Service, Neck Brace and stuff.

I took the Goldwing to Doble's yesterday. Traffic was absolutely solid
all the way there and back. How glad I am not to have to fight that
sort of thing every day! It gave me a good chance however to compare
the filtering abilities of the Wing and the little Honda 600 courtesy
bike I used to get back and forth. Whilst the smaller bike can
certainly go through smaller gaps I found that I preferred the Wing for
its road presence, lights and low down grunt. I seemed to have to rev
the nuts of the little bike (its redline is at 11,000 rpm and below
4000 it really does nothing) to accelerate smartly and felt very
vulnerable facing oncoming traffic whilst I scooted down the middle of
the road. On the Wing, it was plain that the oncoming traffic could see
me and moved more to its side of the road - which was not the case when
I was on the smaller bike. The service cost me £275. The technician
noted that my rear tyre was getting squared-off. Inevitable I suppose
given the proportion of motorway miles I have done since the tyre was
replaced (a mere 4000 miles ago) but it underscores the fact that tyres
don't last long on this big heavy bike.

The postman brought me a
belated Xmas pressie - well actually something I ordered only a couple
of days ago, namely a Leatt neck Brace. I have been watching the Dakar
rally on the TV and every rider is wearing a neck brace. It gave me
pause for thought and I ran through memories of times I have been
pitched off riding off-road. There were certainly a few when my neck
was jarred and I decided that a neck brace was probably a good thing. I
haven't use it yet and am still in the process of fitting the thing. I
expect it will feel constaining and uncomfortable at first - I just
hope it's like seat belts in cars. When they first became mandatory, I
hated the feel of them but nowadays feel quite naked without one. It
was expensive at £260 but I got a £215 discount (down from £475 ) from Dirtbikebitz
so I feel that it is probably good value - it certainly wll be if it
saves me from serious injury although I surely hope it won't need to!

Service Postponed

Well the snow arrived and thanks to the freezing weather we are experiencing, it stayed and is still here. As my drive is covered by what is in effect a skating rink, I decided that discretion was the better part of valour and put the appointment back a week. Let's hope the stuff has gone by then!

12,000 mile service

I'm looking at the weather forecasts with a somewhat nervous eye at the moment. I have booked a 12,000 mile service for the Goldwing at Doble's on Wednesday and there is a possibility of snow that day according to a couple of the forecast sites I use. Another says nothing about snow, so as usual, "You pays your money and takes your choice". Of course, I paid no money to any of these sites, so can't really complain if their prognostications are wrong. Either way, I am not a fan of riding in snow.

Doble's unfortunately don't operate on quite that principle - a service for free -  and as the 12,000 mile service is a major one for the Wing, I can expect a big bill :( However, I see from a recent flyer that they are offering 25% discount on everything apart from bikes over the coming weekend. The trouble is I don't really need anything from them at present and a 25% discount isn't enough to persuade me to buy stuff that I don't need. Although, having said that, there is quite a decent range of Honda branded clothing (Joe Rocket stuff in actuality) that includes a Goldwing jacket that would look better on the bike than the BMW Rallye 2 Pro jacket I often wear..