Lakeshore and Leslie aka L&L - Toronto's Largest Motorcycle Meet

Lakeshore and Leslie, aka L&L, is Toronto's largest motorcycle meet. Bikers from all over converge in the joint parking lot of Tim Horton's and Price Chopper in the Leslieville region of Toronto every Thursday. Hundreds of motorcycles will roll in and out anywhere between 7pm to after midnight. Some stay for the length of time it takes to drink a coffee while others will stay for a few hours. Being a bike night, attendance is of course somewhat dictated by the weather. Don't expect to see more than a few die hard regulars on a rainy evening.

A lineup of sportbikes by the Price Chopper

This meet had humble a beginning when it started 2006 by Kevin and Mike (thebronze and cagedcbr from www.gtamotorcycle.com ). There were no designs to make it the biggest meet in Toronto. They just wanted a place to hang out and have coffee. And apparently they wanted the option to buy fresh produce and lunch meat.

Ghostrider's motorcycle?

The thing I like about this meet is you'll never know what you'll see or who you'll meet for the first time! I've seen a boa constrictor, a dog that travels on a motorcycle, Ural sidecar, slammed and souped up scooters, a Suzuki Hayabusa with a built-in vibrator, bikes from the 70's and more! You'll see the whole spectrum of the motorcycle community from cruisers to sportbikes and customs to scooters. You'll see the accompanied range of people from all walks of life too. All are welcome here. I've met motorcycle builders, computer nerds, nurses, artists and many more types of people. But what you do or where you come from doesn't matter -- our love of motorcycles is what brings us together.

Marta, Raf and Reenie share Ighor's boa constrictor

Fiona's Ural sidecar rig with passenger Shaun

(more after the jump)

Photo of the Week (POW) - Krissy and Anton

Margot and I were spending a few days winter camping at our trailer, “More Grace” at MacGregor Point Provincial Park between Christmas and New Years. One of our favourite places to walk is Sunset Point, a small west facing peninsula about 500m long that tapers to a rocky point on Lake Huron. Apparently the sunsets are beautiful there but it's always been grey and overcast when we've been there.  If you stand just right, you can only see the waters of Lake Huron which is why they call the great lakes the Inland Seas. 

Last Wednesday we were making our way to Sunset Point with our poodle Sadie as is our daily routine.  As we were just starting up the peninsula, we were greeted by a lovely smiling young couple who were just heading back themselves from the point.  She asked if I could take their photo because he had just proposed to her! He proceeded to hand me a disposable camera. I have to give the guy kudos for being prepared with at least the bare minimum but I couldn't let this special moment be recorded by just a plastic lens.  So after clicking their disposable camera, I offered to take their photo with my digital SLR. 

Anton and Krissy, freshly engaged!
Nikon D7000 with 18-200mm VR1 with SB-800 above and to camera left
(click photo for larger image)

(more after the jump)

Chicago Trip Day 1 - Just getting there

This was a last minute vacation. Margot only got the time off 2 weeks prior and we didn't know where we were headed until about 1 week ago! Margot drove the car so we could bring Sadie and I rode the motorcycle.

Poor Sadie trying to get comfortable in the car. She gets tired
but has problems sleeping with the bumps and vibrations in the car.

At the end of the week, Margot will head back home while I head down south to meet up with Mike, Alice and Henry for a romp through the Tail of the Dragon, Blue Ridge Parkway, and lots and lots of roads in between!


The first day was pretty much an endurance run to get to Chicago. I rode 11 hours and 900 km's through 3 rainstorms, 3 states and 1 province, 1 timezone change, 30+ degrees celsius with high humidity, met a young woman named Gina who only started riding 3 weeks ago and is doing a road trip from Connecticut to Montana, was smiled at by a pretty young bride with the car made up with bows and streamers, waved to countless kids in the backseat of the family car, saw a motorhome towing a helicopter, waved to another rider on the interstate who was wearing a tank top, sandals, no helmet and riding with no hands! Definitely an interesting day. Unfortunately due to the thread of rain, I didn't take many photos.

And here was our reward:

Chicago deep dish pizza at Giordano's. Look at all that
cheesy cheese!

Now I know why they sometimes call pizza a "pizza pie."
FYI, a large pizza weighs 13 lbs! We just ordered a medium and I could only finish 2 slices.

I'm looking forward to our the rest of our trip :)

Bad Weather Can Make Great Photo Ops

View of downtown Toronto during a storm on Wednesday June 8, 2011.
Nikon D7000 with 18-200mm VR. ISO 800 1/200 at f3.5 Aperture Priority.
(Click on the photo for a larger version)

I met some friends down at the Keating Pub to try out a new location for our weekly Wednesday night bike meet. Sadly after a couple years of bike nights at St. Louis' on King St., they closed their doors in February.

