Tsawwassen's Patrick Frampton, 58, came out on top in his class at a motorcycle riding competition in Wisconsin last month.
He took part in Top Gun, a competition through an obstacle course that tests riders' balance and navigation, at the Gold Wing Road Riders Association's Wing Ding event in Madison.
"In the end, shock of shocks, I managed to win my class. I don't think I had the fastest time, but I had a completely clean run," he says.
Since he's a member of a motorcycle drill team Frampton competed in the expert class. Classes include novice, expert and pro.
"To be honest with you, I was blown away. Really, this is my first time doing it. I was pretty excited about the situation," he says. "It was a lot of fun. I had a lot of friends there. The drill team was there cheering me on."
Frampton rides a 1998 GL 1500 Gold Wing. The large Honda motorcycle weighs in at around 1,000 pounds, he notes. He had to navigate through cones, turn in extremely tight circles and at the end, have his front wheel stop exactly in a box about two feet by two feet. He's a member of the British Columbia Motorcycle Drill Team and meets for weekly practices with the group. He bought his Gold Wing in 2007, went to a motorcycle show the next year and was asked to join the team.
"It is so much fun to ride these with other bikes close together, doing circles, doing maneuvers, designs like Vs, diamonds and arrows." He also got involved with the Gold Wing Road Riders Association and became a certified advanced motorcycle instructor. The training is all about making "us better riders on the street," he says.
Frampton, an alarm system technician, says his wife Rainie has also gotten into motorcycling.
"It's so much fun. I'm really, really lucky to have a wife who really enjoys riding, the two of us."
Besides Wisconsin they've also been to northern California and Alaska.
Frampton, who served with the 3rd Battalion Princess Pats light infantry in Victoria, pays tribute on the back of his bike to the Canadians who lost their lives serving in Afghanistan.
