Breakdown by hour of day for 1st - 20th November. Click on th image for an enlarged view.

When the Blog’s web hosting was migrated to a new web hosting service a while ago the viewing statistics I receive altered so that it has become difficult to compare apples with apples.

You might recall that the Blog was getting 5,000-7,000 “unique visits” per week.  I was never sure exactly what this meant and I got other statistics which reported different figures (against a different definition or description)  so that the best I felt I could do was report the same type of figures each time, which were the ones which have now been lost.

The new figures are reported on a monthly basis and I haven’t had a complete month yet because they started part way through October.

However it’s pretty clear from comparing the other figures, which I still get, that the numbers are keeping up well, indeed there has probably been a sustained increase, even allowing for the likelihood that the recent burst of controversial articles about GWOCGB have also pushed the viewing figures up temporarily.

Breakdown by Day of Month

Club politics might be unpalatable face to face and boring if they were the only thing there was to read about but in moderate doses, reports of what’s been going on when turbulence breaks out seems to go down well with UK readers, although of course probably less well with those abroad.   I’m not to bothered about that because this Blog is after all aimed primarily at UK Wingers.

I haven’t quite worked out how best to present the new statistics but here is one (of quite a few) histograms I get, which breaks the viewing figures down by hour of the day.  The columns of figures below the graph are for the month of November up to the 20th, so about two thirds of the month.  You can click on the image for an enlarged view.

As you can see from the first graph, the peak viewing period is during the afternoon (in UK time) rather than the evenings, which could suggest that either most of the readers are retired or that they view the Blog after lunch at work – statistics are nothing if not open to different interpretations!

The second graph shows the viewing pattern day by day as the month developed and you can see the increase when I started reporting on the Yorkshire Wings row.

So far this month the Blog is reported to have had a total of 3,471 unique visitors (i.e. different people or something close to that)  7,687 unique visits  (so 2.21 visits/visitor) 31,477 page views (so approximately 4 pages per visit), 250,226 hits (whatever that means) and to have used 2.94 GB of bandwidth (so just over 400 KB/visit) whatever that means.  As I get comparable end of month totals I will publish them regularly.

Demoted to mere Web Designer

This will be of limited interests to most readers but I have decided to change the web hosting arrangements for this Blog so that from now on my Webmaster/Designer (and generally useful geek) Nigel Mackintosh will no longer be acting as web hosting agent.

Not that he’s fallen short in any way but Nigel has been subjected to some unpleasant and threatening earache recently in an attempt to intimidate him into pulling an Article from this Blog which I wouldn’t want him to have to face again, so I’ve made direct arrangements for web hosting, instead of doing it via him.

Nigel is a valued friend and I often consult him and not just about geeky stuff, but he has no responsibility for the editorial content of this Blog at all and no authority to make any sort of alterations to any of its content.  I’m the owner/editor, he’s the helpful geek.

Some of you may be aware that under UK Law a web hosting supplier can be held responsible for content which is deemed to be defamatory along with the author/editor once they become aware of the defamation.  As a result of this some UK web hosting companies have developed a reputation for pulling the plug on a website  just to be on the safe side – as soon as any allegation of defamation is made and without even bothering to check whether there really has been any defamation. This makes UK-hosted websites potentially vulnerable to manipulative and/or intimidatory attack.

I was once threatened with this treatment by Chris Hinds, the Chairman of GWOCGB for something I’d written, which struck me as a bit heavy-handed because I’m always willing to correct any error which is pointed out, but there you go.  I wasn’t on GWOCGB’s official Christmas card list even then so maybe a threatening approach from the outset seemed to him to be the best one to take at the time.  Happily that’s never recurred, possibly because I was able to make him look a little foolish for doing it.

This Blog’s web hosting was therefore transferred out of UK some time ago to avoid the risk of knee-jerk closure by the web hosting company.  But Nigel was still acting as my UK agent and his name was on the Blog as web hosting arranger.  He didn’t actually own the server on which the Blog lives of course, that’s not how it works but he was the fixer-upper.

An unhappy reader of this Blog recently took it upon himself to give Nigel a very hard time, threatening that an array of unpleasant things would happen unless the Blog article to which he had taken exception was pulled by a deadline which he set.  Happily no bolts of lightning descended on Nigel and nothing else has happened either since that deadline expired but it wasn’t remotely fair to try to pick on Nigel in this way, so I’ve now taken him out of the firing line as best I can.  Web hosting of this Blog will remain in a foreign jurisdiction where they are more willing to stand up to attempts to shut websites down (because under their law they have no vicarious liability for defamation) but Nigel will no longer have a role as the intermediary who arranges it.

