to 20,000lbs. That’s 9 metric tons!

25/12/2023

Wishing a bit of piece and quiet for everyone around the world this year! Happy Christmas / Happy Holidays!

This year is a toned town Christmas for me. Got too much to do! Not a lot of festivies and no family around me to annoy/love on. Except Mr Slow Life, but he stuck with me 🤣 Grateful for everything and for a really fun 2023. And for all the new friends I've gained over the year. I found my tribe and you are all awesome!

24/12/2023

My last track day of the year: Homestead-Miami Speedway in Florida!

Earlier in December I joined a Ducati Revs day and got to experience my first NASCAR track. It wasn't one of my favourite days on track this year. Perhaps it was me feeling tired, or that there was a lot of traffic on track and I struggled to find my rhythm.

The one thing I absolutely loved about this track was accelerating onto the banking of the home straight and pinning it all the way into corner one. Oooooeeee what a feeling!!!!

If you ride track, have you ever had days where you struggled to find your rhythm? What did you do?

30/11/2023

This is a new one for me, a mile 0 sign!

It's a breezy day in Florida, so I'm rocking my new sweatband from .

I've been applying for sponsorships for next season as I begin my journey into motorcycle racing, and they were the first to say yes! Thanks for believing in me!

💪

19/10/2023

See.. I don't always ride the Aprilia on track!

The s1000rr is a beast on the racetrack, so different from the rs660. It's fun to switch things up! It's like having a teleportation device on the straights 😂😎

26/09/2023

If a motorcycle braps in a forest & no one is around to hear it, does it brap?
..

17/09/2023

Are you able to resist those giant tourist chairs? They're way too much fun! Picture 3 is me every time though. Are you as graceful as I am on these things?🤣

Had a great time exploring La Mauricie National Park / Parc national de la Mauricie while visiting Quebec, Canada. Definitely coming back before I leave this area!

09/09/2023

More S1K yumminess from Pitt Race 🤩

12/08/2023

New YouTube video is live! Join me for a weekend at Motorsports Park Hastings in Nebraska. I share my experience, talk about the track, my focus areas, what I struggled with and what went well, as well as some cool camera angles of me riding on the track!

I had a blast hanging out with the locals who were super friendly and welcoming. I felt like I was part of the family immediately. This is what I absolutely love about the motorcycle community. Everyone comes from different backgrounds, different bikes, skill levels, and yet - we're all there to share a passion and support each other's goals. I love that! Also, I met lots of lovely RS660 owners, we're taking over the world! Look at this line-up of beauties!

It's a bold claim and I stand by it! I hope you enjoy this blog style video - let me know in the comments if you’d like to see more like this!⬇ ⬇ ⬇ ⬇I spent ...

28/07/2023

New onboard lap from High Plains Raceway in Colorado! This time I have a full data overlay from a special data recording device I add to my bike (RaceBox Mini S).

Do you like my new data overlay? My first time using the RaceBox Mini S to record data. Let me know in the comments what you think!⬇ ⬇ ⬇ ⬇This is the first o...

25/07/2023

Another track in the books! Motorsports Park Hastings in Nebraska was a big surprise. Great track that is home to the friendliest, most inclusive people I have ever met at a track day. TrackAddix organized a great weekend and the MPH staff were stellar. My bike ran perfectly - oil leak is resolved, everything is back in place after the low side, and the new Woodcraft rearsets are working out great!

The track itself was great. It had a mix of corners and direction changes, a fast section, a slower section that flowed nicely and rewarded you for good exit lines from the previous corner. The biggest challenge for me was the last corner; a hairpin similar to the High Plains corner I low sided at recently. The track surface was incredible, super sticky with no bumps or dips. The run-offs were big and safe. All I was missing was a little elevation in the mix. Nebraska is pretty flat though, so I can forgive that.

My pace was down, but I feel good about how I did against my riding goals for the weekend:

1) Don’t make the same mistake in right hand corners, i.e. don't crash.
2) Wait until I have direction and start taking away lean angle before getting on the gas out of corners.
3) Be focused and stay on my lines no matter how tired I feel or what chaos is happening around me.

I have a long list of things I need to work on for the next day... the learning never ends and I love it.

20/07/2023

New onboard lap! Back in June I did a track day with Legion Moto at Utah Motorsports Campus (UMC). I had a great day. This track configuration is quite technical, which I really enjoyed. I also got some good coaching that helped me improve with each session. I highly recommend Legion MOTO Trackdays if you’re in the Colorado or surrounding area.

