Building a GL1800 at Honda's Marysville Factory in Ohio - which had ended by March 2009

The official reason for closing down all motorcycle manufacturing at Marysville, Ohio, was that future development of motorcycles would involve technological advances which required co-location of all motorcycle manufacture in Japan for its efficient exploitation.  The Marysville Motorcycle Plant, built in 1979 and now a Parts Consolidation Area (i.e. a parts holding area) for the co-located car factory, was also said to be unsuitable and too costly to modernise to allow is to continue in use.

As I reported in a previous Article some time ago, a huge expansion of the Honda Factory at Kumamoto was constructed as part of this process of centralising motorcycle manufacture in Japan.  This announcement led to expectations of a completely new GoldWing for the 2012 Model Year, which of course we now know didn’t happen.

The 2012 Model has turned out to be merely, in the words of Steve Martindale, boss of HondaUK’s Motorcycle Department, “re-styling and a few adaptations”.   Honda, according to Steve, sees the big bike market shrinking rapidly in both America and Europe.  Having paid for the tooling of the GL1800, and seeing limited potential for continuing to develop the GoldWing concept anyway, it makes business sense to Steve to keep making the GL1800 without major changes for the foreseeable future.

In this context there would appear to have been no good and purely economic reason for incurring the costs and disruption of transferring the tooling for a largely unchanged model away from its main market, North America.  So it must have been done, primarily at least, for other reasons.  What were these I wonder?

Whether this analysis of the big bike market trend is valid for the long term remains to be seen and whether it makes business sense for Honda to put big touring bikes on the back burner at a time when their competition is doing the opposite is also debatable and I’ll be commenting on that  in more detail shortly in a separate article.

However something Steve said during our recent interview may shine a bit of light on the time scale and rationale of what is now, in the light of the absence – and maybe the abandonment – of a genuinely new GoldWing Model,  a puzzling decision to close the Marysville Factory.    If it wasn’t done to pave the way for new technology for the GoldWing and it cannot sensibly have been for purely economic reasons, why did Honda take responsibility for GoldWing development and manufacture away from Honda America?

And precisely when did they strip Honda America of these responsibilities?  That would also perhaps provide a clue to what had really been going on and what the real reasons were? continues………

Approaching the Millau Bridge

Dave Sharp, who writes the Wanderers write-ups, has a colourful and entertaining style and this report of their Summer Tour to the South of France and the Pyrenees is no exception.

Lots of good photos and lots and lots of words – a good read of what was obviously a very enjoyable tour – except that is for the gravillions and Tina’s Dripping Tush, whatever that might have been.  Perhaps its Yorkshire dialect.

The Group met up at a hotel in Kent before crossing via Eurotunnel, then rode all the way down through France staying at Tours, Narbonne and Lourdes, where the aim was presumably to cure Barry of his hyper-articulation disorder.  I’ve spoken to him since he got back and I don’t think it’s really worked.

It’s a story of spectacular and sometimes challenging roads but above all of Wingers enjoying themselves together with their bikes and trikes.

You can read Dave’s write up by clicking here.

Safe to overtake?

Lots of GoldWings are equipped with CB radio so that bike-to-bike communications is available to some if not all during a group ride.  Chatting on the radio can add both enjoyment and humour to a ride, as I was reminded recently when we were out in a small group, all on CB, and while passing a primary school Ian announced that it was his old school – and that he had been kept back by his teacher at the age of five for not being able to draw a frog.

For some reason this really tickled me and it was fortunate that there was nothing complicated to do in the way of riding at the time because I couldn’t stop laughing for ages.  This early but major life-event had clearly scarred him deeply.  I couldn’t stop laughing again when he confessed sadly that he still couldn’t draw a frog.

I can still remember laughing out loud the first time I heard Dennis chirp out of nowhere with “So I said to this horse, why the long face?”.  It was very funny. Of course Dennis did have a tendency to say the same thing quite frequently and it wasn’t quite so funny every time but on lots of tours I did with Elite Wings the CB radio was both useful and entertaining.

