With a GoldWing engine, would this fit the Rules?

Lots of bikers, and lots of Wingers, like to combine their motorcycling hobby with camping; it offers social opportunities which are broader than simply gathering for a meal and a few drinks in a hotel after a day’s riding on tour – and of course camping can be significantly cheaper than other ways of getting accommodation when you are away from home territory.

Indeed camping will have been associated with motorcycling way back when motorcycling was the working man’s affordable transport rather than a predominantly recreational vehicle, so it was natural to try to make use of the bike, and especially sidecar combinations, for family outings and holidays too, including going to bike club camping gatherings – all of this long before GoldWings came on to the scene.

Camping gatherings would therefore have been the natural way for Wingers from different parts of the Country to get together and why from its earliest days, GWOCGB formed as a camping-based Club.  And for some Wingers camping with other Wingers might even have been and still be the sole or main reason for buying their GoldWing, which they might never have used for the long distance touring for which the bike was designed.  A substantial number of GWOCGB Members still look forward, above all else, to their season of WingDings and the annual major gathering, the Treffen, where they can meet up again with familiar faces, enjoy a bit of group riding and maybe get some new accessories and some technical help or advice, but above all enjoy the company of like-minded friends. continues………

Camping pitch with a view

Fusina is a locality on the West side of Venice Lagoon from which there is an hourly boat service across the Lagoon to Venice and also has a very large and well established campsite.  It’s busy even in September, but the facilities are good and they never seem to get overloaded, even though the site has a large number of static caravans and camping “sheds” as well as pitches for touring units, of which motorhomes predominate although there are also lots of tents and a few caravans.

I saw relatively few motorcycles during our stay, discounting the small scooters which are often carried on motorhomes to provide local transport, but there were a few bikers camping in tents.  While in UK I admire tenters as well as sympathise with them of cold or wet days, in this part of the world I suspect camping in tents requires particularly thick skin.  The temperature was till over 25 late in the evening and stayed well over 20 degrees Celsius until morning – and there were midges, lots of midges.  Sleeping in a tent can’t have been much fun.

But the reason for staying here has very little to do with touring and once on site none of the bikes ever moved until the owners packed up and moved on; instead Camping Fusina provides a relatively inexpensive place to stay in order to visit Venice itself, which is also why we chose to come here again.  Part of the campsite offers waterside pitches and although these are quickly taken up if they are vacant, it’s usually possible to move on to one on your second or third morning if you want to, as we were able to do.  Shade is vital while you sit and watch the world go by across the Lagoon and the deep water shipping channel passes close to the West shore to add to the spectator interest.  It’s quite a place.

So is Venice itself of course, even though walking the streets and crossing the bridges is a perspiring experience in these hot conditions – and probably would be even for skinny Brits.  Seeking out shade and somewhere to sit to cool off a bit become necessary at frequent intervals.

Most Wingers will have a finite appetite for architecture and art and I’m no exception but Venice is a bit special.  Even though you are sharing your experiences with enormous numbers of other tourists it’s certainly worth the sweat and the struggle.  Ideally you would be absolutely stinking rich to enjoy the comforts and style which Venice can offer such as the liberal use of water taxis to get around and the many stylish, but very expensive, eateries.  But even for a fat (and therefore particularly perspiring) Brit who doesn’t run to such expenses, Venice is a delightful place to visit.

There are lots of churches into which you can wander into for somewhere sit and cool off for a few minutes without being bothered, and at the same time admire the incredibly ornate decorations and skilful workmanship which has gone into them.  There are bars and cafes in the less well trampled alleyways where you can buy a drink or a snack without having to increase your mortgage.   But as you get closer to S Mark’s Square everything doubles in price and if you want to indulge yourself with a cup of coffee actually sitting at one of the stylish cafes in the Square you should expect to pay over 10€ for the pleasure. continues………

Flying on instruments

We crossed a high alpine mountain pass once before in cloud and rain on a biking tour which turned out to be quite a challenge, especially one rider who was of short stature and had a tall windscreen with no “swiper”, with the result that he had to stand on his footpegs to see where he was going – not much fun while you’re trying to negotiate tight climbing bends with on-coming traffic which seemed far too large to be using that road at all.

