Salesman Mike will be on hand to help

Federation Sponsors Knutsford Honda are holding another Chrome Crazy Weekend this coming weekend, Saturday September 25th and Sunday 26th.

There will be special discounts of up to 25% on GoldWing Accessories as well as the usual refreshments and opportunity for a chat.

Knutsford Honda have been working at establishing themselves as a Specialist GoldWing Dealer and their upstairs Accessories Showroom has racks and racks of shiny bits from all the major manufacturers for you to browse through.  They stock accessories for Classic GoldWings as well as for the Gl1500 and GL1800.

They usually have a selection of new and used GoldWings in stock too and they have a flexible and very helpful approach to part exchanging any GoldWing when you buy a new or used one from them.  They also grab every opportunity to offer special purchase GoldWings such as the batch of unregistered 2006 Model Year US Spec GL1800s which HondaUK imported recently.  Knutsford Honda had four of them on on offer.

GoldWings North West will be riding there on Sunday so that’s the day to meet and greet while you’re about it.  Take the A50 East from Junction 20 of the M6 towards Lymm and it’s two or three miles on your left.

CLICK ON ANY IMAGE FOR AN ENLARGEMENT

Garry Wheat’s Merced Green, 2000 GL1500SE is the one which vies with Bill Squires’s GL1800 for Best Presented GoldWing whenever both bikes are present and there’s judging going on.

Honours are probably about even so far and if there are separate prizes for GL1500s and GL1800s, they get one each and no one else stands much of a chance.

This bike was only 9 months old when Garry bought it and he has been polishing it almost continuously ever since.  It did end up out in the rain one day but that was accident during a tour in Ireland, so Garry probably won’t risk going there again!

Joking aside this bike is exceptionally well kept and no matter how closely you inspect it or even how far underneath it you crawl, it looks like new.  It does get ridden regularly and it’s by no means kept purely for display. continues………

The Blog Badge - free to to contributors!

This Blog has been running for less than two years and has, thanks to you Readers, steadily increased its circulation so that it’s now getting over 4,000 unique visits per week.

Since I’ve written most of the Articles I suppose I should take some credit for raising this level of interest but I’m very grateful to the guest writers who have contributed too, without whom I suspect that the Blog would lack the breadth of appeal which it seems to have.  And maybe I’ve been lucky in seeing a gap in communications within the UK GoldWing Community which was itching to be filled.

Anyway, thank you Readers, for making it all worthwhile by visiting the Blog and dipping in to what is building up to be a source of reference articles as well as topical news and comment.  The fresh Comments which pop up about Articles which were written some time ago illustrate this encouraging aspect of readers’ interest.

This Blog was intended from the outset to be a “non-denominational” internet magazine for UK Wingers rather than an outlet for any particular club or faction.  The more contributors it has the better it will get, so let’s have more offers from Guest Contributors.

There are other ways of reporting on and publicising your activities or interests as a Winger on the internet or in club magazines of course, but this Blog offers pretty immediate and widespread exposure to the UK GoldWing Community, so it does now provide an outlet which can be useful to many Wingers and to their clubs or special interest groups.  I would be delighted to see any Winger and any GoldWing Club (or Region) using this Blog to spread his, her or its word.  No real restrictions, just an expectation of a friendly and decent approach.

I will help with any formatting or editing which is necessary and I will also process any pictures you want to include.  All you need to do is tap out whatever you want to say on the keyboard or send it to me by email (using the Contact facility on this Blog) and we’ll work on it together from there.

And if you contribute an Article you will be offered, in way of thanks for your efforts, a free sew on Blog Badge, as illustrated.

By the way if you haven’t tried it yet the Contents and Site Map facility is a very useful way of seeing what’s on offer in the way of back Articles on this Blog – there’s quite a selection to choose from.

LATEST WEATHER FORECAST IS FOR DRY WEATHER FOR THE PARADE

The Scarborough Light Parade, which attracted a large numbers of Wingers last year, comes up again next weekend, on Saturday September 11th.

There is a static display during the afternoon on the Promenade Roadway, followed by a Light Parade in the evening.

The weather is currently looking potentially a bit damp but the East Coast tends to be drier than elsewhere in UK  so even if some rain is still threatened when weekend comes, it’ll be worth riding over there.  They do very good fish and chips in Scarborough and the local Council is very welcoming to Wingers for this Event.

It’s a GWOCGB Event so there are rules to be obeyed and if you are not a Member you’ll be expected to pay 50% extra, but it’s not expensive anyway, so don’t be discouraged.  There’s an associated social programme at a local holiday caravan park and you can find out more by clicking here.

At the Blackpool Light Parade this weekend, during the Saturday afternoon static display at South Pier, where crowds of people, including lots of children were strolling towards and among the parked bikes, one Winger, pictured here, decided to take the opportunity to give his young granddaughter a ride around the display area.  She was sat on the bike’s tank in front of him and he wasn’t wearing a helmet – and neither of course was she.

These activities were reported to me (as Lead Organiser of the Event) and so I went over to talk to him.  This was only a short time after the incident and as I approached he was sat on his bike preparing to leave.

As soon as I asked him if he had just been giving a child a ride around the Promenade area, politely of course because I needed to check I had approached the correct rider, he immediately came out with a belligerent mouthful, telling me in no uncertain terms that it was his bike and that he wouldn’t have anyone telling him what he could and could not do with it – not that I had got anything like as far as doing any such thing of course,  so immediate had been his angry response.

He clearly was the Rider who had been doing what I had been told about and equally clearly he had no regrets – and no intention of abiding by anyone else’s idea of safety requirements either.  I felt he was continues………

If you’ve been following the Latest News on the BLP Website you may have seen that there are some terrific prizes on offer this year, including five fabulous Honda Wrist Watches, thanks to Sponsorship by Knutsford Honda, and engraved Trophies and embroidered Fleeces too, thanks to Colin Appleyard M0torcycles.

These will be shared between the Best Lit Bike Competition on Friday Evening outside the Warwick Hotel and the Charity Display at South Pier on Saturday Afternoon.

Judging this year will be done by Randy Rodriguez, Captain of the Central Florida Motorcycle Drill Team, and his wife Cat and also by representatives of the Sponsors – who may prefer to remain anonymous so as not to upset any of their customers by not choosing them!

For the latest information click here.

It’s going to be a Great Weekend!

Bargain at £15,999

In a surprising development HondaUK have imported 16 US-spec GL1800s for sale through their UK dealers and four of them have been grabbed by Knustford Honda.

These bikes come in a choice of black or Topica Metallic Gold and they are absolutely standard US-Spec 2006 Model Year bikes. They have ABS but no airbag or satnav.

And they’re on offer at a staggering £15,999 with a full two year Honda Warranty, so nearly £7,000 below the list price for a 2010 model UK Airbag model.

What’s the snag – well there really isn’t one. The bikes were manufactured in late 2005 so they have been stored in crates since then before coming to UK and so it would be sensible to ask the dealer to change all the fluids before you ride them – and the dealer will have to put the bikes through an SVA Test anyway before they are sold to you, which means a few minor adaptations to make them comply with UK lighting and other regulations.

But for Wingers who want to use CB radio on their bikes this batch of GL1800s represent stunning value for money.  Knutsford Honda have only two of them left (one each colour) so if you fancy a new GL1800, don’t hang around. Ring Sean or Mike on 01925 752600 before you miss out!

Postscript: Both of these bikes have now been sold but try phoning anyway; they might be able to get you another one from somewhere.