Nowrūz is the name of the Iranian/Persian New Year, a cultural celebration bringing in the New Year on this first day of Spring. Spring is a time of new beginnings, new life and saying good-bye to our long winter’s sleep. Although today in Cape Breton… you would think it was the reverse!

With Spring comes the promise of new opportunities. With that promise comes the song of distant revving motorcycle engines across the land. Tucked away in their winters lair life begins with a clank, a cough and then with great anticipation a steady hum. Rhythmically in tune with bikers everywhere that hum is the sound of our 2 wheel companions and vehicles of freedom taking in its first breath of promised riding adventure and excitement.

That being said here at the Retreat we have much to be excited about this year. Patrick (much to my dismay at the time) sold his rare stock pink Yamaha YZF 750 last fall and replaced it with a Gold Wing?! Anyone who knows us at all knows first and foremost we are and always shall be sport bike riders. So when Patty said he was going “Gold Wing” I immediately felt his head for fever and blurted out in a panic “We’re not retired yet!” Now before GW riders everywhere flash us their long dirty looks lets face the facts, full sized touring bikes all over the world are known for 2 things; comfort and economy. It has been my personal experience that both of those things are synonymous with… retirement. And what’s wrong with that? Absolutely nothing! In fact I look forward to early retirement if it means riding more often for longer periods of time. Patrick’s reasoning behind his latest motorcycle purchase convinced me in 3 seconds why a Gold Wing was a perfect addition to our family and why I walked away smiling.

Running a business for bikers leaves us very little time to ride ourselves especially during the summer. We came to the conclusion that as much as we love our sport bikes the style of riding we want to do in the future requires a touring machine! It will help with giving guided tours around Cape Breton and the Cabot Trail to wanting guests and riders (see main page for more details) and it will allow for more time to ride on the shoulder seasons. The best part is we can bring way more luggage, have fewer fuel stops along the way and not to mention better mileage… did I mention comfort?

There are many fine machines out there that offer the same (if not better) riding comfort and economy as an older Gold Wing, but when you have a husband that can’t pass up a “great deal” and loves to tinker for hours and hours… and hours just to bring new life and new opportunity to an old hibernating bike, how can you blame him for such a noble cause. This doesn’t mean I’m selling my sport bike. I’ll never do that!

On another note just down the road from us in Nyanza (and less than 5km from our Motorcycle Retreat) a start up brewing business Big Spruce Brewing is opening its doors this spring. We are pleased to see others like ourselves taking a chance on a great opportunity to do business in Cape Breton. We hope they do well and wish them much success because at the end of a long, beautiful ride around the island a nice cold beer goes down really well! We will be taste testing their brew on April 6th at the Bras D’Or Yacht Club and we’ll happily keep you posted of our experience. Click on the link below for more info:

Cape Breton Post – Big Spruce Brewing

Happy tune ups!

Angela