Only £60 per couple, dinner bed and breakfast
Elite Wings normally restricts its tours to members but the rules have recently been relaxed. Anyone who rides a solo GoldWing is welcome to join them for one of their weekend gatherings to see if the Club’s approach to life suits them.
And this coming Bank Holiday they are offering a particularly attractive deal based on a Hotel in Yorkshire at an incredibly cheap price. It’s a weekend of conducted group rides and social evenings based in a Three Star Hotel near Barnsley at a special rate of only £60 per couple per night (only £40 per night for a single) for dinner, bed and breakfast. It’s a modern hotel and the rooms are described as “stylishly chic” and all have LCD televisions, free internet, glass walled wet-room showers – and of course beds. Apart from your own petrol there’s only the hotel to pay for and that’s optional, so you can come and join the rides without paying anything at all if you wish.
Curiously enough that’s exactly the same price, £60, that GWOCGB will be charging non-members to attend their Treffen and pitch a tent (or even if they don’t pitch a tent) over the same weekend with no food included at all – but on the other hand the Treffen is offering very loud rock music as usual for no extra charge. Further details about the Treffen are available here.
This particular Elite Wings Weekend has been arranged by Ian Cardwell who is well known in the UK GoldWing community as a capable ride leader and Ian has planned and will lead the rides personally. You may stay at the Hotel for between one and three nights on this deal and most people will be staying for Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, to enjoy the full day ride outs which will take place on the Saturday and Sunday but you can book just for the Saturday night if you wish and still enjoy both days of riding. These rides are scenic tours with coffee, lunch and afternoon tea stops, so nothing arduous. And nothing posh either, you’re more than welcome to bring you own flask and dripping butties if you want to save your brass!
Th'al be reet welcome i' Barnsley
There are some lovely roads and scenery to the west and southwest of Barnsley, including Holme Moss, Glossop reservoirs, the Peak District Park, Goyt Valley, The Dukes Drive, Froggatt Edge, Fox House and Rivelin Valley and the Saturday ride will take in some of these.
On Sunday the ride will head for the Lincolnshire Wolds and the flatter areas of the Trent Valley and the Vale of York. These also offer great roads which Ian Cardwell, who will be leading, knows well. You will be passing close to the Red Arrows operating base and if they are sure to be flying off to and back from somewhere over this holiday weekend, so you might well see them.
Elite Wings rides are planned for solo GoldWings only and sorry but trikes or sidecar outfits cannot be accommodated. Almost all Elite Wings Members are couples but single riders are welcome too – and especially this weekend, when they will get an incredibly good deal at the Hotel. The evening gatherings involve dinner together and socialising in the bar afterwards but there is no obligation to follow Ian Cardwell’s pecular taste for Creme de Menthe; all other Elite Wingers are normal people who drink normal drinks. As with almost any group of Wingers when they get together after a ride, good humour and a certain amount of leg-pulling abounds.
Elite Wingers are normal people, just the odd eccentric
A fairly high proportion of Elite Wings members are advanced motorcyclists and although there is no pressure for everyone to go for the advanced training, their rides do provide an opportunity to see advanced riding in action – by no means fast and furious, more like smooth, effortless and safe. No pressure at all to do what they do, but an opportunity watch it in action. Not everyone is an advanced rider and don’t think for a minute that you will be out of your depth or looked down upon, not a bit of it. Like any other riders they make mistakes and drop their bikes while parking them sometimes too.
If you would like to know more about this Weekend Gathering or about Elite Wings generally feel free to ring Ian Cardwell on 07973 836624 or visit the Elite Wings Website. Elite Wings charges only £10 per year (per couple) for Membership and there’s no committee and no club politics, just plenty of tours to choose from.
Even if you don’t fancy staying at the hotel or having to watch Ian drink Creme de Menthe, you can join the rides simply by turning up at the Ramada Encore Hotel near Barnsley (on a solo GoldWing) for a 9am start.
You can book a room at the Hotel directly with them at this special rate by telephoning 01226 729930 and quoting the Elite Wings Event Number 10628 to get the special rate but please also ring or email Ian to let him know that you’ve booked if you do this. His number is 07973 836624 and his email address is ian©winginit•org
Even if you only want to turn up for the rides please let Ian know you are coming anyway; if you use a Garmin satnav he will offer to send you the routes for the rides, so you can pre-load them.
And you’re right –...
There is also a joining fee for new members of £40. After that its just £10 per year per bike, due in January. Simple.
Regards, Ian.
Thanks for the clarification. So that folk can see that you’re really not quite as young as your chosen picture suggests I’ve inserted a more up to date one into the Article. See you in Barnsley!