On the face of it they were going to have real difficulties replacing Pontin’s Holiday Centre when it closed abruptly soon after last year’s Event.  It had been the Event’s home for several years – not perfect but it worked, or at least it worked in most respects for most of the time.

But the new Venue turns out to have a number of real advantages over Pontin’s and not many drawbacks – well, nothing that can’t be sorted one way or another.

The new Venue also takes the Event, now in its eight year, into Blackpool proper, and into proper Blackpool accommodation – hotels and B&Bs.  A group of these, all located along the same Crescent, on but set back from South Shore Promenade, are cooperating enthusiastically with the BLP Organisers to make the 2010 Light Parade innovative as well as successful.

The Crescent where the participating hotels are located also provides useful parking, display and Parade mustering space, although the Hotels all have out-of-sight off road overnight parking too.

The new venue will allow the Organisers to provide much better for day visitors as well as those coming to stay.  All the parking and display spaces will be open to non-resident GoldWings and the participating Hotels are all offering catering and other facilities for non-residents.

The location is a short stroll south of the Pleasure Beach, close enough to be handy to pay a visit on foot and handy for the Trams, yet far enough away from the really busy parts on the Prom (eg the Golden Mile) to provide, for example, crowd-free Parade mustering.  The Crescent is also right opposite the formal start of the Illuminations, so it’s ideally placed for purposes of the Parade Route.

As well as support from Blackpool Council and Knutsford Honda again this year, the event has the support of an enthusiastic bunch of Blackpool Hoteliers and Landladies.  They are combining to welcome Wingers to their Crescent by coordinating their entertainment programmes for the Event as well as offering specially discounted accommodation and even discounted bar prices.

This year’s event can also look forward to cooperation from Blackpool Police and there will be no risk of a repeat of last year’s misunderstandings.

Let’s hope that 2010 will see the return of genuine friendliness to the UK GoldWing community and an end to the factionalism.  The Blackpool Light Parade is organised for the benefit of all UK Wingers, regardless of whether and to which club or clubs they might or might belong.

For further information, including about the new venue and how to book your accommodation,  visit the GoldWing Light Parade Website.

You can also go directly to the Accommodation page.

It’s going to be a Great Weekend!

This is just one corner of Knutsford Honda's GoldWing Accessory Store above their Showroom

Knutsford Honda are holding an Open Day for GoldWing Owners and Riders this coming weekend and offering special discounts and deals, especially on chrome accessories, of which they keep an extensive stock, probably the best in UK

Knutsford Honda, as the name suggests, a Franchised Honda Dealership which is taking a  special interest in GoldWings and is already the premier GoldWing Dealership and Accessory Stockist in the North West.

They took over PricedRight Ltd, a prominent UK mail order GoldWing Accessory Supplier, a few months ago and now operate a mail order service for GoldWing accessories from their Knutsford site as well as stocking GoldWings for sale too.  Click here to visit their GoldWing Mail Order Website which shows the range of their stock.

Click on the Map for a larger image

Knutsford Honda will be open all day on Saturday and Sunday to welcome GoldWing riders and interested visitors and there are sure to be refreshments offered as well as demonstration rides.

If you haven’t been to Knutsford Honda yet this will be a good weekend to pay your first visit – and you will be sure to meet lots of other GoldWings and their owners there, there’s sure to be a good turn out.

Knutsford Honda are on the A50 just a few miles east of Junction 20 of the M6, about half way to its junction with the A556.  It’s the site once occupied by GoldWings International, which was when Chrome Crazy Days first started.

Click on the image for an enlargement

Holding a non-camping social weekend for GoldWings at the darker ends of the biking season, to allow Wingers to show off their display lights, is catching on.

Norfolk Wings are holding one in their part of the Country for the first time this year and would welcome plenty of support.

The Parade itself is on the evening of Saturday March 27th in Hunstanton, Norfolk, a small holiday town on the North Norfolk Coast.

Proceeds are to be donated to the local Air Ambulance so it’s all in a good cause – and the Town Mayor is joining the Parade as a passenger on a trike.

The social weekend is based on Manor Holiday Park, where the accommodation is in chalets but they will also allow caravans and motorhomes on site but no tents.  Day visitors are welcome to join in the Parade too and they can also enter the Holiday Park on payment of a visitors fee.

Inscription (i.e. event registration, payable to the Organisers) costs only £2.  The Event is being run “under GWOCGB Rules” so non-Members of GWOCGB/GWEF are made to feel welcome by being charged 50% extra.   However everyone pays the same for accommodation, which is at a discounted rate, so an extra £1 isn’t the end of the world.

Photo by Beverley Eele, click on it for an enlarged view

This Event is being held in a small holiday town at a quiet time of the season when the easterly winds from the North Sea will probably prevent sunbathing and discourage bathing in the sea but North Norfolk is an attractive area to visit, Manor Park has a heated swimming pool as well as a bar and no doubt that will be warm and welcoming.  Entertainment is being laid on and they serve food there too.  It should be an enjoyable social occasion and a fine way to start off your GoldWing biking season.

