september, 2006 wing wag - goldwingcalgary.com · september, 2006 wing wag bragg creek, ... we...

Gold Wing Road Riders AssociationGold Wing Road Riders AssociationGold Wing Road Riders AssociationGold Wing Road Riders AssociationGold Wing Road Riders AssociationGold Wing Road Riders AssociationGold Wing Road Riders AssociationGold Wing Road Riders AssociationGold Wing Road Riders AssociationGold Wing Road Riders AssociationGold Wing Road Riders AssociationGold Wing Road Riders Association Chapter ABChapter ABChapter ABChapter ABChapter ABChapter ABChapter ABChapter ABChapter ABChapter ABChapter ABChapter AB------------A (Calgary) NewsletterA (Calgary) NewsletterA (Calgary) NewsletterA (Calgary) NewsletterA (Calgary) NewsletterA (Calgary) NewsletterA (Calgary) NewsletterA (Calgary) NewsletterA (Calgary) NewsletterA (Calgary) NewsletterA (Calgary) NewsletterA (Calgary) Newsletter

September, 2006September, 2006September, 2006September, 2006September, 2006September, 2006September, 2006September, 2006September, 2006September, 2006September, 2006September, 2006

Wing WagWing WagWing WagWing WagWing WagWing WagWing WagWing WagWing WagWing WagWing WagWing Wag

Bragg Creek, AB www.goldwingcalgary.com

I shudder to think...I shudder to think...I shudder to think...I shudder to think...!!!!

When I set out for a ride whether it be a long trip or a short day-ride, I always try to be cognizant of the risks involved with what I’m about to do. When I’m riding I do my best to practice the SIPDE rule. For those of you that haven’t heard of this, it’s Scan, Interpret, Predict, Decide and Execute. In other words, always be aware of your surroundings, be in control and always have an escape route.

So when I see a motorcyclist in such a hurry that they can’t wait for the traffic but rather race past, darting in and out of traffic—I wonder what would happen if anyone made an unexpected move. There is no room for error on anyone’s part at these high speeds.

This past summer Blaine and I witnessed such a rider while we were out in the van. As we were merging onto Glen-more Trail east from Macleod Trail a motorcyclist came up behind us and was tailgating in a major way. Just as we were merging with the traffic, he screamed by us on the right side on the shoulder. He proceeded to dart in and out of the traffic maintaining a very high rate of speed, then we lost sight of him.

We carried on our way onto Heritage Drive where we would turn right onto

11th Street. As we approached 11th Street we came on an accident that had just happened. A motorcycle was laying off to the southeast corner of the inter-section and the rider was laying in the middle of the intersection. As we rounded the corner northbound on 11th Street there was an SUV parked on the verge and a very hysterical woman be-hind it, talking on her cell phone. I looked back at the person laying on the pavement. It didn’t look good. Having not seen the accident happen and since others were gathering to assist him, we did not stop but continued on our way to Lee Valley. Half an hour later when we came back, police and EMT were on the scene, the road was blocked off and as we detoured I could see the yellow tarp where the rider had been laying.

Could this have been the rider that went by us earlier?” It was a black bike and it looked similar to the one we saw. The rider of the speeding bike had on a grey T-shirt as did the injured rider.

Later on the news we learned that the rider was 29 years old. He was traveling south on 11th Street and had apparently attempted to turn left in front of the SUV. He just couldn’t wait another few seconds.

The image of the injured rider laying in that intersection is emblazoned on my brain and I can’t help but think “what a waste”. But for a few seconds, this was no doubt preventable.

The day after we got home from the Kootenays we heard on the news that a motorcyclist was killed near Kelowna when he ran into the back of a stopped vehicle. He was thrown into the oncom-ing traffic and was struck by a van. We would have been just ahead of this mo-torcyclist. It was the Monday of the long

weekend, it was very hot and the traffic was backed up everywhere you looked. It was not the time to be inattentive. It could have been any one of us. Or could it?

Earlier this year a young man was killed at an intersection in NE Calgary. He apparently went through a stop sign. He was the son of a woman I do business with at work on a regular basis. She has not returned to work yet. This too would appear to have been preventable. It could have been one of us or one of our children. Or could it?