Nigel has also been the recipient of a challenging (and threatening) email recently, yet curiously enough I have still not been approached directly by either of this pair of concerned parties.  I have always made it clear that I will correct any errors, especially of course anything which is remotely defamatory, and I restated this to Nigel’s email correspondent as soon as I learned of it in my reply on his behalf.  But I’ve heard nothing since and it now seems that I’m not going to, my offer of an open mind and willingness to correct any errors having apparently fallen on stony ground.

As part of my learning curve in becoming a Bloggist I have of course taken some trouble to try to understand what is and is not defamation and I take great care to avoid defaming anyone, to the extent of buying a couple of hefty books on the subject.  And this was done not just in order to avoid legal challenge, I wouldn’t want to make or imply any false criticisms anyway.  I try to report things accurately and I like to think that I usually succeed.

Not everyone understands that stating the truth can rarely if ever be defamation, unless it’s done in a way which implies something which is both damaging and false.  Likewise expressing an unfavourable opinion about someone isn’t automatically defaming them either.  There are lots of other things which wouldn’t be defamation even if they were unfriendly, for example when Dave Sharp calls Barry Walton names on the internet it’s not defamation, it’s just an insult and insults are not automatically defamation.  I don’t usually resort to crude insults myself, but I support Dave’s right to do so, especially about Barry when it’s entertaining.  Anyway Barry looks more of an underweight Berlusconi than a piece of lady’s anatomy to me but there we are, it’s all in the eye of the beholder.

Barry gained weight and looked a bit older last time he was in Italy but still managed to stay on form

Barry, especially now that he’s been promoted to the Diplomatic Corps, would probably take anything along these lines in the right spirit anyway, as most bikers would, as hopefully he will take this little poke of fun.  The point I’m making is that even in our litigious society,writing something about someone that they don’t like isn’t automatically grounds for legal action.  The law recognises that critical public comment has a place, even if it’s wounding comment which is not written to be funny.  So slander and libel are not easy to assert and they are certainly not cheap to assert either – and as a proper Yorkshireman of course Barry certainly wouldn’t waste money so I’m probably safe.

I aim to report and comment on the GoldWing scene without fear or favour and I’ve little sympathy for people who are messing things up for other Wingers, so I will inevitably displease some people some of the time.   But I don’t set out to trash anything or anyone just for the sake of it and I don’t knowingly go beyond what the truth justifies.  So I’ll always happily make corrections – and I’ll willingly retract and apologise when appropriate, without needing my arm twisted.

But I won’t submit to intimidation or bullying just because someone doesn’t like what I’ve written and I don’t expect anyone else to have to put up with hassle of that sort because of my writing either.  If anyone has a beef about this Blog they should take it up with me, which is why I’ve written this article, to make that clear. Not that I’m expecting or get a lot of complaints.  Apart from Chris Hinds’s ill judged threat, this has been the first time anyone has tried to take issue in anything like this way.

Unfortunately some people think they know everything or think that if they make enough fuss or make big enough threatening noises or claim that their lawyer has said this or said that then they will get their way, so I have to be prepared to cope with a legal (or more likely a barrack room lawyerish) challenge, however fanciful that challenge might be, which I am.  Maybe that’s why Nigel was selected as the easier target and to be a punch bag.  Nigel is doing his voluntary bit for the benefit of the GoldWing Community by helping me as a geek with this Blog and the offending article was clearly very unlikely to be anything to do with him at all.  It was a back-door and bullying way to try to get an article pulled and I have nothing but contempt for the man who thought that was a reasonable way for one Winger to behave towards another.

So I’ve now taken Nigel as completely as I can out of the firing line.  I suppose it will still not be impossible, in this strange world we live in these days, for some crackpot to threaten to sue him because the stylish image of the yellow bike which he put on the Blog for me has aggravated their acne or made them go weak at the knees but hopefully that won’t happen.   Anyway there will be no point in anyone asking Nigel to pull this Blog or anything on it in future because I’ve sacked him as web hosting supplier – in the nicest possible way of course.  In future, if anyone has a beef and wants to take issue, they’ll need to pluck up the courage to do it directly with me – unless they fancy travelling a very long way to see the web hosting company and then risk getting shot at.