As I pulled up in the parking lot, the sky was dark and the wind was whipping up. The staff were frantically taking down the patio umbrellas so they wouldn't set sail. Dirt, leaves, paper and everything else that wasn't tied down was flying around so I kept my helmet helmet on. Thoughts of Dorothy and Kansas came to mind with these strong winds and ominous skies. I snapped a few quick photos before heading inside.

The dark clouds sure made for some dramatic photos. Sometimes when you think it's time to put away the camera, it's the best time to capture some great images! Mathematically speaking, 95% of people will bag their cameras so you're already in the top 5 percentile :) My photographer friend Neil Cameron from Competition Images captured some fantastic motorcycle racing photos during the pouring rain with rooster tails, reflections off the water on the track, and a motorcycle almost axle-deep in water as if he was fording a river. I wasn't brave enough to stand out in the rain all day, but Neil got the money shots (well I hope he got some money for his trouble!).

(more photos after the jump)

Photo of the Week (POW) - Karen Alley

Karen at the Ride for Sight charity bike wash in Midland, Ontario in March 2008.
Nikon D80 with 18-200mm VR. Fill flash provided by built-in camera flash
in TTL-backlight mode. (Click on the photo for a larger version)

Karen is a good friend of mine. We met a few years ago at the now defunct Spiducci's in Newmarket, a regular morning fill-up spot for our bellies and launching point for rides (many fine memories of the 507, Muskoka, and sausages). I'm a little selfish when I say she's a good friend of "mine" because really she's a good friend to anybody. Fun-loving, smart, loyal, caring are all attributes that come to mind when I think of Karen. So are cute and sexy.

It's inconceivable to look at this photo and not smile. Between Karen's natural sweet smile and the silly flower's matching expression, your only choice is to respond back in kind. Karen’s gentle, caring spirit brought her to Midland that day for a bike wash that was raising money for Ride for Sight. It's about a 2 hour ride from Toronto if you take the direct route which might seem a long way to some but for bikers like Karen, getting there is 1/2 the fun.

(more after the jump)

Photo of the Week (POW) - Racer Nicole Pilkington

Nicole Pilkington in the pits waiting to get on the track at Shannonville
Nikon D80 with 18-200mm VR.

Motorcycle racing is cool. But women racing motorcycles is really cool. And a 17 year old woman motorcycle racer? That's really cool + awesome + sweet!

In 2010 Nicole Pilkington raced in the CBR Cup (her best result, finishing 3rd overall), AM 125 GP, and AM 250 GP classes in R.A.C.E. In SOAR she raced in Formula Femme, and Formula 2 Stroke, and in the National series she ran in the CBR Cup. That's 6 different divisions across 3 series! Most teenage girls would rather go to 6 stores in 3 different malls. So why does she do it? By her own words, "The one thing I love most about racing is the escape. The track is like therapy to me. It relieves all my stress. Just getting on track and putting all your concentration into what you need to do to improve on track and nothing else." So that tells me that in her "normal" life she's either really stressed out, or super relaxed like Jello.

Nic Pilk grew up at the racetrack. Her father Stuart started road racing in 1989 and Nicole spent every summer of her life at racetracks across Canada and the U.S. with him. He was her inspiration to get into the sport. But first she had to prove herself so at 13 years of age, a determined Nicole hopped on a motocross. The deal was she had to show she could crash and get back up before being allowed to road race. Now that's tough love! Nicole's first road race was 2 years later at Shannonville in 2009 when she was 15.

(Read more after the jump)

Photo of the Week (POW) - Emma

Emma in a peach tree during sunset. May 8, 2009.
Nikon D80 with 18-200mm VR and SB-800 to camera left using CLS*.
IS0 320, 1/200 sec, F3.5 at 28 mm
(Click on the photo for a larger version)

Emma is a Senegal parrot (Poicephalus senegalus) who lives in my house. We have a pear tree on our front lawn that blooms for only 2 weeks each spring and the house faces west. The weather was warm and dry, the sunset was pretty, the flowers on the tree were blooming -- everything was lining up for the perfect photo. If I took a shot of  the tree and sunset, it would've been a good photo ... but not a great photo. Enter Emma. (skip the next paragraph if you don't want to read the technical details).

I put Emma on the lowest branch and took a reading in aperture priority mode using F3.5 (the minimum for this lens) for the shallowest depth of field. I then put my camera in manual mode and underexposed by about a stop and a half by increasing the shutter speed to 1/200. I put my SB-800 flash in remote mode and then put the commander mode in my camera to TTL for this flash. All this while standing on a milk crate on my front lawn with Emma crawling around on the branch. I did a few test shots while holding the flash in my left hand just above Emma to make sure I was happy with the exposure. I popped off about 10 - 15 shots and had to stop a couple times to make sure Emma didn't crawl to the top of the tree while holding the flash in my left armpit. I'm sure I looked quite stupid to my neighbours, but you gotta do whatever it takes to get the shot, right?

I know some of you will have some questions about Emma so I'll try to answer them proactively:

(More after the jump)