I share this with you because the scene I witnessed on Heritage Drive and 11th Street continues to disturb me. Over this past summer there has been a rash of motorcycle accidents that have occurred and that have touched us in one way or another. Each time I hear of a motorcy-cle accident I am reminded of my own vulnerability when I’m riding. I can’t help but think there but for the grace of God go I. Or do I?

It makes me shudder to think...

Ride safe….

Wanda

Coming Events

Sep 10 Toy Run Sep 11 Monthly Meeting Sep 24 Blue Rock—Picnic

Ride Oct 9 Monthly Meeting Nov 1 Annual Odometer

Reading Nov 13 Monthly Meeting Nov 25 Christmas Party

What’s Inside

Mundare, July, 2002—Reprise... 2 Get Well Wishes........................... 3 Region “J” Rally.......................... 4 Takakkaw Falls............................ 5 Crash Padding—Part 1............... 7 ARC—Always Lessons to Learn 9 50/50 Winner.............................. 10 Classifieds................................... 10 Calgary Area Staff Listing........ 11

Wing Wag September, 2006

RepriseRepriseRepriseReprise————A Ride of An-A Ride of An-A Ride of An-A Ride of An-other Timeother Timeother Timeother Time When we visited the Donald Lamp Mu-seum this past summer I was reminded of a ride we took a few years ago. The scheduled ride was to the Lehman Trike Factory with a campout at Mundare. I thought it worthy of repeating so here for your entertainment is a reprise of our great adventure on that July long week-end of 2002. The original article was written by Jack O’Reilly and appeared the WingWag September, 2002.

Along for the ride were Blaine and Wanda Borley, Jack O’Reilly and Wes & Holly Braden. This is an excerpt of our trials and tribulations after we left the Lehman Trike Factory.

Westlock, Mundare, Donalda, Stettler, Home

Canada Day long weekend had us going to Westlock on Saturday, June 29 to tour the Lehman Trike Factory then on to Mundare where we would camp for the evening as well as view the Bascillian Fathers Cultural Museum before moving on to Stettler from where we would ride home on July1.

We arrived at Lehman with the threat of moisture lingering in the heavens. It was so dry in these parts that it is almost ille-gal to carry a cigarette lighter without a permit (much like 2006), so the threaten-ing skies are of little concern to us.

The tour done, we return to wet bikes parked outside. Rain wise, nothing seri-ous just a little drizzle. It is now about 2:45 p.m. as we start out for Mundare 150 kms away. This should be an easy ride getting us to the camp ground in time to set up before supper.

After about an hour’s time and 100 kms have passed under our wheels, the weather God seems to be getting a little snarkey. Off in the distance at first then a lot closer off to our left is some major lightning.

Please note, motorcyclists are afforded no protection from lightning by their rub-ber tires. Just as the farmer on his tractor or the golfer on his golf cart, you are fair game for Zeus’ target practice. What protects you in an automobile is the car body, which acts as a faraday cage pro-tecting the contents. It’s amazing how many well-educated people are not aware of this important fact.

Well hold on to your britches folks, here comes the rain! A little hail mixed in from time to time just to let us know who

is boss. More rain and much bigger drops. Down they come, some as big as grapes. Just one of those raindrops at 100 km will instantly wash your face!

None too soon and perhaps a little too late we roll into Mundare as the rain rages on. Wanda, our fearless leader at the time, was looking for the camp ground!?

Holly - The first 3 bikes turned into the campground – what a miserable sight, small lakes of water, people snuggled into their motor homes and one lonely water-laden tent . We turned around to follow Jack.

Jack - To hell with that I say to myself as I key my mike to announce that I am looking for the hotel and will “see you guys later”. Being an ex-telephone man I know that if you follow the largest tele-phone cable on the poles it will lead you directly to the local hotel.

One minute and thirty seconds later I am standing dripping wet in the lobby of the Mundare Hotel; the finest establishment in town. There doesn’t seem to be any concierge in fact there isn’t even a front desk. I hear and smell a tavern so that’s where I can probably get some assis-tance. Entering the tavern I find both hotel employees standing behind the bar. After seeing the lobby, the second clue I receive that staying here might be an adventure, was when I asked the em-ployee to my right for three rooms. She turns to her cohort and asks, “Do we rent rooms?”