As I mentioned earlier I don’t resort to crude insult on this Blog but this episode has led me to wonder that if I was going to call someone an arrogant, opinionated fool, who might possibly fit that bill?

I’ve been getting a bit more feedback than usual lately, for which I have been grateful, even though some of it implies criticism – in particular of the stuff I have been continuing to write about GWOCGB’s problems and club politics.

Fortunately there’s been plenty of positive feedback too but I learned to be self-critical in my riding when I did advanced training with the IAM and it’s something I’ve tried to apply to other aspects of my motorcycling hobby too, including writing this Blog.  I’ve almost always bounced ideas for articles off Winger friends before publishing on potentially controversial topics and sometimes gone as far as getting them to look at a draft.  I’m well aware of the responsibilities of access to a readership such as this Blog has built up.  I have Ian Duxbury as Deputy Editor too now, for which I’m grateful.

But a Winger, a friend, took the trouble to mention his concerns recently that I might be doing harm, so as well as taking that opportunity to pause, yet again, for serious thought about the balance I try to strike, I decided I would share with you some of my thinking about the role of this Blog – in particular relation to bringing the divisions and the unfriendlinesswhich has been prevelant in the UK GoldWing community to an end, which is hopefully what all of us would like to see happening.

My aim has always been to provide information and entertainment for the whole UK GoldWing community and, since GWOCGB has historically been the predominant UK GoldWing club and has also been suffering a serious decline in membership, news stories about GWOCGB have generally been newsworthy.  But dragging out the agonies or flogging a dead horse, if that’s what I’m now in danger of doing, wouldn’t score well with me, let alone with any GWOCGB Members I’ve been upsetting along the way, so I certainly wouldn’t want to do that.  I’ve tried to emphasise several times that it’s not the Club itself I’ve been criticising, or the many nice people among its membership, just those who have made such a mess or running the Club or who have been damaging it by their own poor behaviour towards other Wingers that they have been ruining a once great Club.

I would much prefer to see GWOCGB turn its fortunes and adapt its ways in order to become a friendly part of a friendly UK GoldWing community than any other outcome.  It’s going to be tricky to achieve that because the way things are going it seems more likely that GWOCGB will shrink to become an embittered and beleagured shadow of its former self.  That prospect carries with a serious risk of long  term divisions, rivalry and bad feeling among UK Wingers which we should all be willing to work to avoid and I certainly am.

But GWOCGB, or at least those who run it, have continued to show a lack of ideas and initiative and to be almost consumed by inertia – perhaps even to be stuck in some sort of delusional time warp in which they can continue to be unfriendly ((and continue to allow some of their Members to be particularly unfriendly) to other Wingers with impunity.   With only the merest hints of light beginning to dawn that change has to happen, there’s a long way to go before any hope of a turn in fortunes can arise.  And as I see it the inertia and the lack of ideas are still there in spades so the boat still needs rocking.

I don’t think I’ve gone OTT in that respect so far but it’s important that I listen carefully to the opinions of others about this sort of thing, and I do.  My underlying aim is constructive; I want to see the UK GoldWing community as a whole move into happier times and that includes seeing GWOCGB resolve its difficulties without a legacy of bitterness and resentment.  If I fail to strike the right balance my writings could increase the risk of such a legacy and I’m keen to avoid that if I can.

There will (hopefully, and soon) come a point when it will be time for me to stop being critical altogether and concentrate on being entirely constructive – and indeed I’ve already given quite a lot of thought to how a reformed or restructured GWOCGB can make a useful contribution to a universally friendly UK GoldWing community.  Can anyone realistically hope to restore GWOCGB to it’s former predominant position as the UK’s only sizeable GoldWing club, ruled from the centre and able to command high level subscriptions to finance itself?  If not, what other role can a reformed GWOCGB realistically hope to build?  Has the emergence of low cost, thriving alternatives to a centrally-ruled, national GoldWing club already made the GWOCGB “nationalised” way of doing things obsolete?  Is there a better way forward in which all UK Wingers can share without feeling hard done to?

 

There is risk in rocking the boat

The danger in GWOCGB not finding a new role in which it can thrive is continuing division in the UK GoldWing community and this is something which all sensible UK Wingers will prefer to avoid, whether they are still GWOCGB members or not.

