New member with a confession!

[tflanders]

I am 52 (in a week) and from Minnesota. Nice out this morning -13 degrees with -30 windchill! I love this forum, it has already helped me out! I used to own a Goldwing, 83 1200, wineberry in color and I loved it! Once my daughter was born I ended up selling it. My daughter is grown and I just bought a 99 Goldwing 1500a. It is so beautiful! All black and has been very well taken care of, not a scratch on it, until I got my hands on it.
I bought it from a nice couple in southern MN, they had bought a newer 1800. They loved this bike and had a hard time letting it go. I have never trailered a bike before. I bought the wheel thing a mah jig and mounted it on my trailer. I read on these forums about how to tie a bike down on a trailer. Got her all tied down and homebound we were. It was a very stressful ride home, caught myself driving 40mph at times! So, I made the 150 mile drive without a problem! The next day I found inside, heated storage. I trailered the bike over to the storage facility. Take a right off of the main hi-way onto a gravel road. Up and over the RR tracks and it happened! I swear I wasnt going a mile per hour at the time, the bike fell over on its left side! Yes, less than a hundred feet from its winter home! My whole body changed tempeture and my heart took off. I pulled into the storage place and rushed back to my trailer. I got the bike stood backup and started checking it out. It WAS in perfect shape, not a scratch on it. Well, it did some damage, not a lot, but it scuffed the mirror and knocked the entire mirror unit out of kilter. I am going to have to take the mirror off and have them repaint it. I guess I got real lucky, that was all of the damage I found, so far. I hope this isnt a preview of what's to come!

[rooferx]

Happens to everybody...

[bellboy40]

Too bad. I know that is a sickening feeling but stuff happens. What happened? Did the tie downs slip loose?

[tflanders]

I think the tie down on the right side came loose, letting the bike fall to the left. I checked them before I left home and both were tight. Seven miles and a
RR crossing later, over she went.

[WingAdmin]

OK, now that you've confessed...let's see a picture of your new pride and joy!

[Mag]

And now all the creative repairing begins, welcome to the site, I am sure you will enjoy. Crap like that happens, but it is a "lesson in waiting", right? (trying to put positive spin)

[tflanders]

Believe it or not I didnt get any pictures. It was about -10 degrees when I picked it up, so no time for pictures! If I didnt know better I would think it was brand new. It has 66k on it, which I didnt think was too bad. I got the owners manual from the guy and it has all the maintenance and work done to it listed, with dates and costs, all the way back to 98.
I want to head out west with it, but I will have to see how my back holds up. It does have the backrest on it, so that should help. I am looking at buying a "kool back" kidney belt to see if that would help me out with some more support. I will start by taking some short trips and then push it little by little to see if I can ride for 8 hours a day or so. I have some degenerative discs in my back, where the disc is gone and its fusing on its own.
I want to ride so bad I have thought about trailering it south until I hit rideable weather!

[redial]

If you are thinking of trailering it this way (where it is nearly always good riding weather), then make sure you tie it down real good, as I hear it can get real bumpy near Hawaii. But a minor setback like you have had, is okay. I think it is a good idea to get an incident over early, so that you can relax a bit more.

If you havent been on a GW for a while, then ride around the parking lots for an hour or so, so that you get used to the slow handling 'features' of a GW. Figure of 8s are good, start out large and reduce it down until you are uncomfortable, always look ahead to where you want to be, not so much where you are. You can practice that on lane markers, aim for the end, not the gap, otherwise you get a fixation and finish up hitting the line. HTH

[bjatwood]

Well the way I look at it. It isn't MINE until I brand it (scratch)!!
The pressure's off now. And by the way I'm 52 years old too and pretty
much had the same story you did. Daughter was young, had a bike. Sold it and
got back into riding 5 years ago. That GL1500 will ride like a Cadillac,

[wally]

Boy you reminded me of the first time I trailered my bike I was so paranoid about it falling over or off that I think I checked the straps every time I stopped thank God I didn't lose it. Sorry about your luck but I'm sure you learned from the event and it will never happen again.

[tflanders]

Haha! Funny you mention riding it around a parking lot, which is great advice I will use! I drove it on ice and snow from my trailer into the building, about 25 feet. That was one strange little ride there. I had to muscle it around a few times. I need to adjust the handle bars and the hiway pegs. I am 6'3" and 330lbs. I need a little more room! I looked at the allowed weight on the bike, with me, I have to have a pretty small woman on back! YES!

[Evilrick]

Well the way I look at it. It isn't MINE until I brand it (scratch)!!
The pressure's off now. And by the way I'm 52 years old too and pretty
much had the same story you did. Daughter was young, had a bike. Sold it and
got back into riding 5 years ago. That GL1500 will ride like a Cadillac,

This is off-topic here, but I am wondering if Atwood is your real last name? Do yo know if you have any family in St. Louis? My name is Rick (Richard) Atwood. My Dads name was Richard Patric Atwood. Have not seen him since I was 5 and he and my mother divorced. I know he died about 10 or 15 yrs back. I do know that he has family here in St. Louis. I think I have a half sister that was some kind of bowling professional, at least last time I heard she had a house full of trophies, but that was about 40 yrs ago.