Vancouver | A pillar of the women's motorcycle movment in Vancouver has died in a motorcycle crash in the Fraser Canyon, one year after the death of her partner in a similar accident in the same area.
The death of 46-year-old Julia Sit, the gregarious operator of the biker-friendly Flying Swan Coffee House on West Fourth Avenue, less than a month before her wedding, has rocked the community.
"It's a huge loss, so tragic," Corrie Miller, morning co-host on Rock 101, who co-sponsored a Big Sisters fundraising ride with Sit earlier this month, said Tuesday. "She was a huge promoter of motorcycle safety, the community, and awareness for new riders so they wouldn't get hurt themselves on their bikes."
Sit was in the middle of three riders headed southbound Sunday about 5 p.m on Highway 1 near American Creek just north of Hope. Sit was negotiating a right-hand turn when her 2001 Honda sport bike left the road and tumbled two metres into a rock-strewn ditch, killing her at the scene.
An experienced motorcyclist, Sit was obeying the 90 km/h speed limit, condiditons were dry, the motorcycle was in good working order, and there was nothing unusual about the corner, RCMP Cpl. Del Drew said.
"It's really bizarre, there's nothing there to give any concern or to explain why this happened," he said.
Drew connot say for sure that a moment's inattention caused Sit to drive off the road, but he agreed the accident emphasizes the unforgiving nature of the sport. "When something goes bad, it can be permanent," he said.
Among the two persons with whom Sit was riding was her fiance, Robert Weidemann. The couple were to be wed on Aug. 6.
Weidemann was a friend of 48-year-old Bogdan Jozwiak - Sit's then-partner, known simply as Bog - who died riding his Suzuki Hayabusa June 27 last year in the Fraser Canyon on Highway 12 near Lytton, about an hour's drive from where Sit died. He entered a tight left corner too fast and colided with a concrete shoulder barrier.
At the time of Sit's death, she was completing a weekly loop ride in Bog's name that took her through Whistler, Pemberton, Duffey Lake, Lillooet, Lytton and back to Vancouver, a route she'd done dozens of times.
Jozwiak was a skilled rider well-known for promoting safety and for reaching out to bikers of all stripes, having founded Vancouver Riders of Motorcycles -
www.vrombc.com - in support of Vancouver's motorcycle community.
Sit's family has asked that motorcycle memorabilia at the Flying Swan be taken down, meaning that riders will have to find a new place to share their love for the sport. "We have to keep theat cohesive group together and keep promoting motorcycle safety," Miller said.
Sit continuted mototcycling after Bog's death, saying he would have wanted it that way.
"I'm going to continue the motorcycle thing big time," Sit told
The Vancovuer Sun in the days after Bog's death. "I still believe in riding regardless, but you have to watch yourself. It's not a game out there. I have lots of fear."
Sit contintued to organize motorcycle group rides, with special emphasis on women riders, through the Flying Swan, saying they needed support because motorcycle does not come as easily to them.
"I can't explain why men can just get on a bike and do whatever they do," she told
The Sun. "With women, it's fear of the road, fear of crashing, fear of gravel fear of not fitting in, fear of not keeping up. I ride harder than most women you'll ever meet, but those fears - they're in my blood every time I get on the bike."
Sit's death is the latest of about a dozen motorcycle fatalities in the area so far this year.
[email protected] Condolences to the family.