CB communication is also useful in a number of ways for group riding and it can make dropping off or other ways of keeping everyone on route and together almost completely unnecessary.  Of course CB only works reliably “line of sight” and out to a maximum of about mile so it’s not the complete solution. continues………

We’ve had some poor riding weather in the North West recently so tomorrow offers a chance to get out again.

Together with a few other Wingers from GoldWings North West I’ll be going on a charity ride out from Heysham near Morcambe to Lower Bentham via Kirkby Lonsdale and Hawes, a totoal of about 70 miles.  We’ll meet at a school in Heysham departing at 11am, then call at the Bull Beck Lay By near Caton at about 11.25am, then Devils bridge at Kirkby Lonsdale at 11.45 until 12 noon for a quick brew, then  via Sedburgh and Kirkby Steven to Hawes for lunch then to the Punch Bowl at Lower Betham.

You can rendezvous with us at Forton Services Northbound at 0945, Trumacar Primary School, Combermere Rd, Higher Heysham, Morecambe, LA3 2ST, leaving at 11am,  Bull Beck Lay By just after at Caton leaving at 11.25,  Devil’s bridge Kirkby Lonsdale leaving at 12 noon.

All bikers welcome so it doesn’t have to be a GoldWing.

Donations of £5 per bike are invited and the money will go to MedEquip4Kids who raise money to help fund invaluable medical equipment and facilities for children’s wards, neo-natal units and community health care teams across the North of England.

Old and new, wear markers indicated by arrows

I’ve always taken a lead on these things from my motorcycling Guru, Ian Cardwell, and until recently my understanding of best practice from him was to change both tyres as soon as the rear tyre was flatting off enough to affect the handling, even though the tread depth was still good and the wear indicators had not been reached.

The idea behind this was that a flatted tyre rides up on to a ridge as you lean, reducing the area of contact with the road and thereby reducing grip.  You would start to notice this loss of grip on a roundabout where the back end would become prone to suddenly break away; not so much as to cause loss of control but you would feel an unnerving outwards twitch of the back end, or at least that’s what I tended to associate with a well worn rear tyre.

It’s OK to go for a better safe than sorry approach if you can afford it and if want to keep your tyres capable of their peak performance but I’m quite a bit more cost-conscious in retirement and I’m not really concerned about peak performance either. So when should I be changing tyres and do I really need to change both tyres at the same time?

The first picture shows a worn rear Avon Cobra tyre side by side with a new one of the same make, taken by Ian at my request when he told me that he had just worn out his rear tyre unexpectedly quickly on a touring holiday to Portugal.  The picture was taken at a bit of an angle which makes the tyres look distorted but this is an artefact which should be ignored.

What matters and what the photo shows is that the old tyre was flatted but only slightly and that two wear indicators are showing on the centreline, as marked by arrows.  The bottom one in the photo illustrates the wear marker as a narrow band bridging the rain groove, i.e. just beginning to appear, and the upper one shows a wider bridging band across the rain groove, so more wear.  Click on the photo to get an enlarged view of the photo which makes it easier to see these wear bands. continues………

'Appy Wanderers are recruiting!

‘Appy Wanderers is entering a new phase of its development by recruiting actively for new Members for the first time – and in its new configuration as a completely independent GoldWing Club.

This new poster is being distributed to all existing Members with encouragement to print it off and get it displayed somewhere prominent and useful – and there’s even a competition to post a photo of yourself with the poster on the Wanderers Facebook Page in a really special or faraway place.   Top of Everest anyone?

You can download a copy of this Poster yourself for printing by clicking here if you wish.

Barry Walton, one of the co-Founders of Wanderers and of course well known to Wingers for his day job at Appleyards, and Dave Sharp, his Co-Founder, are justifiably proud of their “Riding not Rows” approach to GoldWing Club life and they will be happy to help anyone who wants to form their own Wanderers-style GoldWing club.

The Wanderers philosophy is based on riding with other Wingers for friendly pleasure with only occasional non-riding meetings or activities.  Barry and Dave, now with the help of a small team of other Wingers who have gained relevant experience on Wanderers ride outs and tours, do all the work of organising the rides and tours so understandably the last thing they want to see happening is other clubs’ rows and difficulties getting dragged in to spoil things.

