Archive for June, 2007
Well done Priced Right!
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The half cover I ordered the day before yesterday from PricedRight arrived this morning and I am happy to say, fits fine, although it is rather more bulky when packed than I would have liked – it’s a good job I didn’t get the full cover. It covers the important bits – at least those one wants to stay dry when touring, so it should be a boon on the wet days. I have to say I still disappointed that a bike with as many buttons as this Goldwing doesn’t actually have a “Fine Weather” button 
Cover Ordered
Posted by: | CommentsWell, the first item arising from my lessons learned is underway. I have just ordered a half cover from Priced Right Ltd. I chose them because they had it in stock and online ordering for it unlike Fatboyzdiner (where did they get that name?) who wanted a phone call and 10 days to source it. Being impatient, that seemed too long. I guess that getting older (with less time to waste 
) and the nearly instant gratification one has come to expect from the internet are partly to blame.
As the last line of this post indicates, I am trying yet another blog editor. Qumana doesn’t seem to offer anything significantly useful to me over Scribefire and above all, it’s not instantly available like Scribefire
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Little Old Lady
Posted by: | CommentsWell that is a kind term for an elderly member of the female sex who nearly killed me on the M25 on the way home from Wales. I was in the outside lane, overtaking and abreast with her when she decided she needed to use the space I occupied to overtake the car in front of her. I slammed on the anchors and hit the horn – thank God it is better than the usual anaemic motorcycle jobbie and that she was not totally deaf, for she pulled back into her own lane with a look of surprised indignation as I waved my fist at her.
Apart from a slight swerve when I braked, the bike behaved very well. It was all so instinctive and over very quickly, so I had no real chance to evaluate the braking performance, it’s possible the ABS and linked brakes did their stuff but I was concentrating on the car and I don’t really know. Makes me realise I really do need a test in the safe environment of a large empty car park.
I have also thought about the horn – I am glad my thumb hit the right button amongst the mess of controls on the bars – I guess the designers have thought that one through! The horn itself sounds more like a car horn than any bike horn I have had and is therefore not bad at all but I did a quick bit of research on aftermarket horns and am now thinking of a Stebel Nautilus Compact air horn – I must try and find someone who has fitted one to a Wing. Many moons ago I had a Mercedes logging truck air horn fitted to a bike – these things are designed to be heard over forested mountains and the roar of 800hp diesels – it was a fantastic accessory – as long as you were wearing ear plugs!
So what did my first tour teach me?
Posted by: | Comments- Get a half cover for the bike, it must surely beat all that mopping up in the morning when it rains the night before.
- The stock seat suits me just fine and the heated seat and grips are very nice to have when it’s cold.
- The large information panel on my bike is great for reading without spectacles – I guess Honda know their age demographic pretty well!
- I waste a lot of space taking camera gear on the bike that I don’t use. Basically a whole pannier for an SLR and lenses is daft when all I take is a couple of snaps. In future I shall use a simple point and shoot camera.
- Storage on the bike is OK but no better and a little worse in fact, than my Pan with its OEM panniers and a Givi top box.
- The Wing corners very well and I didn’t ground the pegs once although I fully expected to. Part of the reason is that I wasn’t prepared to corner at high speeds on the roads with stone walls and blind turns – not to speak of oncoming traffic.
- The gearbox is plainly designed in the expectation that one will use the engine torque to overcome its limitations – rather like the Pan’s in that regard. I do wish both bikes had a decent 6 speed box. The gearbox on my ancient ZZR is simply miles better than either the Pan”s or the Wing’s – it’s like silk and and I am never in the wrong gear. The gearbox on the Wing is the same kind of agricultural job that the Pan has and first and second sound like straight cut gears.
- Throttle control is very nice and responsive and there is no backlash right through the drivetrain.
- I really need to test out the brakes in a big car park, they don’t seem too powerful but I haven’t really slammed them on (except once – see next post!) and I am probably not using the rear brake as much as I need to on this big heavy bike. The rear disk is obviously built with heavy use in mind – being both vented and of larger diameter than the front disks.
- Rough surfaces cause unpleasantly harsh feedback in the front wheel/suspension. I need to see if there is some way of adjusting the compliance at the front end – maybe I need that Traxxion gear?
- The satnav works very well for point to point navigation (and perhaps for more complicated routes too although I haven’t tried that). I would like to be able to enter destinations as a postcode and also to load overlays of things like speed cameras. Perhaps the next iteration of software will permit this? The speakers are fine for listening to the route instructions. They are not bad for music either although a headset would doubtless be better.
- As usual, I took too much clothing. I need to make a proper list that I can use to pack for trips in future. It will include the new Hood jeans I bought recently but which I did not take on this trip – this was especially dumb considering what I had written here. I regretted that oversight because I could have left the Roadcrafter trousers in the B&B at Llanberis where I stayed for two nights and would then have been more comfortable with the jeans during the many stops I made to wander about and take photos.
1277 Miles
Posted by: | CommentsThat is how far I managed on my first proper tour with the Goldwing. Having got the first service out of the way, I watched the weather forecasts and as soon as they looked halfway decent I headed up the A1 to the North York Moors.
OK so no prizes for guessing this photo wasn”t taken in Yorkshire. I stayed one night there at an excellent B&B in Ingleby Cross on the Coast to Coast walking route but the weather was basically cloud at ground zero, so the next day, I rode west where the weather man said there was some sun to be found. Before that, I did find time to traverse an excellent road from Stokesly to Helmsley, meeting another Winger there.
The Dales were brighter but still too gloomy for my taste as I couldn”t see the tops of the hills and whilst the roads were pleasingly twisty and uncrowded on this weekday, the view left a lot to be desired. I continued my westward journey to the Lakes and ended up in Ambleside where there were plenty of bikers but as far as I could see, no other Goldwings. Again, the next day looked rather threatening and the weather man said Wales look good, so after a couple of hours of motorway travel I was pointing the bike to the welsh hills. I used to climb there in my youth and I was glad to see that once in Snowdonia, things were much as I remembered them. I can’t say the same for the nightmarish road from the Chester area, that is the A55 through Colwyn Bay to Bangor. It was extremely crowded and ugly – a route to be avoided at all costs in future I feel. I found a very nice B&B in Llanberis, thanks to the Tourist Information Office in the high street. I was rather glad of their help as many places I had tried earlier were full. I stayed two nights in Llanberis and that afforded me the opportunity to ride all over Snowdonia, giving the bike a thorough workout on the hills and through the valleys. It was very enjoyable and a great learning experience in terms of getting to know the bike but all too soon it was time to turn southwards and down the M1 towards home.