Bob Summers, who thought up the Blackpool Illumination Light Parade, now in its eight year, has been pushing for GoldWing Light Parades to be organised in lots of coastal towns around UK.  It’s a fine way to show off GoldWings to the general public, raise money for charity and also have a good time.  He’ll be delighted that this new Light Parade is happening.  And as the Lead Organiser of this years Blackpool Light Parade so am I.  Well done Norfolk Wings for giving it a try.

For further information visit the Norfolk Wings Website.

It takes place at the Manchester Arena (formerly GMEX) and advance tickets are only £10, children and OAPs £5.  It will cost £12 for adults if you pay at the door.

There are stunt shows and an opportunity to get a feel for doing wheelies on the safety of a tethered trianer/simulator.

There are also said to be lots of dealer and trade stands.

The Federation of UK GoldWing Clubs was to be exhibiting at this Show – it would have been the first outing for its posh new Exhibition Stand – but unfortunately the new dates clash with other commitments, so maybe next year.

Further information by clicking here.

Graham Whitaker's stunning Hybrid GoldWing at the 2009 BLP - photo by Nigel Mackintosh

The Organisers of the Blackpool Illuminations GoldWing Light Parade, now in its eight year, have found a new Venue, which is to be announced on the BLP Website shortly.

It became necessary to find a new home when Pontin’s Blackpool Holiday Centre, where the Event had been based in recent years, suddenly closed down towards the end of the 2009, even before the end of the Illuminations Season.

Sometimes Fate takes charge with beneficial effect and so it is with this new BLP Venue, which the Organisers believe will offer considerable overall improvements.  Details of the Venue will be announced on the BLP Website within the next week or two – they are being delayed purely because the venue is not ready to accept booking just yet because of its close season.

In retrospect it can be seen that it was time for a change from Pontin’s anyway but it would have been difficult to make a decision to break away from Pontin’s withoput being pushed into it because it had suited us really quite well.  Although it was far from perfect, Pontin’s did have advantages of size, economy and location and was at least acceptable to most if not all Wingers.  The Pontin’s chalets were small and the mattresses inclined to be lumpy but the food was plentiful and there was a choice of basic dishes.

But for the 2009 BLP there were dead  zones in the PA system of the Stardust Lounge (which in retrospect Pontin’s were not maintaining any longer) so that in one quarter of the room the volumes were too low to hear the Comic properly.  Then there was a disastrous misunderstanding (by Pontin’s staff who did the booking) about the Band, which wasn’t a Rolling Stones Tribute Band at all and wouldn’t play at anything less than deafening volumes, far too loud for most of us.

Mustering the Parade within the privacy of the Pointin’s Site worked well and was a big improvement on the Cenotaph area, where crowds became a real problem.  But as ill luck would have it Blackpool Police suffered a communications  problem.  The Inspector who was supposed to brief the Traffic Officers on duty forgot and went on leave so instead of seeing us smoothly through the Squires Gate traffic lights as promised, they weren’t expecting us at all and took the initiative to stop a few bikes to nit pick about coloured lighting and by doing so broke up the Parade into several sections.

Happily this did not completely spoil our fun and the Police apologised (and promised to be more helpful this year) but these difficulties in 2009 did give us plenty to work on – which we promptly set about doing.  There were some positives, notably the new Parade Route which, setting the inadvertent police interference aside, was a considerable improvement. Riding one way in daylight and back again in darness worked well and gave us a broader as well as bigger audience.  Then the bombshell from Pontin’s; we would have to find a completely new accommodation venue.  There was some hope that the  former Pontin’s Site would be taken over by another operator but this is not going to happen and it is already being demolished, apparently in preparation for housing development.

So after a careful re-think and a thorough search, so it couldn’t be hurried, a new BLP Venue has been arranged.  And as in many situations when you are forced to have a major rethink, the result has turned out to look very positive.

For example one of the most irritating problems with Pontin’s was that year after year, whatever we did, it always seemed to be hard work for Wingers to make a reservation; the phone line would ring endlessly without being answered, the computer system wouldn’t work, completely incorrect prices would be quoted (famously £999 was quoted as a single supplement when it should have been £12) etc etc etc.

The new BLP Venue, on trial for 2010 but likely to be adopted for future years too if it works as well as we anticipate.  It has a completely different type of booking system which should work much better.  A real person will answer the phone during office hours, make your booking and take your deposit (only £25) all in one go.  But the booking system it does need to be up and running, which it won’t be for another few days because of the close season.

