'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.

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………

Veterans Rally at the Anglia Motel

We have been supporting this rally at the Anglia Motel on the A17 Spalding for several years now.  It was started by Mr Harold Payne to take the Veterans back to France each year to pay their respects to their fallen comrades.  But as the years roll on we have less of this fine generation from the world wars and now there is a need from a younger generation, in the form of The Help The Heroes Fund.

Mr Payne who owns the Anglian Motel raised £23,000.00 last year (2010), this money is controlled by independent accountant and is distributed directly to the Anglian Regiment who currently have sixteen amputees.  Last year’s Presentation Night was a very moving occasion when five Veterans proudly wearing their medals marched in and handed over the cheque for £23,000.00 to ten young solders from the Anglian Regiment, all of whom had been injured in current operation in Iraq and Afghanistan .

This year we had Goldwings solo’s and trike on show plus a BSA Super Road Rocket and a GMC Day Van.

The BSA belongs to Harold Payne but it refused to start.  Reg and myself were a rather exhausted double act after trying to start it, kicking it over and bump starting it in the car park.  All we can say is “thank you Honda for electric start”.  We of course had many good old boys telling us how it should be done and we got to the point where we said “Go on  then you start it” but the BSA had other ideas.

We even had a guy who was dressed up as a Nazi telling us how he used to start his old bikes, so a Nazi tried but the British won again.  We had one guy who’s secret was to spray deoderant into the air intake; needless to say this did not work.

Eventually a man with the right know how got it started, he and Harold decided it would be a good idea to take it out for a run but continues………

“When will they ever learn?” goes the song – and really,  isn’t it about time that the small band of GWOCGB members who think they are helping their Club by mounting jehad paused for enough thought to realise it isn’t helping, indeed it’s clearly been counter-productive every time?

That’s fundamentally why GWOCGB’s membership continues to fall.

You can’t attract Wingers to join or stay in a so-called friendly club if it keeps behaving in a conspicuously unfriendly way.  Despite an even steeper decline in membership last year, despite a clear request from one of the Club’s Directors to stop making things worse and let the Club’s Committee work out how to deal with a critical situation for the Club’s future, the belligerence, the bad-mouthing, the bullying and the intimidation continues.

I reported recently on the unwarranted personal attacks which had been made on Barry Walton and Eric Warburton on the GWOCGB Forum and explained how they would likely to be counter-productive to the Club’s interests.  In a follow up attack on Barry and his Club, members of ‘Appy Wanderers who attended GWOCGB events have been hassled about having anything to do with the Federation – at any price.  Barry has also been offered payment of the full cost of PLI cover for five years if he would pull out of the Federation, so this time it was a combination of bribery and bullying.

Is that what they are spending the Club’s diminishing reserves on?  Someone in GWOCGB is willing to spend over £800 per year rather than see ‘Appy Wanderers buy it from the Federation for £10?   It sounds like pretty desperate stuff.

Of course ‘Appy Wanderers have no fight with GWOCGB and ‘Appy Wanderers have, at least nominally, promoted GWOCGB membership among its own members since it was formed.   The decision on behalf of ‘Appy Wanderers to join the Federation was continues………

Revived at www.goldwings.org.uk

In what is excellent news for all UK Wingers who enjoy a good weekend and a bit of showing off at the seaside, the Blackpool Light Parade, abandoned after last year because the Council wouldn’t play ball, has risen from the ashes already in Llandudno.

Chris Phillips and his colleagues in GoldWings North Wales are organising an equivalent event in Llandudno on Saturday October 1st this year, with options to stay for the Friday and/or Saturday nights to make a weekend of it.

Llandudno has many advantages over Blackpool for purposes of an event like this – the Promenade is wide and level along its length and the seafront is also much more sheltered than at Blackpool, because it is tucked behind the Great Orme (similar shape, no relation) out of the prevailing winds.

The Organisers are adopting the well-tried combination of an afternoon static display on the Prom, a Best Lit Bike Competition and a Parade around the Town.

Llandudno is a popular resort and even in October there will be plenty of visitors to enjoy the spectacle – as the level of booking already made in the Town for that weekend already show.

