Alan & Joyce in happier times

Alan Smith, a member of Goldwing’s North Wales, passed away recently after an illness which lasted almost 12 months.  He lived with his Partner Joyce at their home in Upton on the Wirral, from where his funeral cortage will depart at 11am on May 14th.

Alan specifically requested shortly before he died that Goldwings should be present at his funeral and so any Goldwing riders who are available on that day will be most welcome.

Dave Crowley has arranged a rendezvous at the Little Chef on the A41 Hooton Wirral M53 J5, from where the bikes will leave at 10.15am to ride the 8 miles or so to Alan & Joyce’s home.

Dave will call at The Seven Styles pub car park,  340 Upton Road, Upton, Wirral,  Merseyside, CH43 9RW, which is close to Alan & Joyce’s home at about 10.40am should anyone prefer to meet up there. The funeral cortage will depart from there for Landican Cemetery at 11am.

The photo of Alan with his partner, Joyce Wilkins, was taken last April when they kindly invited Wingers attending the Wirral Egg Run to their home for bacon butties.   Alan worked on the oil rigs off Scotland and was also a volunteer at Hoylake Coastguard Station.

This second photo was taken as Wingers and Members of the Coastguard assembled outside Alan & Joyce’s home.

Dennis's GL1100 Trike

Dennis White writes from Spain:

Hi Stuart,  I have just become the proud owner of a Honda GL1100 Trike,  is it possible to put a 1500 engine in this Frame and also is possible to re-bore the 1100 to 1500?

Thanks, Denny

Hi Denny,

I suppose if you have enough engineering skill and resources it might be possible to extend and modify a GL1100 frame to take a GL1500 engine although I suspect even Graham Whitaker, who has a very creative track record, might scratch his head a bit before starting a conversion of that particular sort.  Although I’m not an engineer I would guess that boring out a four cylinder GL1100 engine to increase the capacity to 1500cc is a complete non-starter.

Whether it would be of practical value to attempt any major conversion of this sort to a GoldWing these days raises other questions too and I fear that even if the engineering aspects were achievable the practicalities of using a converted bike on the roads raises real insurance difficulties which will compromise any benefits there might be. 

These days it can be extremely difficult to insure a modified motorcycle for road use (in UK at least) at an affordable premium or maybe even at any price.  Insurers are shying away from covering any motorcycle which has been substantially modified from the original specification in any way which could impact on performance or safety.  You might get more joy with a specialised insurer of classic bikes, for which your GL1100 will be eligible on age, but even they might raise their eyebrows about installing a GL1500 engine.

The GL1500 has a superb six cylinder engine and makes a great trike – arguably the best trike of any GoldWing model – but the GL1100 he of the beast as a good engine too and spares are available, so why not enjoy your new acquisition as is, at least for a while?  If you want a GL1500 trike then olo GL1500s are available at modest prices these days and relatively low cost trike conversions are available too, so if you would really prefer a GL1500 trike why not go for the real thing in due course?

Buying your first GoldWing is like buying your first house – you are unlikely to choose the GoldWing you would want to keep for ever first time and so you will probably change it within a year or two as you learn more about what is available.

And was I glad to see one of these guys!

Chester was the first GoldWing Light Parade I’ve attended on foot – and I discovered within ten minutes of the start that it’s far safer to participate on a GoldWing.

It had been a very showery day – more dull clouds showers and sunshine, even though the sun did show its face from time to time.  But in the way which Blackpool Light Parades always seemed to do, come Parade Mustering Time the weather had cleared and the streets were dry.  The omens were good.

And if the weather forecast had kept some Wingers away from Chester altogether then the ones who did turn out (around 70 of them) most stayed on to ride in the Parade.  It was a very successful and, I’m told, a very enjoyable GoldWing Light Parade and the City of Chester and Chester Lions are both keen to run it again next year.  There are photos and videos of the Parade on the Light Parade Website if you would like to look at them.

The Police Escort which had been promised turned up in plenty of time and so did the Lord Mayor, soon-to-be Biker Chick Mrs Eleanor Johnson, who was to ride on a trike courtesy of Dave Bayliss, aka Biggles.  Likewise Corrie Star Ian Puleston Davies who was promoted from riding his own classic scooter to passenger on Jim Nightingale’s  solo GL1800.

I wandered around taking lots of photos of happy Wingers and their bikes and then, as the Parade set off, kept clicking away, down on one knee in the roadway to get the angle, trying to get every single bike.  More or less I think I succeeded although some shots were much better exposed than others because of the background light.  My camera was working quite hard keeping up and then so was I after the last bike had departed, as I struggled creakily back to my feet, having failed to plan ahead and have someone or something to climb up to get vertical again.

The Parade Route headed South initially, in a languid loop which would have been useful to settle things down before entering the City Centre proper via Bridge Street.  This gave me plenty of time to walk the 2-300 yards along Grosvenor Street to its traffic light junction with Bridge Street, where I would be able to photograph the bikes all over again.  It would be darker by then, so it would be interesting to see what sort of results I got by simply pressing the button repeatedly as I had done as the Parade was setting off, leaving the allegedly very clever camera and its big lens to do its very clever stuff in low light.

Unfortunately that wasn’t to be because although I crossed to the North side of Grosvenor Street, the busier and main road, entirely uneventfully, as I crossed the entrance to a side road just short of Bridge Street I came to grief.

Oh dear, he hasn’t seen me!

I saw and heard the car appearing around the bend in the side street about 70 yards from where I was crossing at the Give Way Line and since I was already over half way across and have never considered myself to be inconspicuous in such situations, I raised my arm to signal my thanks to the driver for giving way to me – and then looked forwards and down again as I carried on walking the few remaining feet to the kerb.  It simply didn’t occur to me that the driver might not see me or that he might not stop.

A few moments later it suddenly became clear that I had taken far too much for granted as the front of the car appeared in my peripheral  vision, still moving.  This image of the front of a black car suddenly appearing is etched into my memory and I’m also pretty sure that I can remember what I said – or more likely what I thought I said to myself because I doubt there was time to get any words out aloud.  Oh no, the driver isn’t stopping, I thought to myself, or rather some expletives to that effect.

I suppose that sort of reaction is quite natural really.  I remember a young couple telling me about their experience of attending a man who had suffered what must have been a massive heart attack and died in their arms within a few seconds.  They spoke to his wife subsequently who asked if he had said anything.  Without hesitation they hold her that he had said “tell my wife I love her” but all he’d actually said as he was dying was “Oh f**k”.   There probably isn’t time for anything thoughtful or profound in those circumstances.

There was none of this slo-mo stuff either, when you are supposed to register every detail of what’s happening to you and also have your life flash before your eyes – I had registered the presence of the moving car close to me and I vaguely remember being aware of my legs being swept from under me but then nothing more until, in a somewhat befuddled state, I found myself lying in the gutter – struggling to take stock of where I was and whether any bits had been left behind en route.

