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It is now 12 months since that inaugural meeting at The Chase when GoldWingers from the region were invited to attend to discuss the formation of a new club in North Wales.

It was obvious that there was a lot of feeling at the meeting about the way that the club scene within GWOCGB had gone, and particularly, at the way the members of GWOCGB has rejected suggestions for improvement within its regions to attract and involve more GoldWingers to the club.

This club was formed to give more choice to GoldWingers, rather than the camping weekends which all followed the same theme. Great if you like that style of weekend but for those who don’t camp then they didn’t derive as much from the club as they should have been able to, with other events being very restricted.

It was clear from the onset that this club was to be in addition to other clubs that a Winger may be in, and not instead of them, and that membership of this club was open to anyone with an interest in GoldWings.

The first few months were a bit on the quiet side as the riding season was finished except for those hardy souls who ride all year around. We have tried to keep a varied list of events for members to take part in, and due to the formation of Goldwings North West, another independent club, we have been successful in having a good calender.

Blackpool Light Parade

The formation of the Federation, an umbrella organisation created to assist independent clubs, has also created a lot of interest within GoldWing circles. The Federation role was to assist these independent clubs but not be in charge of them. The Federation was to assist with organising some events of it’s own. These events were to be open to any GoldWinger to attend and not just members of the Federation.

This fact has caused upset amongst members of certain GWOCGB regions who are opposed to anything that the Federation do. For god’s sake, why?

A good example of this is the attempts by GWOCGB committee and others within that club to sabotage the Blackpool Light Parade with a series of misinformation that was put out. Another example is meeting up with a set of GoldWingers from Lancs and Lakes Region at a recent event and one of them refused to greet me as a friend, despite having been a friend before the new club was formed. I have never done or said anything for him to act this way.

Expensive purchase at the Treffen

I attended two GWOCGB events during this year, the Treffen at Kelso and the Scarborough Light Parade. At both events I enjoyed the company of many old friends and with so many people coming up to me for more details on the Federation.

In June, Jan and I managed to take a European trip under the guidance of Stuart Ormerod, an experienced Foreign Tour Leader. This trip was to the Mosel Valley in Germany. It was so enjoyable that Jan and I are going back and are prepared to lead a smallish group ourselves. See elsewhere on this website for details.

We have been fortunate to increase our membership considerably since we started and there are new faces to GoldWinging joining our club, after having seen what is on offer from other local clubs. I must thank other local clubs for their attitude towards us as this has encouraged our membership to grow.

A view of the Rhine

The AGM, which was held 2 days ago, was a well attended affair and it was heartening  to see that we have a good base of members to work with during the next year. We have a new rides co-ordinator, Chris Phillips, who is keen to get on with the task of organising a full and interesting rides calendar for the next season.

We anticipate more clubs joining the Federation which will hopefully give more national events for our members to attend, if they wish. I hope that the Federation will also be putting on more foreign trips for members to join in.

I sincerely hope the next 12 months brings about a surge forward in the GoldWinging scene, nationally and locally, and that we are part of that growth.

Dave T