It’s important to appreciate that the non-GWOCGB part of  the UK GoldWing community is already enjoying peace and harmony and in some cases never lost it because they were completely untouched by the aggro; they already had freedom to do their own thing and simply continued to do so.  Likewise those Wingers who formed independent new clubs in recent years have done so successfully and they have also been enjoying the fruits for some time.  GWOCGB’s problems are not their problems and they haven’t been for some time, if at all.  The aggro emanating from GWOCGB (and it really has all been one way) has been entirely self-destructive in its effect.

But I would certainly much prefer to see friendliness right across the GoldWing community and hopefully most other Wingers would like that too.  Tempting though it might be to ignore GWOCGB’s problems or to dismiss them as “nothing to do with us”, or to feel a sense of justice that those who have caused trouble are getting their comeuppance, the aggro was only ever from a belligerent minority in GWOCGB.  I would like to think that we who have moved on and are enjoying our GoldWing hobby ourselves, would still want to help Wingers who are in difficulties because their Club has been screwed up for them, if we can.

Those who want to continue to cling to old concepts and/or to continue to disdain and disapprove of others who have moved on might be beyond influence and the way things are going they seem likely to find themselves part of a shrinking and increasingly marginalised, and probably also increasingly embittered, minority in the UK GoldWing community.  They are not the majority of GWOCGB Members, nothing like; they just happen to have been the noisiest and the most insistent, and to have included the ruling faction.  There are probably only fifty of them at the very most, so still less than five percent of the current, much reduced, Club membership.  It’s a tregedy that a once great Club has been ruined by so few and maybe the silent majority in GWOCGB should ask themselves why and how they allowed it to happen.  But we are here and it’s now and that’s all water under the bridge.  We have a continuing opportunity to prevent long term divisions and bad feelings in the GoldWing community as a whole and that is deserving of effort from all of us.  Much better, and perhaps a lot easier, to try to prevent a legacy of ill feeling than to devise  a remedy if it does.

And that’s what I want to try to do.  So feedback from a friend that I might be doing some harm by continuing to write critcally about the way GWOCGB is being run is salutary and I have paused, as I’ve done many times before, for serious consideration of whether I’ve already reached the point of diminishing returns.

What I’ve been writing about GWOCGB has always been accurate and I’ve mostly tried to do it with a light or at least a partly humourous touch.  But just occasionally and recently I have been more overtly or specifically critical and I’ve even named names and used brutal terminology like dishonesty and manipulative behaviour.  But even then, as I’ve seen it, that has been a proportionate response to nastiness emanating from those head-bangers (for example on the GWOCGB Forum) who can’t seem to stop themselves being unfriendly and belligerent.  I’ve tried to help them see that their continuingly unfriendly behaviour just doesn’t pay; they merely bring their Club and themselves into further disrepute and even more of their Members will be driven away.

I have been sensitive to the risk that reporting failures, misfortunes and scandals might be seen as aggravating the situation so I’ve always paused for thought before I’ve published and often as not I’ve also sought advice from friends and even sent draft copies to them for comment, to try to strike the right balance.  I thought it might be helpful to those of you who have wondered whether I am on some sort of destructive mission to be aware of the trouble I take.  When I’ve published anything hard-hitting I’ve tried to ensure that I’m doing it for good and timely reason.  Sometimes it’s been directly in response to stupidity, aggression or injustice, for example the attacks on Barry Walton and Eric Warburton, and always it’s been soundly based on fact.  I might sometimes employ a bit of humourous embellishment or analogy, as I did with the invention of the characters Dominatrix and Carbuncle a while ago, but  even then I have related to the truth.

I simply don’t need to invent anything.  Time and again I have had to gape in wonder at the information which gets fed to me; it’s been stuff you just couldn’t write as fiction, it wouldn’t be credible, yet it has been literally true.  The most scandalous stuff of all I have set aside.  Interestingly a senior, current office-holder in GWOCGB acknowledged the accuracy of my writings recently.

You can't make an omlette without breaking eggs

There is good reason why I am very well informed about what goes on inside GWOCGB and it stems from realisation among some  long-standing and fundamentally loyal GWOCGB members that things have gone seriously wrong and that radical change is needed.  The Club’s National Committee is riven by factions, they cannot agree about how to resolve problems and above all they lack creative ideas and the leadership qualities needed to put them into effect.  The belligerents among the membership have been given such free reign in the past that they can’t be brought under control except by shutting communications down in a way which adds to the Club’s problems.  The Club is in a real mess and the current National Committee is never in a month of Sundays going to come up with the necessary ideas or take the necessary action.

