35 Years of Winging comes to an end
On Monday 27th February 2023 I rang our local MOT station (David Henning at Dr D's bike Surgery) to book the 'Wing in for a test. The previous certificate ran out last year as I had too many other projects to sort out, so it was necessary this time to book in and furnish all relevant details so that it could be ridden legally to the centre. It has been insured continually but has been sorned since last year. In view of the fact that I haven't used it enough in recent years and the fact that I will be 74 in June, I decided it was time to let someone else enjoy it and use it for what it was designed to do. I was not going to give it away, even though it probably owes me nothing - it has been kept in very good condition and wanted for nothing during the 20 years I've owned this bike - now 32 years old! I enjoyed the last ride into Kirkwall - about 20 miles and used the electronic cruise control set to 55 from Finstown to Kirkwall.
Returning from the successful test I delivered the bike to McAdie and Reeve (couriers) for them to transport it to Ecosse motorcycles in Aberdeen in part exchange for my latest 2 wheel adventure - more of that later!
We bought our first 'Wing - a blue 1986 1200 Aspencade with 3000 miles on in February 1988 but that bike was unfortunately written off while we were on holiday in August that year along the Wachau in Austria. We lived to fight another day and bought our second 'Wing in November 1988 - a brand new 1200 Aspencade in twilight beige and kept that for 10 years, enjoying many more holidays in Holland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Czech Republic as well as on home soil. During this time I also bought a very lightly damaged 1200 interstate, which I repaired and used for a few trips - one particular time was down to Stafford for an international 'Treffen' where 1000 GoldWings attended - some sight!That bike was sold a year or so later but the Aspencade stayed for many more years. I also bought a very early GL1000 needing sympathetic cosmetic restoration but also had a gearbox fault, although still useable. I eventually sold it to my Cousin who repaired the gearbox and had it for quite a few years before I got it back again! That one finally went to a chap in South Ronaldsay, Orkney.
We were coming to a time when four cylinder 1200 'Wings were becoming 'old hat' and folk had mostly moved on to the 6 cylinder 1500 version. I had been reluctant to change ours, just in case we didn't get on with the much larger bike, although we did have a test ride on one at Colin Appleyards but I eventually found a 'cosmetically challenged' low mileage standard 1500 when visiting West Coast Motorcycles one day. The price meant that we could afford to keep the 1200 and then see which we preferred. I repaired and stripped the 1500 and Frank Halsall at Plox Motors painted the 32 panels after I had prepped everything. We used it more and more and I even had a trip to the North Cape of Norway on it with David Durham in 1999, so the 1200 was eventually moved on to a friend. We had that 'raspberry rocketship' for 6 years and put another 35000 miles on it before changing to this last Gold 1500 SE. I haven't used this one nearly as much as previous ones as although I'm now well retired, I've been busy with other projects - in fact I've only done 18000 miles on it in 20 years!
I have to admit that I have never even had a ride on an 1800 'Wing, partly in case I really liked them and would have to change but also because I still think the 1500 SE is the best looking of the bunch - with more luggage space too! When one is coming towards you, you are in no doubt what it is but I think the 1800 can be confused for something else.
So the total mileage on GoldWings looks like this:
Blue 1200 Aspencade. 8500 miles
Beige 1200 Aspencade 50500 miles
Wineberry 1200 Interstate 4000 miles
Early GL1000 3500 miles
Raspberry (Hyundai colour) GL1500 34000 miles
Gold GL1500SE 18000 miles
So that's 118500 miles on GoldWings without counting the 35000 on the CX500 and the same distance on our VF750 S and the 3000 on a new CB250 N Super dream which got me back into motorcycling and 2000 on the new Super Cub 125. Will I miss it? Of course I will and I have said many times that if someone had ever asked me to take a parcel from here in Orkney to somewhere in Cornwall, I would have jumped on the 'Wing and gone - even at my age! I did a charity ride back in the mid 90s on the 1200 of 1000 miles in 20 hours - they really are wonderful bikes!