Chairman's Blog

I make this report in GNW website so that you can see that there are other Motorcycle groups as well as our club.

Elite Wings were formed several years ago by a group of Wingers who wanted to enjoy weekends away but in hotels. At that time there were no clubs catering for them so they formed their own club.

Janet and I joined Elite Wings in 2005 when I wanted to try different types of holidays on the Wing. We were not always wanting to camp when we went away and it was nice to have some creature comforts available.

As Elite Wings only cater for solo motorcycles, I was not a member of the club whilst I owned a trike, but on exchanging back to a solo last year, we rejoined Elite Wings.

This trip was our first trip with them since rejoining.

The weekend was based around a 3 night stay at the Ramada Jarvis Wetherby Hotel, which had agreed to a discount price for the group, to include dinner, bed and breakfast.

Jan and I travelled up in dull weather on Friday morning before the expected rain was due to hit North Wales.

We had a relatively quiet journey considering that it was Good Friday and the traffic was expected to be very heavy. We did see queues of slow moving traffic but we were not really held up much, except for one incident where a HGV had shred its tyre across the motorway and everything had to slow right down.

Having arrived at Wetherby, we rode into town to buy some lunch and refuel the Wing, in time to see our fellow Elite Wing Members arriving in town in convoy. It was a head turning sight for the 8 bikes that passed us and we waiting at the side of the road.

We met up at the hotel later in the evening to order our evening meal so we could all eat as a group.

After an early night and equally early breakfast the morning ride-out was actually moving at 9am. The Saturday ride was a circuit trip through to Hawes and Richmond, where we stopped for lunch. We managed to attract a lot of attention having parked 5 silver Wings, 4 red Wings and a blue Wing on the cobbles in the middle of the market square.

Following lunch, Janet and I, accompanied by Nigel and Joanna, decided to try a different route back  from those on the main ride, but first of all I wanted to visit Altberg Boot Makers in Richmond. Just as we arrived at the factory shop the heavens opened and we made use of the shop for shelter. Having tried on the boots, I ordered a pair of their motorcycle boots, and likewise Nigel was so impressed with the pairs he tried on that he also ordered a pair of boots from them as well.

By the time the shopping was finished we had missed the worst of the downpour and were able to ride away in only slightly damp conditions.

The journey back was managed with a visit to Ripleys Famous Ice Cream Shop to quench Nigel’s craving pangs, and of course it would have been unsociable not to have joined him.

I have to admit that Jan and I both enjoyed the ice cream and if we are in the area again, we will try to revisit the shop.

That evening at the hotel, we again enjoyed a good evening chatting with the other members of the group.

We also celebrated the birthday of one of the members, big Roy Steventon.

Sunday morning again saw us all rolling out of the hotel car park at 9.00 am sharp. This time the mornings ride was to Helmsley and then onto Whitby over the Moors for lunch.

The run to Helmsley was an interesting and scenic one, and I was ready for drink on arriving at Helmsley. I was somewhat surprised to be charged a parking fee at Helmsley where it is clearly marked that motorcycles are not free, and there is a parking warden on patrol to ensure that each bike pays a parking charge.

After a coffee at the Cafe, Jan and I decided to leave early for Whitby, following the pre-arranged route which was in my sat-nav. We made our way over the North Yorkshire Moors Park which was a wonderful run and luckily the weather was good at this time so we both enjoyed to scenic views of the area. Eventually arriving in Whitby we found it was almost gridlocked with holiday traffic, particularly in the region of the car park that was the intended meeting point. so we backtracked a bit and waited for the others to get in range of the CB.

Within a few minutes I heard them approaching Whitby and warned them of the situation in the town. They were able to divert and park at the top of town instead.

As Nigel was keen to visit his favourite haunt – Scarborough- we decided to join them instead of continuing the afternoon run back to Wetherby via the Wolds. We set off for Scarborough before eating and after a short cross country trip arrived at Scarborough, which like Whitby, was very busy.

We were able to find space at the motorcycle bay on the Prom itself, and after parking the Wings up we ventured along the Prom to find somewhere to eat. It must have been something in the air which affected Nigel, because while Jan, Joanna and I ordered fish and chips, he ordered steak pie and chips!!! We were worried about him until we realised he was not himself having returned yet again to Scarborough!

After watching the sky darken quite a bit we decided to make a move back to Wetherby.

No sooner had we moved off than the heavens opened and we were in heavy rain for a while. Luckily it passed over quickly and we were able to carry on back to Wetherby in better conditions.

On arriving back at the hotel before the other group, I saw that my Wing was filthy with mud and rubbish thrown up by tyres of other vehicles.

Nigel saw that his bike was the same so the ladies went back to the rooms while we took the bikes to the pressure washer.

This was the first time that Nigel had used a pressure washer on his Wing and he was quite pleased with the results. We both ensured that brakes were avoided and that we didn’t apply too much water to any of the mechanical areas of the Wings.

The Sunday evening meal was followed by a slide show on Nigel’s laptop computer of the photos taken by him over the weekend. This was well received by the couples and caused some mirth and discussion amongst them.

Monday morning saw most of us up early enough to have packed the bags ready to leave straight after breakfast. Jan and I were among that number and we were soon heading back along the M62 Motorway. The wind had by this time picked up and we had a slow journey across the Pennines due to the side wind trying to blow us across the whole motorway. The only safe option was to reduce forward speed until the worst of the side wind was deflected away from us.

Having safely made it home from Wetherby we gave the Wing another wash and it was soon back to pristine condition.

All in all, the Easter weekend trip was a good start to the Winging season for Jan and I. We enjoyed the comforts of home while there and met up with some great people.

As usual, Nigel took plenty of photos and I took one or two – you can view them on the Elite Wings Easter Weekend gallery page

Dave T