Join me on my Aprilia RS660 as I ride the technical and very fun East track at Utah Motorsports Campus (UMC) in Utah.⬇ ⬇ ⬇ ⬇This was at a track day hosted by...

30/06/2023

I published a new video on my Slow Life Fast Bike YouTube channel!

We stopped by Grand Junction in Colorado recently. Seizing the opportunity, I took the "big bike" aka the S1000RR out for a scenic ride along Highway 65. This 50mi/80km twisty road crosses over Grand Mesa, the largest flat top mountain in the world, offers stunning views of the surrounding Colorado landscape. I'm glad I brought the drone for this one!

I found snow in June! Join me on a scenic motorcycle ride across Grand Mesa, the largest flat top mountain in the world. Enjoy the stunning views, and let me...

21/06/2023

Would you go touring for the day on an S1000RR?

I would! I took the opportunity last week to enjoy a day in the mountains of Colorado on this beauty 🤩

09/06/2023

Post track day happy face. Riding motorcycles with friends will do that. Our trip to SLC in Utah is over and I already miss all the amazing people I met there 🥰

01/06/2023

Excited for more track days at Utah Motorsports Campus this weekend! What an amazing opportunity to be able to come to Utah and ride both the West and East track configurations in one trip. Track time is such a great way to practice and work on specific skills in a safe, controlled environment.

19/05/2023

Couples who ride together stay together 💕

17/05/2023

Amazing day at Spring Mountain in Pahrump, Nevada recently at a track day.

There aren't many motorcycle track days here, so it was fantastic timing that we were headed that way around the same time TrackXperience were putting on an event there. I loved the twisty and technical North/South configuration that we rode. This facility is incredible - over 900 acres, with 6+ miles of racetrack in over 50 configurations.

11/05/2023

Earlier this year we traveled to Quartzsite in Arizona and stayed off-grid for 12 nights on open public land. It was our first time boondocking and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

I've been looking forward to making this video for a while... I hope you enjoy it! Don't forget to like it on YouTube if you did :)

We brought our RV to Quartzsite in Arizona and stayed off-grid for 12 nights on BLM land. It was our first time boondocking! ⬇ ⬇ ⬇ ⬇Did you know that boondoc...

10/05/2023

Hope your week is as chill as me in between sessions at the track. Happy Hump Day everyone - we're half way to the weekend after all!

04/05/2023

Hi everyone. I hope you enjoy this blog post about my recent stay in Ocotillo Wells, California! I created a corresponding picture album with the highlights, which I'll link at the bottom of my post.

We had a few weeks to fill before an upcoming track day at Willow Springs Raceway. After doing some research for good off-roading areas, I found this gem - Ocotillo Wells.

Ocotillo Wells is located in Southern California, about 100 miles east of San Diego, close to Borrego Springs. It's situated in the western Colorado Desert region, and the area is part of the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. The area is well known for its beautiful sand dunes, slot canyons, and rocky hills. It's also a popular spot for outdoor enthusiasts, offering trails for hiking, biking, and off-roading, as well as natural hot springs for soaking. I created a corresponding picture album with the highlights, which I'll link in a comment below this post.

We stayed at the Ocotillo RV Resort, which has friendly staff and massive RV sites with hookups for water, power and sewer. We love places that have a hot tub and this one didn’t disappoint, especially for recovery after dirt biking so much. One aspect about this resort that we particularly liked was its convenient location right by the Ocotillo Wells State Vehicular Recreation Area (I’ll come back to this!). It was the perfect base camp for us to explore the area and get lots of dirt biking practice in tricky sandy conditions. This whole area sees extremely high temperatures in the summer, so most people visit during the winter months. We were there towards the end of the tolerable weather season, which meant it was nice and quiet during the week. At the weekend, the resort becomes home to lots of families and groups enjoying a weekend getaway of off-roading, hanging out by the pool/hot tub, and socializing over camp fires in the evening hours. I imagine it’s even busier over the December to March months! There were a few windy days during our stay in the area. One of them was particularly bad and resulted in sand getting into anything exposed outside. Thankfully no harm done, and it’s just funny now as we keep finding sand in random places even after leaving the area!

