Stuart’s GoldWing Blog

25 ft diameter turns

I suspect that most Wingers get anxious about turning the bike in a confined space, for example doing a U turn is something most of us will try to avoid if we can reverse direction by different means. Even when you have acquired what you think is the necessary skill, if you forget the basics or make a poor assessment of whether a turn is viable or not you can easily end up dropping the bike, as I did with my brand new 2008 GL1800 in Germany last Summer.

Somehow there’s always an audience when you do this sort of thing and on this occasion there was also audience participation by one of the bikers present which, together with the sight of me rolling down the hill out of control for a few yards after dropping the Wing, would have provided excellent spectator value if anyone had been watching. continues………

In my experience Wingers are overwhelmingly friendly and welcoming – and they are often also very generous people, especially in their dealings with other Wingers. I won’t cause embarrassment by naming him but one Winger I know is generous to a fault, often seeming to allow himself to be taken advantage of in all sorts of ways. He will doubtless stand a much better chance than me of going to heaven, even though he is a known persecutor of cats.

Lots of Wingers have been exceptionally helpful and supportive to me during the past year – organising the Blackpool Light Parade, facing the challenges of 2008 from some Wingers who have been anything but friendly and supportive, and in planning for a new future for the UK GoldWing Community.

However there is another side to the UK Goldwing Community.  A friend of mine who abandoned GWOCGB some years ago to form a independent GoldWing Club which still thrives said “There are some nasty people in GWOCGB, you’d be better having nothing to do with them.” continues………

Parking Lot Practice

Once it gets moving on a reasonable road surface, a GoldWing handles easily and you wouldn’t necessarily know your on a big bike – except of course for the comfortable seat and riding position, and other home comforts.  But at slow speed and especially on uneven or loose surfaces, a GoldWing becomes, in the minds of many Wingers, a frightening great beast, just itching to fall over and cause embarrassment or worse.  Most Wingers will have had a dread of slow speed riding, especially when they were new to GoldWings, including me.

Although its a skill which you have to keep reminding yourself to get right, and it also helps to give yourself some structured practice every so often, to keep up your skill level, I have found it possible to develop reasonable confidence with low speed riding.  And I’ve discovered – not least because I can do it – that confident slow speed riding on a Wing is within the capabilities of any rider who takes the trouble to learn and then to practise occasionally.

This article aims to help you learn how to avoid those buttock-clenching moments when you worry and wobble as you approach an awkward junction. continues………

Tony Walton (right) with his friend John Bates

Tony Walton, one of Yorkshire Wings Joint Reps (i.e. Regional Chairman) suddenly resigned recently without explanation.  Thankfully this turned out not to be a personal health or other problem, merely a tiff with a colleague, and apparently about the running of the Scarborough Light Parade.  Whatever it was it was big enough to cause Tony, one of the prime movers of the Scarborough Light Parade, to take his bat home. continues………

One of a number of possible designs for a logo

A new independent Club is to be launched in UK shortly – the second one in a matter of weeks. After considering various alternatives, the name GoldWings North West has been chosen.

A very well know and widely respected Winger in the North West has agreed to be Chairman-Designate (take heart, it’s not me!) and the Club will have its inaugural meeting in Central Lancashire early in the New Year.

The Blackpool Light Parade will be in safe hands for 2009 too.  This isn’t just some little breakaway group; those “organisers and doers” in the North West who have a track record of running club and larger scale events are already committed to GoldWings North West, which will operate a full program of events and activities for 2009. continues………

I am heartened by the response to this Blog and grateful for the comments which are being made, favourable or otherwise, which I would therefore like to encourage. 

This is a Blog not a forum, but comments, especially innovative ideas, are welcomed and will be usually be accepted without alteration (except editing for typos, spelling  etc) unless they are either offensive in nature or irrelevant to the Article.  Elements of a Comment may therefore be edited out if the Comment is otherwise acceptable, rather than lose the whole thing.  If you would like your comment removed please contact me using the email link at the foot of the page.

Mont Blanc

Mont Blanc is the highest mountain in Europe and sits right on the border between France and Italy.  The mountain has 48 principal, named and almost equally high very near neighbour mountain tops, so it’s really just one great big fat mountain called the Mont Blanc Massif with a multitude of summits.  There are no roads up that high, so riding around Mont Blanc on a motorcycle means riding around the whole lot.  Altogether, depending on the route you choose and your appetite for alpine twisties, this involves a minimum of 200 miles and probably more like 300 miles and climbing a dozen or more high Mountain Passes.

continues………

The Federation of United Kingdom GoldWing Clubs:

• Works like a Club of Clubs; independent local and special interest GoldWing clubs work together when it suits them to do so and are otherwise free to do their own thing. continues………

The GoldWing Owners Club of Great Britain (GWOCGB) is a National Club rather than a grouping together of local clubs, so Membership is of the National Club, not of its Regions. The Regions might operate their own bank accounts as if they were separate clubs and they might function in many ways as if they were separate clubs, but according the GWOCGB Rules, Regions exist only as sub-divisions of the National Club and have no separate identity. No Member of GWOCGB can be required to pay subscriptions to a Region and any Member of GWOCGB can attend any Regional Meeting as of right. Under new powers the National Committee acquired at the recent AGM, they can expel anyone they like, which has the effect of expelling the member from his local Region too.

So Members from outside a Region can turn up uninvited and mob handed anytime they wish.  And GWOCGB’s National Committee can organise and encourage such an invasion if they wish, as they did recently when Lancs & Lakes Region seemed to them to be acting just a little too independently for their taste.

GWOCGB is ruled – there are lots and lots of of rules – very much from the centre, in Big Government style. continues………

Overnight Stop in France

Why on earth would anyone want to tow a GoldWing on a trailer? Surely the whole point of owning a GoldWing is to ride it?
Quite so – but when you want to ride your Wing on the biking roads you can only find in places which are far from home, like the Alps, and you also value sleeping in your own bed every night, towing the Wing behind a motorhome to make the transit journey to a decent biking area becomes an attractive option. continues………