I had no sense of recovering consciousness and felt nothing to suggest a bang on the head.  It was as if I had been lifted and dropped, indeed unceremoniously dumped, into the gutter with a gap in my awareness of what was going on – like a Star Trek transportation which had gone wrong in the middle but more or less got me there in one piece in the end.  I had after all been heading for the kerb at the time and I did end up lying next to it.

How did I end up here?

Nothing hurt particularly as I lay there and confused though I was,  I was able to look around and start to take stock.  I’m lying in the gutter; there is no pain or obvious blood or gore; my hands and feet are still attached to seemingly unbroken limbs –and so on.  But I was in no state to hold a sensible conversation; it was all a bit surreal.

The first indication of any tangible injury was that my spectacles were awry and seemingly broken in that something was dangling off them.  My right trouser leg was torn in a seemingly neat straight line from just below the knee downwards.  Something injurious had obviously happened to me on the way into the  gutter and I remembered seeing the car about to make contact but I couldn’t for the life of me work out what had happened in between.  I could see  my pallid and podgy leg inside the torn trousers with no sign of blood or derangement and nothing else felt broken or damaged.

The overwhelming sensation was of suddenly finding myself to be a confused heap on the ground.  While I was capable of the beginnings of rational stock-taking, at the same time I felt pretty fundamentally shaken up and disoriented.  I spotted my camera, which had been hanging on its strap around my neck, about six feet away on the ground but  I hadn’t a clue how it got there.  I realised that I must have got airborne in some way to have been be transported to where I was but I had no awareness or recollection of the transition at all.  I suppose with Star Trek transportations it might always be like that.

Seemingly within no time there were people around me, asking me if I was OK and if they could help or call an ambulance.  All I could manage was to say in response was that I didn’t think I’d broken any bones but I’d just stay where I was for a minute to gather myself if they didn’t mind.  I remember feeling helpless and also somehow extremely vulnerable and at first it didn’t register that these were entirely friendly people at all.  I suppose I had just suffered what felt like a surprise attack of some sort and I was befuddled enough to wonder whether there might be any more coming.

I noticed someone picking up my camera from where it lay about six feet away and I remember feeling an urge, which fortunately didn’t last all that long and I didn’t express, to tell him that it was my camera in case he got the idea that he could help himself to it.  I wasn’t thinking at all straight for quite a few minutes.

Eventually I realised that passers-by had sprung promptly and unselfishly to my aid and were being kindly and helpful.  I also worked out with more confidence that I wasn’t seriously injured and assured them of this; I still wanted to take my time working out what to do next but my situation was gradually beginning to make more sense and appear less threatening.

In a strange way it felt like being awoken from a deep sleep and having to take a few moments to come to – although I am still pretty sure I wasn’t knocked unconscious.  I suppose from the viewpoint of the passers by there would have been some noise to attract their attention.  I was wearing a long dark grey coat and I’m distinctly round in shape so it might have looked and sounded like a barrage balloon coming to grief.

Gradually things started to make sense to me again and I got some sort of perspective of where and what state I was in.  I did have quite an impressive graze on my right knee just above where the tear in my trouser leg ended but no other signs of physical injury – and still nothing was hurting, not even the graze.  I was just profoundly shaken up and needed time to get my orientation giro spinning again, so I could tell up from down and so on.

Having checked again that I still had my limbs and could move them, I assured my would-be helpers that I had no serious injuries and accepted their help to get up – and several pairs of hands did the necessary to get me upright and then to hang on to me until we were all sure I could stay vertical, which happily I could.

I suppose if you are over 65 and over 20 stones in weight, as I am, your response to collision doesn’t necessary follow the crash test dummies scenario anyway – and I suspect I was struck by the left hand side of the car, in a way which threw me sideways as well as upwards, rather than being thrown on to the car bonnet and then into the windscreen.  The car must have been moving relatively slowly and perhaps shouldered me aside, sweeping me off my feet in doing so, rather than bashed me directly in a limb-breaking way.

I didn’t examine the car and my contact point with it after the accident but I suspect that I did no damage to it at all, despite my considerable bulk and weight and I seem to remember feeling a bit miffed about that, although actually I suppose I should have been grateful that the force of the collision had been relatively modest.

Coming to again

It was probably ten to fifteen minutes before I really started to think straight again.  The taxi driver had kindly offered me a perch on his back seat, which I accepted, and his apologies, which I also accepted gracefully; he was obviously pretty shaken up by the experience too.  “I thought I’d killed you” were his first words so I suppose there must have been quite a bang as the front of his car hit me.

As I began to realise that lots of people had moved in quickly after the accident had happened and they had all been promptly and instinctively helpful I felt quite moved by it all.   You hear such a lot these days about people being selfish and insensitive but these people around me were all being wonderfully considerate.  I’ve been injured before of course and I’d been helpless and dependent on others before, notably while in hospital after my hip replacement a couple of years ago, when I worked out on the first evening, lying helplessly immobile in the bed, that if a fire broke out in the building I would have my work cut out trying to make an escape unaided.

But this was my first experience of suddenly being helpless and vulnerable in a public place.  Expectations of Good Samaritan behaviour in our society are not as high as they used to be but all these people, all these lovely people were being marvellous.

One of the staff came out of the nearby restaurant and offered to bring a chair and a glass of water and in all sorts of other ways people could not have been more willing or helpful.  It was really heartening.  A police motorcyclist turned up on scene almost immediately as well and he took charge most impressively and also in a kindly and courteous way too.  It was just what was needed.

As I got my bearings again I got myself moving from my perch on the back seat of the taxi and satisfied myself that nothing had fallen off or stopped working and the taxi driver, aware of the graze on my knee and that I’d said to someone that I was a retired doctor, offered me the use of his first aid kit to dress the graze.  As he groped around in the boot to get it out his hands were shaking violently, poor chap.  The accident had shaken him up as much as me.

So we sat on a low wall together, exploring the contents of the first aid kit to choose a dressing for my knee, which we managed between us to attach.  He confided his worries about losing his licence because of this accident and I felt sorry for him.  The side road entered Grosvenor Street at an angle and he’d fallen for the temptation, preparing for his turn to the left, of looking for traffic coming from the right.  It was a mistake which I could understand and empathise with.  At least he’d slowed down properly; otherwise I would have ended up with broken bones.

It took about 30 minutes for the police officer to finish off his work, which included having a private word with the taxi driver as well as getting the details of a couple of witnesses, one a passer-by and another, a memorably pretty young woman, the driver of the car following the taxi.  I had time to start feeling guilty for depriving the Light Parade of one of its priceless police escorts.

Not alone after all

I had been alone as I crossed that road and my Winger friends were riding in the Parade but I was fortunate that Luke, son of a Winger friend and also watching the Parade that evening, came upon the scene at an early stage.  Admittedly he spent far more time than was healthy ogling the pretty young woman driver who had stopped as a witness, but his presence, as a familiar and friendly face was comforting and I was extremely grateful for his initiative in organising my journey back to the Hotel and staying to escort me on his bike.