‘Appy Wanderers is still more than happy for its members to belong to other GoldWing clubs themselves if they wish but all the politics and rowing from other clubs must be left very much at the doorstep.  If you want to join ‘Appy Wanderers or just come riding with them you’ll be welcome, whichever other club you belong or don’t belong to but there’ll be no truck with spoiling Wanderers enjoyment by falling out with anyone else – especially about something that’s got nowt to do with the Wanderers.

‘Appy Wanderers is based in the Keighley area where Barry works and lives and although it has attracted Wingers from far and wide to join its rides and tours, it is bound to continue to be fundamentally a regional-sized and Yorkshire-based club.  Not that Wingers who live in Devon or Cornwall or anywhere else would be unwelcome on any Wanderers ride, but it’s never going to be practical to join ‘Appy Wanderers ride outs on a regular basis if you live a long way away from Yorkshire.

Barry has been getting approaches for some time from Wingers in other parts of the Country about forming other Wanderers “regions” in their parts of the Country and this is now likely to start happening.  Barry doesn’t want to form a national Wanderers-style club with subsidiary regions; he is however happy to see other Wingers adopt the Wanderers approach and to call themselves Wanderers.  Barry and Dave will be delighted to help and support any Winger who wants to set something up.

If you would like to join ‘Appy Wanderers or ask for information or help to form a Wanderers-style GoldWing club in your part of the Country you are welcome to ring Barry on 01535 605795 evenings, or mobile 07730822374 or email appywanderers©hotmail•co•uk.

You can also ring him at work at Appleyards on 015353 606311 because they don’t mind, even though ‘Appy Wanderers is run completely independently of Barry’s day job there.

A glimpse of what lies in store

Wingers who have started viewing this Blog relatively recently may not be aware how much worthwhile reading material has accumulated on it and how to access it.

Although some of the articles are topical and become dated many are useful for reference.

This is an on-line magazine so the Contents List covers all the back issues – right back to November 2009 when the Blog started.  Geeks would call it a Site Plan but Contents List is a more helpful description for mere mortals like us normal Wingers.

For example there are series of articles on motorcycling skills, accessory wiring and rebuild projects and many others.

The link to the Contents List is on the right hand side of the screen near the top.  Articles are listed by Category and the List also shows when it was written.

So if you’re new here, it might be worth browsing to see what you might otherwise not realise is there for the clicking.

At a big bike ‘do’ where we had Goldwings on display for the public, sat amongst my friends supping on a beer, sun on my face, laughter all around me, it occurred to me how happy I was in such company and it made me think of how sad I felt about about another Club which I had once been proud to  belong to and still loved,  although it was now disintegrating before my eyes.

The Club I am thinking of was once a great club and I still hold it most dear in my heart due to the huge amount of friends that I made there, still have, and one even became my Best Man at my wedding, I was also very proud of being rewarded with the Border Reiver Award for my commitment to the Club. This Club is called the Goldwing Owners Club of Great Britain.

Why am I sad? Well to tell you that, I must bore you and take you back, way back to past days when the ‘Club’ to me was in its glory, it had very little politics and it really cared about its members. Harry Ward its founder, who I did not know well but had met on several occasions (a great guy) was alive and active and the club forum had not been invented, only from that period can I explain some of the fun and the mischief I got up to and my despondency at the collapse or implosion of this once great club.

My first impression of GWOCGB was one sunny Sunday in 1994 riding my GL1100 wing past a pub in Shropshire, “Look over there” my girlfriend at the time said. I saw a guy coming out of the pub holding a toilet basin and surrounded by goldwings. “Got to check this out” I thought. Turned out to be a Shropshire Wing Ding as they were called, at that time I had never even heard of a Goldwing Club. I was introduced to the guy who had had the loo in his arms and who turned out to be the Rep of the region. A really great and lovely guy who became a good friend, through him and other fantastic friends known as the ‘Shroppies’ I joined the club and my life from then on became one big rollercoaster and expense, I don’t do half measures! continues………