Change in the membership of that Committee, and probably also in its size, structure and role, are desperately needed if the Club is to have any sort of future.  Hence the radical solution which I suggested recently, of suspending the Constitution (i.e. getting the whole Committee out of the way) and putting a White Knight of some sort in charge, who might them have a fighting chance of turning the Club’s fortunes.  For GWOCGB these are desperate times.

And the concern which one Winger has expressed to me recently, and strangely enough he’s the only one so far who’s actually come out and said it, is that simply by continuing to write about GWOCGB’s problems at all I am perpetuating the bad feelings in the GoldWing community which otherwise might die down.  He thinks, or perhaps he just hopes, that by leaving GWOCGB alone the situation will improve.

He left GWOCGB himself some time ago but he still likes to go to some of their camping events and he’s not enjoyed the disparaging remarks or disapproval about his own club affiliations that he’s been encountering – and he’s fed up of people saying things like “Oh you’re with that so-and-so Stuart Ormerod” or words to that effect.  In essence he was telling me, with some genuine emotion, that he is really fed up with the aggro which is still very apparent in some parts of the UK GoldWing scene.  He wants us all to be able to get back to  happier days when Wingers were all friendly towards each other all the time and could go to each others events without worrying about being unwelcome or worse.

Don’t we all, of course.

I don’t go to GWOCGB events and our own Club and Federation events, like the recent Llandudno Light Parade, have all been entirely friendly and non-political, so I’ve experienced nothing of this myself.  But I ‘ve had lots of reports of it happening, repeatedly, including for example at the recent Scarborough Light Parade, when people who are ex-members of GWOCGB were getting blanked or otherwise made to feel unwelcome, even though they have been regular supporters of that Event.  One GWOCGB Member, chatting to an ex-member at Scarborough about rebuilding broken bridges, behaved as if he was terrified of being seen doing it.  Seen from outside GWOCGB, where the UK GoldWing community has basically settled into a new way of enjoying doing its own thing, it’s difficult not to regard all this sort of thing as childish as well as self-defeating but it’s real enough.  This well-meaning GWOCGB Member is probably right to feel paranoid about being seen fraternising,  the “fundamentalists” might well start calling him a traitor to their cause; they are nothing if not fixed in their ideas and their ways.

We'd all like an end to unpleasantness

I remember getting a few dirty looks at the 2008 Blackpool Light Parade (our last Event as Lancs & Lakes Region) but ever since then I’ve been able to enjoy an entirely friendly atmosphere at every GoldWing event I’ve attended.  Aggro or even disapproval of any kind has simply never featured at our non-GWOCGB events.

Nor does club politics or indeed any mention of GWOCGB crop up at our Club Meetings and on the rare occassions when it does crop up in conversation among us, the prevailing sentiment is of sympathy for the nice Wingers in GWOCGB who are stuck with it than any pleasure at GWOCGB’s misfortune.  As far as our club life is concerned it’s all water long gone under the bridge.  It’s a pity others can’t move on, but we’ve done so very successfully.

But on this Blog, which I control and is not the organ of any club or organisation, GWOCGB’s problems are still newsworthy.  I have written about GWOCGB’s problems and I have sometimes been very critical of the people who are causing them. I’m careful about what I write, especially the criticism, but I don’t claim to be infallible.  So I’m grateful for feedback, especially from Wingers who can express it rationally and constructively, and I pay attention.

All of us in the UK GoldWing community, apart perhaps from a few complete head-bangers we’d all be better off without anyway, will be hoping for a proper end to the divisions and the unfriendliness which has been a feature of the UK GoldWing scene for the past three years or so.  We’d all like to see the obstacles to resumption of universally friendly relations removed.  And if it becomes clear that my continuing to write about GWOCGB on this Blog is one of them, I should certainly stop doing so.

Rose tinted recollections can be misleading

Is my friend right?  Would simply stopping writing about GWOCGB help?  Would things settle down if I did that and would friendly relationships start to build naturally?