Arranging for his Mum to come back to the car poark to drive my car to the Hotel was thoughtful too – all his own initiative.  Luke is a very sound  and impressive young man and a credit to his generation –as of course was the pretty young woman and the gentleman pedestrian, also a Chester resident, who stopped to bear witness.  Luke’s Mum Lesley was lovely too, agreeing to come back into Chester, then submitting to being driven by me again, now of uncertain mental state and having driven her really quite quickly for an IQ into Chester because we were running late.

When I got back to the Hotel, after establishing in a kindly way that I wasn’t seriously injured, my Winger friends started pulling my leg and expressing sympathy for the poor car, which was presumed to be a right off.  And was it because GWOCGB was so hard up these days that they couldn’t afford a proper contract hit and that was why the taxi had been moving so slowly?  I was quite relieved to be there to enjoy the humour.  The paracetamol and whiskey helped too of course; I felt no pain at all that evening and went to sleep quite quickly once I got to bed.

I was driven home the following morning as the invalid of the party, tucked in the back of our little Toyota  iQ and more or less ignored while the two Winger Wives I had for the weekend put the world to rights in the front.  Having two wives for the weekend, one of whom was only borrowed temporarily of course and by the way I only actually slept with one of them, had proved to be surprisingly successful and I hope to repeat the experiment to explore its potential.  I got looked after by the pair of them when necessary and I got double whacks of sympathy and TLC after the accident.  The biggest benefit was however being relieved of the obligation to keep saying “yes dear” to either of them (or even to pretend to be listening) and the arrangement of having two wives all the time for my old age struck me as having great potential, especially since I’ve now been told that I’m not allowed to cross the road on my own any more.

I’ve been wearing shorts for a week now, to get the air to my scabby knee in the hope of healing it in the old fashioned way.  Nurse Jackie had ministered unto me at the Hotel (when we discovered that the Hotel’s First Aid Kit was just as out of date as the Taxi’s) and I resorted to visiting my GP Practice Nurse for another expert opinion.  It seems to be getting properly scabby at last, with bits starting to fall off and the temptation to pick at it developing, but it’s taking longer than I remembered when I got similar injuries as a child.  You don’t bounce as well when you’re old either, I’m still aching here and there.  A nice holiday somewhere warm would probably do the trick.

The nice policeman rang up to check whether my injuries had got any worse a few days later which was a pleasant surprise and this gave me  chance to thank him again and to apologise for taking him away from Parade escorting duties, which as a motorcyclist I assumed would have been much more appealing that dealing with an accident.  Happily he had decided to recommend that the Taxi Driver be offered a driving awareness course as the alternative to prosecution.  He had probably well and truly learned one important driving skill lesson already but these courses get a very good name anyway. I was pleased with this outcome; he didn’t for a moment try to blame me or anything else and he even sent me a “Sorry” card afterwards, which was unexpected.

I missed most of the Light Parade that evening of course but the photos I had already taken survived on the memory card even though the camera itself, and the lens, are casualties.  But I had escaped serious injury and I had had the hugely heart-warming experience of being treated in a kindly and helpful way by members of the great British Public and a proper British Bobby, followed by the warming experience of the company of friends afterwards.  It certainly wasn’t all bad.

I must also add a word of thanks to the staff of Vision Express in Preston.  I retrieved and pocketed the detached left lens of my spectacles from the gutter as I was lying there and my (permanent) Winger wife took the frames and this lens into Town to ask if their on-site workshop could do a temporary repair, since we could not find my spare pair.  Pop back in half an hour they said and she did; the resurrected spectacles were useable again.  They wouldn’t take any money for doing it either.

Maybe I will get the same sort of willing helpfulness from the insurance company when it comes to replacing my expensive camera and my inexpensive trousers, you never know.

Click on the imgage for an enlargement

Kevin Burton is selling his 1997 GL1500 Goldwing.

It is a low mileage 42000 miles bike with every MOT to back up the mileage.  New MOT on 2 March 2012 with no advisories and also has 5 months tax.

Some service history stamped in the service book & also comes with reciepts for servicing items from previous owners.  The cam belts were changed & a major service done at around 35,000 miles.

The lcd display is in perfect working order with no bleeding.  Fitted with reverse, radio cassete, alarm, immobilisor and data tagged.

Sensibly dressed with some chrome parts.  In great condition with only some minimul pitting to crash bars & the left engine casing.  There is a towbar fitted with electrics.

Viewings are most welcome; no solo test rides but I am willing to take a viewer as a pillion.

Located in Amble, Northumberlan, price is £5500

Contact Kevin on 07947955453 of by email to hondagoldwinggl1500©yahoo•co•uk

More Pictures ………

Owen the Corrie Builder with Dave Crowley and Winger friends looking forward to Chester

The Chester Lions GoldWing Light Parade will take place next Saturday, April 21^st and it represents a new approach to the running of this type of gathering which, assuming it’s successful, which thanks to a lot of work by those concerned looks very likely, could open the door to partnerships between Wingers and local charitable organisations which could literally transform the GoldWing Light Parade scene.

While the more familiar, Blackpool-style Light Parades, organised entirely by Wingers, might be struggling to remain attractive, Chester promises to be very well attended indeed.

The turnout, especially of day-tripper Wingers, will depend to some extent on the weather of course, but even if it turn out to be showery, the shops and cafes of Chester’s pedestrianised City Centre, where the bikes will be displayed and through which the evening Parade will ride, offers plenty of shelter and interest, so maybe April showers won’t really matter.

It's all happening in Chester this weekend!

Thanks to the excellent publicity in and around Chester which Chester Lions have organised extremely well – with the aditonal attractions of celebrities and even Giant Royals to compliment the GoldWings, the crowds will certainly be out in force to view the bikes as they park up for the day in Bridge Street, Northgate, Eastgate and the other quaint, attractive – and on Saturday car-free streets, which will be given over entirely to the Event – which Chester Lions will use as the basis for an ambitious charity collection.  Chester Lions are hoping to raise well over £10,000 for their charities.

All publicity is good publicity!

From a Winger’s viewpoint having a reputable and trustworthy organisation like Lions (and of course it could be a Rotary Club or Round Table etc) as a partner guarantees that the charity collection side of things will be handled responsibly and well, so that the Winger organisers can concentrate on making best use of the facilities to which the local club can open doors for the enjoyment and entertainment of the Wingers who come along.  It’s potentially a win-win combination and may prove to be the way forward for such events.

But there are other ways of organising GoldWing charity events and light parades which have been successful and continue to be – and since I’ve had a bit of experience of organising light parades myself, I thought this would be an opportunity to share that experience, if only to help others avoid making the same mistakes I have done along the way, just as Bob Summers, who started it all, helped me to start with.

You can read more about the history of GoldWing Light Parades in UK by clicking here.

