Also available with black lettering on an orange ground

2010 Pose on the Prom Patches and garments are now available for purchase on line.

They are both available in two colours, black and orange, so orange on a black background or black on orange .

The Orange colour scheme chosen for this year honours Blackpool Football Club, which plays in Tangerine Orange and has just won promotion to play in the Premier League next Season.

The garments come with the 2010 Pose on the Prom Badge embroidered, without a border,  on the left breast.  Orange garments get black lettering and vice versa.  The bike is red this year as a change too.

You can place you orders now by visiting the Regalia Page of the GoldWing Light Parade at Blackpool Illuminations website.

The regalia is being supplied by Alan Mason’s Storm Embroidery.  Alan is a Winger himself and has supplied regalia for many years.  Both Patches and Garments can be ordered on line and paid for using any credit or debit card using the PayPal system.  Alan’s phone number is also provided in case you need to ask for more information.

The prices are very keen and there is also a maximum postage charge of only £2 per order, so it pays to buy everything at once rather than doing it in dribs and drabs.

If the cap fits?

There has been a debate – or rather an attempt at debate – on the GWOCGB Forum, in the context of the Club’s declining membership.  It was about what constitutes “politics”, often cited by Wingers as something they really don’t like.

“Politics” seems to be a pretty important membership factor – especially in membership retention, which has been a serious problem for GWOCGB for some years.  The Club has suffered steadily declining membership and took a particularly big hit last year. Generally speaking the new independent clubs are thriving and the older ones are also doing very nicely too; it’s really only GWOCGB that’s in serious membership decline.

So if “politics” is what turns Wingers say causes them to leave the Club, what exactly do they mean by it and what can be done to improve things?

This was potentially a very useful question for GWOCGB to pose to itself and in the privacy of the Members-Only Area of the Club’s Forum it could have led to constructive discussion and maybe thereby to ideas for turning the Club’s fortunes.

Unfortunately it rapidly degenerated into challenging personal criticism and argument and it got quite continues………

Click on any image for an enlarged view

First registered April 2001, UK spec, ONE owner from new. Odometer = 39,993 miles

Cherished Registration Number H18 00G is included

Accessories include:

Garmin Zumo 550 GPS ,  Honda 6disc CD changer,  Front fog lights and upper Spot Lights, Utopia rider Backrest, SpyBall Alarm, Superbrace ForkBrace, Muth Mirror indicators, Memphis shades blue tinted windshield, PLUS various chrome accessories and LED lighting accents.

This bike is Taxed until March 2011 and has an MOT until May 2011.  Brand new Avon Cobra tyres have been fitted.  Full service history and complete paper trail from new, excellent condition.

This bike is being offered for sale by Ian Cardwell on behalf of the owner who is treating himself to a new GoldWing.  Ian has known this bike from new and can vouch for its excellent condition.  Ian is going abroad on holiday shortly and would like to sell this bike before he sets off.

Now sold to B&M Honda.  Please address any enquiries directly to them.

More pictures……………………. continues………

Bowness Waterfront, not always as quiet

CLICK ON ANY PICTURE FOR AN ENLARGEMENT

On a weekday in April this year I had a whole day to myself and since the weather was set fair, it was the perfect opportunity to get out and enjoy some riding with no one to please but myself.  The combination of a GoldWing and some decent biking roads is a huge blessing for which I am always grateful and never take for granted, even for a moment.

And since it was some time since I been anywhere near Wast Water, the hauntingly beautiful lake on the western side of the Lake District, that was the place that came to mind to head for.  By virtue of its relative inaccessibility, it’s steep-sided and dramatic appearance and its lack of development, Wasdale and indeed the Western Lakes as a whole, are a world apart from the Lake District which most of the tourists get to see.  So that was it then, off I would go to the Western Lakes.

The English Lake District is a beautiful area, arguably one of the most scenic in the UK and it’s also continues………

Arrangements for the 2010 GoldWing Light Parade at Blackpool Illuminations, aka Pose on the Prom 2010, are developing nicely and outline information about the practical arrangement for the Parade itself have now been released.

