Club BRP recap and hands-on with Can-Am, Spyder and Sea-Doo

Recently in Montreal an event took place titled Club BRP celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Joseph Armand Bombardier museum and showcasing the legacy of his modern day products.  This may sound pretty boring on paper but what went down over the course of the week was an epic run of manliness highlighted by the product testing of Can-Am Roadsters and ATVs, as well as my favorite the Sea-Doo.  I wanted to take some time to reflect here on the bad-assery that ensued and the machines that I was able to get my hands on.

The Can-Am Roadster

In place of me on the road here I have a photo of me sitting on the new Can-Am Roadster, aka The Spyder, in the Club BRP showroom because I didn’t want to crash and break my neck whilst I was in Canada.  Although in hindsight I would have been rather intrigued to test out their supposedly superior health care first-hand.  We were given the chance to take these bad boys out on the road and around Montreal to get a firsthand feel of the machines and I have to say that although I only had a short period of time with the bike it was immediately apparent as to why people are into these.  If it wasn’t for fear of getting taken out by a NYC cabbie, I would be all about having one of these in the city because there really is a sense of stability on them that you dont get on a motorcycle.  That being said, the comparisons these draw from motorcycles are natural but completely unnecessary.  They are NOT motorcycles, they’re in a class all of their own and I highly recommend you checking them out to see what I mean.  More pics below of the Roadster on the road and in the showroom.

The Can-Am ATVs
The Spyder was certainly a highlight of my week at Club BRP, but I’d be lying if I said that the Can-Am ATV ride didn’t top top the Spyder.  The first one I hopped on was the Outlander 800R X, truly a specimen of a machine.   This one was actually named as the 2011 ATV of the Year, which reassured me as I naturally drifted towards it with my impeccable taste for all things fast.

The beauty of testing these machines was they had a glorious course set up on the St. Lawrence river in which there was room to both open the machines up to test the top speeds, and drop it into two-wheel drive around the banks to do some fancy driving.  In hindsight I was rather pleased with myself that in having not ridden a 4-wheeler for nearly 5 years I only managed to go off course and nearly take out a tree once.  Some more pics below of the machines as we were waiting to get started.

Sea-Doo Experience
The highlight of the product testing for me was far and away the Sea-Doo experience.  We got to take out the 2011 models on to the St. Lawrence River and really do some damage.  But not so much physical damage as much as damage to my fragile ego when I had to hold on for dear life at nearly 70 mph (not sure what that is in km/h for you Canadians out there).  However, the true beauty of the Sea-Doo line of PWCs is that they’re the first ever personal watercraft to employ a ‘break.’  A break? On a Sea-Doo?  ’Sounds like voo-doo’ I bet is what you’re thinking.  Its true though, basically they’ve managed to reverse the propulsion technology so that it enables you to nearly stop on a dime.  Due to the nature of being out on the water I wasn’t able to grab any pics from the event but I did ask the awesome Aussies I hung out with for most of the week to send me over a video they compiled from the 2011 Sea-Doo Australian Watercross Nationals:

As a bonus to the week we spent with the generous folks of BRP, Can-Am, Sea-Doo, and Bombardier they put on a concert for us.  Given that we were in Canada I was moderately concerned they were going to bring out Nickelback, but when the rock legends Styx took the stage needless to say I locked in as they built the 2nd temple of rock on the stage as the aging men managed to prove that 80s-hair-rock will never die.  Pics from the show below…

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