So, it a cracking venue, there’s a good hotel deal and plenty of alternative accommodation too, so apart from the Town not having quite the same sort of Illuminations as Blackpool, this changeover is win, win, win for Wingers.

Effectively the event will take over the central part of the Promenade for the afternoon and evening where there will be plenty of room for as many GoldWings as want to come – and for sponsors to set out their stalls to sell GoldWing shiny bits.  The Organisers are very hopeful that at least two of the big dealers in GoldWing Accessories will be attending, probably with others too.

The social side will include entertainment as it to be based at the Evans Hotel, familiar to many Wingers as the venue where Pennine Wings have held an early season gathering for many years.

For the latest details please visit the re-dedicated BLP, now LLP Website at www.goldwings.org.uk

"Theyve got a nicer badge than us too" - a quote from the GWOCGB Forum

Sometimes you are wasting your time trying to explain even a simple truth and it’s better to give up and walk away – but usually only with people who are so blinkered and/or bigoted that they have their own agenda and so they believe, and they will only believe, whatever suits that end.  In extremes cases they seek out the wrong end of the stick in order to misrepresent any alternative view to their own.

And the wrong end of the stick is being put about concerning Federation of UK GoldWing Clubs, which I haven’t written about for a while, so I thought I take the opportunity to give the concept behind Federation another airing.

The Federation is about freedom of choice and it’s almost as simple as that.

After getting fed up with being obstructed and told what to do by GWOCGB’s Committee, a group of Wingers got together a couple of years ago to develop something different – and we believe it’s turning out to be a lot better than what we had in all sorts of ways.

I’d better make it clear before I get into my stride that I’m writing this in a personal capacity rather than as Federation Secretary, which is why this article is on my Blog rather than the Federation website.  This is about my personal understanding of what the Federation is and will become rather than a statement of official policy.  The Federation isn’t in the habit of doing “official” stuff anyway; it’s a pretty informal sort of outfit and it doesn’t have written policies any more than it has rules.

So, it’s about freedom of choice.  Wingers should be as free as possible to organise and take part in continues………

It’s turning into a good year for the Federation of UK GoldWing Clubs with the announcement today of their third new affiliation of the current season.  ‘Appy Wanderers GoldWing Touring Club have joined them.

‘Appy Wanderers was formed in 2004 to provide new opportunities for GoldWing Owners, especially for GWOCGB Members, to get out riding their bikes more and to tour more extensively, especially on the European continent.  For Wingers who had never taken their bike abroad the guiding and helping hand which ‘Appy Wanderers would now be offering would make all the difference.

The guided tours would also enhance GWOCGB’s conventional calendar, which had consisted almost entirely of camping weekends.  GWOCGB Regions ride their bikes too of course and not just on journeys to campsites, but ‘Appy Wanderers aimed to provide riding opportunities of a wider scope and range.

And the ‘Appy Wanderers formula has proved to be very popular, with some of the rides and tours attracting nearly forty bikes.    ‘Appy Wanders has also been active on Facebook and has a Forum too, so altogether it could be said that Barry (or is it really Dave?) has a band of followers exceeding 500, although thankfully they haven’t yet all turned up for the same ride out.  The active, riding membership is 40+ bikes and occasionally most of them will turn out for a ride together.

‘Appy Wanderers has always been a Club in its own right rather than a GWOCGB Region and this freed it from some constraints about what and when it could organise in the way of riding activities.  In practice, since it offers mostly a different sort of riding activity than GWOCGB and its Regions were continues………

It's All about Freedom of Choice!

The Federation of UK GoldWing Clubs continues to grow and has just announced that two further GoldWing organisations have joined.

An established GoldWing Club in Lincolnshire and Norfolk has joined and, in an innovative move, so has the GoldWing Riders Forum.

The Federation is all about serving the needs of the UK GoldWing Community and supporting freedom of choice, so when David Williams, who owns and operates GoldWing Riders Forum, enquired about affiliating there was no hesitation about saying yes – just a bit of head scratching about how to go about setting the affiliation up.