Hence the Organisers have decided, very sensibly, to delay naming the Venue or announcing the telephone number until that date.  Hopefully the Organisers will be able to decide whether to use the same venue for 2011 during this year’s Event, in which case you should be able to book for the following year before you leave!

There are many other ways in which the proprietors of the new venue are being helpful to meet the Event’s specific needs and it’s all very promising indeed.  A few compromises are necessary of course; the completely perfect venue doesn’t exist, but it’s all looking very good indeed.

To find out when the Venue will be named, to get the bookings number as soon as it’s released and to keep up with other developments, you should visit the BLP Website regularly.  There is already some additional information about the new Venue’s facilities on that Website so it’s worth a visit now, even if you will have to wait a little longer to make your booking.

In a clear statement of welcoming intent the Organisers have made it clear that GoldWing riders and their families/friends from all clubs are welcome – and indeed that there is no need for membership of any club at all.  Everyone will be equally welcome and everyone will pay the same.

GoldWing Clubs (including GWOCGB Regions) are also invited to parade their badges and banners and to publicise their events.  The Blackpool Illuminations GoldWing Light Parade, the original and the best will, as always, be a genuinely friendly and non-political Event.

It’s going to be a Great Weekend!

Crash Testing a GL1800 Airbag System

Honda introduced the first ever motorcycle airbag system in 2006 as an update, and arguably a considerable upgrade of the GL1800 GoldWing. The design and testing effort which went into this development must have been enormous; getting the balance right, so the Airbag goes off when it needs to but not otherwise, is quite an engineering feat.

Honda’s Airbag System is designed to save riders’ lives and it appears genuinely to have done so on at least one occasion already, but it is an expensive addition and it adds significant extra weight. And is there a risk that it could go off inappropriately while riding, in which a crash would almost certainly be caused.  Is it a vital safety aid, is it worthwhile if you can afford it – or would GoldWing riders be as well choosing (in North America at least, where they have a choice) the lighter, cheaper, non-airbag versions of the GL1800 anyway, regardless of budget?

How can an airbag system work safely and reliably on a motorcycle? Is a single airbag, providing frontal impact protection only, and only for the rider, enough to be worthwhile?  Modern cars are designed to provide very high standards of impact protection to occupants; they have a strong protective passenger “cage” which is protected from impact forces by crumple zones front and rear and by reinforcing bars at the sides.  Within the “cage” driver and passengers are protected from injury by multiple airbags, sometimes nine or more of them.

The airbag's size ensures it cannot push the ride backwards

With a motorcycles neither an enclosing cage nor multiple airbags are really possible.  The whole point of a motorcycle is that the rider sits out in the open, on rather than inside the vehicle’s frame and riders are often thrown off the bike during a crash, as racing circuits spills show only too clearly.

Because of this limitation, efforts have been made to design airbag-type protection systems which are attached to the rider rather than the bike and these systems, having been developed for racing applications, are also starting to be sold for use on the road. How can an airbag system based on a single airbag attached to the bike provide worthwhile protection?

The answer lies in the results of Honda’s research into motorcycle accident statistics.  This showed that a very high proportion of motorcycle injuries, especially serious injuries and fatalities, involve a frontal impact for the motorcycle – well over over 90% in fact.  Typical scenarios include a car pulling out across the path of a motorcycle or a bike leaving the road and hitting an obstacle such as a wall or a tree.

It didn't take long for someone to see the funny side of the airbag's inflated shape

So protecting the rider from frontal collisions would potentially be very worthwhile, even if it is not practicable to do the same for motorcycle passengers  or to protect riders against impacts from other directions.  Hence the design aim for Honda’s Airbag; to mitigate impact and reduce if not eliminate injury to the rider from a frontal collision.

The GL1800 Airbag is therefore designed to protect the rider in the event of a head-on or nearly head-on collision.  It does not set out to protect rider and passenger from all possible injuries.

It therefore makes no sense to judge it against expectations that a motorcycle airbag system should be as effective in providing all round impact protection to all on board as a car’s can be.  That’s blinkered and silly; the value of a motorcycle airbag system lies in whether it can reliably save riders’ lives in motorcycle accidents which would otherwise kill them.

The (basic) Science of Survival

Protection against injury from a collision while in or on a moving vehicle is all about reducing the rate of deceleration of the rider’s vulnerable organs, notably the brain and the heart and its major blood vessels.  Rapid deceleration, within reason and for short periods of time, is not harmful.  But high rates of the application of decelerative forces, i.e. the application of an abrupt jerking force,  even for very short periods of time, can cause fatal injury.

