The Club has made no attempt to be all things to all Wingers, it just caters for the hotel based touring and apart from one weekend during winter which is a purely social gathering (in a hotel) the activities are all either weekend touring rides in some part of UK, doing 150 miles or more per day, or holiday tours abroad, which also involve a decent ride each day on good biking roads to the next hotel, with the occasional rest day in a nice place.

There were one or two advanced riders in the Club from the outset and interest in advanced riding (safe, smooth and at pace) caught on and a high proportion of Members are now advanced motorcyclists.  This doesn’t mean the Club requires this approach to riding and there’s certainly no pressure to do the training, but riding with advanced motorcyclist is contagious, it does make you curious and you do start to get interested.

Elite Wings isn’t elitist and certainly it’s not stuck up or snobby; the name was chosen because it was a nice name and not to suggest that the members thought they were better than anyone else.  The Club attracts members from all walks of life.

This Club was borne in the internet age and right from the outset had  a website and communicated entirely by email.  There no magazine or committee and running costs are low, so subscriptions are low too.  If you would like to learn more visit the Elite Wings Website  or telephone Ian Cardwell on 07973836624.

It is to be a new type of rally which caters for all GoldWing riders and their families and friends, regardless of whether and which club they are in and regardless of whether they like camping or a roof over their head.

The venue is the Rugby Club at Kirkby Lonsdale, which is right next to the Town, so that those staying in hotels or B&Bs will feels just as much part of things as those who camp.  Likewise there will no distinction between those who camp in tents, motorhomes or caravans, all will be equally welcome.

The Event runs over the weekend of Friday 20th to Monday 23rd August 2010, with an option for anyone who which to stay on the enjoy this lovely area to make more of a holiday of their visit, to continue camping there until August 25th.

This venue has a long term relationship with biker clubs who use the facilities of the site during the Rugby closed season. Last year we held a very sucesssfull weekend culminating in a barbeque and several ride outs throughout the area.

This is a beautifull site with stunning views across the valley with the local town of Kirkby Lonsdale less than 5 mins walk by the river. There are facilities for camping, caravans and motorhomes, plus B&B / hotel accomodation in the town. In fact accomodation of every type.

Price for camping at the Rugby site will be no more than £6 per unit per night, regardless if its a tent or motorhome or how many people you have in them.  ((Additional pup tents for the kids will not be regarded as separate units.)  Excellent value for money. Keep an eye on this post for changes as the event develops.

The town of Northwich takes full advantage of the thousands of visitors with most of the coffee shops and food stores being open for the Sunday meeting, plus there were plenty of food stalls throughout the town centre providing the necessary burger & chip’s fix.  The Goldwings attracted a lot of attention, as they always do, being positioned right at the entry lane to the race track we got to see all of the race machines coming to and from the paddock, we couldn’t have asked for more. We even had a few Goldwing owners expressing an interest in joining one of the affiliated clubs and the Blackpool Illuminations Goldwing Light Parade.    We thank Knutsford Honda for their continued support and hope we get a similar invite to next years event.

Knutsford Honda

Thanks to all the hundreds of Wingers who came and bagged a bargain over our recent Chrome Crazy Weekend – you made it a fantastic event for us! We took thousands of pounds from Goldwing owners determined to help themselves to some fantastic deals on chrome goodies for their bikes with discounts of as much as 50% off many items!

We have now replenished our showroom with new supplies from the States with many new lines for 2010 amongst the items so have a ride out and see us again soon!

The original, brighest and best GoldWing Light Parade

The Organisers of the Blackpool Light Parade have announced the new venue for the Event which is to be a whole Crescent of Hotels and Apartments on South Shore Promenade.

All the participating Hotels are offering discounted accommodation and bar prices and they are coordinating their entertainment programmes over the weekend to suit the Event too.  They are also offering access to their facilities to non-residents, so the Organisers will be incorporating better facilities for Wingers who live in the area or wish to stay elsewhere.

