For 20 years I rode a brown 1982 Honda Goldwing Aspencade. That was back in Alberta where the riding season was considerably shorter than it is here in Michigan. In the spring of 2002, Carolyn noticed local ads offering test rides on the new GL1800 and began asking whether I was interested in going for a test ride. I wasn't. I told her that I was perfectly happy with the bike that I'd been riding, but she kept bringing it up. So one warm spring day when I had nothing going, we threw my helmet and leather jacket, and gloves, into the van and drove over to Linwood Cycle. Outside the door sat a new G-Goldwing in the ugliest colour I had ever seen - a tangerine orange. Orange was never a flavor or colour that I'd liked, but what the heck, it was a free ride. We went in, I signed all the forms and showed them my license, and outside we went to test ride the thing. The salesman gave me a quick rundown on the controls, I put on my helmet and jacket, climbed on board, and proceeded to look like an idiot. Remember, I had been riding an 1100cc bike for 20 years, and now I was onboard an 1800cc 6 cylinder fuel injected monster. I lifted the front wheel off the ground twice just getting out of the parking lot ... on the 1100, I had to give the gal plenty of gas to get moving smoothly, but that amount of throttle on the 1800 was enough to burn rubber!

Out onto the highway, around the corner, and follow some country roads for about 10 miles, circling back to Linwood Honda. Several times I thought I was going to keep the front wheel in the air ... any amount of throttle and this puppy started to MOVE! It was certainly nothing like the Aspencade, it felt more like what I imagined a sport bike would be like. WOW! Of course, I got back to the dealership with the standard Goldwing Test Ride Grin ™, actually grinning like a nutcase! Carolyn's first question was, "so what color are we getting?" We discussed that very important question on the way into town, and on-and-off for the next several days. She really liked the "silver" color, while i thought it looked more gray than silver and was way too close to the road surface color to feel safe. For some strange reason, the Pearl Orange was fast growing on me. The yellow was just TOO noticeable for either of us, black isn't a color, we already had enough red, and that doggone orange kept growing on me. So, as you can see from the picture, it grew on me enough that we settled on the orange.

On the following pages, you'll find reports of the tours that I've done as well as pictures from the tours and from other rides.

Well, after 20 years of being happy with the Oldwing, and 4 years of being happy with the Goldwing, a funny thing happened on the way to visit Carolyn's son Ron. We took a detour to Shadyside, Ohio to pick up a motorcycle for him. While we were waiting for the paperwork to get finished, another motorcycle caught my eye. And then we bought the first bike back from Ron ... so now there are THREE bikes crammed into the garage.

You can view the pictures and read the "story" of the Silverwing here, and the VTX1800 here.

Oopsey. Make that FOUR bikes crowding everything else out of the garage. I've added a Rune to the stable.