This time it was easier, both because we had four wheels on the tarmac and it also turned out to be an unexpectedly good and wide road.  I had planned non-motor way routes through Austria to avoid the complicated toll system they operate which requires vehicles over 3.5 tons, as which our motorhome just qualifies, to use an electronic toll collection device called a Go Box.  There are perfectly viable non-motorway routes through Austria and so one of these boxes always seemed to me to be an unnecessary complication.

Unfortunately however fate had decreed that this time we would have a Go Box because I’d driven East on the (free) German A8 motorway one exit too far and ended up in Austria, still on the motorway, by accident.  I had been slavishly following the satnav as it took us into Berchtesgadenland, failing to take notice of the signposts about vignettes until I saw “Ostereich 2.5 km”, by which time it was too late. We were able to stop at the last German Services, where they sell Vignettes and Go Boxes,  but there was no route back into Germany.  I had no alternative but to buy a Go Box.

Our route would take us off the motorway at the very next exit and thence back into Germany to Berchtesgaden, a matter of a few kilometres, but it wouldn’t, I was advised, make sense to risk the 250€ fine (plus the cost of a Go Box) for not carrying one, even for this very short distance.  The police, we were warned, were extremely vigilant and unforgiving. continues………

A transit stop near Munich

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Sorry it’s been quite on the Blog recently – I’ve been touring Europe with very little internet access.  Here’s a tale of what Management and I have been up to during the past week or so.

We had booked a Channel Crossing for our late Summer holiday but nothing else, so it was the weather forecast which persuaded us to go East instead of South to the Loire, which had been our Plan A.  It had been raining as we left Lancashire but we got clear of it not long after crossing the Manchester Ship Canal and apart from a few isolated or overnight showers we struck lucky ever since.

Our friends in Maidstone have a place for us to park our motorhome and yet again offered us an evening meal, so we woke up and set off without disturbing them to make an early Channel Tunnel crossing.  Breakfast was a snatched bacon butty in the Folkstone Terminal and well before 9am (European Time) we were on the A16 heading for Belgium.

A small town called Mettlach, just into Germany and just off the motorway after Luxemburg has a handy overnight parking place for motorhomes which we had used before so that, since we were heading East rather than South, was our aiming point.  We had used this place before on the way home with disastrously expensive consequences because the Town has a large Villeroy and Bosch factory and an associated factory outlet store, in which Management got seriously carried away but this time we were outbound, we had discovered just how much she overloaded the van in the process of a two trolley shopping expedition last time (crockery is heavy in large quantities) and I was therefore forwarded.  We arrived in Mettlach on a Sunday when the shop was closed and we left before it opened the following morning.

Counting England, our starting point, we had driven in five countries by the time we got to our first Continental night stop.  We’ve found that  when you are making these fairly long transit drives to get to your chosen holiday area (n this case in was now to be Lake Garda in Northern Italy, it helps to have a night stop in mind which you can reach by 5pm or so, especially if you want to use a German Stellplatz (a designated motorhome parking place which is either free or only about 5€) rather than pay 25-30€ for a camping site.  Even outside the school holidays these sites often fill up early. continues………

Similar to this available for under £8,000

Lots of Wingers buy a motorhomes or caravans these days, often because they want to combine their GoldWing hobby with going to a camping rally but feeling the need for a bit more comfort than a tent will provide. It’s all very well having youthful ideals of touring on your bike with everything you need on it, including a nubile wench and the sleeping accommodation you will be sharing, but times change – especially of course the capacity to attract (or cope with) a nubile wench.

We had owned a motorhome for a few years before I went back to biking and I hadn’t slept in a tent since my twenties.  Although when I bought my first GoldWing, a GL1200 Interstate, I did entertain fanciful ideas of loading it with camping gear and flexing my free spirits I never got farther than buying a small gas stove and a set of billycans, neither of which ever got used.  Management, as she’s referred to in our household, soon put paid to any thoughts I might have had that she might sleep in a tent; she’d done it once in a previous incarnation (and presumably as a nubile wench) and that was enough.