I am not sure what the nature of their business is normally, but I did secure three rooms (for all night long) in time for the arrival of the others whom I knew would not be camping. I was advised that toilet facilities were communal and could be found down the hallway and not in the rooms. But who’s complaining, it’s dry and only cost $33 a night.

Upon venturing upstairs in this two-storey building we are greeted by a long L-shaped hallway equipped with a single overhead light – which doesn’t work. Some of the rooms have signs like “Penthouse” and others seemed to belong to a few permanent residents. Above each door was an air conditioner unit circa 1900 in the form of a transom. Some of the units were in the permanent ‘on’ position (glass windows broken out). Reaching my room I opened the door. What I saw was not as bad as I had first expected. The room was fairly clean, the air smelled fresh – the window was open!

There was a clean sink with running wa-

ter and towels and an air vent by the wall with the grate missing. The bed con-sisted of a wire spring support with a stuffed mattress on top. One other good thing was the toilet was right next to my room, so no groping for long distances in the dark if I needed to use the facility during the night. I think the only differ-ence between this place and prison is that prisoners get their own toilet.

Holly - Wes and I were the last ones to find our room. Ours was right at the top of the stairs. Once inside we found two beds, and realized that one of them had been used to store the pile of bedding that was now stacked outside our door. The sink had running water all right – only cold – the hot water knob was missing. Looking out the window over the back yard, we soon saw that the inner window was missing the bottom pane of glass and the outer storm window had a large crack that was letting the rain come indoors. We hung up our jackets to let them drip dry. The beds looked inviting however it was time to join the others for supper.

Jack - It had stopped raining by the time we headed to the best Chinese restaurant in town, then, followed by some good discussions, we headed back to the hotel, and turned in for the night.

Laying on my bed the first thing I noticed was the building was far from sound proof. Besides hearing the music, voices and clatter of glasses from the bar down-stairs as clear as a bell; I could also hear the voices of others in our group. Even the tiniest of noises seemed to transmit freely through the walls. With some de-termination I was soon fast asleep despite it all.

A little while later I was awakened by the sound of an approaching train. The sound grew louder and louder to the point where I thought it must be coming through the hotel. We found out later that there are three or more railway cross-ings in Mundare, so the horn has to be sounded at least a dozen times. And here I thought the Mundare Hotel had nothing going for it, that is: no nearby airport, no busy highway carrying loaded trucks, but it does have a train, so that’s one star out of three.

As morning approaches I was once again awakened by the activity of others. What was it? Tuba practice? Somebody sat on a whoopee cushion? No. The wall my bed was against is shared with the pow-der room next door not more than three inches from my head. As it turns out the

(Continued on page 3)


musician who woke me was a member of our group and shall be forever anony-mous unless he/she chooses to ‘fess up.

Once dressed for the day a few more facts came to light which helped explain why my room was so noisy. Upon closer inspection of that floor vent I’d seen the day before, it revealed an unobstructed view into the tavern down below. I could have ordered a beer and had them hand it up to me.

Venturing outside into the bright light of morning, the sun revealed train tracks within spittin’ distance of the hotel. Oh well, even if we had all camped I still would have heard the train, and might still have heard a tuba solo.

Gathering outside the hotel, we talked to a local farmer who asked, “Why didn’t you come a month ago? This is the first moisture we’ve had since winter!”

Our main reason for coming to Mundare was to visit the Bascillian Father’s Cul-tural Museum, but wouldn’t you know it, it was closed on Sunday. In case you didn’t know, Mundare is the home of the World’s Largest Kohlbassa. A friend had asked Wanda to buy some sausage for him. Luckily the shop was open before we left.

Next stop, Vegreville for breakfast at Smitty’s. On comparing notes on the previous night, we found that Wes and I

had

very clean bedding, Blaine & Wanda’s sheets were clean but the comforter was not, and poor Jack’s sheets and com-forter- neither had been washed since the last person had used them. Oh well! We survived.

Then on to Donalda . Besides the World’s Largest Lamp and their impres-sive lamp museum, we found a dandy little place to have lunch called the Nut-cracker Sweet. The proprietor, Florence, does the cooking, serving and cleanup all by herself. The food and treats are sooo good and prices are reasonable. Open daily from noon ‘til 5:30 (except Wednesday). We need to put this place on our ride schedule for next year.

Then it was on to Stettler where we camped for the night. No rain this

time. Then it was homeward bound and the end to our great adventure.