Family-friendly and enjoyable

David’s Forum aims to serve the UK Internet Winger community rather than the world at large and he’s also rather keen on avoiding club rivalries and politics – so his ideas are entirely compatible with what the Federation is about too.  David isn’t trying to take over the Federation or vice versa; his wish to affiliate merely reflects his recognition of the common aim and from the Federation’s viewpoint it’s a new way of supporting any and all parts of the UK GoldWing Community.

Anglia GoldWing & Touring Bike Club, which has also affiliated to the Federation recently, has been established for some while, doing its own thing in Lincolnshire and Norfolk.

Chris McDonough 01406 365668

They are a small local club (currently only 8 bikes) and their interest, although primarily in riding and enjoying GoldWings, is in maintaining friendships, even when a Winger loses the plot for a while and decides to ride another sort of bike.

They used to operate as a sideline interest more or less within Norfolk Wings (a Region of GWOCGB) and indeed one of their Members is still in GWOCGB.  But the inflexibility of GWOCGB’s rules about having to own a GoldWing – and more rules about what is and is not a proper GoldWing, made life uncomfortable for them so they made the decision some time ago to go completely independent.  They came across the Federation as a more welcoming and inclusive approach to bringing UK Wingers together which will allow them to keep their independence, do their own thing and also make new Winger friends too.  It only cost them £10 to affiliate (the standard first year membership charge, no matter how big their Club)  and they’ve already received £40 worth of free Federation Badges – they can’t believe it’s for real!

Chris McDonough who leads their Club (and used to lead Norfolk Wings) would be delighted to talk to anyone in their part of the Country who would be interested in joining them.

The Federation of UK GoldWing Clubs is revising it’s ideas for catering for individual Wingers and in doing so is contemplating the somewhat revolutionary step of abandoning subscriptions.

The idea is that once you have joined as an Associate (which is what the Federation calls individual membership) you will apparently have nothing else to pay in the way of personal subscriptions, ever.

And although there is a joining fee it’s not going to be a big one and you will get it all back straight away in the form of a joining pack of regalia anyway – so joining is effectively free!

Compared with GWOCGB’s policy over the last few years, of asking fewer and fewer members to pay more and more to cover the Club’s heavy burden of central costs, with virtually nothing of the subscription money passing back to the Regions, this is pretty radical thinking.

The Federation has been doing rather well getting sponsorship from the motorcycle trade.  It’s already in funds and it was dishing out grants to its affiliated Clubs within the first year of its existence. Indeed during its first two years no Affiliated Club failed to get more money back from the Federation than it chipped in and this pattern may very well continue. continues………

Chairman Ian Duxbury and his formidable Re-election Campaign Team

As an independent Club, GoldWings North West has the freedom to set its own course and do its own thing but as last Saturday’s Club Birthday Party demonstrated very well, that’s quite the opposite of being narrow minded or selfish – as newly-joined GWOCGB Members Steve and Sandra Corbishly of Stoke on Tent discovered when they decide to join in the fun.  Everyone was welcome and it was a very successful and sociable evening.

Over a hundred Wingers and their wives or partners came to the Leyland Hotel for a Dinner Dance evening and about 30 couples took the opportunity to stay overnight to make a short break of it.  Taking advantage of the free bar which was built into the deal might just have had something to do with staying over for some of them!

This was the third time the Club has held the Event using this format and the formula, dreamed up by the late Lesley Halley, obviously works.  Some members of GoldWings North Wales were there as usual and this year Elite Wings joined in for the first time.  There were Members of Pennine Wings and Lancs & Lakes present too and, as it turned out, Staffordshire Wings as well.

As you will see from the photographs, quite a few took advantage of the option to dress up and why not? It’s the Club’s big annual Party so do it in style!  There are no rules in GoldWings North West of course so there was no compulsion and when we did it for the first time two years ago only a minority took the trouble.  But it’s caught on, it adds to the occasion and it was fun for the ladies to have a chance to dress up.

Organiser Ian Duxbury had done a great job and with the help of Bob Summers had done a Table continues………