Inflation is almost instantaneous once the ECU decides a collision has occured

Imagine slowing a GoldWing from high speed using hard braking; the brakes, assuming they are serviceable, decelerate the bike smoothly and steadily as well as rapidly. The aim is to establish the highest possible rate of speed reduction (i.e. of deceleration) without high rates of deceleration, ie without violent jolting or jerkiness.  There is no jerkiness at all when braking a GL1800 hard from high speed on an ordinary, smooth road surface, especially if an ABS system is helping out.  The bike just sits down on its suspension a bit and and slows down very rapidly and smoothly.  Jolting and jerkiness when braking hard needs to be avoided; it will prevent optimal braking and it could cause loss of tyre grip and therefore of control.  (Incidentally cadence braking, if that’s what springs to your mind, is not jerky or jolting in the violent way that I’m implying here!)

So if you draw a graph of the rate of speed reduction it would be a relatively straight line; deceleration (the rate of speed reduction, measured as feet per second per second) is rapid but the rate of deceleration (measured as feet per second per second per second) is, once the brakes are full on,  steady.  There is no jolting in slowing down under hard braking; the rider is able to stay in his seat and hang on to the handlebars. Only if the bike hits an obstacle will any jolting occur.

On the other hand if the bike, whether or not already braking hard,  suddenly hits a massive obstacle, such as  a car which has driven into its path, the impact will very abruptly reduce speed and the rate of deceleration, the “jolt effect”, will suddenly become very high. The rider will be at risk of being throw forwards on the bike irresistibly and of injury.  When high rates of deceleration (i.e. severe jolts) occur a rider’s internal organs can be injured even if his outside stays in one piece.  A rider’s jelly-like brain will stay in shape and attached to its mountings inside the skull during controlled braking, even the extreme levels of braking achievable by racing bikes and cars, but violent jolting, such as on impact, can cause the brain to slop around violently inside the skull so that it can get seriously bruised or even come adrift from its mountings.

The critical importance of high rates of change of deceleration (and of acceleration, same effect the other way around) in avoiding injury was discovered when ejector seats were being introduced into new aircraft after WW2.  An ejector seat has to accelerate a pilot very rapidly over a short distance to gain the vertical speed necessary to clear the aircraft’s tailfin before it catches up with him, so it was necessary to incorporate the fastest possible build up of speed from a standing start.  Early seats used what was effectively a gun to achieve this; a five feet long tube attached to the chair was fitted downwards as a close fit inside another one, providing an effective gun barrel length, as the chair lifted off, of ten feet or so.  It was discovered that the size of charge was absolutely critical; too much bang gave too much jolt and compression fractures of the spine occurred.  Later ejector seats used rocket propulsion, which accelerates the pilot more smoothly.

During the same decade head protection was being developed for pilots too.  It was discovered that the outer shell of a helmet needs to resist penetration but it also needs to deform progressively (i.e. to collapse gradually, like a car’s front-end crush zone) on impact as a way of decelerating the head steadily, i.e. avoiding jerkiness.  On modern helmets this is achieved by using hard materials (such as glass fibre or polycarbonate) which will resist penetration but also deform without rebound on impact, together with either an air gap into which collapse of the shell can occur or better still a layer of progressively crushable material.  These days polystyrene is commonly used for this purpose.

The protective value of a helmet depends on the thickness of polystyrene lining, since it is the distance through which progressive crushing can occur which limits the helmet’s protective capability.  Helmets also have to provide adequate visibility and to avoid being so large as to be unwearably cumbersome otherwise, purely for purposes of impact protection,  helmets would be very much thicker.

Another design factor for protection systems is the avoidance of springing or recoil.  So providing a progressive collapsing zone for protection isn’t quite the same thing as cushioning the blow and it cannot be done with closed cell foam materials.  The last thing a rider’s vulnerable organs need, having been brought to a halt,  is to be bounced back in the opposite direction again.  So a springy cushion popping up in front of the rider on impact would be no good at all.  The device  which is used to protect the rider must work like the crumple zone at the front of a car or the pile of cardboard boxes on to which a stuntman falls, hence the use of a collapsing airbag.  These are all chosen because they collapse gradually, absorbing energy as they do so.

These principles, of using jolt-free deceleration over the maximum available distance and the avoidance of recoil are common to all systems of injury protection.  Hence the carefully chosen inflated size of an airbag and its explosive means of inflation (to maximise the distance available for deceleration) and its carefully sized holes, to allow progressive deflation at the optimum rate and thereby rapid but jolt-free and recoil-less  deceleration.

The really clever part

So much is well established safety engineering in cars and has been around for a long time.  Honda’s innovative – and really very clever – bits of the GL1800 airbag system are the combination of sensors (mounted on the front forks) and an electronic control unit which makes the airbag unit go off when it should but not otherwise.  Motorcycles bump into kerbs and suffer other jerky movements, especially a low speed and the last thing a GoldWing rider wants is an airbag going off inappropriately.  It would dropping you bike seem pretty tame in terms of feeling foolish.

The GL1800 Airbag System will not go off at low speed, only when there is a substantial impact at riding, rather than manoeuvring, speeds.  You can view Honda’s official video of the GoldWing Airbag System by clicking here.