As Til Hardy says, if we didn’t have things like this happen to us, then we wouldn’t have much to talk about now would we?

Wanda – My memory of the particular details of our stay in Mundare are not that clear. Suffice it to say that all of the above is true and we enjoyed some good laughs over it. What I do recall is that the ride was a testament to the fact that when you embark on a “planned” ride you just never know how it’s going to turn out. The great fun is just that – not knowing where your adventure will take you.

Jack O’Reilly Wanda Borley Holly Braden (I hope I didn’t carve it up too much Jack)

(Continued from page 2)

Get Well WishesGet Well WishesGet Well WishesGet Well Wishes

Jack Shapansky—After not feeling well off and on for some time, Jack Shapansky suffered a massive heart attack on the evening of August 8th. He was taken to High River hospital then flown to the Foothills Hospital Cardiac Intensive Care Unit. He underwent open heart surgery on Thursday, August 17th. There was extensive damage to the heart with a blockage at the top (worst place) so very little oxygen was getting through.

Jack is now recuperating at home and has some good days and some hard ones. He is trying to walk more each day although it is very difficult for him. Jack is very fortunate to have been in such great

physical shape as a result of all his bicycle riding. e wish him a speedy recovery and look forward to seeing him once more taking part in the group’s activities.

Shaun Middleton— (see Takakkaw Falls Ride, page 3) Shaun is recuperating at home after her ordeal on the Takakkaw Falls picnic ride. We wish her a full and speedy recovery.

Advanced Rider Course There will be an ARC (Advanced Rider Course) sponsored by Al-berta District and Region J on Sat-urday September 16th commencing at 8:30 in the morning.

Space is limited to the first 14 paid applicants. ($25.00 for GWRRA members $100 for non-members, but includes a free one year paid membership to GWRRA).

Please RSVP to Milt Sorensen: [email protected] if you or any of your chapter members would like to attend.

Ride like your life depends on it........

Milt

PS. if any out of Towner's need billets for the weekend, please let us know.


Region “J” RallyRegion “J” RallyRegion “J” RallyRegion “J” Rally Ainsworth, BCAinsworth, BCAinsworth, BCAinsworth, BC

On August 4th a small group of riders (Gary and Susan Premech, Carol Myers and Blaine and Wanda Borley) slipped out of town and met at Longview for coffee before heading off for the Kootenays and the Region “J” Rally. The route would be via Highway 22 to the Crowsnest Pass to Creston where we’d turn north on Highway 3A to experience the No. 1 Destination Highway in British Columbia.

Apart from gusty winds in the pass which left us wondering which direction we were going to be hit from next, the ride was pretty much uneventful. And the No. 1 Destination Highway did not disappoint. However, we did encounter a bit of a change at the Crawford Bay ferry. It seems that since I was last over this road and used the ferry, the rules have changed. Motorcycles no longer have priority. That being the case we had about a three hour wait at the ferry terminal.

We arrived at Ainsworth in early evening but because the approach to Lakeside Cabins where we were staying is situated in such a way that you really needed to

be coming from the north to negotiate it, we proceeded on to register at Woodbury Resort before checking in. When we got back to Lakeside Cabins we found the entrance to be a bit of a challenge. The road down was, for the

most part, packed sand with some gravel and a hairpin turn at the bottom before you reached the office. The first evening

when we arrived it was getting dark and yours truly had no problem negotiating the hairpin. Next morning, the same. But three times, not so lucky. Somewhere

along the line I lost my nerve coming down the slope and when I realized I wasn’t

going to make the hairpin turn, I stopped. This is not a problem in itself. But in the process of reversing to straighten out and continue on to the cabin, my foot

slipped out from under me on the gravel and Dusty went down, taking me with her. No harm was done save for some ego bruising and a bit of bruising to the body. However, for the rest of the weekend I was unable to make myself negotiate this turn. No amount of self-talk about “looking where you want to go” was going to help. I wasn’t listening.

Next day when we arrived at Woodbury Resort, we found

the campground chock-a-bloc with motorcycles, trailers and tents. After breakfast and after checking out the

vendor’s tents and scheduled rides we opted to do our own thing. After all we were in one of the best riding areas in the country.

Gas was top priority so we rode to Kaslo, filled up with gas and spent the day touring the S.S. Moyie, after which we had lunch on one of the many patios.