We have to be careful to avoid looking back with rose-tinted glasses.  Squabbles and scandals occured in GWOCGB long before 2008 and the start of the decline in membership goes way back beyond then.  I’ve unearthed some pretty unsavoury stuff about things which went on in GWOCGB prior to 2008 which most Wingers will be unaware of because in those days it could all be covered up and swept under the carpet, so it was.  Non-conformists and trouble-makers were got rid of; the Committee was all powerful and knew it.  They also new that they could deal very effectvely with any attempt to form a separate, independent GoldWing club by isolating it so that at if it survived at all it could only survive as a small local club.  GWOCGB had a virtual monopoly and its ruling Committee confidently exploited it.

Even during 2008, when I was summarily expelled “for bringing the Club into disrepute” (but in reality for crossing a couple of key players on the National Committee) I wasn’t the only Member of GWOCGB to be got rid of in this way.  My expulsion became prominent because it was controversial and because my Region objected (and then elected me Winger of the Year to show the Committee how they felt) but the expulsion of another Member happened that year in a way which can only be described as secretly and in contravention of the Club Rules.  There might well have been more.

The Committee had become accustomed to doing what they wanted to do, confident that they would get away with it.  And of course that sort of freedom to abuse controlling power is dangerous to any club’s interests, as I believe it has been very damaging to GWOCGB over many years, not just recently.  Not long after I joined GWOCGB I was warned, with what has turned out to be masterly understatement, that “some of the people in GWOCGB are not very nice at all” and  this has proved to be the case.  I discovered that dirty tricks were being played.  I even unearthed evidence of a substantial fraud by a former Committee Member and some pretty poor handling of th Club’s financial affairs, all of  which had been swept under the carpet.

Power to indulge, obscure, discredit, exclude - and even to disdain

So there were things that the membership of GWOCGB should be told about and until I started this Blog and built up a readership among Wingers, there was no way that they could be told because the Committee effectively controlled all the means of communication.  Even though I cornered the Committee into owning up to poor financial controls while I was still a Member of the Club, it was only in the form of a commitment to do better and by no means an acknowledgement of any failings or impropriety.  So along with the efforts I have made to entertain and inform UK Wingers about other things, I have taken the opportunity to right this wrong.  I have denied GWOCGB’s National Committee a continuing opportunity to sweep their failings, and their skullduggery, under the carpet.

And I’ve had feedback from many other Wingers, including continuing and active GWOCGB Members, that my Blog is hitting that spot very well.  The value as well as the truth of what I’m publishing is being recognised.  They also recognise that dislodging what has become damaging deadwood on the ruling Committee is vital to the Club’s future because they are extremely unlikely to leave willingly.  My exposées have therefore created an opportunity for change within GWOCGB which has been welcomed, except of course by the exploiters and the abusers.

If only they'd stop shooting themselves in the foot.....

Of course I can’t keep on writing about the Committee’s scandals and cock-ups unless they keep me supplied with new ones, so in that sense they have, as they have always had, an option to stop doing stupid or dishonest or manipulative things and deny me any further ammunition.  While it’s true that I still have quite a backlog of unpublished stories of their past skullduggery to tell, I can hardly keep harping back to past mistakes, especially if they have started to get their act together and are now acting constructively in the Club’s interests.  I see no evidence that they are getting their act together but either way, all they have to do to get me off their back is to stop being dishonest, manipulative, negligent or stupid – and that can’t be too hard can it?

So, I will keep an open mind about easing off about GWOCGB because I really don’t want to take this thing to the point where it starts to do more harm than good.  But for now I’m still confident that by telling it like it is I am helping GWOCGB as well as the rest of the UK GoldWing community move towards a brighter future.  So I will continue to write about GWOCGB from time to time, especially if the negativity – and dare I say stupidity? – continues, which unfortunately it does.

At the recent Scarborough Light Parade one of the Llandudno Organisers, who has attended every Scarborough Light Parade so far, even though he left GWOCGB long ago, asked if he could distribute leaflets about his Event, which would take place a couple of weeks later.  By all means, said the SLP Organisers promptly – so well done them.  And then shortly afterwards they said sorry, you can’t do it after all.  They had been instructed by the National Committee not to allow it.

When the Blackpool Light Parade was cancelled for 2011 its Organisers had handed over to Scarborough with good grace, encouraging Wingers on their website to go to the SLP.  The SLP Organisers had responded to this with good grace too.  It can’t possibly have harmed the SLP’s prospects and it probably couldn’t have helped the LLP much either to allow the distribution of these leaflets but it was a nice gesture and a useful step towards building broken bridges.