As you will see Honda didn’t just test directly head-on collisions and the airbag is shaped to perform well in oblique contact too.

Has it really worked in practice?

As far as I have been able to discover there have been no reports of inappropriate inflation of the GoldWing Airbag System at all.  Only two cases of inflation in a collision have been reported so far on the internet.

Look closely to see there is substantial front end damage; the helmetless rider was uninjured

One inflation occurred in response to what might have been a relatively low speed impact (under 30 mph?) in the USA when a car pulled out in front of the rider.  The rider was reported to believe that the airbag inflation saved him from injury.  He wasn’t wearing a helmet at the time, so it probably did.  The bike can be seen in the photo as having suffered substantial front end damage; the front wheel has moved backwards and so the forks are bent and the front fairing is also displaced backwards too.  This may illustrate something towards the lower end of the impact range within which the system is designed to inflate.

The rider survived hitting a tree at 55mph

In contrast with this the silver bike in the next picture has suffered much more obvious and widespread damage.  Its German rider was reported to have been forced off the road at about 55mph and then hit a big tree full on – which would normally be likely to be an unsurviveable collision for a motorcyclist, even wearing a helmet and proper biking gear.  His bike was a write-off, as the picture shows, but he is said to have escaped with limb fractures and, most importantly, no head injury.

There no published statistics about how many potentially serious injury or fatal accidents have involved GoldWings so statistical evaluation of the value of the GoldWing Airbag System is not possible.  However based on these two inflation occurrences, especially the German one, the airbag seems to me to offer very effective protection.  When I first heard about the German accident I was dithering about whether to change my 2004 GL1800 for a new Airbag Model and it convinced me to make the change.

There is a downside

The Airbag Model is heavier and there is a lot less room for auxilliary wiring under the top shelter and gloveboxes, indeed the right hand side glovebox is lost altogether.

Changing the air filter is a much more complex job too and despite what it says in the Manual, really requires moving aside (rather than removal and disconnection) of the airbag unit.  And you do need to be very careful to disconnect the battery and wait 20 minutes before doing this, or indeed anything which involves connecting or disconnecting or in any way disturbing any yellow connectors!

Overall assessment

I am not concerned that the Airbag System is in any way over-sensitive and might go off inappropriately.  I hit another bike on my previous (non-airbag) GL1800, when he suddenly pulled out of a line of stationary bikes I was overtaking (at about 10 mph while marshalling) and it would be nice to be sure that it would not have gone off in response to that collision.  My GoldWing brushed the other bike (a 1960s Matchless) aside like a toy, throwing its rider off and it to the ground seemingly without even deviating from its line.  My bike stayed perfectly upright and allowed me to bring it to a safe halt, perhaps even while the other bike was still airborn.  The impact was on my lower cowling and engine bars rather than the front wheel or forks so airbag sensors would only have picked up the jolt of the collision indirectly.  I certainly didn’t need an airbag for protection and I’m reasonably confident that, if an airbag had been fitted, it wouldn’t have gone off.

And the test photos and video, and especially the survival of the German rider who hit a tree, give me confidence that my airbag would provide real and valuable protection if I am unlucky enough to suffer a serious frontal collision.  As a motorcyclist, however consistently and carefully you try to look out for cars which might pull out of a side road in your path.  If you miss the opportunity to anticipate that a car at or approaching a side junction might pull straight out and take avoiding action just in case, you will have no opportunity to take avoiding action once it does so.   A video of Spanish Police deliberately blocking a motorbike by driving a car into its path illustrates very clearly that a motorcyclist has no time to take avoiding action at all;  if you would like to view it click here.

In spite of what seems to me to be very good evidence of live-saving protective value, the Airbag Model GL1800 has not sold well in North America, where a range of GL1800 models of varying equipment are offered, and most riders go for the non-airbag models.  Is that wise?  Then again, is it wise to ride without a helmet, even if the Law in some States allows you to choose not to?

So, my GoldWing’s Airbag System could save my bacon one day and I’m very glad I’ve got it.  Would the absence of an airbag system stop me buying a bike which I otherwise I fancied, such as a Honda Deauville for my old age?  Probably not.  But if an airbag system is an option on a bike I like, I would certainly want to have it.

Indeed, I’m so convinced of its potential value that I toyed with the idea of getting an “I love my airbag” sticker.  But I then I realised it could be misinterpreted and she might think I was referring to her – and that really would lead to a fatal injury.

But Honda has announced to its US Dealers that production of GoldWings will not start at Kumamoto until 2011 and that the GoldWings to be made there will be designated a 2012 Model – indicating that the (presumed) new design is unlikely to be unveiled before late 2011.

Quite what this means for UK Wingers remains to be seen because although it is now virtually certain that a new model GoldWing will be on sale somewhere in the world for the 2012 Model Year, it may not be available in Europe until a year or so later, so 2013 – or maybe not at all.

