Peter
Not everyone has a spare motorcycle kicking around their garage, especially not one with only 97 km on the odometer. Peter, who lives in Campbell River, found himself in just that situation. Rather than go through the hassle of selling the bike, Peter found a simpler solution - he donated it to Knowledge!
Peter bought the slick blue Kawasaki 1300 touring bike when he retired in 2012. He’d ridden motorcycles since he was 18, and now that he had time on his hands, he figured he could hit the road and do some travelling on it.
“I was thinking about what would put a smile on my face and it always came back to motorcycles,” says Peter. He hadn’t had a bike for about ten years, though, and when he took it out around the neighbourhood, he found he’d lost a lot of the skills. “I could still ride it but I just didn’t feel confident on it,” he explains.
He put the bike away in his garage, figuring he’d come back to it when the weather was nicer. But a year later he found a new love: a Mazda MX-5 sports car.
“At one point in my life, I had a Triumph TR4. I took this Mazda out for a spin and it felt just like the Triumph. It put a smile on my face.” He bought it on the spot.
Around the same time, Peter discovered Knowledge. “For some reason, I’d just never tuned into it,” he says. He quickly became a regular viewer, particularly of the nature shows and British mysteries, and started to think about how he could support it.
“I don’t mind paying when I’m getting something as good as Knowledge. I kept thinking I’ve got to send my money in... I looked it up on the Internet and found that you could donate your used vehicle. All in all, it was just so easy. The guys came and took it away. Somebody younger who could use it bought the bike, and Knowledge got the proceeds. It worked out for everyone.”
Although he’s traded two wheels for four, Peter’s still keen on sharpening his driving skills. He’s joined a local association that does autocross, where drivers run cars through an obstacle course. He’s also driven down to Idaho to take part in a Mazda convention.
When he’s not on the road, he likes to watch Knowledge. “The quality is always there, and it’s not frenetic like most of TV is. I find TV is just too speedy, too loud. Knowledge Network operates on my speed!”
Which might sound funny coming from a motor enthusiast, but Peter explains it like this: “For me, driving sports cars and motorcycles is like a yoga exercise. You have to totally concentrate. You can’t think about anything else, you just have to think about the driving or you won’t survive.”
”In a way,” he adds, “it’s like watching programs on Knowledge. With no interruptions from commercials, you can concentrate on where the story’s heading!”