When we got back to Woodbury Resort that afternoon we met up with

some more Chapter AB-A members. Terry and Betty Collin and Collin and

Shirley O’Brien. We also learned that there had been a few more AB-A

members there but that they had already left. The second day, Sunday, Collin and Shirley joined us and we rode over to New Denver to tour the Japanese Internment camp and for lunch we picnicked alongside the Slocan Lake. It doesn’t get much better than that.

At the closing ceremonies Chapter AB-A did us all proud. Jim and Dorothy Baker won the



Takakkaw FallsTakakkaw FallsTakakkaw FallsTakakkaw Falls

A week before the Takakkaw Falls ride, Wes & I had been contacted by Doug Wray of Gig Harbor, WA. Doug, his wife Kathy and a friend Jack Davies were arriving in Calgary on August 10th and wanted to ride with the Chapter to Ta-kakkaw Falls. Finding camping facili-ties in Calgary a scarcity, they finally settled for the former KOA Camp-ground at 101 Street and the Tran-sCanada Highway. We suggested that they come to our house down in the valley on Sunday morning and we would guide them to the Fox Hollow. As we turned off 32 Avenue NE, Doug said he would never have been able to find the place even with his GPS. (Is this a clue that other Wingers wanting to visit might have the same problem?) We left Fox Hollow with Terry Burrill leading group 1 (Bo Waslewski, Bill & Shirley Mitchell, and Alex & Shaun Mid-dleton); Wes & Holly leading group 2 (Doug & Kathy Wray and Jack Davies); Carol Myers leading group 3 (her daugh-ter Kacie, Ron Myers).

We left the City behind without too much trouble other than the traffic delay caused by the 'pavement surfing' on John Laurie Blvd.

Our first stop was Lake Louise for fuel and to continue the meet and greet ses-sion with our American visitors.

Soon Field was in view. As we started up the hill, Wes realized that he had over estimated the distance to the falls. He had thought it was 30 km but in reality it is only 13 km from Field to the falls. Group 1 had to wait for cars coming down the switch backs and groups 2 & 3 had to wait while a tour bus and a motor home negotiated the backwards trip up the switch backs ahead of us. It looked funny. to see a driver in a car just ahead of us start to back up the slopes too but changed his mind.

After the switch backs, the road was in

awful condition. An unfortunate incident occurred when the bike that Shaun Mid-dleton was a passenger on hit an unavoid-able bump in the road injuring Shaun and resulting in her being transported to the Banff Hospital by Golden's Alpine Res-cue helicopter. Terry Burrill rode to Banff with Alex and Bill & Shirley left for Calgary soon after. This put a bit of a

damper on our planned picnic outing and the rest of us departed as well.

On the way down the switch backs, Doug

stopped to take some pictures of the downward view of the switch backs.

Homeward bound, Bo joined with our now group 1. Plumb tuckered out, we stopped for fuel and a snack in Canmore (with worry on our minds).

I’d like to thank Jack Davies for his help in making Shaun comfortable until the Park's people were able to come to her aid.

Thanks go out too to the Parks people for their expert assistance as well as the para-medics from Golden for their care of Shaun.

We had an email from Doug Wray on August 29th. They made it home safely and Doug said ,"Best to both of you and please say hello to your chapter…"

More news on Shaun at our Monthly Meetings and at Sunday Breakfast.

Holly Braden

door prize of a set of tires. Joe Lycka

won the quilt raffle and yours truly had

the dubious honour of being the oldest female rider to attend the rally.

Monday it was time to pack up to leave. For some of us it was to return home while for others it was to carry on to our ultimate destination. Carol returned to Calgary while Gary and Susan were continuing on with their two-week vacation and Blaine and I were going home to the coast. We traveled with Gary and Susan as far as Vernon where they headed north to Kamloops and we carried on to the coast via Kelowna and the Coquihalla.

Kudos and thank you to Phil and Margaret Craven and Ron and Carol Hodgson for putting together a great rally.


Doug & Kathy Wray (Sorry John (Oops, Jack Davies) I didn't snap a picture of

you too.)