GoldWings are eye-catching bikes and Wingers don’t need telling that; groups of Wingers have been doing charity displays for many years either as part of a club gathering or as activities in their own right.  Even when a single GoldWing is parked where pedestrian pass by it, admirers will pause or gather to admire it – GoldWings are undeniably a powerful crowd magnet and adding display lighting to them and riding as a parade takes their crowd-pulling potential into an extra dimension of opportunity.

Next up after Chester is Scarborough in September

GoldWing Light Parades started off in Blackpool when a Winger called Bob Summers suggested to a few club mates that a ride through Blackpool’s illuminations would be a nice evening outing.  The idea caught on and developed over a period of years into a large scale gathering with residential accommodation in a Pontin’s holiday camp, a best lit bike competition and an entertainment package to make a weekend gathering out of it for Wingers.

This “Blackpool Formula” was copied in both Scarborough and Hunstanton, Norfolk, and also very successfully at Llandudno last year – and a similar approach is being taken for the Southport event scheduled for late September this year.  Light Parades organised by Wingers with the permission and (varying degrees of) cooperation of local authorities can work well and can also raise useful money for charity – as Scarborough in particular has shown.

The “Blackpool Formula” consists of a seaside resort where there is suitable low cost accommodation and/or camping, so a holiday chalet or caravan park or a low cost, coach-party-type hotel, a local authority which welcomes the idea and is willing to support it as a tourist attraction for their town – and most importantly local police who are willing to allow the bikes to ride using illegal display lights and sounds such as sirens.

Blackpool eventually time-expired as a venue because neither the Town Council nor the local police were willing to provide the support to ride a large number of GoldWings through the chock-a-block Illuminations traffic safely, so the Illuminations, which had originally triggered the idea, eventually made a GoldWing Light Parade in that particular town impossible.

And to finish off the Season - Southport

Large or Small, Organised or Ad Hoc

From the original Blackpool concept, variations on the idea of a GoldWing Light Parade have emerged and they come in all sizes, from small, ad hoc local evening rides being cheeky with the use of display lighting in the hope of not getting stopped to Chester, which is probably the most elaborately organised and promoted formal GoldWing Light Parade event yet.

A very large Light Parade, like Blackpool was with over 300 bikes at its peak, takes a lot of planning, needs a lot of permissions and approvals (mostly from the local authority) and also presents a formidable marshaling challenge.  In 2008, the last year when Lancashire Police agreed to escort the Blackpool Light Parade, had to have 45 pre-positioned Winger marshals along the route to satisfy the police and even then (because of the Illuminations traffic) it was a struggle to keep the Parade moving and it became fragmented.

Police forces in UK are increasingly risk averse and financially aware when it comes to facilitating parades on public roads – mostly because even though they might try to limit their involvement, if anything goes wrong and injuries result, the personal injury lawyers will almost automatically target the police in seeking compensation.  With limited prospect of worthwhile PR benefit to them even if things go well and a real downside risk of being sued if they don’t, it’s understandable that the police are increasingly difficult to get on side – even though GoldWing Light Parades have an excellent safety record.

Spectatcular - but illegal on public roads

Display Lighting and Horns are Illegal

Display lighting as used on GoldWings for Light Parades (i.e. multi-coloured lights, flashing lights, LED strips, strobes etc) is undoubtedly illegal on UK roads because they contravene the Construction and Use Regulations which specify which colours of lights can be used on vehicles and where they can be positioned.  Apart from flashing direction indicator lights you are only allowed steady lights and only white at the front and only red at the rear.  Light-reflecting surfaces count as lights for this purpose.  If the police want to get you for adding display lighting or flashing lights on a GoldWing they can do it, so there’s no point in kidding yourself otherwise.  Likewise two-tone and musical horns are illegal, so no point in pretending otherwise.

So, if a policeman stops you because of lights or horns there will be no point in trying to argue the toss on legal grounds, even if you think you have been given special permission.   Individual police officers have the right to stop you and to report you for committing an offence, no matter what anyone else might have told you and no matter what “permission” you might have been given or by whom.

Whether it will be worth a policeman’s time to prosecute you for a Construction & Use Regulations offence and whether anyone other than a specialist traffic officer would have the knowledge and skills to specify the offence for purposes of a case against you might be another matter – so in practice unless you do something outrageous, the worst that is likely to happen is a telling off and some delay to your plans.

If it’s just a bit of fun for a few mates you are after then you could plan to park up your illuminated bikes to display them without strict regard to normal parking regulations without risking more than being asked by police or other authority to move on – and if you are on private land with the landowner’s permission there isn’t a problem anyway.  You could probably get away with riding the bikes with display lighting on in lots of places without risking much more than being stopped and told to switch them off too.

However if you are organising a large scale light parade you really need to get the go ahead in advance from the police and more about that later.  The police hierarchy can’t give you permission to commit offences of course, but they can agree in advance to turn a blind eye and to tell their Officers to act accordingly.

Prior to the 2009 Blackpool Light Parade I had got an agreement with the Chief Inspector that they would turn a blind eye but in the instructions didn’t reach the officers who were actually on duty on the night of the Parade and we got stopped shortly after leaving the Mustering Area and told to turn our display lights off or suffer the consequences.   Best laid plans et etc; the Inspector had gone on leave and forgotten to pass the message down the line!

Useful partnership

DIY or team up with a charity organisation?

The Scarborough Light Parade was the first one to link itself with the same charity each year and to make a real and sustained success of fund raising, but the Scarborough Organisers nevertheless did all the organising themselves.

This year’s Chester Light Parade is breaking new ground in a number of ways, not least because it is a joint venture between Chester Lions, a charitable local club (although also part of an international organisation) and a local GoldWing club, indeed more than one of them; GoldWings North Wales and Chesire & Merseyside Wings.

And it is the local charity Club which is doing the bulk of the organising and all the local liaison and publicity to get the crowds to turn out – leaving the Winger Organisers to concentrate on accommodation and camping facilities for Wingers and publicising the Event to Wingers in order to get them to turn up.

Teaming up with a well-connected local charity organisation like Lions (or Rotary or Round Table) can open a lot of doors and make dealings with the local council and police an awful lot easier than it might otherwise be.  For example Cheshire Police have agreed to provide a team of motorcycle police to escort the Parade and to put Officers on crossings and junctions without charge, which would have been virtually impossible for Wingers to arrange with the police themselves.

Likewise in Scarborough each year and last year in Llandudno, getting the Mayor or equivalent on side to facilitate the various local authority permissions and facilities was very important.  The Southport Light Parade Organisers hit a blank wall with police refusing even to allow the use of display lighting until the Council weighed in with their support and even now they face a bill for police services which they didn’t anticipate.

They are inevitable and unavoidable costs associated with any large scale light parade in a busy seaside resort (or any other large town) especially for road traffic management (such as crowd control fencing or even just a few bollards) and Winger Organisers need to bear this in mind from the outset as part of their feasibility study.

