Sharing the back seat driving

Apologies to regular visitors for disappearing from the internet for a couple of days over the recent weekend.

No sinister explanation for this, just a problem at the web-hosting server which couldn’t be corrected until after the weekend, so we may now be looking for an alternative home.

Meantime service will hopefully not be interrupted again either prior to or during any switch-over which may follow and the domain name of this and all associated sites will remain the same and there will be no need for viewers to change bookmarks or anything else on their computers.

Meanwhile I watched Drill Team Practice again on Sunday morning and here’s a picture of Trudi and Smitty doing their seat-swapping routine I mentioned in my Postcard from America article.  More pictures coming soon.

Click on the image for an enlargement

This Blog is predominantly a collection of feature articles for Wingers, with occasional bits of topical news or comment on the GoldWing club scene thrown in.  It’s not a personal blog, so you won’t find much about me on it, although I did once get a bit carried away and wrote about my own hip replacement operation.

The Blog seems to have captured the interest of quite a few UK Wingers (and others, but hopefully mostly Wingers) since it started in November 2008 and it is currently attracting very nearly 4,000 hits (unique visits) each week.  So my thanks are due to all of you for making my efforts to do something useful worthwhile.  I’m by no means a computer techie and all credit for the overall appearance and functionality of the Blog is due to my friend Nigel Mackintosh, who also dreamed up the clever backdrop of a tiled image of the yellow GL1800.

There are (as this one is being written) 145 Posts (i.e. Articles) altogether.  They are usually fairly well illustrated and you can usually click on any image to see an enlargement.  They are also peppered with hyperlinks to other relevant websites.  So everything which is highlighted in yellow, Like This, is likely to be a link which you can click on.  Try it.

Some are time-expired and could maybe do with weeding out.  But many of them have continuing relevance and/or interest.

For example there are series on Buying a GoldWing and on  Group Riding (click on those yellow words to view Part 1) as well as the series on Installing Electrical Accessories & Lighting (same again, click on those words to view it) which is running currently.   So if you are new to the Blog, you might enjoy reading some of the archive material as well as what’s been written recently.

There is a built-in system of Categories under which Articles have been classified, which should help you locate what you might be interested in.  Just click on the Category you are interested in on the List which is on right hand side of the screen.   There is also a search facility too, which allows you to search on key words which might also help you locate what you are interested in.

On the Home page and when you click on a Category you will only see the first few paragraphs of an Article followed by the same sort of introduction to another, slightly older Article below it.  You will need to click on “continues…………..” to read a complete Article.  If you scroll down to the bottom of a page of such introductions (without clicking on any of the “continues……..”) there will be a “Previous Entries” link on the left hand side which you can click on to go further back in the chronological sequence.

Readers are invited to Comment on any Article, including this one; you will find an invitation to do so when you reach the end.

Your Comments will be subject to approval and editing before they go live.  Editing is only done as necessary to make Comments easily readable and never to change the meaning.   Comments which make a constructive or entertaining contribution will always be published.  Anything which is belligerent or unfriendly very probably won’t.   My Blog so my decision.  This is not a forum and there are plenty of those on the internet if you want somewhere to bang your drum.

Readers are also encouraged to write their own Guest Articles, of which there have been a number already.  And you can write about absolutely any subject at all as long as it’s likely to be of fairly general interest to Wingers.

Anyone who has a special skill or experience to share is particularly welcome to contribute but articles introducing your Club (or GWOCGB Region) or letting us all know how you are getting on are also most welcome.  Pictures are highly desirable but good English isn’t remotely necessary.  So don’t worry if you can’t spell or use punctuation – just jot your ideas down in your own words and send them in using the Contact facility, preferably with some pictures, and we’ll take it from there.

The Blog can also be used by any Winger or Club (or GWOCGB Region) to advertise or report on events or to offer things for sale. It does also carry a few advertising links, the revenue from which goes towards webhosting and other costs.  If the Blog ever makes any money, which is unlikely, it will go to a good cause.

Thank you for your attention.  Please feel free to use the Comment facility to provide feedback; that would be helpful to me.

It’s already got a very much bigger ‘circulation’ than any other UK GoldWing  publication.  For example Wingspan, GWOCGB’s  magazine, might still be in second place but it’s only distributed monthly and its circulation has now fallen below 1,000 copies.  And of course it has a month’s lead time for copy whereas this Blog can respond quickly – the Tram Sunday article and pictures were published the very next day.

The Blackpool Light Parade website gets similar numbers of hits too and that’s currently being updated almost daily, so it’s well worth a regular visit too.  There are some very promising irons in the fire for the 2009 Light Parade and I hope to make an announcement about them within the next week.

Click on the image for an enlarged view

By the way the problem we had with the Police escort has been resolved satisfactorily; I had a phone call to say they are happy with what we are planning for this year, they will be delighted to help us get through the Squires Gate traffic lights and they are also looking at helping out at the Gynn Square roundabout too.  There is no indication at all that they will beconcerned about about anyone lighting their GoldWing up as we ride the Lights, as we usually do.  It’s going to be a great weekend!

Incidentally the Light Parade website has a GoldWing Info Section which includes an All Clubs Events Calendar, which is one of the most popular pages.  If you haven’t seen it, you might want to visit. Next weekend is of course Pennine’s WingDing.  Let’s hope the weather is as good as the forecast.

So a big thank you to those who have visited and especially to those who have contributed by providing articles or making comments. My aim continues to be providing interesting and readable news and information for the whole UK GoldWing Community.  If you want the UK GoldWing Community as a whole to know about something, this Blog is becoming the place to tell them.

Click on the image for an enlarged view

As you will see from some of the recent articles, the Blog can provide a way of letting other Wingers across the Country and abroad know what you and your local Club has been up to within days rather than two months  after the event.  All you need to do is email whatever you want to say, preferably send some pictures too, and it will appear on the Blog as soon as practical.

You can also use the Blog to advertise and you may have noticed that some commercial advertising has also started to appear, for example AA Breakdowns.  This was in response to a request from an advertising agency and while I have no intention of allowing the tail to start wagging the dog, a modest amount of advertising revenue will help to cover some of the IT costs of running the Blog.  I have no plans to charge for non-commercial advertising, so any Winger or would-be Winger is still welcome to advertise free of charge.  As with club and other activity reports, just email me with whatever you want to say and attach a few pictures, I will then do the rest.

You will hopefully have noticed that there has been no “politics” to speak of on the Blog for some time.  I will continue to publish what’s happening on the UK GoldWing scene, including stuff about people or clubs which might prefer that I didn’t, if it’s newsworthy.

But I’m not remotely interested in old battles or hobby horses and I hope that those who are still tempted to indulge themselves, as recently happened on one club’s GoldWing Forum for example, will come to realise that no one else is much interested either.

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.