Meanwhile HondaUK has a stock of 200 or so GL1800s in UK, all of which were manufactured at Maryville Ohio before that Factory closed in March 2009, which it will use to fill what will hopefully be a gap rather than the end of a UK model line.  These stockpiled GL1800s include some in a new colour (or at least new for UK) called “Pearl Glacier White”.  These white bikes were scheduled for release as part of the UK 2010 range but last I heard they were being held back and Dealers were not allowed to order them.  Only red, silver and blue bikes are currently listed as options on HondaUK’s website, same as last year.  Pearl Arctic White was offered in the US for the 2008 Model Year and this may well be the same colour.

But note that Knutsford Honda’s new Website shows a white GL1800, so maybe they’re more up to date that HondaUK with their information and maybe they can supply GL1800s in fresh colours.  Knutsford Honda are also listing two other “new” colours for 2010, one of which is called Mosquito Brown Metallic.

I suppose it’s difficult to think of an attractive name for brown as a colour for a GoldWing and adult mosquitos are brownish in colour – but they feed on blood, carry diseases and and have a very short life, so it’s a strange choice.  Maybe they were thinking of the de Havilland Mosquito, a WW2 aircraft made out of wood and canvas, but that had a short life too.  Fortunately, since the colour is probably being offered throughout Europe, there was also a German WW2 aircraft called the Focke-Wulf Ta 154 Moskito. A colour called Challenger Brown Metallic was offered for the 2006 and 2008 Model Years in the US, so this “new” UK colour could be the same one.

The final colour listed by Knutsford Honda for 2010 is Nebulous Black Metallic which sounds, well, a bit nebulous.  I wonder if Honda were aware that Nebulous is the name of a Radio 4 show by Baby Cow Productions set in the year 2099 and parodying Dr Who. Black is hardly a new colour for UK GoldWings but maybe this one is genuinely different. nebullous Metallic Black was offered in the US for the Model Year 2007.

Honda has in the past used different names for the same colour in different markets, for example Durango Red in the US was the same colour (and had the same Paint Code Number) as Candy Red in the UK.  So, Pearl Glacier White as HondaUK’s “new” colour for 2010 (or 2011 or even 2012!)  may turn out to be the same as Pearl White, as used for the 2008 Model Year in the US.  Mosquito Brown Metallic and Nebulous Black Metallic are probably the same as a colours previously sold in the US too.

The GL1800s currently being offered as new bikes in UK do not have the additional features which appeared in the US for the 2009 Model Year.  For example they don’t have remote tyre pressure monitoring, which the 2009 Model Year US GoldWings all have.  And the maps on the Navi system of these “new” UK bikes are, until proved otherwise, Garmin’s Version 2008 – which is already way out of date.  Garmin, who made the Navi system for Honda, are now on Version 2010 maps for their current range and 2009 Model Year GL1800s, which I saw in the Showrooms over there last Spring, were being  shipped with Version 2009 maps.

It’s easy to check which mapset a GL1800 Navi system has; there is a label on the Memory Card on which they are stored and this is accessible under a flap on the Navi system unit in the Trunk.  Just lift the flap, pull out the Card (with the ignition off) and read the label.  If HondaUK’s 2010 GoldWings have maps on a Compact Flash card labelled “V2008″ they are 2008 Model Year bikes.  If they have smaller SD cards with a label saying “V2009″ they are 2009 Model year bikes.  My bet is that HondaUK’s stock are all 2008 Model Year bikes with out of date 2008 Navi maps.

Incidentally Garmin have stopped supporting the 2 dimensional mapping used by the Navi System, so Version 2009 is the last one anyone will be able to update to, even unofficially.  Officially there is no updating facility for the Navi Systems of UK Spec GL1800s at all, but talk to your GoldWing Dealer, he may be able to help.

So one way and another it looks very much like HondaUK’s stockpile of GL1800s are all 2008 Model Year versions.  This is probably true of the yet-to-be-released Glacier Pearl White and the Mosquito Brown Metallic ones too.  Yet the List Price of a GL1800 in UK is now a staggering £22,121.

So between now and 2012, or maybe 2013, UK customers are being offered only stockpiled 2008 Model GoldWings and at a price which has gone up by over £3,000 since 2008.  HondaUK have also made it very clear that they are no longer interested in supporting the UK GoldWing Club scene at all, although of course to be fair they were very supportive of the 2008 Blackpool Light Parade.

But one way and another UK Wingers might be wondering whether Honda is really interested in a future market for GoldWings in UK.   Strategic decisions get made in Naples (HQ of Honda Europe) or in Japan rather than UK.  Has a decision been made to neglect GoldWings in UK, unless and until a new model appears or – even worse – for the foreseeable future?