State Vehicular Recreation Area (SVRA) are designated areas within California state parks where visitors can legally operate off-highway vehicles (OHVs) such as dirt bikes, ATVs, and 4x4 vehicles. They are designed to provide a safe and controlled environment for OHV enthusiasts while also protecting the environment and natural resources of the state. Such a great idea. We hope to visit more of these areas next time we pass through California.

During our 3 week stay in the area, we were very active on the motorcycles:

We rode our street motorcycles multiple times to the town of Julian by way of the twisty Banner Grade road. This twisty road has a 3,000 elevation change over 9 miles, making it a fun and challenging ride for us! Julian is a historic small town known for its charming downtown area and apple orchards. It’s very popular for its apple pie, which is made from locally grown apples. Yes, we tried the 3 most popular cafes offering pie. Purely for science. We loved them all, however Julian Pie Company was the winner by the tiniest margin for us. Their apples simply melted in your mouth - yum!

We also did a lot of dirt biking around the SVRA area. Since the SVRA was literally across the road, we were able to get some great morning rides in before starting the work day. There are numerous trails leading to interesting and unusual points of interest. Despite our many trips out, it would have taking us months to see everything on offer! The well known spots we were had fun navigating to were the Donkey Viewpoint, the Pumpkin Patch - trail that winds through a field of large sandstone boulders that resemble pumpkins, and the Shell Reef Express - a fossil bed containing the remains of prehistoric marine life. We also visited a nearby airplane graveyard, which was a pretty random find outside of the SVRA near the resort. We would love to return to this area to explore more of the trails!

Before we left, I did a day trip to visit nearby Salton Sea, Salvation Mountain and Slab City. That warrants its own post, coming soon!

All in all, we loved our stay here. It was the most active we’ve been in one place in a long time. This might just be my personal favourite stay so far in our 2 years of living full time in our RV! We’re excited to seek out more areas like this that offer good motorcycling, whether it’s scenic roads or off-road trails.

Link to Picture Album for this post: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.252392720627389&type=3

03/05/2023

25/04/2023

Morning ride to beat the desert heat today. It was already 25°C/77°F at 9am here in SoCal. We’re staying close to a state offroad vehicle area, so we’ve been able to go for rides in the morning before starting our work day. Can’t imagine a better start to the day! I love having a toy hauler and being able to bring my home and the bikes to ride in different places.

22/04/2023

Learning to ride offroad has been super fun but also incredibly challenging! One thing that helps is setting incremental destination goals. Reaching this little donkey was a very satisfying reward in pushing past fear in sandy conditions. The desert views are amazing!

15/04/2023

New video is now live on YouTube! I captured my experience at the recent BABES RIDE OUT in Borrego Springs. It was a ladies only motorcycle event. I met a bunch of cool women and got to explore cool metal art sculptures in the area on my motorcycle:

BABES RIDE OUT in Borrego Springs California. My first time at this special women only motorcycle event.⬇ ⬇ ⬇ ⬇This was my first time attending a big motorcy...

07/04/2023

My zip-tied fairing is finally replaced! But I’m keeping part of it as a reminder. Why?

A nasty high side at the track in 2022 broke this fairing, so I held it together with zip ties until I could replace it. Seeing the scrapes and the zip tie was a humbling reminder of what it means to make even the smallest mistake at speed or when pushing yourself. The cheeky plaster covered some scratches from a tip over in gravel after running wide in a corner in 2021.

Both happened at a racetrack in safe, controlled, learning environments. Ending your day with a crash sucks, but I'll do it at the track over the street any day. Help was by my side within minutes after the high side. Good luck with that on a remote canyon road with no phone reception.

05/04/2023

This week's WTF Wednesday picture contains dinosaurs. And you thought I was done with sculpture pictures!

Turns out the artist behind the Borrego Springs sculptress, Ricardo Breceda, has a gallery & sculpture garden in Aguanga. We stayed in this area recently, so it was fun to see more of his amazing works by the roadside. For a small fee, you can walk around his sculpture garden and marvel at the unique works of art.

31/03/2023

Art and my bike! Which is your favourite?

Galleta Meadows Estate is privately owned desert land in Borrego Springs, California. It features 130+ large metal art sculptures. These sculptures were created by Southern California artist Ricardo Breceda. There's a few big ones easily accessible from the road, so I ventured in with the bike for a few pics. If I'd known there were so many, I might have explored deeper into the area!

(The weird furry prehistoric looking dinosaur bird thing is my favourite)