The Parade takes place on the evening of Saturday September 4th 2010 and is part of a Weekend of socialising, entertainment and activities to which all Wingers are welcome.

The Route is broadly similar to last year but it will start further north, avoiding the need to negotiate the busy Squire Gate Junction and also finish further north too, because it will be possible to ride directly from the Promenade, just after the Pleasure Beach, directly into the private South Shore Crescent where the Weekend Event is based.

The Route still covers almost the whole of the illuminated part of the Promenade, stretching over several miles each way and promising over an hour of spectacle and fun, riding past crowds of thousands of people.

Police and Council cooperation has been secured and all necessary special provisions will be made.

Further details can be viewed by clicking here.

Slogan reads "We're bringing Oil to American Shores"

I don’t often climb on to a soap box so I hope regular viewers of this Blog will tolerate this exception, especially those in the US, for whom this has been written.

The oil leak from a BP installation in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico has been world news and justifiably so because it does constitute a major event and it has already been very disruptive, for example of deep water fishing off the Gulf Coast of the USA, which has been banned over large areas.

I was on vacation in Florida as this incident started so I had the opportunity to see how it was handled by the US media and by the US politicians and the BP executives who found themselves having to answer challenging questions.

I am as disappointed as anyone that this incident occurred at all and also that sufficiently reliable contingency arrangements had not been made to prevent significant leakage even if, as BP have explained, it needed a combination of seven failures (of safety devices or systems) to allow leakage to become uncontrolled in the way it did.

But a very large leak of oil and gas there has been and despite the use of vast quantities of dispersant continues………

Thanks to bifocals, one of us could see where we were going

I’ve never been on a Track Day of the sort you see advertised to UK motorcyclists, when you pay a fee to take your bike on to a race circuit and maybe get some tuition, the idea being to let you explore or develop racing-type skills.  That sort of thing might appeal to sports bike riders but a GoldWing on a race circuit?   I didn’t think so.

I had taken the opportunity to ride my Wing around the Nurnburgring during one of its public access sessions a few years ago when I was touring in the Mosel with some other riders who were keen to do it, but that was a one-off experience of just two laps; the first one in a state of high anxiety getting used to keeping out of the way of the really high speed lunatics among the high volumes of traffic on the circuit and the second one less terrified and experiencing the beginnings of enjoyment of what only a race circuit can provide – bends and sequences of bends which have been specifically designed to provide challenging riding.

The Nurnburgring during public sessions is something of a madhouse and I have no desire to do it again.  But the opportunity to ride on a race circuit for a whole day, free of charge and without having to cope with lots of other traffic on it, well that’s a different matter altogether.  I jumped at the chance.

There are however no free lunches in this world so there was of course a catch.  Access to the circuit for continues………

Marshalling Organiser Barry and the two Police Motorcyclists

A mass motorcycle ride took place in the Lake District on Sunday 6th June in support of the Help for Heroes Charity.

Over 500 bikes of all types took part and the event went very smoothly indeed.  All credit to the brave dozen or so Cumbrians who rode mopeds and some in fancy dress.  Wingers were dressed in conventional biking gear except for Dave Sharp did his bit by dressing as a butcher.

One moped broke down and one moped rider went down at low speed on a roundabout and suffered a small graze but that was all – it was a very safe as well as successful Event.

The weather forecast which I looked at the day before was for a warm day with a risk of only light showers but there were gloomier forecasts too (for heavy rain) and this probably kept some away.  Over 600 riders had registered and made a donation so it was very worthwhile.

There was the odd spot of light rain en route but nothing worth stopping to put wet weather gear continues………

A selection of accommodation for this year’s GoldWing Light Parade at Blackpool illuminations has been available for booking via the BLP website for some time but there was an error in the link to the relevant information page on this Blog, for which I would like to apologise.

You can access information about the group of hotels and B&Bs which form the Venue for this Event directly by clicking here.  The Warwick Hotel is already full but there is still a choice of other hotels and B&Bs along the same Crescent.

Planning for the event is proceeding nicely and both Blackpool Council and last year’s Event Sponsors Knutsford Honda are both on board for this year too.

It’s going to be a Great Weekend!