Support has been secured for Light Parades over the years with varying success from the accommodation venue proprietors, motorcycle traders, HondaUK, local shops and businesses but the main source, and the most important of these, because the others will be more likely to offer goods or services rather than money, is getting the local authority to pay for any road closure and police/traffic/crowd management costs or to arrange to get them free of charge.

Even then there will be cash expenditure needed for printing, stickers, wrist bands and other requisites – and Wingers, who will be spending money on fuel to turn out and accommodation costs if they stay overnight, will not be willing to pay more than a nominal amount for taking part.  The budget for the event is a vital part of planning which has to be addressed right from the outset.

The Winger Organisers of Llandudno and Southport received generous “seed money” grant from the Federation but even so it requires a businesslike approach to planning and organising the event to make it financially viable.   A proud boast about the Blackpool Light Parades is that they never, throughout the history of that Event, put any club funds at risk and that should be the aim of every Wingers Organiser.  If you cannot raise £1,000 or so in cash as sponsorship for your event to cover the inevitable costs you probably shouldn’t be doing it.

In Blackpool we achieved this by securing a dozen or so free chalets at Pontin’s (and after Pontin’s closure from the event hotel) which were they “sold” to club members (instead of them booking their accommodation directly) to raise cash.  With ingenuity the money can be raised but you have to start planning to do so from the outset.  Setting off on a wing and a prayer, hoping that sponsorship will magically appear, is a recipe for humiliating failure.

The other essential feature of early planning, especially for a Light Parade in a new town, is to plan your publicity to Wingers and get it started as early as possible.  Llandudno proved to be the exception to this rule in that the Winger Organisers only thought of running a Light Parade there 14 weeks before the date – but they had access to advice from Wingers with previous experience and to websites which had an established internet presence for publicising the Event to Winger – and perhaps above they had a keen and resourceful Lead Organiser Winger who lived in Llandudno and a keen and co-operative Town Council.

They have their uses, but will they help?

Managing Risk

Running a successful motorcycling event of almost any kind involves managing risk in order to ensure the safety of participants and spectators alike and as organiser you will have inescapable responsibilities in this respect.

This doesn’t mean that “elf & safety” will stop you doing what you want to do or drive you insane, but you will need to think about safety – and indeed the local authority in the town where you plan to run your event will require you to do so.

A GoldWing Light Parade involves riding large and heavy motorcycles at slow speed in relatively close proximity to pedestrians in the dark, so unless you do plan for a safe Parade, and the safe conduct of a daytime display if you are holding one, you could very easily come to serious grief.

Planning to manage risk is not rocket science but it does require a systematic approach; first list all the hazards (what could go wrong) and then for each of them list how you will prevent that happening – or at least how you will minimise the risk.  The local authority will almost certainly require you to provide a written risk assessment and depending on the scale and scope of what you are planning, you may need a written Event Plan as well.

You may, if your daytime display gets as big as Blackpool in 2008, need to consider whether to provide special first aid and/or fire fighting facilities on site and what sort of arrangements should be made to liase with local emergency services and where the emergency rendezvous points will be located (on the approach to the site) should they need to attend.

There should be no need to get over-elaborate and some of what I have mentioned might not apply to your event but you do need to think about and plan for safety – and indeed it might well be a condition of your PLI cover to have done so.

Club Politics can really screw things up

All the Light Parades so far have been at least nominally club events and ordinarily this should ensure that things like PLI cover and enough willing helpers are not a problem.  Unfortunately however the history of GoldWing Light Parades shows all too clearly that club politics and other squabbles or inter-personal jealousies and other difficulties can really screw things up.

My democratic right to make you do it my way!

Difficulties and a drop in attendance at the Blackpool Light Parade resulted from what can only be described as deliberately disruptive action stemming from club politics and this past year major fallings out involving the Scarborough Lead Organisers have had an impact – including perhaps on bookings for their 2012 Event, which were reported to be almost 50% down on last year.  The national economic downturn might well be having an impact and a Winger who is not going there again this year said recently that he feels Scarborough has run its course, but the episode of unfriendliness in what was the host Region (but had the Event taken out of their hands for 2012) may have been the most important damaging factor.  Scarborough may not be the only 2012 Light Parade to have suffered in this way too.

Chester on the other hand seems to be an example of how to rise above club politics and Dave Crowley has by skilful means achieved the hitherto impossible feat of gaining support from both sides of the current political divide in the UK GoldWing scene by promoting the Event successfully to (and receiving tangible support from) both GWOCGB and Federation Wingers.

The moral is perhaps that Wingers are far more interested in a well run and friendly event than paying to get drawn into or even have to witness or hear about arguments and they will be far more likely to turn out to an event which looks and feels like being a friendly and enjoyable one.  Any sniff of politics or squabbling is potentially a powerful turnoff.

Learning from the mistakes that other people have made is better than stubbornly insisting on doing it all your own way

One Leader or a Committee?

You cannot run a GoldWing Light Parade without help from fellow Wingers and so forming a small working group as the core of a team which will expand as volunteers are recruited to take a turn at doing things like reception or marshaling is probably the way to do it.

But someone probably has to take the role of Lead Organiser.  Especially in the earlier stages, when it’s mostly about planning and liaison with potential sponsors, accommodation suppliers and local authorities etc, both Bob Summers and I found it easier to work alone, although in my case I had Bob holding my hand closely for the first year and I picked his brains or bounced ideas off him quite a lot even third time around, especially about commercial considerations, since Bob is a professional salesman.

As the Event approaches, say within the last two or three months, the Lead Organiser will need to delegate chunks or responsibility – like Chief Marshal for the static display and/or the Parade, so that he (or she) can be as free as possible on the day to troubleshoot the inevitable curve balls which will crop up.  In 2008 I got a last minute call from a jobsworth in the Council Estates Department, with which I’d had no previous contact, demanding that regardless of what the Council Health & Safety Officer had said, I would be required to erect a raised viewing platform for spectators (in the remaining 12 hours available to do so) or abandon the Event of “his” Promenade.  Another year I spent two or three hours trying to calm down a revolt by local hoteliers (who it turned out had smelled an opportunity to demand compensation from the Council because of our road closure) including talking to the Office of the local MP, to whom one of them had complained.

The last thing you need on the organising team, as on committees generally, is people who want to have their say, guard their personal interest or angle for the really plum or prestige job without actually rolling their sleeves up and taking on any of the working grind.  In that respect I was always lucky but I’ve heard stories of others who haven’t been so fortunate.

And I think it’s worth emphasising that when you set out to organise something like a Light Parade for your fellow Wingers, you have to get you mind into a commercial as well as an organised and businesslike mode.  You will be creating and presenting an opportunity to other Wingers which they will choose whether to take up – so you are in a sense selling a service which you hope they will buy.  Don’t think for a moment that Wingers will automatically turn up because your event is on – they won’t.