Giving the not-nice people in GWOCGB simple choices might help, but that would need much more active and resolute leadership than we've seen so far

How on earth can it make sense for GWOCGB’s National Committee to chuck a spanner in the works like this, especially when it meant telling the SLP Organisers to go back on their word?

Was it really the National Committee issuing this edict or just some individual who bears an insatiable grudge?  There’s nothing, even in GWOCGB’s infamously tortuous set of Rules, to prevent GWOCGB Members from being friendly and helpful to other Wingers.  I’m already aware that some of the Club’s key Officers had no knowledge of this instruction to be unhelpful.  If I find out who was responsible for it I’ll let you know; they deserve to get the credit for what was, at the very least, poor judgement.

This sort of thing won’t keep happening for much longer I hope, because change is certainly on the wind in GWOCGB’s ruling hierarchy and at least some of the deadwood is strongly rumoured to be on the way out.   Change probably needs to come a bit quicker and to be a lot more drastic if GWOCGB is to have a chance to reform itself in a controlled way rather than to suffer complete collapse, but at least it’s happening.  I have a feeling that things will come to a head and thence to resolution fairly soon.  Good news or bad, I will do my best to keep you informed.

And since my constructive suggestion, in a previous article, of the sort of radical steps which are now necessary if GWOCGB is to be salvagable, seems to have gone done well with at least one Member of the National Committee, in the spirit of helpfulness I’ll do a SWOT analysis for GWOCGB to help it take stock and maybe thereby to turn its fortunes.  Watch this space.

In the meantime I promise to think even more carefully before I publish anything critcal about GWOCGB, even if I can also make it entertaining.

And  I would suggest to the “fundamentalists” among remaining GWOCGB Members, those unhappy few who can’t seem to stop moaning and blaming others for their Club’s problems and letting it show, that they should at least stop treating their paying guests at Club events to any more displays of their ill feelings.  It’s bad manners, it’s unfriendly and it can’t possibly do any good, can it?

Ian, looking even smarter than usual

I am pleased to announce that Ian Duxbury has been conned into – sorry, has graciously accepted my invitation to help out with the Blog.

Ian has been a Contributor for some time and has the badge to show for it!  He also has the necessary qualities of charm, intellegence, sense of humour and gullibility – not to mention girth.

Ian and I will therefore be sharing the editorial role from now on, which is why his Comments will now appear in a green colour, as mine do. Not sure why this happens, it’s a geeky thing.   I must remember to ask Nigel, our trusty Webmaster, some time.

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.

Last week's viewing figures - click on the image for an enlargement

Viewing figures for this Blog are keeping up nicely, so thank to you, my readers for your continuing interest.

I get two different sets of figures, one from our web hosting company and another from Google.  They are not remotely compatible so as with all statistics, you have to take them with a piunch of salt.

The table of figures here is however from the same source I’ve always quoted when I’ve reported viewing figures, so you are getting a change to compare apples with apples.

The readership extends beyond UK although thankfully it is still mostly UK-based; since that’s the Blog’s main purpose.  But Hi There to Hong Kong, the Phillipines and Austr’salia; I hope you enjoy visiting, please keep it up and don’t be frightened of making Comments on Articles either.

Click on the image for an enlarged view

Thank you to all you Readers for your interest in this Blog, as reflected in the viewing rates, which have increased markedly yet again.

Last week there were just over 7,500 unique visits, which is a new milestone.  Visits have been running at about 5,500 in recent weeks, which was up 1,000 or so since the turn of the year, but they jumped by another 2,000 during this past week, presumably helped by the release of information about the new GoldWing Model.

This probably doesn’t mean that an extra 2,000 people found the Blog for the first time this week of course but there must have been a few new Readers, so welcome to you all.  The Blog was visited from 77 different countries last week which is quite something.

If you are new to the Blog you might want to browse the Contents List as well as reading what’s on the front page because quite a back list of articles has built up since the Blog was launched in November 2009, many of which could well be of interest.

There’s also a system of Categories which may help you to find what you are looking for and a Search facility, both of which you will find on the right hand side of the screen.

Comments on the Articles are most welcome, especially if you have something interesting or informative to say.  This Blog is an On-Line Magazine rather than a forum or a message board, so Comments are not automatically published and they may be edited – although usually only to correct typos and to help make them more easily readable, that sort of thing.

