Wing Ding 98

Wing Ding 1998 in Huntsville, Alabama

Until attending the Wing Ding in 1998, the most Honda Gold Wings I had ever seen at one time was 20 in Japan...

In Mexico, the most Gold Wings I ever saw at one time was about seven. It was at the Mexican motorcycle rally I told you about. In Japan, I've seen as many as 20 Gold Wings. I just couldn't believe the site when I attended my first Wing Ding in Huntsville. There were hundreds. Thousands. In fact, I believe over 10,000 Wings were there!! It was so cool! Here's my first Wing Ding trip report... By the way, Amy and I were still in Iowa at the time.

6/28

Contacted Gorden Dickinson from Kansas City, KS. He announced to the List that he'd be leaving on 6/30 from Kansas City and invited me to ride with him to Huntsville. I accepted his offer.

6/29

Gorden and I corresponded to each other to determine where and when to meet. Packed up the Wing in the evening. I went to bed about 12:30 but could not sleep for a very long time. I was too excited to go to bed just like a kid. Eventually, I fell sleep.

6/30

Woke up at 4:00 AM. Took a shower, had a bowl of cereal, and woke up Amy. I asked her to follow me from behind to the paved road. People in the country drive on the gravel at about 45 - 60 mph. If somebody passes you by either direction, there'll be flying rocks coming at your Wing. To prevent somebody from zooming by, I asked Amy to follow me so at least the passing car would keep some distance from me. Took around 20 minutes to hit the pavement since we were going very slow. They put fresh gravel on the road, so I was quite nervous. I told Amy I'd be careful. I said good-bye to her about 5:30. From there, I went through Cedar Rapids, IA and Quincy, IL. I was at a Quik Trip in St. Louis by 12:15 p.m.. Because I got lost for a while, I was late by 45 minutes or so. I was supposed to meet Gorden there around 11:30. He was nowhere to be seen. I knew he left his house at 6:15 am according to his brother. It was supposed to take only 4 and a half hours from Kansas City to St. Louis. So, he would have been waiting for at least 2 hours for me if he was here. Where was he? Turned out he was polishing his 79 Wing at the Burger King next door in some shade he found. We were glad we managed to meet.

I had a cereal bar for lunch at the Quik Trip. Normally, I eat more than that for lunch, but I was so pumped up and didn't feel that hungry. From St. Louis, we took the back roads up to Paducah, KY. At times, we were the only ones on the road. It was hot, but I enjoyed the ride under the blue sky on open roads. In a tiny small town, Gorden and I pulled over in front of a couple of houses to look at the map. There was an old lady working in her front yard. Gorden had his bike running. I have to tell you that his bike is quite loud. He wants to change the pipes to quieter ones, but he hasn't gotten around to it. Well, I almost told him to shut off the motor since I thought the lady was being bothered by the exhaust noise. Then I noticed that smoke was coming out of his bike big time and a puddle of anti-freeze was appearing on the ground beneath the motor. His bike wasn't doing too great in towns at low speed, but I thought this one was it. However, Gorden, being mechanically talented, said it was no big deal. The fan wasn't working due to a censor failure, so he hot-wired the fan. We stopped by a gas station and he added water to the reservoir. Off we went. It was only about 6:30 p.m., but we decided we would finish the day.

So, we were in Paducah. We asked a guy working at a gas station about inexpensive motels in town. He said there was the El Rancho Motel nearby but said the place was nasty. We gave it a try. It wasn't really bad at all. We decided we'd have some beers before going to bed. As I mounted my Wing, my butt hit the side of Drag Specialties backrest. The other end came off the brackets and scratched the side panel. This was not the first time. At Wing Ding, I found out my backrest is missing cutter pins on each side. They were missing when I bought my Wing, so I never knew they were supposed to be there. Thanks to ProHonda Metal Polish and McGuire Wax/Cleaner, I was able to get rid off the scratch, which looked quite bad. We shared the motel room though he warned me he snores loud sometimes. I had ear plugs ready, so it didn't matter. Turns out I didn't hear him at all even without the ear plugs. To my surprise, we hardly saw any other Wingers on the road all day.