Group—Japanese Internment Camp Gary & Susan Premech, Carol Myers, Wanda & Blaine Borley and Collin & Shirley O’Brien

Gary Premech with his pride and joy in


By David L. Hough <mailto:[email protected]>

Serious Riders spend a lot of time on tactics for managing the risks of mo-torcycling. Riding a twisty road with-out taking a soil sample requires good cornering skills, not just dumb luck. Today’s roads also have lots of booby traps that snag unwary riders, and we need to know what they look like and how to avoid them. And even if the road, the surface, or the traffic situation don’t create problems, we also need to know how to maintain our bikes, ride with a group, carry passengers, negotiate muddy de-tours, and survive hazardous weather conditions. The point is, a serious rider gathers knowledge and skill to avoid accidents.

What we can’t avoid is the chance that sooner or later we all get our turn to crash. It just isn’t possible to take all the risk out of riding. The statistics hint that a typical street rider will have one or two serious accidents in a life-time of motorcycling. The point is,

when you get your turn to crash, you’ll be sliding down the road in whatever gear you decided to wear before you punched the starter but-ton.

Comfort vs. Protection The end purpose of riding gear is to protect skin and cushion the brain against sudden impacts. If you want to see what good protective gear looks like, study what the roadracers wear. Racers don’t intend to crash, but they understand that crashing goes with the territory of flirting with the traction envelope. Of course, roadracing leathers aren’t very practi-cal for day-to-day commuting or tour-ing. For the road rider who spends days and sometimes weeks in the saddle at more civilized speeds, com-fort rather than abrasion resistance may be the most important factor in choosing riding gear. Protection against heat, cold, precipitation, wind, noise, and debris, or even the style of your gear, may be just as important to

you as abrasion and impact resis-tance.

Gear Oh Gear The primary pieces of riding gear are: jacket, pants, boots, gloves, helmet, and eye protection. There are also some exotic articles of protective gear such as back and neck protec-tors. Let’s start by thinking about ba-sic body protection.

Do you really need exotic motorcy-cling gear, or couldn’t you just wear your hiking jacket and blue jeans, or maybe your ski pants? Novice riders may assume that any durable out-door garments should work for motor-cycling, but veterans have learned why motorcycling gear is special. For example, a hiking jacket that is warm and comfortable at walking speeds may flap, gap, or balloon at highway speed on a motorcycle. Motorcycling garments need to be relatively stiff to prevent annoying flapping in the


Crash Padding - Part One Suits, Boots, & Gloves


wind, have zippers or flaps that can be adjusted to control air flow, pro-vide both insulation and weather re-sistance, and also provide abrasion and impact protection.

And remember that motorcycling gar-ments must be “cut” for the riding po-sition to be comfortable. Just sitting on the bike will pull your pants legs up a couple of inches, bunch the fab-ric behind your knees, and stretch the arms out. The “cut of the garments may need customizing to match the ergonomics of your bike and body shape. That is, if you ride leaning for-ward onto the handlebars, you’ll ap-preciate jacket arms sewn with a for-ward angle, and expandable darts in the back. A “cruiser” jacket shaped for a sit up position would stretch taught in the armpits, sag in the chest, and ride up in the back if worn on a sports bike.

The hot tip when buying a riding jacket or suit, is to try the fit while sit-ting on your machine, not just stand-ing up straight in front of the bike show mirror. If your motorcycle isn’t handy, commandeer a similar model at the dealer, or at least simulate your riding position by tucking in on a

chair. Jacket sleeves and pants legs must be long enough to cover all ex-posed skin, which means somewhat lengthier than you’d want for walking. It’s also smart to check the fit while wearing your normal riding boots, gloves, and helmet.

One additional tip for fitting is to wear a heavy sweater or jacket liner, to ensure that the riding jacket is large enough to fit over insulation. If your sales person doesn’t suggest check-ing the fit as you’d be riding on your machine, that’s a clue you’re in the wrong store. You’ll be spending a lot of hours wearing your gear-don’t let yourself be rushed into a decision by an overeager salesman or a seduc-tive sale price.

Leather or Fabric? Which is better for a riding suit, leather or man-made fabric? Leather is an excellent choice for riding gear. Leather is comfortable, stylish, does-n’t flap, has excellent heat and abra-sion resistance, and wears well over the years. Thick leather is very abra-sion resistant. For example, competi-tion-weight cowhide will slide for something like 80 to 100 feet before grinding through. It isn’t uncommon

for a leather-clad road racer to fall and slide at racing speeds, yet walk away with no injury other than bruises.