Guest writers are also most welcome.  Articles on any topic which is event remotely to do with GoldWings will be considered so tell us about your rides, your bike, your club, anything at all.  This is a non-commercial website so there’s no money on offer but if your article is published you will get a free “Contributor” badge as a token of thanks.  Articles are better when they are illustrated, so photos or other images are particularly welcome.  Writing style, grammar and spelling are much less important because I will always help out with those if necessary.  Please contact me with your ideas and offers – you’ll be guaranteed a fairly big readership of Wingers!

Even Harrods doesn't stock these exclusive items!

This Blog now has its own on line shop.  You can go there by clicking on the Blog Merchandise link which is on the Go To list on the right hand side of the screen.

Not that I’m planning to develop the Blog into a commercial enterprise of any sort but since the Blog now has a stylish Badge and many Wingers are fond of badges, I wanted to make it available.

There is also the Friendly Winger badge, which I also wanted Wingers to have the chance to wear, to show their own commitment to friendliness among Wingers, regardless of whether and which club they might be in.

So the Blog’s On Line Shop offers a simple range of badges and embroidered garments using either the Blog or the Friendly Winger  badges.

The garments will be supplied by Storm Embroidery of Barnsley in South Yorkshire, which is owned by Alan Mason who is a Winger himself and has been supplying regalia to the UK GoldWing community for years.  The Blog’s On Line Shop is a way of ordering regalia from Alan and pay him (directly) so that he can make up the order and post it directly to you.

It works in the same sort of way as on line shops you are likely to have used for other purposes.  If you are not comfortable with on line shopping you may order these items from him directly by telephone if you prefer; the number is provided on the Blog Merchandise Page, where the Shop is located.

I’ve been re-building a gatepost, or rather helping in a very un-skilled labouring capacity. The old one had been leaning over further and further over the years and had become known as the Leaning Tower of Samlesbury.

I suppose we could have contacted the experts in Pisa to find out it it could have been saved but the decision was made to demolish it and take the opportunity to widen the gateway slightly to improve motorhome access.  No names no pack drill but a Winger friend of mine managed to clip one of the gateposts last year and dislodged its capping flagstone.  Fortunately the damage to his pride was worse that to the motorhome but he hasn’t tried to come to our home in it ever since then.  Just as well he picked the non-leaning post otherwise I suppose he might have finished it off prematurely.

Anyway I’ve been experiencing much harder physical work than I’ve been used to for many a year and stiffening up and aching in places I didn’t know could ache all week.  I’m relieved it’s now weekend and we’re having a break.  The bike’s sitting in the garage looking lonely and neglected but there’s a heavy frost and salt on the roads even though we haven’t had any snow, so that’s where the bike’s stopping.

It’s been a race against the cold weather building the new post of course and it will have to wait for its final rendering coat until the temperatures has improved quite a bit.  The new post has been given some decent foundations so it stands more chance of staying upright than the last one, which didn’t seem to have had any at all.

As you will see from the picture I was allowed to have a play with a jack hammer and I also used the shovel which you can see having a rest leaning against the post – although I wasn’t very successful with either and my contribution was little more than making the tea and cleaning the tools afterwards.  I did however do enough to learn just how physically unfit I’ve become.

But the new gatepost is up and the groundwork is finished, so there’s an enforced break until the cold spell finishes and the new gates are being made.  With enormous relief I can tuck myself into my favourite corner with my laptop on my knee and a cup of coffee to hand  and get back to the important business of boring you lot to death!

I have received the first batch of Blog Badges including some , like the picture here, with the word “Contributor” superimposed in red.  These will be presented FOC to anyone who writes a feature article for the Blog from now on as a thankyou.

I’ve also got a few plain Blog Badges (i.e. without “Contributor”) and these will be offered for sale as soon as I can sort out the practicalities of on-line sales.

These badges have come out far better than I was expecting.  The ’tiling’ effect of the bike’s image on the website looked like it would be difficult to do in embroidery.

But Alan Mason of Storm Embroidery in Barnsley has excelled himself and they look really good.  Alan is a Winger himself and has a lot of experience producing badges, polo shirts, fleeces and other regalia for GoldWing clubs.  He doesn’t bother with newfangled things like websites but  if you need any embroidery done he can be contacted on:

01226 231054

*