But as with the Ride Safe Back Safe Event at Blackpool earlier this year, from the viewpoint of Wingers who have witnessed or been hurt by was has been almost civil war in the UK GoldWing Community during the past two years, the opportunity to work together as Wingers has been very welcome and I think we can be forgiven for highlighting how welcome that has been. I’m sure that no one is trying to take anything away from ‘Appy Wanders or Help for Heroes in doing so; we’re just hoping this really does mean the end of the belligerence and hostility we’ve experienced.

This is the black and white of it all. The event was sparked off last year by a small group of Cumbrian bikers with an idea to help the H4H organisation and raise money for our service personnel. Something that our government should be doing in the first place.SHAME on them!

Barry Walton and myself met by chance two of the organizers at a bikers tea stop on one of our Thursday “play-days” Over a mug of tea we agreed to give them a hand with our group riding expertise. It seemed the right thing to do as they were a bit at a loss with the marshalling thing. After the first meeting we realised the enormity of the proposed event so asked our own APPY WANDERERS folk how they felt about a great day out marshalling an honourable biking event and riding lots of miles in wonderful Cumbria into the bargain. Put like that to ‘APPY WANDERERS the answer was inevitable!

Numbers demanded more (lots more!)Wingers so Barry threw the invite in his persuasive way to Wingers from many Regions and the independant Clubs for help. You all did this for a good reason, the right reason. Its nothing to do with politics, building bridges or ripping others down even! If it helps the various factions to act like grown ups then its a bonus for sure!

It’s probably going to happen again next year so come along for the right reasons and help raise lots of money!

Dave T

The Police would like me to pass on their praise for the great job you Marshalls did. They have been impressed with the way the route notes, marshal’s guides, were produced and the implimentation of the marshalling right from the start of our dealings with them. Likewise on the day of the Ride how professionally all the marshals performed their tasks. The police riders also said that they had both worked with professional riding groups before, but had not seen such a high standard of marshalling in a very long time. The Marshals were not only a credit to themselves, but also to the GoldWing Community.

On a personal note I would like to thank all those who attended and gave up there day for such a worthy cause. I can tell you all now that Sunday morning was a complete blurr….. I think I ran on nerves the whole morning.

Special thanks must go to Dave Sharp, and Geoff Smith. Both took on this task with me, so it was a Wanderers team effort. And personal thanks to Andy Appleby and Ian Jones for coming on board in the later stages with some important input. Thank you guys.

Goldwing riders came from, Cumbria wings, Lancs & Lakes, Yorkshire and Trent wings. plus Goldwings North West, and the Federation – not forgetting the Appy Wanderers. It was great to see so many of you all getting along, and working together for a good cause
truly showing that the key to any club or group, is friendship towards other Wingers.

Well what more can I say, but a very big thank you to all of you Marshals for your help, support, and friendship. You’re the ones a lot of people thought of as totally professional yesterday and did a hell of a lot of work, so the other Riders could be safe and could enjoy the this great Charity Ride in aid of HELP FOR HEROES.

WELL DONE TEAM. UNTIL THE NEXT TIME, THANK YOU ALL.

Yours in Winging
Barry Walton,
Appy Wanderers,

.

Having met up with Stuart, Dave and Karen at Lancaster Services, Lynette and I made our way to the assembly point at Bowness, to be greeted by the sight of over 1000 bikes, all ready for the off. It was good to see Ken , Dave and Toni already there, plus many old faces. There were also new people to meet, some of whom expressed an interest in joining Goldwings NW, so there may be even more new members arriving soon!

Coronation Street stars Simon Gregson (Steve MacDonald) and Peter Armitage (Bill Webster) headed the ride out with Catchphrase host, Roy Walker, and it was very pleasing to see that the event was fully supported by the local Police, two of their motorcycle officers outriding and providing road closures as required.

Whilst Ken, Dave and Toni acted as static marshals, Stuart, Dave and I were placed within the ride to act as Troubleshooters should any problems arise en-route. This provided many comic moments during the day, including the mass 1970’s moped brigade, with Honda SS50’s, Puch, Yamaha and many more makes represented. One tuned Fizzie rider was dressed as Fred Flintstone, and I now have the memory of Fred, chin on tank and bum in air, tiger skin flapping in the wind as he hurtled past me at a breakneck, oh, 50mph!

Talking to Barry Walton on arrival at the end of the ride, he told me that the column of riders stretched over four miles in length – impressive or what?

So, all in all, a great day was had by all and it would be nice to hope that this could become an annual event (although Barry was led away, muttering something about ‘Never again!’).

Moral of the story…………never trust a smiling Weatherman!