7/1

We left the motel about 7:00 and had breakfast at Denny's. We hopped on I24 and headed toward Nashville. Then, we started seeing other Wingers headed toward the same direction. As we approached Nashville, there was a major traffic jam caused by construction. Gorden had some problems with his

Wing since it didn't like slow speed, but we managed to get through. We were in Huntsville by 3:00 p.m.. We went to straight to my motel to see if Gorden could get a room there. Luckily, they had a room for him. Escort Inn was the name of the place. Twenty-five dollars per night, but I guess it was not in a very good neighborhood. All night long, there were cars slowly driving through the parking lot. According to Gorden, they could be drug dealers. After checking-in, Gorden went to the convention center to check things out. I relaxed for a while in my room and went over to Super 8 Motel to see if I could spot anybody from WOTI. I saw a couple of WOTI flags on some of the Wings parked there. Then, Donny and Lynda showed up. I was quite excited to meet them. Later, Gorden and I We went over to the WD Welcome Party just to see what was going on, hoping to see some of the WOTI Listers. We didn't see any Listers there, but there were hundreds of Wings parked in the parking lot. I was overwhelmed. We looked for Wings with WOTI or Kangaroo flags, but did not locate any. We went back to the motel and we went to bed.

7/2

Got up about 6:00 am. Gorden and I went to Shoney's at the corner of Memorial Parkway and University Drive. We were told by a waitress that the WOTI breakfast was at the other location on the same street. So, we searched for the other Shoney's. There, we met several Listers including Dru featured here with me to the left. We were all wondering what happened to the others. We were expecting more people to show up. It turned out we were spread out amongst 3 different Shoney's. Now, it was time for Wing Ding. I headed for the convention center. I just followed the flood of Wings, which were headed toward the convention center. I registered for the Wing Ding, received a package, and off I went to the vendor section. Wow! I wish I had an unlimited budget ( I had no budget). There were all sorts of vendors selling lots of safety items that are absolutely necessary for my Wing:-) I liked some of the pinstriping. I guess I didn't really care for neon and optic fiber light things. I visited the J&M booth to inquire about my subwoofer installation. Earlier this year, I installed a subwoofer in the trunk. I made two ports on the back side of passenger backrest. I wanted to get an opinion from the J&M guys about the position and size of the ports. They couldn't really help me.

As I kept walking around, I noticed that each vendor had significantly different prices on the same items. For example, one vendor was selling a tubular radiator grill from KuryAkyn for $69.00 while another vendor was selling the same thing for $39.99. Well, I did not buy anything today. Yes, I know I was not supposed to. I met Masa #2 in the vendor area. It was nice to see him at Wing Ding! I attended the Dunlop and Group Riding seminars. They were both very informative for me. One thing that surprised me was Dunlop's stance on plugging MC tires. They said MC tires can be repaired if the size and position of the hole was within a certain range. The inside of the tire needs to be inspected for damage. If it looks OK, both the plug and patch should be used to repair the tire. I didn't know that. I was busy attending seminars and checking out the vendors and did not eat lunch. I happened to bump into Dr. Ken. He suggested we go to a Japanese restaurant for dinner. I can always go for that! We asked a guy working at the convention center about local Japanese restaurant. He recommended "Shogun" across from the Super 8 Motel. So, we decided to meet there at 6:30 for dinner.

I left Wing Ding and went back to my motel briefly. The guy staying next door started talking to me very friendly. We talked for quite a while. Later, he asked me whether he could borrow 10 dollars from me, saying he needed to buy some food for his wife and him. He promised he would give me the money back the next day after he gets paid. You may think I'm crazy, but I gave him the 10 dollars he wanted to borrow. Because we had talked for quite a while and he appeared to be an honest man, I wanted to trust him. Anyway, I went to “Shogun” and joined Dr. Ken for dinner. Well, the Sushi chef behind the counter was a Korean man. It was nice to have sushi, but they weren’t that great.

7/3

Second day of WOTI breakfast. More people showed up today. In fact, so many people showed up that I can't remember all the names and faces. The time was so limited that I really didn't get to talk to everybody. A dinner at a Korean restaurant was organized, but not everybody was informed, but quite a few still showed up later that day. After the breakfast, a few of us decided to go see the drill team. Boy, it was awesome. It was hot, and you had to stand (there were bleachers, but enough to seat only about 60 - 100 people). Unfortunately, not any kind of beverage was available for sale there. The drill team was well worth seeing. I videotaped most of it. When the drill team competition was over, I met Masa #2 again. He was also quite excited after seeing the competition. I went back to the convention center and checked out the vendors some more. I finally decided to buy something. A license plate chrome frame. $4.59. I bought it and took it to the garage to install it on my Wing. Guess what I found. Iowa plates are bigger than other states! The plate was bigger than the frame, so it did not fit. Darn. I took it back to the vendor, and they gave me my money back. So, I decided I would get some other things. License plate fasteners with round reflective piece. I bought 2 pcs for 50 cents a piece. I also bought a "Cyclefoot" for $2.00. It is a plastic board you can place under the kickstand to prevent it from sinking into the blacktop. I reported to Amy about my shopping spree. She was rather surprised to find out I'd only spent $3.00 so far. I guess she didn't have confidence in me??? I met Masa #2 again at the vendor area. Since neither of us had had lunch yet, we decided to have lunch together. A Chinese buffet. I believe it was at the corner of Governor's Rd. and Memorial Parkway. Their food was very good for the price. Masa #2 drove me to the Chinese restaurant from the Wing Ding site. He was driving a rental car, but when we were looking for the restaurant, he had a close call in the parking lot. When we went around a corner, we saw a car coming toward us. Masa #2 steered the car to the left side by nature, forcing the other car to pass us from the right side of us. Hew....

