Riding the Honda GL1800 Goldwing

As the year has been coming to an end and winter seems just round the corner I decided to fill some of my inter-locuming days with a bit of biking. Hired a bike but this time something a little more comfy for the longer journeys - a proper touring bike with heated arm rests and seats would you believe it!! This time I rented a touring bike from the same Manchester rental company I used before . The bike was the marvellous Honda GL1800 Goldwing .

Started off in Manchester and then headed into a not very nice drenching storm. The rain was so bad I had to get off the road as I had problems seeing the road and other cars. Luckily there was a handy Asda carpark in Queensferry where I took refuge. The rest of the trip towards Pembrokeshire was fine, but I would still say it wasn’t really a good biking day. After stopping in Haverfordwest I travelled down the M4 and A34 to Hampshire to see relatives and then up to Northampton to meet a friend. Stayed in a local Travelodge there that I would definitely not recommend. Very dirt as seen from the photos below…

The next day on to the M1 and M6 towards Manchester.

The bike itself was great and much more comfortable than the Pan European. It also had loads more of mod-cons like heated seats, radio and it even had an air-bag. I didn’t know motorcycles even had that! One of the serous problems I had was with the windshield. It was positioned to high and once it got wet I had lots of problems seeing the road in front of me. I couldn’t get it to lowered and I thing Honda should have made it motorized like on the Pan European.