Trailer ordered, 8000 mile service booked, new tyres needed

In my (respectable on-road) Goldwing life - as opposed to my (irreverent off-road) GS life, I have decided it's time to get a trailer for the bike. I hasten to say that is not a trailer to carry the bike on but a trailer to tow behind the bike. This will alow me to dump all the stuff that currently adorns the back seat when I go camping with the bike (because I can''t get it all in the panniers).

I have accordingly made arrangements to get a trailer at the end of May when I return from a trip touring on an 800 or 1200GS in Italy (not sure which at this stage but it will be one or the other and I shall be happy with either). The trailer will be used this summer on a couple of outings for sure - Kent Wings Wingding and the Irish Treffen (bloody expensive ferry ride that is too!).

I have also booked my 8000 mile service which I shall probably get done just before picking up the trailer. I have asked that new tyres be fitted although the ones I have are no doubt good for a good few more miles I have used them pretty hard and I figure I might as well get them done at the time of the service to ensure that my summer touring is not interrupted by a need to schedule a tyre change which will inevitably clash with something else I want to do. I am pretty happy with the Bridgestones that came with the bike and I have asked that the same tyres be used this time, altough I have heard good things about the Avon Venoms too.

Bluetooth drives me barmy

OK I don't understand Bluetooth but then it's supposed to just work isn't it? On the Goldwing, I hear my GPS and other stuff (radio, CB etc) through a wired connection and the bike's built-in intercom system but on the GS I have been using custom earplugs with built in speakers connected to the original Bluetooth dongle that came with my TomTom Rider 1. Those earplugs can get uncomfortable after an hour or two and and it''s a rather fragile wire that''s connected to them so I have been looking for an alternative.

My first thought was to put all my wishes in one basket and look for a Bluetooth flip up helmet with a retractable sun visor. Nolan make one but it doesn't fit my head - like many flip ups it seems very short from front to back and presses hard on my admittedly big chin. OK so now I have to choose between a sunvisor and built in-bluetooth. The latter seems as a rare as rocking horse manure but there is a Viper RS101 helmet which I have not tried. I am perhaps perversely rather put off by its low price - £94.99 seems unlikely to buy very much head protection or quality and in a helmet I want both.

So, I decide to stick for the time being with my BMW system 5 and try to fit a Bluetooth headset to it. Accordingly I got a Scala Rider Q2 and managed to wangle it into the helmet with less difficulty than I had feared. The lump that sits outside the helmet is in the wrong place to use the microphone, being far too far back on the side of the helmet (forced there by the flip front) but as I want it primarily to listen to the GPS and its built in radio, this is not too much of a problem. Next job was to sync it with my GPS. I knew there might be a problem with the Rider 1 so I tried first with the Garmin 2820 on the Wing. It took me ages to learn how to put the headset in pairing mode. This was owing to a combination of not reading the instructions properly and impatience. When I had understood the unit must first be switched on before pressing the same switch again for an extended period to set it looking for marriage partners, I did eventually pair with the Garmin. But why oh why can't we have a simple on/off switch instead of these stupid press it and pray type things that take forever to do something?

Next I tried and failed several times to pair with the TomTom. After several bouts of cursing I eventually succeeded by dint of understanding that the darn thing was trying and failing to pair with its original headset because that is what I was telling it to do in response to a rather ambiguous Yes/No query in its menu system. Finally in frustration, I realised I had to tell it to be more promiscuous and go and look for another partner when, thankfully it found the Scala Rider that had given up and gone home, or at least had stopped trying to pair on many previous attempts.

With the popularity of flip up helmets, sun visors and Bluetooth, I cannot understand why every helmet manufacturer is not in the game - ah well, that's life at the bleeding edge I suppose..

YEE HA!

I had a fantastic day on Saturday, taking the GS properly off-road for the first time. The weather was rather mixed, starting out nice but with some rain and hail later. It didn't stop five of us having a ball in the mud though. The new tyres were perfect for the job even if the rider wasn't! I fell off enough to test various aspects of my set-up - most things survived OK apart from the Satnav bracket which broke, the mirrors kept being knocked loose but stayed in one piece and the gear lever which was bent double on one occasion and merely 90 degrees on another survived the bending back to its original position.

First we got the bikes muddy, then we cleaned them:-

TKC 80s fitted

I took the GS this morning to get the off-road tyres fitted. They are Continental TKC 80s, a road-legal tyre with a good blocky pattern that should be much better in the mud than the road tyres. I'll get a chance to try that out tomorrow! On the way home. I was treading somewhat carefully as they were brand new and it started raining so I wasn't expecting a lot of grip. I especially wasn't expecting a lot of grip when it started hailing like crazy - sizeable lumps of ice that actually stung my hands through the thinnish gloves I was wearing. You can imagine my joy then, when some bright spark pulled out suddenly in front of me and I had to jam the anchors on :shock: . Fortunately, the ABS performed brilliantly. I stayed upright without even a wobble and stopped in time even though I had to retrieve my heart from the roof of my mouth. A very scary moment and I am very glad I chose the ABS option.

The tyres feel noticeably different from the Battle Wings I had on before. I can feel the knobbly bits at low speeds and the bike doesn't tip into the corners like before - needs more steering effort to turn. Nothing extraordinary, just enough to be noticeable really. I shall probably keep these tyres on for the while and see how I get on with them for normal road duties.

Weird Weather!

This was the scene chez moi last Sunday before the snow really came down and the bike went back into the garage! Since then we have had a couple of lovely days and I rode both bikes (on separate days! :) )

Tomorrow I am taking the bike to South London Motorcycles to get a set of knobblies fitted as on Saturday I shall be doing a bit of greenlaning - provided that the snow doesn't come back in earnest..

I have ordered a set of tyre irons and a bead buddy - still neeed a bead breaker probably and a couple of other things, so I can change the tyres back and forth as I need. This is the best site I have found with advice on changing tyres on wheels like mine

Goldwing suspension

After riding the GS for the last few days, I took the Goldwing out this morning and it took me a couple of miles before I felt at home again on such a different machine - I even tried to switch the indicators in the stupid BMW mode! :) I think the thing that has most significance for me in comparing the feel of the two bikes is just how much better the GS's front suspension is on rough roads. Now this is hardly a surprise in a bike designed for the rough stuff but the bit that is important for me is that it has started me thinking again about a front suspension upgrade for the Goldwing. I had grown used to its foibles before riding the GS but some roughish road this morning reminded me that it was one of the first things I noted about the bike when I bought it.

I see two options - one is to install Progressive springs which is the cheap option but one that some folk think highly of and the other much more expensive option is to go for the Traxxion system. I am pretty persuaded by the movie but it would be nice to talk to someone in the UK who has fitted it.

Another expense is on the horizon in the form of its 8000 mile service and a new pair of tyres to go with it. I could let them go further but the rear especially is looking fairly tired and I might as well get it done soon - before the suspension upgrade too if I decide to go that way.