The down side of leather riding gear is that it is bulky, difficult to clean, and virtually impossible to make water-proof. Good leather is expensive, and you’ll need to frequently treat your leathers with a conditioner to keep the garments supple and control mil-dew. If you intend to ride in the rain, you’ll want to cover your expensive leathers with waterproof raingear. And if you get your leathers sweaty from a humid ride, expect them to take on an eye-watering odor. You can’t just throw your leathers in the washing machine, and few commer-cial cleaners can be trusted to clean leather without ruining it.

However, leather is comfortable, styl-ish, and durable. Leather garments will last a lifetime if cared for properly, and leather garments can be rebuilt indefinitely, which makes leather a popular choice for many riders.



ARCARCARCARC————Always Lessons to Always Lessons to Always Lessons to Always Lessons to be Learnedbe Learnedbe Learnedbe Learned

I just came back from doing an ARC in Lethbridge for the new Chapter AB-L. The seminar por-tion on Friday night had very posi-tive interaction with the members of

which there were 12 candidates from Lethbridge and one from Ed-monton, as well as Fred Partridge the Rider Instructor from Edmon-ton who came down to assist with

the course. Our first exercise, which is a con-trolled stop in a straight line, went very well. During the second part, the stopping distance is shortened making it a quick stop, a few rid-ers locked up their tires.

A young rider on a Suzuki In-truder (son of one of the members with a family membership) locked up his rear tire and kept it locked

until he came to a full stop without incident, as was taught in the seminar and instructed before the exercise. He was then instructed on how to make the appropriate changes to avoid it happening again. A seasoned 1500 rider

locked up his front tire, immedi-ately releasing and reapplying


1020 Meridian Rd. N.E. Calgary, AB T2A 2N8

CORRECTION In the last issue of Wing Wag, the date of the Christmas Party was incorrectly stated as being on December 9th. Please note, the correct date is November 25th. Further in-formation with regard to tickets, etc. will be in next month’s issue.


came to a full stop by following the book and instruction on this situation. He was a little disap-pointed it had happened but he was safe. Another1500 rider on his third or forth attempt locked up what ap-peared to be both tires, the bike low sided and he went down. He was wearing leathers. The leather was missing from his knee and he had a little road rash on his shoul-der. We set about administering First Aid and inquired about any pain. There didn’t seem to be any head neck or spinal injury or pain. He just wanted a hand getting up from the pavement. I asked if he had hit his head and was there any hel-met damage. Another member said yes, and when the injured rider turned his head slightly, there it was, a large scuff on the helmet. This is now beyond our first aid training and we immedi-ately called 911.

The Range portion of the ARC takes quite a lot of time to com-plete and with everyone standing around in 30 °C pavement and not really being able to assist the in-jured rider anymore, and with the permission of the embarrassed rider, I decided to continue the course leaving Fred and Ken (an assistant) with the rider until the EMTs took over the situation. After the mishap, there was a marked solomness among the group and they appeared to ap-proach the exercises with more caution. It had become clear that instructions should be followed “to the letter”, and were. We continued on as the EMT thor-oughly checked out and patched up the rider. He was given the OK by the EMT with no further treat-ment required. The injured rider later came to me after riding around the outside of the Range and asked if he could continue with the course. The EMT had cleared him, he wanted back in,

and I didn’t see that he would pose any danger to the other candidates, so we agreed to let him continue. It was water break time, and with a one-on-one session during the break he was able to catch up the parts he had missed. Lunch fol-lowed shortly after and the rest of the Range went smoothly. All the candidates finished the course with exceptional skill and hopefully some extra safety knowledge. Subsequent information from the rider explains that he had grabbed the front brake instead of squeez-ing, and it happened so fast. An-other interesting note was that he was also using an after market quick release on his helmet which broke upon impact. There are lessons to be learned by this incident by both instructors and candidates, and I’m sure they were.