Fortunately at least two UK  Honda Dealers are continuing to support both the model and the Club scene to some extent.   Knutsford Honda ensured that there was a worthwhile official presence at the 2009 Blackpool Light Parade, by bringing along a HondaUK Exhibition truck and several other attractions but that was more or less it for 2009 and no franchised Honda Dealer was present at the 2009 British Treffen at all.  Of course HondaUK are likely to be trying to get all their Dealers to shift some of their remaining GL1800s and they do still have about 200 of them.  Given that it’s an open secret that a new GoldWing is on its way, putting the price of leftover two-year old models up by £3,000 seems a funny way of going about shifting them.

Based on the way they’ve done things in the past, Honda is unlikely to release any detail about the specification of the next GoldWing until its public unveiling, so all the rumours you might have been hearing about the nature of the new Wing are just that – rumours.  It may indeed turn out to have a 2000cc flat six engine, which someone has claimed to have spotted on a bench testing rig,  and it may also look much like a development of the GL1800 in overall shape (described as looking like a GL1800 on steroids) rather than something radically different, but we’ll have to wait and see.

A dual clutch gearbox of the sort the new VFR1200 has is a fairly safe bet but even that isn’t a certainty.  There are likely to be plenty of fancy electronics – but will UK Wingers get proper, built-in bike to bike communications at last, which so far we’ve always been denied?

There is lots more information about the new Factory on the internet if you care to search, not least because Honda has been trumpeting its green credentials and the step forward it represents in terms of working conditions for employees. The Factory has special roofing to maximise daylight and minimise the use of artificial lighting and they make use of solar energy too.

There are three main (i.e. mass production) lines and the new VFR is reported to be coming off one of these every 90 seconds.  The Factory is capable, if and when its full design capacity is achieved, of making 500,000 bikes per year.  Since the Honda motorcycle range extends across far more than three models, Kumamoto’s three mass production lines are presumably time-shared during the production year across various models.  There are still other Honda motorcycle factories around the world, notably in India where vast numbers of small motorcycles are made, but except for market-related production facilities like these, Kumamoto seems destined to be Honda’s main motorcycle production site from now on.

GoldWing production in Marysville Ohio was around 8,000 units per year, so if Kumamoto can make the new GoldWing at the same rate as its making VFRs, a full year’s quota of GoldWings will take only 200 hours to complete and the UK’s annual requirement (of 120 or so) could be built in 3 hours! Maybe the Kamamoto workers will be allowed a little longer than 90 seconds to put a GoldWing together.

There are also 15 “Cell Production Lines” at Kumamoto, in which a small team of as few as two workers build motorcycles on the spot, from start to finish.  These “Cells” are used for specialised products or specialist variants of production bikes such as police bikes.

If you would like to see something of what goes on at Kumamoto, you can watch a video of the production of the new VFR1200 by clicking here.

In summary Honda is not rushing to start production of GoldWings in its new Japanese factory and there will be a gap of at least two years during which not a single new production GoldWing will have been built anywhere in the world.  They have told their US Dealers, for whom the GoldWing is a more important part of the model range than in UK, that this period was needed to transfer the tooling and supplier arrangements from Ohio to Japan.

Meanwhile only stockpiled 2008 model GoldWings are being offered for sale by Honda in UK and the price has gone up spectacularly.  As well as putting the price up without explanation, HondaUK are also keeping quiet about the extent to which these stockpiled bikes have out of date Navi systems which they are offering no means of updating.  They have also withdrawn from supporting the UK GoldWing Club scene altogether.

While it’s clear that a new GoldWing model is under development for the 2012 Model Year in the US, it remains to be seen whether and when a new GoldWing will be offered in UK.  Maybe HondaUK are hoping that Wingers who want to replace their bikes with something more modern will buy the new, shaft-drive VFR1200 instead.

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Autocom, manufacturers of high quality motorcycle headsets and intercom systems, hit a bad patch recently but they have been rescued and are now part of a larger Group of companies and they are trading normally – and they are releasing new products too.

Some Wingers prefer Autocom headsets to the the standard Honda/J&M types.  The are a number of differences between the two systems, one  being that Autocom use electret (i.e. powered, miniature-sized) microphones rather than the larger, self-powered (and arguably old-fashioned) dynamic mics on which Honda/J&M still rely – mainly because they are restrospectiovely compatible across all GoldWing models.

Autocom has many loyal biker followers, based on a reputation for excellent noise suppression as well as audio quality.  Bikers who migrate to a GoldWing (or should it be ascend to a GoldWing?) having used an Autocom system on a previous bike will often want to stick with it, not least because of their investment in the headsets.

Autocom headests are not directly compatible with a GoldWing’s intercom system but a simple adapter can be purchased which goes in series with the headset, to convert to a Honda 5 pin DIN connection.  This adapter allso provides the necesary power supply for the Autocom electret microphones.