The location of the venue is bang on the Southern start point of the Illuminations with enough room to muster the Parade in safety and offering direct access to and from the Parade Route.

For booking information please visit the accomodation page of the GoldWing Light Parade website

Winners of the Best Lit Three Wheeler and Solo Awards

£600 was recently distributed by the Federation of UK GoldWing Clubs to the North West Air Ambulance and Blackpool’s Childrens Hospice, Brian House – this being money being raised at the 2009 Blackpool Illuminations GoldWing Light Parade.  Each charity received £300.

The North West Air Ambulance is a regular beneficiary of Federation Clubs; GoldWings North West recently gave them £500 too.

Blackpool Councillor (and Cabinet Member for Tourism) Maxine Callow, who was helpful in making the 2009 GoldWing Light Parade a success, asked that Brian House be considered for a donation.

Had the weather been kinder during the Saturday afternoon the collection from the public on the Promenade would have raised substantially more, as it did in 2008.  But thanks to good financial management by the Organisers, there was enough left over after the bills were paid to make a respectable donation to charity anyway.

No doubt we will have the opportunity to support more charities for 2010.

Detailed information will be released on this Website on March 8th, which is when the Venue will be ready to accept bookings.

The Event Organisers are very sorry it’s taken a while to get this far but it has not been easy to find a suitable alternative following the closure of Pontin’s, where the Event had been based successfully for some years.  (There was a glimmer of hope that the Pontin’s Site would re-open under different management but this is not going to happen; demolition is already taking place and the Site is likely to be used for housing development.  Blackpool has a close season once the Illuminations have finished and some of the potential venues were closed.)

We are confident that this new Venue is suitable.  A complex Event like the Light Parade has elaborate and to some extent conflicting requirements and the Organisers have considered a wide variety of options.  Several options were pursued in some detail only to end up proving to be unsuitable.

However we are confident that Wingers are not going to be disappointed by the new Venue which in most respects will be an improvement on Pontin’s, including both quality of accommodation and value for money.   It’s also well placed for purposes of the Best Lit Bike Competition and the Parade itself.

Please accept our apologies for being mysterious about precisely where and what it is at the moment, but it is in everyone’s interests for the Venue to be ready to accept bookings as soon as it’s announced, not least because Pontin’s never quite managed that and one of the improvements we have been working towards is a more accessible and reliable booking system.

One thing we can tell you straight away is that accommodation at the Venue will cost only £35 per person per night for dinner bed and breakfast, and this is for accommodation which we believe is significantly better than the best of the Pontin’s Chalets.  The same discounted rate applies for extra nights too.   Single accommodation will also be available without any supplementary charges and there is accommodation which is suitable for families as well as couples.  We’ve even negotiated discounted bar prices too.

We look forward to welcoming all GoldWing riders, their families and friends, including of course  GWOCGB Members to our Event as friends and fellow Wingers.  GWOCGB Regions are welcome to display their badges and banners during the Parade and to advertise their own events as they wish – indeed we will help them to do so on request, as we did for the South Wales Wing Ding last year.

For further information please visit the GoldWing Light Parade Website.

It’s going to be a Great Weekend!

Not their usual meeting place as they had just celebrated their first anniversary the night before with an all inclusive Dinner Dance with free bar, and the package included late night fish & chips as well as a free Conference Room for the following day.  Not a bad deal for only £34 each!  Discounted accommodation for those who wanted it too.

The  Meeting was well attended by Members and visitors GoldWings North Wales, plus a few visitors from other clubs or regions, who were most welcome.  It was a joy to see the room so full.

The business of the Meeting included the presentation of a cheque for £500 to Ray Beech in aid of the North West Air Ambulance. This money had been raised by collections made at the various displays and events which the Club ran or attended during 2009.

New Officers were also elected for the coming year, Chairman Bob and Treasurer Pete having stood down altogether while Secretary Ian stood down from that Office to offer himself as Chairman, to which he was elected unopposed.

Visit GoldWings North West own website for a fuller report and for details of the other new Officers for 2010.