Presenting and publicising your Event to Wingers is therefore all important.  If Wingers don’t hear about it or don’t hear about it in the right way so that it doesn’t sound attractive to them they probably won’t come and you will be wasting your time and maybe some money too.  For a big event you cannot rely on just appealing to one club or on one advert on the club website or in the club magazine – you will need to promote your Event as widely as possible and ideally to all UK Wingers.  The way that Dave Crowley has been plugging his Chester Event on as many GoldWing forums as possible and as often as possible (as well as doing lots of other publicity things. like making good use of the Blog and the Light Parade Website) is an example to all.

You will aslo almost certainly have to bite your own tongue a few times.  The customer isn’t always right and you will probably encounter examples of distinctly unendearing behaviour from other Wingers as you go, perhaps even outright rudeness and selfishness or wrose – but you have to keep your cool and behave yourself regardless of temptation, lest you otherwise queer the pitch for yourself and the group or club you are supposed to be running the Event for.

In spite of the organisational and financial challenges and the need to be tactful when others aren’t being, organising a GoldWing Light Parade can be very satisfying, as I hope Dave Crowley will feel when he gets home on Sunday evening, when he gets the chance to sit down, unwind and take stock of what will hopefully be a terrific success.

Checklist

A complete checklist of things to think about and do to organise a Light Parade would be very long and I wouldn’t pretend to be in a position to cover everything.

But here are a few suggestions – and an indication of which ones are really important if you don’t want to risk ending up with an embarassing disaster on your hands:

• Is the town or city accessible and inherently attractive enough to appeal to Wingers as somewhere to come to – as day visitors and/or to stay overnight ?
• Is the town big and busy enough for a Parade Route with admiring crowds which will take at least 20 to 30 minutes to ride at 10 mph?  (Doing two laps of the town to achieve this might be acceptable.)
• Is there somewhere for a day time display of the bikes which will be attractive to Wingers as somewhere to spend the day or the afternoon while displaying the bikes?
•  Is there suitable low-cost accommodation/camping in or near the town to attract Wingers to the event? (Secure overnight bike parking and reasonable bar prices are vital!)
• Is there a local service organisation such as Lions or Rotary with which you can team up to run the event to make life a lot easier?
• Will the Parade Route be suitable and safe to use without police assistance (at traffic lights etc) which you should ordinarily assume you won’t get.
• Are the local council likely to be welcoming to a GoldWing light parade and willing to permit and pay for the necessary road closure/police and crowd/traffic management?
• Are the local police (maybe with some arm-twisting from the local council once they are on board) at least willing to turn a blind eye to the use of non-road-legal display lighting on Parade Route?
• Is there a motorcycle dealer who will see enough benefit in sponsoring you, at the very least with attractive prizes?
• Have you (as a group of Wingers, a club or whatever) got the manpower and commitment to take on what will probably turn into a major logistic undertaking?
• Do you have reliable PLI cover for running an event of this type?
• Are there Wingers who have done it before and whose brains you can pick, especially if it’s your first time?
• Will you be able to publicise your event to Wingers successfully, to get them to turn up?
• And (importantly) will you be able to raise enough revenue in cash (other than from the charity bucket) in order to cover the expenses you will incur, so you won’t put your own or your club’s money at risk?

This is of course only a brief outline of what’s involved, hence the recommendation to pick the brains of Wingers who have done this before if you are organising a light parade for the first time.

But it is do-able, so please don’t be put off.  It would be tactless of me to draw comparisons yet between what looks to have been done especially well in planning and promoting the Chester Light Parade and others which may prove to be conspicuously less successful but in due course there may be scope for me to write another article – on how not to run a Light Parade!

Edward the Executive on delivery day 7 years ago, with William, our former Dalamtion, who was only 5 at the time

Sometimes I write articles about things I’m relatively new to, but usually I can make up for that by doing some research so that I’m not floundering as complete novice.  This time it’s different – I am a complete novice, or almost.  Indeed as I write this I’ve just completed my very first proper ride out on a sidecar outfit –so I think that qualifies me pretty well as a novice.

I have owned a GoldWing sidecar combination for over seven years and I did get some brief training from an expert when I bought it, consisting of riding left and right hand turns on a hotel cark park up the road.  I subsequently did some more tight circles on the drive at home to give my grandson a go in the sidecar and perhaps one other local ride-out to give it a run and warm the engine before parking it up for storage and that was it.

I was heavily committed to long distance touring on my GL1800 at the time and although I intended to keep the sidecar outfit on the road it wasn’t realistic to do enough to acquire the necessary skills.  At least I had the sense to run the carburettors dry when I last rode it, otherwise getting it back into commission would have been even more of a job.

As the bike was uncovered prior to revitalising, the Road Tax disk was seen to be dated 2005 it had spent over seven years in storage. The battery had long ago expired and since the engine hadn’t turned in years the timing belts would need changing at the very least.

But with expert help from Graham Whitaker, my 1978 GL1000 Executive (with Wessex single adult sidecar) is back on the road.  Having sold my GL1800, because I’ve got hip problems again and cannot ride solo safely at the moment, I am planning to concentrate on sidecar outfit riding for this year, although because classic bike insurance is remarkably good value, I will be putting my 1986 GL1200 Aspencade SEi on the road as well, hoping to be able to do at least some solo riding too.

With the re-commissioning finished last Thursday evening, the following day I set about getting insurance, an MOT and a tax disk – which although not at easy as I anticipated, because several MOT Centres were booked up, I did manage eventually.  Insured by telephone before 10 o’clock, Insurance Certficate received by email shortly afterwards, MOT at 2.30pm and then straight round to the local DVLA Office to get a tax disk and back home well before 5pm, avoiding at least some of the rush hour traffic.

Rainy in these parts on Saturday so I did some tidying up in the garage, sunshine and blue sky as I woke this morning, so on with biking kit and off I went.  The plan was to keep it simple and unambitious; by sticking to main roads I would avoid any really challenging gradients or turns in favour of giving the bike a decent continuous run to get it properly warmed through and give myself an opportunity to start the learning curve.

All I could really remember of what I’d been taught seven years earlier was the sidecar has momentum so that you have to accelerate when turning left and ease off when turning right – and that you therefore also need to compensate for the sidecar’s momentum when you are braking.  No brakes on the sidecar wheel on this outfit to help, so the GL1000’s brakes would have to cope with the bike itself, my weight (no mean challenge) and the sidecar plus the three bags of sand I’d loaded into it as ballast.

An unoccupied and relatively lightweight sidecar like mine has a tendency to lift alarmingly during left hand turns and I had been reminded of this on my way home from DVLA on Friday afternoon.  Although I took care to ride home through the town, avoiding the short motorway hop which I would normally take, I did have to negotiate Junction 31 of the M6 on the A59 out of Preston, which because this road dips as it ducks under relatively low bridges to pass below the M6 and has recently been converted to a peculiar dumbell-shape instead of paired roundabouts, includes some unusually cambers and turns, including a surprisingly tight left turn up a slope which has a reverse camber.  Despite being familiar with this hazard I took it faster than I should and with throttle instinctively closed as the penny dropped that I was too fast, so the sidecar wheel lifted alarmingly.