7/3

After having lunch with Masa #2, I went back to the vendor area. I saw Swaggy there. I seem to recall he was trying to get his air horns fixed. Later, I saw Gadi from New Jersey. I saw his '98 Wing w/ Buschtech trailer and WOTI flag. Wow! He bought it in March this year and has already put over 9,000 miles already! Way to go Gadi! Then, I met John Wood and Diane from Indianapolis (right). What a nice couple. They were there all day for their appointments to have accessories installed. So, I chatted with them for a while. I informed them about the Korean dinner. They didn't know about it like many others. It was no way to exclude certain people, but rather the decision was made spontaneously and the word did not get out to everybody. Then, I bought a tire inflation kit from Stop'n Go. I had the plug kit, but I didn't have the Co2 cartridges. $15.00. Well, this is a necessity, not an accessory... Went back to the motel. I saw my next door neighbor. He paid back the 10 dollars as he promised. I was glad I believed him and was able to help him out (he claimed he needed the money to buy food the previous night). It looked like a thunderstorm was coming, so I covered up my Wing. Soon Gorden came back from the convention center and covered his also. Sine it was raining and lightning could be seen, we decided to take a cab to the Korean restaurant. We weren't sure if others would show up due to the weather, but quite a few did, even on their Wing. According to Jim & Shin Peringer, the buffet was not the best

Korean food, but I still enjoyed it a lot. The restaurant was filled with Korean families which I thought was a good sign. The Korean girls working there thought I was Korean. Even in Tokyo, when I used to go to Korean restaurants, people would start talking to me in Korean thinking I'm a Korean man. Actually, the same thing happens in San Antonio, too. I know my face looks Korean due to my high cheekbones and square jaw. Anyway, the setup was nice for getting to know more people since we had one long table in the back of the restaurant. When we were finished with the dinner, the air was cool outside and the storm was gone. I invited Gorden, John and Diane to go for a ride. We decided to meet up at Shoney's. Gorden decided to stay at the motel and let Masa #2 use his helmet so that Masa #2 could ride with me as a passenger. He wanted to rent a Wing to attend Wing Ding, but due to the cost, he rented a car. It was an excellent idea. Thanks to Gorden, Masa #2 enjoyed Winging in the States even as a passenger. The ride ended up being just going to Shoney's and going back to the motel. We just kept on talking at Shoney's and before we realized, it was time to go to bed.