However we had sold our motorhome soon after buying the GoldWing because we weren’t really using it; when we weren’t visiting our then brand-new first grandchild we were touring on the bike with Elite Wings and therefore staying in hotels.  This seemed to me at the time to be the proper way to tour on a GoldWing; the bike was capable of carrying plenty but, especially if you were riding accompanied by the lady in your life, certainly not camping gear as well.  We needed all the available luggage space on the bike plus a trunk rack and bag just to carry our clothing etc.  We covered fairly long distances each day on enjoyable biking roads during our touring holidays with only the occasional rest day, so by the time we reached our night stops a shower followed by a beer or the other way around  was far more attractive than pitching a tent.

But  five years or so later we’d been there and done that with hotel-based touring and Management was no longer keen on riding at all, so we became more active with our local continues………

How do you get blokes to dress up as flowers?

The weather over the recent Bank Holiday weekend in UK was distinctly curate’s eggish and it depended whereabouts in UK you were how much wind, precipitation, sunshine and hot air you encountered.  We suffered continuous heavy rain for most of Friday but otherwise had a dry and mostly sunny weekend of a novel and thotough;y entertaining sort.  It’s not every day that you get to see an attempt on a world record for the Guiness Book of Records, in this case for the number of people assembled in one place dressed as Robin Hood.

As a change from biking events my wife and I took our motorhome to the annual national rally, called the Festival of Lanterns, of the Camping & Caravanning Club.  It wasn’t a complete escape from biking because there was an illuminated GoldWing on display as part of one of the Street Scenes and I also had a test ride on a completely new type of electric motorcycle.  But essentially it was a very big and very well organised camping weekend which proved to be educational and benficial as well as enjoyable, even though I did fall for temptation end up spending a lot of money on new gadgetry.

Liz and I had been Members of the Camping and Caravanning Club (of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to give it it’s full title) for some years but only really for access to their network of Club Camping Sites, one of which is handily placed to allow us to visit one of our sets of grandchildren.  It’s a very big and long established Club and is not to be confused with The Caravan Club (CC), the other very large caravan club in UK.  The Camping & Caravanning Club (C&CC) might be said to aim at a slightly more basic level of facilities on its Club Sites (for example the toilet blocks might not be fully tiled or centrally heated) and is often more open-plan in the layout of pitches and more accommodating to tents and suchlike.

Liz and I are Members of both and used both Club’s Sites according to their geographical availability more than for any other reason.  We always enjoyed staying on the Camping & continues………

Chateau Amboise on the Loire

Apologies to regular visitors to this Blog for its relative inactivity during the past few weeks while I’ve been on holiday in France.  Internet access was a bit patchy and it wasn’t practical to do much more that publish the article I had pre-prepared and deal with Comments.   After the Blackpool Light Parade, Liz and I set off on holiday in our motorhome and, after some agonising on my part, left the bike at home.  The primary objective was to find some summer weather in which to relax for a while, so although there was a possibility we would end up in a biking area it was by no means certain so the bike and its trailer stayed at home.

About ten years ago we set off on a similar mission, in August when the weather should have been a sure continues………

The British Treffen is being held at Wadebridge in Cornwall this coming weekend, August 26th-30th 2010 and despite the well publicised exceptionally heavy rain which the area has endured during the past week, dry weather with sunny intervals is currently forecast for Friday, Saturday and Sunday – and Monday’s forecast  is even better.

The traffic forecast for the weekend might be a bit gloomy (lots of roadworks) but that shouldn’t prevent motorcyclists getting there without too much difficulty either.

So, the ground might still be a bit damp here and there but that shouldn’t spoil the enjoyment of GWOCGB’s annual camping rally for its regulars, nor prevent the ride out – and maybe there’ll be a Light Parade around the local Town to enjoy too.  There’ll be the usual entertainment of rock music and a disco, traders selling bikes and shiny bits and a reasonably priced bar.

