Stuart’s GoldWing Blog

Nurburgring - The Nordschleife

My second biking holiday to Germany of 2008 was with a Lancashire IAM group. We were staying at the same bikers hotel, Hotel Zur Post, Klotten, for the whole week, so a very different type of biking holiday from a Winginit Tour. We were also close to the famous Nurburgring too.

This time a mixed group of bikes and mine was the only Wing. No bike to bike communications either and only a few of us had satnav. Of course in these circumstances a Wing tends to be a bit conspicuous and you get a bit of good humoured stick from the other riders, asking which pannier the dishwasher is in, that sort of thing. continues………

I remember the first time I met an Advanced Motorcyclist, or rather a man and wife pair of them, shortly after I had bought my first Wing and probably at one of the first Lancs & Lakes Wings Meeting I ever attended, some eight or nine years ago. Their exalted status was mentioned as I was introduced to them by Bill Squires; he clearly felt it was something worth mentioning but at the time I had never even heard of advanced motorcycling. continues………

Click to see an enlarged image

GoldWings North Wales and other independent GoldWing Clubs which already exist (or are likely to form this winter) are already talking to each other about federating, i.e. forming a cooperative which will allow them to share and communicate things when they want share and communicate, yet keeping their independence for all other purposes. At last there is a real prospect of a completely new national structure for the UK GoldWing Community – a viable alternative to GWOCGB. continues………

Although 2008 was a very busy year because of the Light Parade, I did manage to get to Germany twice on the bike; both trips were very good ones and also very different, illustrating the wide spectrum of what is possible on a Wing in the way of continental touring.

The first trip was with Elite Wings, or rather with Winginit Tours, which is what Ian Cardwell, one of the Founders of Elite Wings, calls himself when he is doing a private tour of his own. We were all riding GoldWings, mostly white ones as it happened, so we looked a bit like a parade of ice cream salesmen.  Many of us were revisiting Ohringen, a mediaeval town near the Black Forrest because much the same crowd had been there in 2005, to see their Town Festival. continues………

How will this new independent Club in North Wales fare, and what are the prospects for other independent GoldWing clubs that may be forming in UK this winter? continues………

GoldWings North Wales logo

More than twenty former North Wales Wings Members (including most of their 2008 Members) met recently to form a new and independent GoldWing club called GoldWings North Wales. This effectively replaces the GWOCGB North Wales Wings Region (NWW).

Although it was still nominally a GWOCGB Region, albeit a small one, by mid 2008 only about half of those who attended NWW Meetings regularly were Members of GWOCGB.  And they were the ones who were most active and who held some of the key roles which kept the Region going. Allowing people to please themselves whether to join the national club was a modus vivendi in NWW which might have continued indefinitely had it not been for the intervention of GWOCGB’s National Committee. The Committee took the initiative during 2008 to insist that non-Members of GWOCGB must not be allowed to hold any Regional Office nor even continue to attend Meetings. continues………

First taste of Fish & Chips

Although an Organisers’ Report has been incorporated into the Light Parade website, there is quite a lot more to be told about the backgound to the 2008 Event, so for those who might be interested, I have decided to write this Blog.  A light hearted way to start will be to relate some of our experiences hosting the Central Florida Motorcycle Drill Team, who were a great bunch, with whom we had some hilarious moments. continues………