7/4

3rd day of WOTI breakfast. There were more people than the previous 2 days. I wanted to take a group picture of the breakfast attendants, but it was just too difficult to coordinate at the time. Since we had Whale's memorial session, everybody left quite early, including myself. The memorial started at 9:00 o'clock. Jack Sides read a message from Ms. Di on her behalf. He had to stop briefly once in a while due to the emotion overwhelming him, but he made it through. As he was reading the message, I could feel that Erold's spirit was in the same room. The one thing I observed was that there were some non-WOTI people there, who didn't know Erold at all, but were seeking information about riding in Australia. HJ was there to answer their questions, but it was quite destructive to WOTI members who wanted to dedicate that time for Erold and related topics. I felt sorry for non-WOTI people also since the session was not what they expected. There was a discussion about a parade for Erold. Rex Holder explained that, unfortunately, the Grand Parade route included narrow curvy roads which could be dangerous in a parade situation. It was the only route approved by Huntsville Police Dept. according to him. He didn't want to discourage people from taking a part in the parade for Erold, but gave us his honest opinion about the route. I really wanted to participate in the parade for Erold, but I felt that if Rex, who knows the local roads well, warned us about the route, I'd better take it seriously. So, I decided not to participate. I was again back in the vendor area though I was not supposed to be there. I bumped into Ralph from Texas and John & Diane from Indiana again. We all decided to go to the Space Center after I was done with my appointment with Baytown Accessories at 12:30. On the first day of Wing Ding, I inquired with Lakewood Honda about the noise I started to hear from the back end of my Wing when I lean the bike around 40 - 50 mph. Their opinion was that it's probably the dry rear spline, but they were all booked up through Sunday. So, I made an appointment with Baytown Accessories to have the rear wheel removed to grease it up. To my surprise, when they removed the rear wheel, the spline was still well greased. They added more grease anyway and reinstalled the wheel back on. When I came back to Iowa, I noticed the mechanic forgot to tighten the joint bolts for the exhaust pipe. Oh, well. The bolts were still there at least. After the appointment, John, Diane, and I rode up to the Space Center. Ralph decided not to join us. When we got done seeing everything there, we noticed there was a thunderstorm in the area. Sine I left all my rain gear in my motel room, John let me use his extra jacket. Thanks John. They called me at my motel room later to insure I got back safely. Gorden was back after a while from Erold's Parade. He told me about the cancellation due to the weather. We waited a while and the storm was gone. We decided to go for a buffet dinner ride. We found an Indian buffet restaurant at 10013 S. Memorial Parkway near Meineke. The food was great! When we got back to the motel, my neighbor asked to borrow money again. Silly me, I gave him 13 dollars and 75 cents, believing him for all the reasons why he needed the money urgently. He said he'd give me the money back first thing in the morning, which never happened... I felt so dumb.

7/5

WOTI breakfast had less people this morning due to the fact that some had already left. Mario from Seattle, WA showed up on his CB 900 (see left). He let me try a “supposedly” Dutch snack. It looked like a piece of plastic, and it tasted awful, but I'm glad I tried it. After breakfast, Gorden and I went to the convention center to do our last minute shopping at the vendor section. I bought a Hopnel map holder that goes over the stereo. I desperately needed it for a safe trip back, I explained to Amy when I came back. At the vendor area, I was hoping to see Donnie and Linda (below) since I wanted to buy a frog from the frog lady. After seeing one John and Diane bought, I had to get one for Amy, but I was unable to spot them. I guess a couple of people asked Donnie to hold their drawing tickets for them at the closing ceremony. Well, unfortunately, none of the grand prizes went to a WOTI member. Gorden and I left the closing ceremony and headed toward the parking garage. It was basically like a parade seeing all the Wings leaving the garage. It seemed never ending. Gorden and I decided to have a lunch together before we went our separate ways. A Chinese buffet near Super 8. We encountered another Lister, Bill, from Alaska. After lunch, We went separate ways. It was 3:00 pm when I left Huntsville. When I stopped for gas somewhere in Kentucky, there were a bunch of Wingers on one side and HD riders on the other side. I overheard the HD riders calling the Wingers "Rice bikers" or something like that. The Wingers responded, "They are made in America!" To me, neither of them made sense. HDs have Japanese parts. Gold Wings are assembled in Ohio, but have parts from Japan, US, Mexico, Canada, and so on. In my mind, Honda motorcycles will always be Japanese motorcycles. Honda will never be a true American company anyway, but what's the point. I hope everybody can just appreciate good products no matter where they are from, and people can respect other people's choice as to which make he or she rides... I kept riding till 10:00 pm. I arrived at a Motel 6 in Mt. Vernon, IL. Boy, was I happy to stay at a more decent motel. Nobody knocked on my door asking for money!

7/6

Left Mt. Vernon, IL around 8:30. I knew I was riding into a storm, so I wore my rain suits. It was a good idea, as it started raining heavily. In fact, it got so heavy I could hardly see the vehicle in front of me. I quickly got off the Interstate and waited under an overpass for 20 minutes or so. Then, I was back on the road again. I took Intestates all the way back to Aurora, IA. Somewhere in IL, I stopped for a gas. There were 2 motorcyclists there. One was riding a Beamer and another on a HD FLH. They were both going to Montana for the national BMW rally. We talked for a while. It was completely different from the scene I observed yesterday. Though we all ride different MCs, we were talking motorcycles. We respected each other. I thought it was nice. The last couple of miles on the gravel back to the farm seemed to be the worst part of the whole day. I thought I was going to go down once. I'm not kidding! But I made it. I was home about 6:00 pm.

Total Mileage: 1750 miles

Average mpg: 35.7

Please e-mail Masa if you have any questions or comments, or you could sign my guest book. Thanks for stopping by!