The Club has tried to make the Event a lot more welcoming to non-tent dwellers in recent years and the lively talk this year is more likely to be about Valkyries (which are now allowed to join the Club) than “trailer trash” turning up, so get yourself there and enjoy yourself, whatever you like to sleep in!

Non Members of GWOCGB are welcome, especially Wingers from other GWEF Clubs, although a surcharge of 50% on the inscription fee applies this year to non Members as part of the Club’s policy to encourage people to join.  There may still be accommodation available in local hotels and B&Bs and they’re offering Day Visitor entry for £10 as the alternative to paying full Inscription whether you camp or not.  And if you arrive on a Valkyrie this year they’ll probably let you join at the gate to get in cheaper and you won’t have to park your bike off site in the naughty corner either.

For further information click here.

There's nothing to compare with a Bury Black Pudding

This coming Weekend and for a few days beyond it sees the inaugural WingFest, the annual camping rally of the Federation of UK GoldWing Clubs at Kirkby Lonsdale in Cumbria.

And the manufacturers of Bury Black Puddings, a national treasure or a treat, have donated a supply of their products to enhance the gourmet BBQ which the Event incorporates.

Wingfest is a new type of camping rally, equally accessible to Wingers however they like to sleep, so those who choose the stay in the Town’s many B&Bs or hotels are just as welcome as those who camp – who may uses tents, teepees, caravans or any other accommodation.

The camping fee is £6 per night and you only pay for camping if you camp.  You can stay on until the following Wednesday at the same rate if you want to make a mini holiday of your stay in this lovely part of the Country.

Saturday night is BBQ time and its free to members of any Federation Club, otherwise £5 per head.  (And it’s not just Black Pudding, there’ll be other food too!

There will be (optional) ride outs every day and socialising every evening, with Rugby Club bar prices and no loud rock music!

This Event will be held every year in August at this same gorgeous venue, so WingFest will be something you can look forward to coming back to time and time again.

It’s open to all Wingers and, by invitation, to other bikers too (the Souhtport Cruisers will be coming again) so it’s a chance to mix with all sorts of like-mined folk in an easy-going atmosphere.  It’s primarily a GoldWing Event but no rules about having to park non-GoldWings off site, just an expectation that all who attend will behave in a friendly and considerate way to others.  Observe reasonable spacing between camping units for safety reasons and respect the ladies-only times for the Clubhouse Showers and that’s it.  You can even bring your dogs along.

The venue is Kirky Lonsdale Rugby Club,which is a five minute stroll from the Town along a riverside path which includes Ruskin’s View – said to be the most beautiful in England.   Come along and enjoy yourselves, stay until Thursday morning and then head for the Treffen, it’s all about freedom of choice!

To help the Organisers make sure there’s enough food at the BBQ, if you are not a Member of a Federation Club please email me (Stuart©GLK1800•org•uk) to let us know you’re coming.  You will be most welcome.

Security equipment was more than adequate

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The cost and practical difficulties of mounting a large scale, single club rally are very considerable; large rallies are volunteer intensive and, if you hire big marquees, big stages and big bands, very costly to mount – so much so that they are becoming difficult for any bike club (except something as big as the BMF) to mount on a financially viable basis.

It is of course particularly important for a GoldWing club which wants to stay national in its spread to try to find some way of gathering nationally at least once per year but with membership falling is it going to continue to be realistic to mount a large rally-type event on a single club basis, especially when there are so many other events which Wingers can attend as a group where everything (far more than any bike club could afford) is laid on and is less costly to attend and carries zero financial risk to their club?

This question came to mind again this past weekend when I was enjoying, with GoldWings North West and other Wingers, flying the Federation banner, the annual Woodvale International Rally near Southport.  This is a well established and very large Event which was originally a model aircraft flying meet but which has expanded over the 39 years it has been running to encompass displays of almost every type of vehicle and mechanical hobby you can imagine, including of course lots of motorcycles. continues………