It probably only lifted a few inches but it was enough to give me a scare and I didn’t want to risk that happening again so on Saturday morning I had popped down to Homebase for some bags of sand.  I erred on the side of caution bought four instead of the two which Graham had suggested and then hedged my bet by loading three of them.

Setting off this morning I nevertheless had some trepidations because I was heading into unfamiliar territory taking a sidecar outfit for a proper ride-out.  I was aiming, as Graham had recommended, to give the engine a “proper run” by doing at least 50 and hopefully more miles.  Would my half-remembered instructions be enough to see me through – and would my hip cope with the necessary time in the saddle?  On my GL1800even half an hour on the bike was enough for my left hip to lock into a position from which it couldn’t be moved without quite a nasty spasm of pain – such that I couldn’t rely on being able to put my left foot down when I stopped, hence of course giving solo riding up until the hip gets fixed.

Happily my hip wasn’t a problem today and as I got off for a coffee break after the first hour and a quarter on reaching Settle, I was a bit stiff but that’s all.  Hip pain had also been interfering with my ability to change gear on the GL1800 but there was none of that either – maybe something to do with the different riding position: I was leaning further forward to reach the handlebars on this bike and so was less upright with hips more flexed.  Anyway the hip wasn’t a problem, for which I was grateful because in my novice state I had quite enough on my plate trying to establish control.

Partly I suspect because of the dreadful state of our roads these days, even a major road like the A59, my first impressions were of a bucking bronco.  I couldn’t understand why but the outfit didn’t seem to be making smooth progress at all; I wasn’t exactly fighting to keep control but it was certainly a bit ragged and my bags of sand wouldn’t have been enjoying their ride in the sidecar.  Just as well that Management had declined the offer; she would have made her feelings known.

Having lifted the sidecar wheel the day before, the first few left hand curves were taken very carefully and at a deliberately slow speed.  This allowed me to experiment with having power on as I rode through the turn rather than panicking that I should be braking and being unable to stop myself closing the throttle.  In short it works as advertised; having some power on makes a noticeable difference and allows you to enter and sustain a higher speed in the turn than otherwise feels stable.

I also experimented with right hand curves, gradually gaining confidence that having the sidecar to “lean on” as you go round really helps and you don’t then automatically tip forwards and sideways on to the sidecar’s nose, like Jeremy Clarkson managed to do at the least provocation in a Reliant Robin.

The engine was a bit uneven at low revs (below 2000) as it had been intermittently when Graham had been getting the engine back to life.  He reckoned that the pilot jet on one of the carburettors was bunged up, causing the bike to run on only three cylinders at slow revs.  He’d used one of the tricks of the trade, running the engine on pure carburettor cleaning fluid, in an attempt to clear it and it seemed to have worked at the time.  Graham had however warned me that there could be other bits of stuff (he actually used a similar short word, a bit more technical) which might get dislodged until the engine had run on good fresh fuels for quite a while to clean the carburettors through.  “Bikes should be run and used, not stored” he kept saying, and he’s right of course.

Edward this afternoon, at the Devil's Bridge, Kirkby Lonsdale

So for the first part of the ride I was trying to get the hang of riding a sidecar outfit and to cope with tight left hand bends (about which I was still distinctly paranoid) as well as an unforgiving cable clutch, which was difficult to slip while setting off, an intermittently lumpy engine – and it was cold.  I had made the mistake of putting my summer gloves on and of course the GL1000 has none of the GL1800’s comforts, so my fingers were seriously cold as well.

Nevertheless I was enjoying myself and reluctant to stop because I was at least starting to get the hang of things and the engine did seem to be running more smoothly.  I rode the A59 to the roundabout junction with the A65 north of Skipton and turned left on the A65 towards Settle, where the Naked Man Cafe on the Market Square beckoned.

It was getting on towards noon and the Market Square was packed with bikes – and I faced the additional challenges of width and lack of reverse gear to bear in mind while parking.  Fortune smiled on me and I was able to stop on level ground from where I could also ride off easily.  Dismounting wasn’t the agonising experience I’d half expected from my hip and in no time at all I was warming my hands on a cup of coffee and chatting to a couple of bikers whom I knew.  So far so good.

On my way out of Settle I topped up the tank again, even though it only needed 8 litres, to keep plenty of good clean petrol in the tank – and because I’d read somewhere that GL1000 fuel gauges are notoriously unreliable.  It was also comforting to know that the bike wasn’t drinking inordinate quantities of fuel.

I wasn’t confident enough to take my usual turn north towards the Ribblehead Viaduct from Settle because I didn’t yet have an appetite for any real motorcycling twisties, so I returned instead to the A65 and headed north west, for the Devil’s Bridge at Kirkby Lonsdale.  This was less than 20 miles away but  I wanted to take things in steps; I was still very much in the process, using an aviation analogy, of exploring the outfit’s flight envelope – or rather trying not to end up getting airborne.

As I was leaving Kirkby Lonsdale I noticed that the sidecar tyre was deflated – almost flat in fact.  I therefore rode gingerly to the nearest garage to re-inflate it, in the hope that it would then stay up.  I had of course check the tyre pressures as part of taking the bike out of storage and the sidecar tyre had been quite flat, which it was entitled to be after seven years, but it had seemed to re-inflate properly.  I’d got an advisory about that tyre from the MOT because it had become slightly misshapen in storage, so obviously I should have taken that to heart and replaced it before setting off on this trip.

The outfit’s handling was noticeably better after I re-inflated this tyre and since the engine was also running smoothly by now, I started to feel much better about my prospects.  I gradually gained confidence in my ability to handle the outfit around left hand and right hand bends and on the last bit of the A65, before I turned south on the A6070 to Burton in Kendal to head for home, I was able to keep up with car traffic without real difficulty.

I avoided the motorway until the need arose to by-pass Lancaster, which is always a traffic nightmare, and I got off it again to use the A6 to head for Preston.  The another short motorway hop to by-pass Preston – during which, probably unwisely in view of the uncertainties surrounding the sidecar tyre, I got the speed up to 70mph plus and the outfit felt wonderful – as if it would do that speed all day if need be.

So as I arrived home I had a grin from ear to ear and I had gained confidence that I would be able to develop the skills to handle a sidecar outfit reasonably well.  I didn’t hear the sandbags complaining about the ride home either, so maybe they’ll be willing passengers again for my next outing.

That will need to wait until I get the sidecar tyre and inner tube replaced (no tubeless technology on this outfit!) but I’ll get on to that as soon as practicable.  Despite the lack of heated grips etc and being a pig to start from cold, which is another knack I will have to try to acquire, I am really looking forward to my next outing.

You gotta look cool to mix with Wingers!

