Firstly. Edmonton gets minimum 5 months of good riding summer... I'm a little hardcore and ride from March til October. It's not California, but we get more sunshine than anywhere else in Canada - so not necessarily a bad place to ride.
I feel I need to reply to this. I did a search on Edmonton and this is the only thread I came up with. Anyhow. Edmonton is (per capita) the most heavily policed city in North America. With almost a million people, the police have the most technologically advanced equipment. They run a chopper, photo-radar (to the tune of 15 million a year), laser traps and roaming radar in their endeavors to bust us.
The Ducati they've purchased is for use purely on the track, I have not seen it on the street ever and I spend a lot of time out there. They also have a Tiburon that is modded to the tits, custom paint with all the bells and whistles (as much as a tiburon can)... However, you do not want to live in Edmonton. A trip down the "interstate" will nab you a photoradar ticket if you're not lookin' for 'em. The use of laser destroys the usefullness of your Valentine 1 and anywhere you find twisties you have to do a double run in order to make sure they're clear. I have a friend here that, while he's not a "behaving" rider, was pulled over 16 times last year. They issued tickets only 8 of those 16 times. He fought all of them and was found guilty only 2 of those times. What I'm getting at is that Edmonton is hell for riders... while we did have 8 deaths last year, only 2 of them were rockets, both on the same stretch of road. (A length of s turns in the middle of the city, double direction, double lanes both ways, concrete barrior separating - rider killer)... one was when one guy took his buddy out, the other the guy just lost it. While I understand the need to ride safe and deaths are unnecessary, the EPS makes a habit of chasing sportbikers, something that doesn't increase the safety on the streets for them. In general - young riders are dumb and because they feel secure and "fast", they will run. By pursuit, police departments endanger their lives more than if they left off the pursuit. Anyhow- felt the need to vent! Cheers. (Sorry about bringing an old topic up)