So Autocom headsets can be used with the GoldWing’s normal (i.e. Honda) intercom system via this simple adaptor arrangement, but thius means buying extra parts, so some riders prefer to continue using their complete Autocom Intercom system with their Wing instead.  In this case the Autocom system, which is designed to accept and “talk to” a variety of other audio devices, does most of the work and it just “listens in” to the GoldWing’s intercom, in order to pick up and pass on to the rider’s headset things like Navi system voice instructions and such other audio output from the bike which the rider wants to make use of.  The bike’s FM radio and, if fitted, CD changer will also be relayed to the rider via the Autocon system in the same way.

Although on the face of it adding a full Autocom intercom system to a GoldWing is an unnecessary complication, it does open up one or two interconnection options which are otherwise more difficult to contrive on a UK -spec GoldWing.  For example CB radio and a Bluetooth interface for a mobile phone can be made more easily to an Autocom system than directly to a GoldWing’s own intercom.  An Autocom intercom system’s “brain” is designed to accept mixtures of audio input and output safely and easily and it’s often just a question of buying the appropriate additional connector lead.

For many Wingers, Autocom’s rescue from the brink of what might have been closure is therefore very welcome news indeed.  Their Website is active and can be viewed here.  Their new phone number is 01480 494444.

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The annual Meeting of Alliance (a group of independent GoldWing clubs in France) will take place in Beaujolais near Lyon, organised by GoldWings Sans Frontiere, a Club based in that Area.

It’s a weekend event from Friday May 21st to Monday 24th and UK Wingers will be most welcome. It’s not a huge gathering (about 150 bikes) and should therefore be friendly and welcoming.

It’s based on a lakeside site north west of Lyon, so easily accessible and in an attractive biking area.  You will encounter golden mountains and the Land of Amplepuis, with its framework of forests, water courses and the beautiful Lake des Sapins (Pines).

The organisers have provided for a wide choice of accommodation including camping, gites, B&B and hotels.  The Programme includes group rides through the Beaujolais area and a display in the local town with a welcoming reception by the local Mayor.  Most meals over the weekend are included in the inscription price and these meals are taken as a group – apart from breakfasts, which you sort out yourself.

An expatriate Brit, Peter Ware, who is a member of GoldWings Sans Frontier and involved in organising the Event, will take either email or telephone enquiries and do what he can to help.  Peter’s contact details are provided below.

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Programme

Friday 21 May :

Welcome for participants from 5pm at the camp site,  Camping Lac des Sapins , Cublize.

Saturday 22 May :

Morning : A stroll around the scenic Lake

Lunch at the Salle des Fetes (Festival Hall) at Cublize which is only 800m from the campsite.

Afternoon Ride around Beaujolais with a visit to the Wine Cellar at Villie-Morgon.

Evening: Gala Dinner Dance with the Pacific Ochestra at the Salle des Fetes, Cublize.

Sunday 23 May :

Morning : Parade of Bikes in the village of Cublize with a welcoming glass of wine provided by the Mayor.

Lunch at the Salles des Fetes in Cublize.

Afternoon Ride and visit to the Museum at Rochetaille.

Evening : Aperitif and Dinner at the Salles des Fetes in Cublize.

Monday 24 May :

Morning meeting before everyone returns home.

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Price 90 € / per person

Includes :

• Saturday Lunch (wine and coffee included)
• Visit to the Cave (wine cellar) on Saturday afternoon
• Gala dinner Saturday evening with an orchestra playing (includes aperitif, wine and coffee)
• Sunday Lunch (wine and coffee included)
• Visit to the museum Sunday afternoon
• Dinner Sunday evening (apéritif + wine +coffee)

Not included : Breakfasts or accommodation.  Please reserve your preferred accommodation directly.

Chalets available for hire

Accommodation

Camping is available at Camping Lac des Sapins, Cublize, Telephone: 0033 (0)474 895283 or email: camping@lacdessapins.fr.  As well as camping spaces the Site offers chalets for 5 or 8 persons and some mobile homes for 4 – 6 people.

Hotels, Gites and B&Bs

A list of hotels, B&Bs  etc is available click here.

Booking arrangements

Click here for an Inscription Form (in English) which you can view and print.  Send your completed Form and payment (as Euro Banknotes, by registered post) to:

• M. Luc LOZANO
• 3 place Plein Soleil
• 69720 St BONNET de MURE
• France

Don’t forget to make a photocopy of the Form to take with you.  Inscription payments are not refundable.

Further information or Advice

Should you have any difficulties or require any further information Peter Ware can be contacted by email at petenfran@numeo.fr or telephone (from UK) 0033 475 410134

This was to be the first Bike Show at which the Federation of UK GoldWing Clubs would exhibit using their posh new Exhibition Stand. which has been donated by a Sponsor. You will therefore have to wait for another Show to see this facility unveiled, hopefully soon.