Coronation Street Star Ian Puleston Davies, who plays Owen the Builder in Coronation Street, will be turning out on Wednesday next at 2.15 pm at Smiths Honda, the new Franchised Honda Motorcycle Dealership in Chistleton, Chester, for the final publicity photoshoot for the Chester Lions GoldWing Light Parade.

Once again The Lord Mayor, Eleanor Johnson, will also be there – she’s been incredibly supportive of this Event already and plans to spend most of the Event Day, Saturday April 21st, trying to earn her Biker Chick Wings.

Chester the Cat, local radio station Dee 106.3 FM will also be present again, as will members of the Smiths Honda Team, hopefully including Karen Smith, family member and Company Director.

Free on Wednesday to come along?  All Wingers are welcome to attend this photoshoot, the more the merrier.  Come along and meet the celebs, watch the action and maybe get your bike in the pictures which will be in the local newspapers, on the internet, maybe even the telly!

The Chester Lions GoldWing Light Parade is shaping up to be the Event of the Year for Wingers so don’t miss out.  You can arrive in Chester any time after 10.30 am on Saturday April 18th and enter the pedestrianised area in the City Centre via Bridge Street to enjoy privileged parking, hosted by Chester Lions and sponsored by Smiths Honda.

This is an all-clubs-no-clubs Charity Event and all Wingers are welcome.

Never mind the mother-inlaw’s birthday or even her funeral, come to Chester on Saturday April 21st for the most fun you’ll have all year! For further details click here.

Pete Ticehurst, when I last heard, was in process of restoring a GL1000 Executive and was missing the clock housing, as pictured here. I have some good news for him.

This clock was a unique feature of the GoldWing Executive, which was a limited edition of only 51 (maybe 52) GL1000 K1 bikes which Honda UK had specially modified before sale.  The bikes were given a special paint scheme and a Rickman fairing was added.  The electric clock was fitted in a special pod above the instrument module.

Ever since Pete mention his difficulty getting one of these mounting pods I’ve been keeping my eyes open for one – and just recently I’ve found one, or rather I mentioned it to Graham Whitaker, who was helping to get my GoldWing Executive out of hibernation, who promptly said he though he had one in his garage.  And he had, now I’ve got it, waiting for a means to send it onto Pete.

So, if Pete reads this, or if anyone who knows him spots it, please make contact.

If anyone else wants to re-establish contact with a lost Winger friend who might read this Blog, they are also welcome to send e information for publication.  Please supply a suitable photo or some other image as well as details of the person you want to make contact with and why.  This facility is not intended for use by debt collectors and the like!

John Gratton, who is well known in the UK GoldWing Community for his craftsmanship and diligence in maintaining his bikes as well as restoring classics, is now selling his 2001 Apollo Pearl Blue GL1800.

It has only done 27,044 miles (genuine, validated) and is absolutely beautiful condition.  John has owned it since December 2001 and the bike has been lovingly maintained from new.  The bike has never been used during Winter and the condition reflects this.

A new battery was fitted in August 2011 and is still under warranty.   It comes with a fresh MOT and all servicing up to date.

John is an electrical engineer by profession so all the accessory lighting has been installed to a high professional standard with no cutting into the main loom. Wherever possible LED’s have been utilised for reliability.

More photos and the extensive list of accessories fitted to this bike follow:

• Hondaline CD Autochanger
• Airstream Screen with vent (I still have the original in excellent condition)
• Heated Grips with controller
• Powder Coated Wheels with chrome spoke accents
• Chrome Kuryakin Triceptor embelleshments on the front mudguard
• Chrome front mudguard side trims (illuminated)
• Chrome front mudguard extender
• Chrome rotor covers (illuminated)
• Chrome fork lights
• Chrome trim below headlights
• Chrome side stand
• Chrome bellypan with driving lights
• Chrome under cowls
• Chrome front engine cover
• Chrome front footpegs and mounts
• Chrome rear footboards and mounts with chrome undercovers (illuminated)
• Chrome cam covers with Gold emblems
• Chrome front cruise boards (illuminated)
• Chrome rear brake pedal
• Chrome air intakes (illuminated)
• Chrome air vent trims
• Chrome radiator covers (illuminated)
• LED front indicators
• Chrome mirrors with ‘to the rear’ indicator repeaters
• Chrome inner fairing mouldings
• Chrome ‘opera’ lights
• Chrome rear disc cover (illuminated)
• Baker built front engine bar wind deflectors
• Baker built mid fairing wind deflectors
• Chrome switchblocks one each side
• Headlight protectors
• Walnut effect dashboard
• Chrome adjustable brake and clutch levers
• Chrome handlebar end weights
• Chrome trims on speakers front & rear
• Rear Speakers
• Chrome radio trim
• Chrome frame covers
• Chrome side panel rails
• Chrome Goldwing emblems on sidepanels as per post 06 models
• Chrome rear sidepanel mouldings
• Chrome backrest and arm rests
• Chrome topbox and saddlebag trims (illuminated)
• Chrome topbox rack
• Chrome pannier lid guards
• Hondaline Marine voltmeter
• CB Aerial
• Aerial mounted flagpoles in S/S
• Chrome rear light trims
• Hondaline Spoilers Full set upper, middle and lower
• Receiver type towbar
• Transflash towbar electrics
• Chrome towing socket (standard British/European type)
• Chrome rear mudflap (illuminated)
• Chrome rear reflector (illuminated)
• Hi-Level top spoiler light which operates as running, brake and indicators
• Electrical socket in topbox for charging mobiles etc.

The bike currently bears a cherished number plate which is not included in the sale but John will deal with all the legals on that and provide a new number plate.

This bike is in stunning condition and must be one of, if not the best GL1800′s in the UK, viewing is highly recommended and welcome, sorry no solo test rides under any circumstances.  John will however take prospective buyers on the pillion to demonstrate.

The bike is located in Stoke on Trent, North Staffordshire.

Click on any picture for an enlargement

Can you tell me where Ii can get bolt on tyre valves for my GoldWing GL 1500SE as the rubber one’s keep leaking. I have to blow tyres up every two days, have checked all web sites and can not locate valves anywhere apart from the USA, hope you can help.

Cheers Andy

Hi Andy,

Found some on EBay which I think will do the job.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MOTORCYCLE-BRIDGEPORT-TYRE-VALVE-11-3mm-90-DEGREE-BRAND-NEW-/120857171312?pt=UK_Motorcycle_Parts&hash=item1c23a61570

I searched on “90 tyre valves” but “bridgeport tyre valve” would also work.

These valves are also available in UK from Demon Tweeks to fit two wheel hole sizes (8.3 and 11.3 mm) and in a choice of silver, black or gold finish. I suspect that the larger one is needed for a GL1500 (or a GL1800).

Ian Duxbury wrote an article about fitting this type of valve (because of rotting rubber at the base of the valve and a risk of catastrophic deflation) which might help:

GL1500 Owners – When did you last really check your tyre valves?

Hope this is useful.

Stuart