Terry Burrill



GWRRA TOLL FREE NUMBER (CANADA & US) 1-800-843-9460

NATIONAL LEADERS Executive Directors Don Brock (623) 581-2500

Natl Dirs for Cdn Ops Dennis & Yvonne Evans

Natl Rider Ed Director Gordon Murphy (709) 753-2318

Region J Directors Ron & Carol Hodgson (403) 309-5001

District Directors Terry & Betty Collin (403) 288-8467

Classified AdsClassified AdsClassified AdsClassified Ads The Classified ads are free to all members and asso-ciates of the GWRRA. While advertised items do not have to be Gold Wing related, we do insist that all ads pertain to motorcycling. Ads will appear on a space available basis for ONE month. Should you wish to continue to run your ad for a second or succeeding month, you must resubmit or renew your ad. Deadline for submission is the 25th of the month preceding publication. Submit your ads to Wing Wag News @ shaw.ca together with your GWRRA membership number.

August—December EVENT SCHEDULE

DAY/DATE EVENT AB-A SPONSOR

Sunday, Sep 10 Vintage MC & European Car swap Meet—Millarville

Race Track

Sunday, Sep 10 Toy Run

Monday, Sep 11 Monthly Meeting

Sunday, Sep 24 Blue Rock

(Picnic Ride)

Monday Oct 9 Monthly Meeting

Monday, Nov 13 Monthly Meeting

November 1 Annual Odometer Reading

Saturday, Nov 25 Christmas Party

“Friends for Fun, Safety, and Knowledge” Come ride with us.…

…..Everyone Welcome! For the latest updates on what we are doing and where we’re going,

check out our website:

www.goldwingcalgary.com

For Sale: Trunk Rack for GL1500 Gold Wing. Still in pack-age. $50.00, Bob 403-251-1646

August, 2006

Humble BeginningsHumble BeginningsHumble BeginningsHumble Beginnings There are no more “Humble Beginnings” pic-tures. For now this feature will be discontinued. If you have a picture of yourself (or someone else in the chapter) taken “back when”, send it along and we’ll see if we can stump the rest of the group.

NOTE: Email addresses in this publication are dis-played in a manner that will deter automatic address harvesting programs. This step is taken to reduce unsolicited email to any email addresses we post. We regret any inconvenience caused for our legiti-mate visitors. Remove all the spaces in the email address to make it work.

For Sale: Tall Markland Windshield for a 1500. Stay dry and out of the wind. New condition. Still packaged. 40.00 (New $240.00) Jack Shapansky 403-652-1780

August, 2006

For Sale: 2 Super Sear Vari-Shields for any helmet. Moves up and down. 10.00 ea. 1 still packaged. 40.00 ea. new. Jack Sha-pansky 403-652-1780

August, 2006

August 50/50 WinnerAugust 50/50 WinnerAugust 50/50 WinnerAugust 50/50 Winner

Bob Quinlan


Monthly Meetings Monthly meetings are held on the 2nd Monday of each month. This is a time to share informa-tion and to meet old and new friends who like to ride together for FUN, Safety and Knowledge. See you at the next meeting at the Fox Hollow Golf Club, 9th Street and 32nd Avenue N.E. Dinner @ 6:30; Meeting at 7:00 PM.

Rain, snow or shine, we meet for breakfast every Sunday morning about 9 AM. This is a great year round way to stay in touch with your GWRRA friends. So, if you have missed the op-portunity to join us for breakfast recently, why don’t you come on over to the Fox Hollow Golf Club, 9th Street and 32nd Avenue N.E.

Michael Oram Agent/Advisor

Cell: (403) 990Cell: (403) 990Cell: (403) 990Cell: (403) 990----HOME HOME HOME HOME {4663}{4663}{4663}{4663}

CALGARY AREA STAFF Chapter Directors Bob & Joanne Quinlan 271-5239 quinlan _rw @accountant .com

Treasurer Joy Somers 293-5134 jjsomers @ shaw.ca

Membership Enhancement Darryl Minsky 286-9711 Coordinator & Webmaster dmm @ shaw.ca

Social Coordinators Rose Perrin 241-7955 br perrin @ telus.net & Sharon Sanders 280-0990 sanders 2 @ telusplanet.net

Quartermasters Jim & Dorothy 285-0063 Baker

Ride Coordinator Phil Poirier 284-2622 paad ltd@ shaw.ca

Rider Education Wes Braden 286-7364 old goat2@ shaw.ca

Newsletter Editor Wanda Borley 242-7272 Wing Wag News@ shaw.ca

september, 2006 wing wag - goldwingcalgary.com · september, 2006 wing wag bragg creek, ... we...

Documents